The Erie Canal, which celebrates its 200^th birthday this year, provided many miracles—not the least of which included a means of travel and communication that allowed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to spread and thrive better than it would have otherwise.

How so, you ask?

For one thing, the rise of wealth in the area may have contributed to the Second Great Awakening, when interest in religion throughout the existing United States was revived with notable ardency, resulting in many denominations frequently butting heads over doctrine and wrestling to retain and increase their memberships. After all, as Nephi so eloquently related, opposition is necessary for progress, and in this case, finding earthly satisfaction in material goods urged the desire to find spiritual satisfaction in one’s relationship with God as well. Although it was not the only factor that ignited the religious fire of this time period, the Erie Canal was certainly an important spark.

The Erie Canal. Courtesy of Pexels.

Furthermore, the canal’s sheer reach across the continental United States let all kinds of people carry their ideas and causes to faraway places in record time. In fact, one of its many nicknames was the “psychic highway.” Of course, among the groups that took advantage of the canal’s accessibility were the Mormons, who were able to use it to travel around the country to build cities for themselves, transport the materials necessary for such cities, and even serve missions. On its waters were brought all the paper and equipment needed to publish the Book of Mormon as well. Even the likes of Charles Dickens himself was floating on it when he was first impressed by the Mormons he met there. Never before had the Lord’s commandment to baptize the world seemed more realistic.

Before the Erie Canal was built, getting around the country was difficult and exhausting. While it was undergoing construction, however, it brought many jobs; its completion ensured more wealth in nearby areas, promoted other sectors of economic growth by providing transportation for all kinds of goods, greatly helped U.S. citizens get wherever they needed to go, and served as a symbol of America’s engineering innovations. However, equally important is its role in the rise of the kingdom of God in the latter days, for God does work through the hands of man to accomplish His ends.

Ashley Morales

Frequently whimsical and overly optimistic about how much time it will take to do things, Ashley Morales is deeply passionate about the gospel and all kinds of creativity. Her hobbies include philosophically analyzing nearly every book, play, video game, and movie that she consumes, writing music and short stories, promising herself that she will finish writing her novels, going to sleep too late, eating foods she’s never tried, putting off cleaning her house, browsing Zillow, spending as much quality time as possible with her wonderful husband, trying to be a good mother to her fantastic children, and never finding the balance between saying too much and too little. One day, she hopes to leave a positive mark on the world and visit every continent (except Antarctica) with her family.

On June 27, 1844, not longer after singing “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” to his cellmates, John Taylor lay suffering on the floor of Carthage Jail. He had endured terrible injury at the hands of an angry mob that had just killed the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. This tragic event became a defining moment in the history of the Church and in the life of John Taylor.

John Taylor, by John Willard Clawson. Courtesy of the LDS Media Library.

In Witness to the Martyrdom, Mark H. Taylor, a great-great-grandson of John Taylor, revives the only eyewitness account of these events. Below is John Taylor’s eyewitness account:

—–

Soon afterwards I was sitting at one of the front windows of the jail, when I saw a number of men, with painted faces, coming round the corner of the jail, and aiming towards the stairs. The other brethren had seen the same, for, as I went to the door, I found Brother Hyrum Smith and Dr. Richards already leaning against it. They both pressed against the door with their shoulders to prevent its being opened, as the lock and latch were comparatively useless. While in this position, the mob, who had come upstairs, and tried to open the door, probably thought it was locked, and fired a ball through the keyhole; at this Dr. Richards and Brother Hyrum leaped back from the door, with their faces towards it; almost instantly another ball passed through the panel of the door, and struck Brother Hyrum on the left side of the nose, entering his face and head. At the same instant, another ball from the outside entered his back, passing through his body and striking his watch. The ball came from the back, through the jail window, opposite the door, and must, from its range, have been fired from the Carthage Greys, who were placed there ostensibly for our protection, as the balls from the firearms, shot close by the jail, would have entered the ceiling, we being in the second story, and there never was a time after that when Hyrum could have received the latter wound. Immediately, when the ball struck him, he fell flat on his back, crying as he fell, “I am a dead man!” He never moved afterwards.

