As a general Western pathology of the 25 years following the Civil War, this is not true. John Widtsoe was born in the immediate post-Civil War days and became an Lds "apostle" by 1921.
According to the Changing World of Mormonism, pp. 224-225: [LDS} "Apostle John A. Widtsoe stated: ’We do not understand why the Lord commanded the practice of plural marriage.’ (Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, p.393). One of the most popular explanations is that the church practiced polygamy because there was a surplus of women. The truth is, however, that there were less women than men. Apostle Widtsoe admitted that there was no surplus of women”: 'The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church.’.. The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, ... there was no surplus of women'” (Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, pp.390-92," as cited in Changing World, pp. 224-225).
Imagine single men having to “do without” such a wife because some men were “hoarding” them, 27, 40, 57 at a time!
The writer of this article is right in that the decisions were in large part economic in one way or another, which then evolved into a social system that took decades to remove themselves.
As for polygamy, it is the natural state of things when fathers do not protect their daughters and lust after the daughters of likeminded negligent fathers. The Mormons fell into that pit and have paid the price, and are still paying it.
And we will see the return of it when "same sex marriage" is codified into law.