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Personal Accounts Articles
Though this is not a personal account of Mary Fielding Smith, it is a testament to her enduring faith. She went West with the Saints after her husband, Hyrum Smith, had been martyred at Carthage Jail with his brother Joseph Smith. This is part of her story:
Mary Fielding Smith, a faithful Latter-day Saint woman, was left with several young children while her husband was in Liberty Jail during the winter of 1838–39. Mobs raided her home, and her son was nearly killed as a result of the attack. As the wife of Hyrum Smith, Mary was left a widow when her husband was assassinated at Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. She and Emma Smith endured many trials along with their husbands, Hyrum and Joseph Smith. Today, Mary is admired as one of the most stalwart pioneers of the early Church.
Mary married Hyrum Smith on December 24, 1837. Hyrum’s first wife, Jerusha, had died in childbirth, and Mary cared for Hyrum’s small children as her own. Hyrum and Mary also... Read the rest of this article »
Many descendants of Joseph and Emma Smith have been unaware of the significance of their ancestry for a good part of their lives. Dawn Schmith is a third-great granddaughter of Joseph and Emma who recently joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church that Joseph organized and gave his life as a testimony of its truthfulness.
Dawn Schmith was born and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia to religious parents. Though her paternal grandmother was the granddaughter of Joseph Smith, Jr., by his son Alexander Hale Smith, Dawn was raised in the Catholic faith. She actively participated in the religion her whole life and raised her two daughters in the faith. The first time Dawn heard about her ancestry was when she was 12 years old, but it was not discussed. Immediately, she wanted to learn more, but her paternal grandmother died around the same time, and she was never able to ask her any questions regarding that history.
Dawn... Read the rest of this article »
Kimberly Jo Smith shares her personal conversion story to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After being raised with severe prejudices against the Mormon Church, Kimberly came to know more about her ancestors and to have a greater desire to know the truth of their history. Through her searching, she gained a testimony of the restored gospel and was baptized. This article is composed of excerpts taken from a publication in Meridian Magazine entitled, “Joseph Smith’s Great, Great Granddaughter: From Animosity to Conversion.”
When I was young my mother taught me about Heavenly Father, the Savior, and the Holy Ghost. This foundation was integral throughout my childhood as I encountered many trials and traumas which could have taken me down dark and lowly paths were it not for this knowledge she gave me. It also prepared me for the introduction to my great-great grandparents Joseph and Emma Smith, two individuals I was not aware... Read the rest of this article »
Taken from a letter written to Washington D.C. South Mission President Mark Albright by Bob Smith
Robert W. Smith, great-great grandson, and Caleb Denning, a 4th-great grandson of Joseph Smith baptized
I was raised in the Reorganized LDS church, now known as the Community of Christ. All of my life I had been taught to distrust and fear the Mormon church [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] which is headquartered in Utah. My journey to become a Mormon started in the summer of 2005 when I ran across a web site: JosephSmithJr.com. I spent several hours reading what was there. I e-mailed the site and explained who I was. I was contacted the next day and was invited to visit Utah in August for a Joseph Smith Family Reunion. I was fearful to go, and was actually concerned for my safety and well being. I left thinking I was like a sheep being led to the slaughter, and I might be going out on a nice plane, but I was coming back in a pine box! But... Read the rest of this article »
After the martyrdom of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo, Illinois, and head West. Emma, Joseph’s grief-stricken widow, did not want to leave the bodies of her beloved husband and his brother behind. She was exhausted from running with her children, and she had lost her best friend. Because Joseph died without leaving a will, there was a great deal of confusion about what property was his and what property he held as Trustee-in-Trust for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is officially known. Regardless of who owned what, most of the property was mortgaged anyway.
It isn’t hard to understand why Emma would want to hold on to many of Joseph’s manuscripts, including his unpublished manuscript of his translation of the Bible. It also isn’t hard to understand why she tried to obtain many of Joseph’s papers from Brigham Young, the president... Read the rest of this article »
George Edward Anderson was a bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the Mormon Church) for four years in the early days of Utah.The legacy he left behind is one of more than 14,000 photographic images of life in the West from the 1870s through the early 1900s. His pictures include people in Utah, Canada, and England (where he served his mission for the church), but the negatives for his Canada and England trips are missing and perhaps lost.
Anderson had a wonderful eye for capturing detail as well as oddities. He was present at a time when the railroad was booming and changing life for the Saints in Utah. Trains are present either in the foreground or the background of many of his images. This was a time when Utah was still largely separated from the rest of the country, but that separation was growing ever smaller.
Anderson’s images included a lot of studio portraits, as well as images which were shot of people... Read the rest of this article »
Nauvoo, Illinois
Estel Neff has spent much of his life in the Nauvoo, Illinois, area. He owns and operates the Old House Bookstore, selling second-hand books and some antiques. He is a direct descendant of Joseph Smith, Sr. (Joseph Smith’s father), and is a recent convert to the Mormon Church (officially The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Neff was baptized in Nauvoo on April 5, 1996. Most of his family has grown up in western Illinois, since all of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s family (except Hyrum Smith’s family) stayed in the area when the rest of the Saints traveled West after Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred. Neff is the great-great-great grandson of Joseph and Hyrum’s sister, Katherine Smith Salisbury.
Neff and his wife, Cecel, raised their five daughters in Keokuk, Iowa, and then later moved close to Nauvoo, Illinois. Neff worked in the grain and feed business, but over the years he collected many books related... Read the rest of this article »
Joseph Smith, Jr.
Several of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s descendants have joined the Mormon Church (officially The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), but most of them knew about their family history from a young age. Mike Kennedy did not know about his heritage until he was given an assignment in his Tonopah, Nevada, high school to research his family history and to write a paper on one of his ancestors. When Mike asked his father for help on the project, his father gave Mike a large cardboard box full of pictures and family history.
At this point, Mike had never even heard of the Mormon Church. As he was rummaging through the items he had dumped out on the coffee table, there was a knock on the door. It was two Mormon missionaries. (Remember, Mike knew nothing of the Church at this time.) Mike called his father to come do the door. He also called all of his siblings in to watch. Only a few days earlier, Mike’s father had thrown a different... Read the rest of this article »
The first time I heard of the Mormons was in 1923. I was then studying with a friend of mine and was reading a book about western traveling. In this book was a short account, perhaps a page or two telling about the Mormons. I asked this friend of mine what kind of people are they? He said he had a brother that had been in Salt Lake City and has seen this temple and that an old man which was very friendly had showed it to him. This friend of mine further stated that they believed like the Israelites of old in giving tithes etc., and that they had a book that they had found buried on the Atlantic Coast, where some Israelites that had visited this country long ago had buried it.
I soon forgot all about the whole thing. The next time, I heard about the Mormons as I remember it was while reading Mark-Twain’s book, “Roughing It”. This was about 1930. Up to this time I had been very little interested in religion. Although... Read the rest of this article »
It may come as a surprise even to those who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormon Church) that until the last few decades, very few of Joseph and Emma Smith’s direct descendants were members of the now-worldwide church which Joseph was instrumental in founding. In the following account, one of their great-great granddaughters shares her experience of learning of the restored gospel and gaining her own testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that her ancestor Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to perform a great work on the earth in the latter days.
On 17 March 2011, I [Gracia Normandeau Jones] will celebrate the fifty-fifth anniversary of my baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My grandmother, Coral, was a granddaughter of Joseph and Emma Hale Smith; her father, Alexander Hale Smith, was their third surviving son. Many people ask how it is I am a convert... Read the rest of this article »