I shall never forget the feeling of deep sympathy and regard manifested in the countenance of Brother Joseph as he drew nigh to Hyrum, and, leaning over him exclaimed, “Oh! my poor, dear brother Hyrum!” He, however, instantly arose, and with a firm, quick step, and a determined expression of countenance, approached the door, and pulling the six-shooter left by Brother Wheelock from his pocket, opened the door slightly and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the barrels, however, were discharged. I afterwards understood that two or three were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed, died.

I had in my hands a large, strong hickory stick brought there by Brother Markham, and left by him, which I had seized as soon as I saw the mob approach; and while Brother Joseph was firing the pistol, I stood close behind him. As soon as he had discharged it he stepped back, and I immediately took his place next to the door, while he occupied the one I had done while he was shooting. Brother Richards, at this time, had a knotty walking-stick in his hand belonging to me, and stood next to Brother Joseph, a little farther from the door, in an oblique direction, apparently to avoid the rake of the fire from the door. The firing of Brother Joseph made our assailants pause for a moment; very soon after, however, they pushed the door some distance open, and protruded and discharged their guns into the room, when I parried them off with my stick, giving another direction to the balls.

It certainly was a terrible scene: streams of fire as thick as my arm passed by me as these men fired, and, unarmed as we were, it looked like certain death. I remember feeling as though my time had come, but I do not know when, in any critical position, I was more calm, unruffled, and energetic, and acted with more promptness and decision. It certainly was far from pleasant to be so near the muzzles of those firearms as they belched forth their liquid flame and deadly balls. While I was engaged in parrying the guns, Brother Joseph said, “That’s right, Brother Taylor, parry them off as well as you can.” These were the last words I ever heard him speak on earth.

Every moment the crowd at the door became more dense, as they were unquestionably pressed on by those in the rear ascending the stairs, until the whole entrance at the door was literally crowded with muskets and rifles, which, with the swearing, shouting, and demoniacal expressions of those outside the door and on the stairs, and the firing of guns, mingled with their horrid oaths and execrations, made it look like pandemonium let loose, and was, indeed, a fit representation of the horrid deed in which they were engaged.

After parrying the guns for some time, which now protruded thicker and farther into the room, and seeing no hope of escape or protection there, as we were now unarmed, it occurred to me that we might have some friends outside, and that there might be some chance of escape in that direction, but here there seemed to be none.

As I expected them every moment to rush into the room – nothing but extreme cowardice having kept them out – as the tumult and pressure increased, without any other hope, I made a spring for the window which was right in front of the jail door, where the mob was standing, and also exposed to the fire of the Carthage Greys, who were stationed some ten or twelve rods off. The weather was hot, we all of us had our coats off, and the window was raised to admit air. As I reached the window, and was on the point of leaping out, I was struck by a ball from the door about mid-way of my thigh, which was struck the bone, and flattened out almost to the size of a quarter of a dollar, and then passed on through the fleshy part to within about half an inch of the outside. I think some prominent nerve must have been severed or injured for, as soon as the ball struck me, I fell like a bird when shot, or an ox when struck by a butcher, and lost entirely and instantaneously all power of action or locomotion. I fell upon the windowsill and cried out, “I am shot!”

Not possessing any power to move, I felt myself falling outside the window, but immediately I fell inside, from some time, at that time, unknown cause. When I struck the floor my animation seemed restored, as I have seen it sometimes in squirrels and birds after being shot. As soon as I felt the power of motion I crawled under the bed, which was in a corner of the room, not far from the window where I received my wound. While on teh way and under the bed I was wounded in three other places; one ball entered a little below the left knee, and never was extracted; another entered the forepart of my left arm, a little above the wrist, and passing down by the joint, lodged in the fleshy part of my hand, about midway, a little above the upper joint of my little finger; another struck me on the fleshy part of my left hip, and tore away the flesh as large as my hand, dashing the mangled fragments of flesh and blood against the wall.

