There is a book I have a copy of it in my possession named:

Scouting For The Mormons on the Great Frontier
By Sidney Alvarus Hanks and Ephraim K. Hanks

This is written in the Preface of this book: "Ephraim Knowlton Hanks did not keep a diary, but in the sunset of his life took time out to tell the story to two different scribes who recorded the experiences, only to have both manuscripts mysteriously disappear. We have had to depend on the information handed down by his own children and the writings of men who rode and lived with him."

"Some of these experiences seem unbelievable even to the authors, but eye-witnesses of unquestionable character have written and testified to their truthfulness. When two or three men tell the same story, we are convinced to write these experiences as they have been written."

Sidney Alvarus Hanks is a son of Ephraim K. Hanks

This is a fun book to read and has a lot of interesting stories in it. I chose to copy this part about his wives as Thisbe is my ggrandmother:

Two Marshals come to Ephraim's home. Ephraim invites them to spend the night. This is one of their conversations. Mac and Pete are the Marshals....... "Eph," said Mack, "you've got three families, but you haven't got three wives now. Do you mind telling us how you fixed this all up?" "Well," returned Hanks slowly, "you fellows know us Mormons well enough to realize what a blow this new law against plural marriages was. Look at me, for instance. Some years ago I married Harriet Little, a young widow. I would raise children to Little and they would be his in eternity, as the Bible says, ‘...Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.'" Mack nodded his head. "Then," continued Eph, "under the law of our Church, I later on married a young girl, Jane Capener. Her children will be mine through all eternity, as she will be my wife worlds without end. Harriet fully understood this and gave her blessing to this union. A few years after this, I married Thisbe Reed, who was one of the members of the Handcart Company, coming over the mountains. My two wives gave their consent and adopted Thisbe into the family. She and Jane, with their children, are sealed to me for all eternity." "But," said Pete thoughtfully, "you haven't got all three wives now." He straightened suddenly in the congress chair. "Or have you?" "No," replied Eph. "But those three wives have got some mighty fine sons. There is Harriet, for instance, with George, Sell, Pep, and Charley; and the oldest are grown men and able to do for their mother. Jane has Bill, George, Eph, and Dave. Thisbe's oldest son is Walter, and he and I have made a pretty fine ranch out of a patch of sage brush. I have yet, even now Walter is married, plenty of help with Sidney, twelve, and Ray, nine, and Art still coming on for my old age." "Well, I'll be darned!" Pete broke out, dropping the front legs of the congress chair to the floor with a bang. "You've got it all planned out" "Besides," Eph went on, "each mother gets help inside the house from her girls. You see we Mormons have a great advantage with our well-trained big families. The older ones unselfishly help the little ones, and we don't have anything to do but work and be happy" "But hold on, Hanks!" Mack sprang to his feet. "Your Articles of Faith by Joseph Smith, your Prophet, say that you believe in ‘obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law‘" "I do. And that is why, when the Edmund-Tucker law became effective and was declared by the Supreme Court to be constitutional, I called my three wives together and laid the situation before them. I have fought for my Country and the Constitution," Eph went on quietly, "and I do not want my children to lose faith in that great document." "What did your wives do?" asked Mack. "My two first wives chose to get divorces which the Court granted them free, and I re-married Thisbe" "So you're in the clear! We can't touch you," grumbled Pete. "Too bad"..................