One Lost Boy: His Escape from Polygamy - David Beagley

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

22 Jul 2008 08:00 AM

This nonfiction memoir by author David Beagley was a fascinating account, but I have to say upfront, I found the title misleading. He did escape from polygamy, but that only encompasses part of the story, rather than making up the entirety of the plot. We go with David not only as he leaves his polygamist family, but as he later serves a mission and marries.

When David was six years old, his father, tired of the whole "marriage" thing and looking for a way to justify stepping out on his wife, fell in with a group who had all the answers. If he said he was practicing polygamy for religious reasons, he could have as many wives as he wanted, and wouldn't have to stay tied down to just one woman. By this time, he'd had twelve children with his first wife, and was ready for someone a little younger and fresher. Telling his wife that he'd been given a higher calling, he told her he was leaving to find other wives, and that he'd need her to take on additional work to support him in this righteous endeavor.

From that day forth, he only came around at the first of the month to pick up whatever money she was able to scrape together for him. She literally worked herself night and day to care for her children and to earn money for her husband, who was pursuing multiple women all in the name of religion.

David had been raised in the Latter-day Saint religion, but as his father continued in his ways and was excommunicated, his mother stopped taking him to the LDS Church and they attended Fundamentalist meetings. These people seemed a bit more sincere than the men his father had first encountered, but he didn't feel the same spirit he had at the LDS meetings.

Years later, at the age of sixteen, he left his family behind with an older brother, and was basically rejected by the whole lot of them. He found his way back to the LDS Church and was determined to serve a mission, to make up for the way things had gone so horribly wrong before. But as he served in Scotland, horrible bleeding cysts formed on his back, and he was sent to California to recover. Devastated at leaving Scotland, he wondered why the Lord seemingly didn't accept his sacrifice, but then he learned the reason for his transfer, and he realized that God was in control the whole time, and had always been looking out for him.

I found this story to be a faith-filled and touching account of the confusion felt in the heart of this young boy and later, the courage and determination felt by the young man whose only desire was to serve the Lord.

(This book was published in 2008 by Cedar Fort.)

Related Blogs:

Are Mormons Polygamists?

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys

Thoughts on Polygamy

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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