My wounds were painful, and the sensation produced was as though a ball had passed through and down the whole length of my leg. I very well remember my reflections at the time. I had a very painful idea of becoming lame and decrepid, and being an object of pity, and I felt as though I would rather die than be placed in such circumstances.

It would seem that immediately after my attempt to leap out of the window, Joseph also did the same thing, of which circumstance I have no knowledge, only from information. The first thing that I noticed was a cry that he had leaped out of the window. A cessation of firing followed, the mob rushed downstairs, and Dr. Richards went to the window. Immediately afterward I saw the doctor going toward the jail door, and as there was an iron door at the head of the stairs, adjoining our door which led into the cells for criminals, it struck me that the doctor was going there, and I said to him, “Stop, Doctor, and take me along.” He proceeded to the door and opened it, and then returned and dragged me along to a small cell prepared for criminals.

Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, by Gary E. Smith. Courtesy of the LDS Media Library.

Brother Richards was very much troubled, and exclaimed, “Oh! Brother Taylor, is it possible that they have killed both Brother Hyrum and Joseph? it cannot surely be, and yet I saw them shoot them;” and elevating his hands two or three times, he exclaimed, “Oh Lord, my God, spare Thy servants!” He then said, “Brother Taylor, this is a terrible event;” and he dragged me farther into the cell, saying, “I am sorry I can not do better for you;” and, then, taking an old, filthy mattress, he covered me with it, and said, “That may hide you, and you may yet live to tell the tale, but I expect they will kill me in a few moments.” While lying in this position I suffered the most excruciating pain.

Soon afterwards Dr. Richards came to me, informed me that the mob had precipitately fled, and at the same time confirmed my worst fears that Joseph was assuredly dead. I felt a dull, lonely, sickening sensation at the news. When I reflected that our noble chieftain, the Prophet of the living God, had fallen, and that I had seen his brother in the cold embrace of death, it seemed as though there was a void or vacuum in the great field of human existence to me, and a dark gloomy chasm in the kingdom, and that we were left alone. Oh, how lonely was the feeling! How cold, barren and desolate! In the midst of difficulties he was always the first in motion; in critical positions his counsel was always sought. As our Prophet he approached our God, and obtained for us his will; but now our Prophet, our counselor, our general, our leader, was gone, and amid the fiery ordeal that we then had to pass through, we were left alone without his aid, and as our future guide for things spiritual or temporal, and for all things pertaining to this world, or the next, he had spoken for the last time on earth.

These reflections and a thousand others flashed upon my mind. I thought, why must the good perish, and the virtuous be destroyed? Why must God’s nobility, the salt of the earth, the most exalted of the human family, and the most perfect types of all excellence, fall victims to the cruel, fiendish hate of incarnate devils?

The poignancy of my grief, I presume, however, was somewhat allayed by the extreme suffering that I endured from my wounds.

Aleah Ingram is a full-time writer, social media manager, and editor who graduated from Southern Virginia University.

Ashley Morales

Frequently whimsical and overly optimistic about how much time it will take to do things, Ashley Morales is deeply passionate about the gospel and all kinds of creativity. Her hobbies include philosophically analyzing nearly every book, play, video game, and movie that she consumes, writing music and short stories, promising herself that she will finish writing her novels, going to sleep too late, eating foods she’s never tried, putting off cleaning her house, browsing Zillow, spending as much quality time as possible with her wonderful husband, trying to be a good mother to her fantastic children, and never finding the balance between saying too much and too little. One day, she hopes to leave a positive mark on the world and visit every continent (except Antarctica) with her family.

The following article by Scot and Maurine Proctor first appeared on LDSMag.com on February 1, 2017.

In this article, published yesterday, we talked about how Lucy’s Preliminary Notes were extensively edited before they became the book we have had for years in the Church. Many readers asked, “Did Brigham Young edit Lucy’s book, and if so why?” Here’s the answer.

For the most compelling book on Church history you’ll ever find, you need turn no further than Lucy Mack Smith’s own story about her son, Joseph Smith, captured in The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother. If you love Joseph Smith, this is simply a book you can’t miss. It has always been a treasure to us.

