John Ortell Kingston

John Ortell Kingston was the son of Charles W. Kingston, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who had been excommunicated from the LDS Church on March 4, 1929. Kingston joined his brother Elden Kingston's cooperative shortly after its establishment. When Elden Kingston died from cancer in 1948, leadership of the "Davis County Co-op" passed from Elden to Ortell.

During Ortell's tenure as Trustee of the Cooperative, some members formally organized the Latter Day Church of Christ in 1977.[4] Though not all members of the Cooperative became members of the church, most retain dual-membership to this day.[5][6]

The Cooperative had its birth during the Great Depression when many families were finding it hard to provide for their families.[7] For many years, members of the Co-operative lived in poor conditions with those in need having no legal way to apply for assistance. Plural families at times resorted to gathering expired groceries that had been thrown out from local stores.[8] Long-time leader John Ortell Kingston himself lived in a small dilapidated one-story clapboard house in Salt Lake City up until the time of his death in 1987.[9][10]

As Trustee, Kingston aggressively pursued a financially expansive agenda for the Cooperative[1] in the hopes of improving the financial condition of his followers.[9]

In 1983, after destitute members of the Cooperative had applied for assistance[11] Utah sued Kingston to recoup the subsidies they had received, alleging they were ineligible to receive them due the cooperative's combined assets purporting to total $70 million. While admitting no wrongdoing, Kingston paid the state $250,000 to settle the case and it was dropped.[12]

Over the past 25 years, many members have become college educated and live in middle, to upper-middle class homes in their respective communities.[13][14] Currently the group claims that although different skillsets bring different financial outcomes, there is no homelessness within the DCCS and internal programs exist for those experiencing financial poverty.[15]

Kingston was living plural marriage until his death; he had married at least 13 wives and had dozens of children.[3]

Throughout the 1940s and 50s, the state carried out an extensive campaign of legislation, raids and arrests in an attempt to break up plural families.[16] For the Davis County Cooperative, this culminated in a Davis County Grand Jury investigation in 1959, 1960 described by the Ogden Standard-Examiner as "The polygamist hunting Davis County Grand Jury".[17] This likely contributed to the Cooperative associating mostly within themselves, marrying within the group, including some consanguineous marriages.[18] In the late 1990s, some non-members and ex-members began claiming the practice stemmed from theories of genetic purification.[3][19] However, active members and recent independent research has more plausibly attributed the practice to "endogamous preference and the small size of the group’s population".[14][20] Some of these marriages could be considered incestuous under Utah consanguinity laws.[21]

Kingston taught his followers to "seek their own direction" when choosing who to marry, and to marry within the legal age of consent.[13] For many members, this meant choosing to marry just after reaching legal age, which at times has been somewhat controversial. The legal age of consent in Utah has historically increased from 14, to 15, now to 16 with court approval in 2019.[22] Plural relationships with anyone under 18 is prohibited. For decades, the Cooperative has publicly joined with many others in speaking out against child-bride marriages and the DCCS has a policy encouraging its members to marry within the legal age of consent.[23][15][24][25]

Kingston died in 1987 and was living plural marriage until his death. Ortell had at least thirteen wives and dozens of children.[19] Kingston's sons comprise most of the members of the highest echelon of leadership within the cooperative as well as many of the plural families within the group.[1]

• John Ortell Kingston at Find a Grave