Owen Allred, the patriarch of the Apostolic United Brethren, one of Utah’s largest congregations of practicing polygamists, has died in suburban Salt Lake City. He was 91 and had been in failing health.
Mr. Allred, who died Feb. 14, was excommunicated from the Mormon Church when he married his second wife in 1942. Over the years he had at least eight wives, 23 children, 25 stepchildren and more than 200 grandchildren.
Whenever he was asked how many wives he had, however, he was inclined toward deliberate vagueness.
“Just say I’ve got enough that I don’t need to chase after my neighbor’s wives,” he said in 1988.
Mr. Allred became a living prophet to his clan in 1977 after his brother, Rulon, who founded the clan, was murdered by the head of another group of polygamists. Called Holder of the Keys, Owen Allred led a flock of 5,000 who were united in their desire to uphold the original teachings of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith.
The church, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, disavowed polygamy in 1890. But the Apostolic United Brethren and other fundamentalist Mormon offshoots refused to renounce plural marriage, believing that the practice embraced by Smith confers heaven’s highest blessings. They see themselves not as outlaws but as true believers.
“We haven’t changed, but the Mormons have,” Mr. Allred said. “All our priesthood authority comes from Joseph Smith. We don’t teach anything different from what he taught.”