As we explained in an article yesterday, Lucy told her story to a scribe, young Martha Knowlton Coray, in the bleak winter following her sons’ deaths at Carthage.

Then Martha and her husband, Howard, substantially edited Lucy’s raw notes, called the Preliminary Manuscript, into essentially the version that we have had for decades. But you might hear the hesitation in the word “essentially”—because there was a long and somewhat dramatic journey from the Coray’s work to the bookshelf.

Though the publishing of Lucy’s book was important—because the clamor to know everything they could about Joseph was great, two other projects consumed the energies and resources of the Saints in 1845.

Their enemies had never let off the persecution. They had formed “wolf packs” to hunt the Saints; they had burned homes beyond Nauvoo, sending a flood of refugees into the city; they had harassed the Twelve with lawsuits and now Nauvoo had been turned into a workshop to build wagons to flee the city. Packing to leave everything they owned while they continued to build a temple absorbed the Saints that winter, and Lucy’s manuscript naturally took a backseat.

Years before Lucy died, some of her effects were left in the hands of her son, William Smith, among them being the manuscript copy of this history prepared by the Corays. The document fell into the hands of Isaac Sheen, who was at one time a member of the Church, in Michigan. When, in September, 1852, Apostle Orson Pratt went on a mission to England, he called on Mr. Sheen on his way East, and being shown the manuscript copy, he purchased it for a certain sum of money, took it to Liverpool with him, where, without revision and without the consent of knowledge of President Young or any of the Twelve, it was published under his direction in 1853..” ⁽¹⁾

The 1853 edition of Lucy Smith’s history was called Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations and quite faithfully followed the Coray’s revised manuscript. It was a popular book among the British Saints, and in 1854 became available in Great Salt Lake City to the applause of the Deseret News: “This new and highly interesting work should be possessed by all Saints who feel in the least degree interested with the history of the latter-day work.” ⁽²⁾

But George A. Smith, Lucy’s nephew and the Church historian, had some major reservations about the book. In an 1859 letter to another nephew of Lucy’s, Solomon Mack, he raised his concerns, suggesting that the “shocking massacre” of her two sons had affected her mind. George A. Smith wrote: “Although she endured this privation in a manner truly astonishing to her friends, yet we could not conceal from ourselves, that these terrible blows had made visible inroads upon her mind, as well as upon her bodily strength…In the last fifteen years, she got events considerably mixed up…I would be pleased to learn your opinion of Mother Smith’s history of her family, as far as you are acquainted with it.” ⁽³⁾

Brigham Young and his counselors expressed a similar reservation, saying that when the history was written, “Mother Smith was seventy years old, and very forgetful.” They suggested that “her mind had suffered many severe shocks” and that “she could, therefore, scarcely recollect anything correctly that had transpired.” ⁽⁴⁾

As George A. Smith continued to study the book and compared it to other sources, he began to feel there were factual mistakes, or at least the need to double-check stories for accuracy. For instance, in Lucy’s history she tells a story about how three strangers showed up unexpectedly and spread David Whitmer’s fields with plaster of paris, thus allowing him to leave for Harmony to meet Joseph Smith for the first time. George A. wrote to David Whitmer to verify the story, but received no response. In the early months of 1859, George A. and assistant historian Wilford Woodruff continued to write inquiries to check the details of the book for accuracy.

Thus, questions about the book had been simmering in the minds of the Brethren for several years before 1865, when Brigham Young decided to recall it. In a rather dramatic gesture the First Presidency said, “We wish those who have these books to either hand them to their Bishops for them to be conveyed to the President’s or Historian’s Office or send them themselves, that they may be disposed of.” ⁽⁵⁾ The First Presidency’s worry seemed to be over perpetuating inaccuracies that they were certain dotted Lucy’s history. “We do not wish incorrect and unsound doctrines to be handed down to posterity under the sanction of great names,” they wrote, “to be received and valued by future generations as authentic and reliable.” ⁽⁶⁾ Brigham Young did not wish to suppress the book permanently, but to revise it and reissue it in what he hoped would be a more correct form.

