Hunsakers, Honeyville, and Homosexuality, Oh My!
There are bishop’s courts and then there are bishop’s courts, and the one held in Honeyville, Utah in 1893, involving the “Big Love” offspring of the Mormon Patriarch Abraham Hunsaker, was a doozy!
Shortly after October Conference, 33-year-old Lorenzo Hunsaker appeared before the Box Elder stake president and his Honeyville Ward bishop complaining that his younger half-brothers Weldon and Peter Hunsaker had “circulated a story in the Ward to the effect that he had been guilty of sucking their penis.” This story didn’t sit well with Lorenzo Hunsaker, who had been the community school teacher and had his reputation to think of. Upon hearing this story from Hunsaker, the Box Elder stake president told the bishop of Honeyville that he really ought to look in to the matter. Peter and Weldon Hunsaker, 24 and 18 years old respectively and brothers from different mothers, were called to an ecclesiastical hearing to answer Lorenzo’s charge of spreading lies about him.
One of the investigators at the church court lamented about what “grief and sorrow” must be felt by “that great and good man” Abraham Hunsaker, the family’s deceased Patriarch, who was watching from Heaven and probably shedding tears. After much reflection on these comments, Lorenzo was asked to raise his arm to the square and state his innocence in the presence of “God, angels and men.” He said, “you betcha.” Then Peter and Weldon were asked “if they could raise their hands in the presence of God, angels and men and affirm that Lorenzo was guilty of the charge.” They said Lorenzo was a “cocksucker.” (Well, maybe not right then, but later they did.) The Ward Secretary remarked, “I have nothing more to say, the trial may go on.”
At the trial Peter Hunsaker claimed that Lorenzo tried to have oral sex with him on four occasions. At his brother Benham’s house, said Peter, Lorenzo, “came to my bed while I was asleep. When I awoke he had his mouth over my penis. I turned over and pulled it away. The second time was in the mill two years ago last summer. We were both sleeping in one bed and on awaking found him a hold of my penis with his mouth, and I was in the act of discharging. The third time occurred on the balcony of Lorenzo’s house, and on awaking found him as before with my penis in his mouth. The fourth time was at the house of Mr. Willis in Mendon, Utah — two years ago this last summer. Each of the three last times occurred about 3 weeks apart.”
Weldon told a similar story. Weldon testified that the first time he caught Lorenzo in the act of sucking his penis was “about one year ago, he coming to my bed. When I awoke I felt that it was him, but did not see or speak to him or he to me. I turned over on my belly and did not discharge. He did not leave my bed immediately but kept bothering me. The second time occurred about 2 weeks after the first, when he came to my bed as before and got my penis in his mouth. I awoke in the act of discharging. The third time was in a different room. I was asleep when he came in, but awake immediately. He did not accomplish anything, but remained in my bed about one hour, when Florida [his wife] came in search of him with a lamp, but she soon returned leaving him still in my bed, she telling him that he ought to be ashamed of himself. I left the bed and occupied another the rest of the night. The fourth time occurred near day light so that I could see him. I asked him what good it did him, and he answered that it might keep me from bothering the girls. I replied that it would make me worse rather than better. Got my penis in his mouth, the talk occurred after I awoke. This happened last spring. Have no feelings against him, but had some words. Think Peter asked me if Lorenzo had ever sucked my penis and I must have said ‘yes,’ as he told me that he had sucked his.”
Then several witnesses were brought in as character references for all the brothers. The word “cocksucker” was bandied about. Peter Hunsaker said he woke up while his half-brother Lorenzo was “in the act of fingering me.” He said his older brother also attempted to “ride him,” (perform anal sex) and then complained, “I did not want him to monkey with me.” Peter added, “I do not think he would have intercourse with other women, but [he] is not virtuous with men.” A married twenty-five-year-old neighbor also testified that he awoke one night and discovered Lorenzo masturbating him while they slept together during a visit.
The outcome of the trial was that Lorenzo was found guilty and disfellowshipped by the Honeyville bishop. However, the stake president decided that all charges against Lorenzo were lies and reversed the previous decision of the bishop’s court. Instead, Weldon and Peter Hunsaker were excommunicated for the “gross wrong” of making “such a monstrous charge” against their married brother. Mormon Apostle Lorenzo Snow was present and approved the decision to exonerate Lorenzo Hunsaker and to punish Hunsaker’s brothers for claiming he sexually molested them.
The Honeyville Ward bishop was then released for encouraging dissent against the stake president’s decision. In protest, ward members refused to sustain the newly appointed bishop. To quell the rebellious, Sacrament was not allowed to be administered for seven months. Historian Michael Quinn remarked, “This is the only instance in Mormon history when a specific community suffered the LDS equivalent of “the interdict” — a Roman Catholic practice of punishing a congregation or community by prohibiting the administration of the holy Sacraments.”
Well, you can imagine Hunsaker family reunions after that were kind of awkward. So Lorenzo Hunsaker went off to Arizona where he died at Prescott in 1941. Peter Hunsaker stayed in Honeyville where he died 20 years after this brouhaha in 1912. Weldon Hunsaker, the youngest actor in this drama, died in 1957 in Salt Lake City.
I bet the Hunsaker Book of Remembrance is a fun read.