George Brown Bailey: A Latter-day Saint Imprisoned for Plural Marriage (1886, 1889)

George Brown Bailey was a Latter-day Saint of the Cottonwood area (Salt Lake Valley) who, during the federal anti-polygamy crusade of the 1880s, was imprisoned twice in the Utah Penitentiary—in 1886 and 1889—for living the principle of plural marriage. From his prison cell he wrote tender letters to his wife Elsie and their children, preserved and studied in the BYU Religious Studies Center volume 'Within These Prison Walls.' Like many Saints of that generation, Brother Bailey chose prison and the separation from his family rather than deny the revelation he believed God had given. His quiet suffering, recorded in his own letters, is a faith-promoting witness of a generation of Latter-day Saints who paid for their obedience in prison cells.