In a journal entry, Wilford Woodruff detailed what President Young’s intent was: “He said he wished us to take up that work and revise it, correct it; that it belonged to the Historian to attend to it; that there was many false statements made in it, and he wished them to be left out, and all other statements which we did not know to be true, and give the reason why they are left out.” ⁽⁷⁾ Though it is not entirely clear what “false statements” leaped out at Brigham Young, many of his concerns clearly came from doubting Lucy’s capacity at her advanced age and given her health to get the story straight.

Time and scholarship would show that this assessment was refutable. Those who visited Lucy in Nauvoo during the last years of her life often reported her to be alert and mentally acute. Artist Frederick H. Piercy, who drew scenes of the Mormon trail still in use today, stopped by the Mansion House, and carefully observed Lucy. “I could not fail to regard the old lady with great interest. Considering her age and afflictions, she, at that time, retained her faculties to a remarkable degree. She spoke very freely of her sons, and with tears in her eyes, and every other symptom of earnestness, vindicated their reputations for virtue and truth.” ⁽⁸⁾

Enoch Bartlett Tripp, visiting her in November 1855 in one of the last months of her life, also commented on her memory: “I called upon the Prophet’s Mother and found her in a lonely room in the eastern part of the house in her bed and very feeble. Upon approaching her bedside and informing her who I was, she arose in her bed and placing her arms around my neck kissed me exclaiming, ‘I can now die in peace since I have beheld your face from the valleys of the mountains.’ She made many inquiries after the Saints and remarked that she took much comfort in riding out with me and my wife in the days that I taught school here.” ⁽⁹⁾

Far more significant than the anecdotal reports, however, are the modern studies conducted by Richard Lloyd Anderson on Mother Smith’s history. Checking other journals, newspaper accounts, non-Mormon church records, vital records, and independent recollections for verification, he found that the great majority of what Lucy states tests very well.

He noted: “The preliminary and finished manuscripts give about 200 names. With the exception of a small percentage of indefinite names, nearly all can be verified, including some spectacular memories clear from her New England childhood. Her percentage on dates is not as good, probably reflecting her interest in people more than calendar years-yet when mistaken, she is typically within a year or two of the precise time.

“Obviously an event itself was more vivid to her mind than the exact point of its occurrence. So Lucy’s history is reliable but not an infallible source. How to tell? To reiterate a critical point, she will be a prime source when speaking from personal observation and only secondary when relaying what others have told her.” ⁽¹⁰⁾

Beyond accuracy, other factors influenced the 1865 recall of the book. Living in a time as we do today when succession in the Church Presidency is calm and orderly, the death of a prophet, signaling a predictable change, it may be difficult to imagine the splintering confusion, and emotion that followed the death of Joseph Smith for the everyday Saint.

Claims and counter-claims to the Presidency divided parts of the Church, and though the vast bulk of the members followed Brigham Young, fragmented groups congregated around others like Sidney Rigdon, James Strang, and Lyman Wight.

Since William Smith, Joseph’s brother, had made his own rival claim to be Joseph’s successor, Lucy Smith’s positive portrayal of him in her history probably concerned Brigham, and stood as just another evidence to him that the book contained distortions. Through Lucy’s eyes we see William as a valiant missionary, a fighter for the restored gospel, and a recipient of revelation in a dire moment in Missouri. In reality, William was volatile, unstable, and controversial. He had a checkered past, having often been at odds with his prophet brother. Disagreeing with Joseph during a meeting in Kirtland, enraged William attempted to throw him out and inflicted him with an injury that Joseph felt occasionally for the rest of his life. During the dark days at Far West when Joseph was taken to Liberty Jail, William exclaimed, “Damn him, Joseph Smith ought to have been hung up by the neck years ago and damn him, he will get it now anyhow.” ⁽¹¹⁾

In his last encounter with Joseph in spring 1844, William asked him to give him a city lot in Nauvoo near the temple. Joseph said he would do it with great pleasure if he would build a house and live upon it there, but he would not give him this lot, worth one thousand dollars, to sell. William agreed to the terms, and within hours an application was made by a Mr. Ivins to the recorder to know if that lot was clear and belonged to William, for the Prophet’s brother had sold it to him for five hundred dollars. Joseph, hearing this, directed the clerk not to make the transfer, and William’s last words to Joseph were threatening.

