This article actually gets most of the facts straight:
Joseph Smith, Jr., the church's founder and its first president, was the one who introduced the idea.
In fact, even if LDS Church members don’t practice plural marriage on earth, their scripture still teaches that in heaven it is possible. Mormons also believe that families are sealed together for eternity.
Though historians say that Joseph Smith had numerous wives, and some estimates exceed 30, he didn’t admit it. His first wife (and only legal one) denied it, too.
Brigham Young, who succeeded Smith and in 1847 led Mormon pioneers west to what became Utah, reportedly married 56 women.
Nancy Grace said they need to get charged, since it IS a felony in Utah And remember, they have a special on Sister Wives on Oct 31 @ TLC. You know it's real dishonest of the Mormons to snub their nose at polygamists, since they started this and even have that command still active on their website. (D&C 132), but than again, many mo's think Brigham Young started this and not Joseph Smith. I did! I did a bit of a search the other day and there are polyg blogs. MyEldorado (Jeff Warren's cult has his FLDS members urging with other Texans on it)
Main stream LDS does practice polygamy, just not in the way people think. A "worthy" man can be sealed to multiple women in a mainstream Temple, provided there is only one living at a time. It has always, and I mean ALWAYS, creeped me out. The mainstream LDS women can only be sealed to one man at a time, by which I mean a Temple divorce can free you up to seal yourself to someone else.
"A "worthy" man can be sealed to multiple women in a mainstream Temple, provided there is only one living at a time."
Actually a worthy man only has to be civilly divorced to be sealed to multiple women. Men get a temple clearance, and they will send a letter to the first wife asking her her opinion on the matter (which will be completely disregarded). If he gets married and divorced 10 times in 10 years, and all the women are living, he can still be sealed to all of them.
You are correct that a woman can only be sealed on one man at a time. She would need to get a cancellation that can take years and will ONLY happen if she's ready to be married in the temple again. Sometimes that can take years. If her first husband had died and they were sealed, she's SOL.
There are the few stories that I have read on here that a grandmother or g-grandmother was sealed to two men, but those are rare.