Polygamy and Imprisonment
In 1882, Udall took a second wife, Ida Hunt, a granddaughter of Jefferson Hunt. That same year the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act to aid in the prosecution of polygamists. Udall was indicted on charges of unlawful cohabitation in 1884. He was never convicted, because his second wife lived in another town, and prosecutors could not locate Ida to compel her testimony against him.
Prosecutors remained determined to make an example of Udall, and in 1885, he was indicted and convicted on perjury charges, related to a sworn statement he made about the land claim of a fellow Mormon. He spent three months in a Federal Prison in Detroit, Michigan, before receiving a full and unconditional pardon by President Grover Cleveland on December 12, 1885. The perjury conviction stemmed from an affidavit he swore on the land claim of Miles Romney (grandfather of George Romney). Udall's bail was posted by Baron Goldwater (uncle of Barry).
Read more about this topic: David King Udall
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