After the death of his brothers, a somewhat humbled William petitioned to be ordained the Presiding Patriarch of the Church, a position he had legitimate claim to as the oldest lineal descendant of the Smith family. He was ordained to that position on May 25, 1845, but within a few days, he claimed this gave him the right to succeed Joseph as the leader of the entire Church, and by October 1845, he was excommunicated.

An aspiring man has to find a home for his aspirations, and William went looking. Expelled from the Church, he temporarily became a leader with James Strang’s group. Excommunicated there, by 1850 he began teaching that legitimate leadership for the Church had to come from within the Prophet’s immediate family. Since Joseph Smith III was too young, he suggested he should be sustained as president pro tem “guardian of the seed of Joseph,” until the boy came of age. By 1854 he was seeking to be restored to his former position as an Apostle in the Church, and then after 1860, when Joseph Smith III was sustained as president of the Reorganized Church in Plano, Illinois, he hoped to find a high office in the new organization.

Given this background, no wonder the First Presidency’s 1865 recall of Lucy’s book was so strong in singling out William: “Those who have read the history of William Smith, and who knew him, know the statements made in that book respecting him, when he came out of Missouri, to be utterly false.” ⁽¹²⁾ The timing of the recall was probably also significant, coming so soon after Joseph’s sons had newly organized a church and were advancing succession claims. Brigham didn’t want Lucy’s book to bolster their effort. He may have felt the same way about the book’s rosy portrayal of Emma, who supported her sons in the Reorganized Church.

After the recall, President Young appointed a revision committee consisting of Geroge A. Smith and Judge Elias Smith, both cousins of the Prophet and men who were thoroughly knowledgeable in Church history. George A. had been studying the book for years, and Elias had been an editor of the Deseret News. They poured over the book, consulted with others, made deletions and corrections right in the text and in the margins of copies of the book and completed the work to the satisfaction of President Young. Ironically, after that storm that had whirled around Lucy’s history, only a small amount of the material was changed, and then not significantly. She had not been in the great error previously assumed.

According to Howard Searle these changes primarily included the following: “(1) Several favorable references to William Smith were deleted or changed. (2) Six out of eighteen references to Emma Smith were omitted, although the deletions appear rather incidental. A glowing eulogy of Emma…was left intact. (3) Many corrections were made in dates and names, especially in the genealogical data of chapter nine. (4) Some misstatements and misconceptions of Mother Smith were corrected. Her exaggerated role in the construction of the Kirtland schoolhouse…was revised in both copies of the history which were used by the revision committee. (5) Some profanity and gross statements (made by the Missouri persecutors and reported by Hyrum to a court of law) were edited out of the history. (6) Words were changed to clarify meaning and improve the grammar. (7) A few additions were made to expand parts of the narrative…(8) Statements that seemed unfavorable to the image of Joseph Smith or the Church were omitted. (9) Some references of purely family interest were left out.” ⁽¹³⁾

The version containing George A. and Elias Smith’s revisions lay essentially forgotten until 1901, when the General Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association sought to publish it in their monthly magazine, the Improvement Era. President Lorenzo Snow gave his permission as Church President just before he died in October 1901, and the series began in the November 1901 magazine and continued through the next year.

Lucy’s grandson Joseph F. Smith, who had become the prophet, wrote a preface for the history: “By the presentation of this work to the public, a worthy record is preserved, and the testimony of a noble and faithful woman-a mother indeed, and heroine in Israel-is perpetuated.“ ⁽¹⁴⁾ A new generation who did not face the pressures and dissensions of the old, brought a new outlook to the history.

