Fanny W. Alger Custer (c. September 30, 1816 – November 29, 1889)[1] was possibly the first plural wife of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
In 1830, many of the Hancock extended family, as well as Clarissa and Samuel, were among the first to join the Church of Christ in Mayfield, months before the congregation grew to include settlers in Kirtland.
Cowdery referred to a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair of [Smith] and Fanny Alger's ... in which I strictly declared that I had never deserted from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself.
Secondhand witnesses, Mormon and non-Mormon, variously alleged that Smith had married Alger as a plural wife or had an extramarital sexual relationship with her.
[10] Historians are divided over the reliability of these secondhand reports and whether the evidence is strong enough to conclude precisely what kind of relation existed between Alger and Smith.