Finally, in order to give Mother Smith’s history a wider audience, it was published again in 1945, edited by Preston Nibley, assistant Church historian, who made very few changes but added a few footnotes for the sake of the context. Today’s reader can find both the 1853 and 1945 edition in libraries and bookstores.

When Lucy sat down with Martha Jane, she certainly had no idea of the controversy that would sizzle around the simple recounting of her life’s story, and the sets of hands it would pass through before it was enjoyed by a large audience. But it may not have surprised her either. Life had taught her that good things always come with a cost.

1. Joseph F. Smith, Introduction to “History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother, Lucy Smith,” Improvement Era 5 ( November 1901): 1-2
2. Deseret News, November 16, 1854
3. George A. Smith to Solomon Mack, in Manuscript History of Brigham Young, February 23, 1859, p. 204
4. Millennial Star27 (October 21, 1865):658
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid. p. 659.
7. Wilford Woodruff Journal, February 13, 1859, LDS Church Archives
8. Frederick H. Piercy, Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley (1855; reprint Cambridge, Mass,: Harvard University Press, 1962), p. 94
9. Enoch Bartlett Tripp’s Journal, vol. 1 to December 31, 1844, BYU Special Collections.
10. Richard Lloyd Anderson, “His Mother’s Manuscript: An Intimate View of Joseph Smith,” Brigham Young University Forum address, January 27, 1976.
11. Wilford Woodruff Journal, February 13, 1859, LDS Church Archives
12. Millennial Star 27, (October 21, 1865), 658
13. Searle, “Early Mormon Historiography,” pp. 420, 422.
14. Smith, Introduction to “History of the Prophet Joseph,” p. 3

Original Source:  Article by Scot and Maurine Proctor. Content link: LDSMag.com. 

Megan Finley

In between writing short stories she’ll never finish and marathoning Marvel movies, Megan Finley is often found missing the loves of her life, her two cats Leia and Loki. Her passion for “geek culture” extends into her passion for academics, as she is an optimistic MA student with plans to be the next Professor X (with hair). Her life’s dream is a simple one—to drink a hot chocolate in every Disney park in the world.

Born in 1805 and martyred in the summer of 1844, Joseph Smith’s life was firmly rooted in and influenced by the same widespread nationalist fervor, relentless religious upheaval, and profound political divisions that permeated the lives of all during the antebellum era.

But before one attempts to expound upon Smith’s impact upon not only religion, but American culture as a whole, it is important to ground him in the world which he changed; in fact, a deep cultural analysis of Antebellum America can only bring a heightened sense of insight into to our collective understanding of who Joseph Smith would become, both in character and in station.

America Catches Nationalist Fever

Via Murray Hudson, Halls, Tennessee. A map of the United States at the time of Joseph Smith’s birth in 1805.

A portrait of America in the context of the early 1800’s paints an enticing picture, indeed. A proud, infantile nation stands on wobbling feet as it emerges victorious from two wars.

Its first, the Revolutionary war (1775-1783) bought the nation its ensured autonomy, while the second, the War of 1812 (1812-1815) instilled within its people an unwavering sense of pride.

The birth of an American identity is therefore forever tied with an initial and prevailing sense of nationalism—the exaltation of and devotion to its national culture. Economic nationalism manifested itself as American manufacturing began to find its niche both domestically and in the worldwide market.

The Embargo Act of 1807, a general embargo enacted by the United States Congress against France and Great Britain, stimulated domestic production and encouraged the U.S. to adopt a sense of economic self-reliance. Henry Clay’s “American System”(3)—which touted plans for an industry promoting tariff, a national bank, and federal subsidies for infrastructural development—as well as President James Monroe’s “Era of Good Feelings,” reflected a desire for unity.

However, regionalism, which was simultaneously practiced alongside nationalism, only undermined the goals of Democratic-Republicans such as Monroe. It was this grating tension, particularly between the North and South, that would set the scene for the American Civil War.

A Religious Awakening Begins

The Second Great Awakening took its cues from a long-standing tradition of restorationist movements, some of which can be dated back as early as the Renaissance. Medieval Christian humanism, which emphasized the humanity and personalization of Christ through the study of the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible, was fundamental in its impact upon reformers such as John Calvin and Martin Luther, who sought after a “purer” form of Christian belief and practice. (p.24)

The early 19th century brought forth a similar sentiment, as religious orators began to call for a return to a more ideal form of Christian worship. Both English and American religion began to detach itself from its long-held Enlightenment values, which prized—in the vernacular of Mormon scholar Hugh Nibley—the Sophic (logical rationalization without the influence of the supernatural) over the Mantic (faith-based sentiment that readily accepts religious authority).

While historians loosely pin the movement’s beginnings as early as the 1730s, one of its first major events has been referenced as The Cane Ridge Revival held in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801. The power of religious orators to both compel and spellbind their audiences fanned the flames of theological fervor, catapulting men such as Barton W. Stone (minister of Cane Ridge’s Presbyterian sect) and contemporaries Thomas and Alexander Campell (influential leaders of the Disciples of Christ) to fame.

A shift in morality delivered an immense ripple effect, resulting in the conquest of the abolitionist spirit in upstate New York as well as increased church membership. Many denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Shakers, the Seventh Day Adventists, and the Unitarian Universalists, were destined to be born into this revitalized, religiously-charged atmosphere.

The Rise of Print Culture 

While Richard M. Hoe’s rotary printing press did not arrive until 1843, its effects on American culture were revolutionary. “Print culture” took form in the popular literature, lithographs, and newspapers that found their way into every pocket. Newspapers, in particular, surged in popularity in the 1830s, when the “penny papers” made both news and literacy all the more accessible to the working class. Sensationalism (as well as the early tabloid) found its origins in this period, as journalists continuously searched for fodder to fill their pages while simultaneously intriguing the masses.

Some of the most paramount achievements of the Antebellum period belonged to the realm of literature. As America was still in its character-forming adolescence, items in print became the basis of its cultural identity, bringing forth literary trends such as Transcendentalism.

Author-philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, as well as others involved in the movement each injected their belief in the power of individualism, nature, self-reliance, and progress into their writing. Emerson, whose notable address “American Scholar” was given in 1837, appealed to the budding desire in the States to depart from long-held European traditions and begin to develop a national character. Publication of the Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was a further attempt at defining the autonomy of the U.S.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allen Poe were not only prominent authors of the era, but significantly aided the rise of the short story as a literary genre. Hawthorne, whose renowned novel The Scarlet Letter was an instant best-seller, published shorter works such as the first part of his Twice-Told Tales in 1837.

Washington Irving found his niche in short texts, with tales such as “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820) effortlessly becoming part of the American literary canon. The brief narratives and prose of Edgar Allen Poe were similarly well-received, exciting the imaginations of the public between 1832 and 1849. “The Tell-tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” each reflected the assertions Poe made in his 1846 essay, “The Philosopy of Composition,” where he argues that texts should not suffer to be long-winded, but rather designed to be enjoyed in a single sitting.

Sickness and Maladies

Despite commercial development, medical knowledge remained relatively rudimentary until after the Civil War. In a BYU History publication, Joseph B. Hinckley cites that there were essentially two methods of medical practice: heroic/allopathic medicine and botanical/homeopathic medicine.

Joseph Smith lived during an epoch referred to as “The Age of Heroic Medicine,” (1780–1850). Heroic (also called allopathic) approaches are defined by treatments with extreme effects, often administered with substantial risk to the patient.

Examples of common practices include bloodletting and the prescription of a castor oil/calomel concoction, which promoted internal “cleansing” to remove toxins and pull disease out of the body. Despite often exacerbating a patient’s ailments rather than acting as a curative, most educated physicians of the time—including Benjamin Rush, whose contributions to American culture included singing the Declaration of Independence—were staunch defendants of this type of medicinal care.

Homeopathic remedies ran their own risks, though perhaps not on the same scale as heroic counterparts. Samuel Thompson, known to history as the Father of American Herbalism, played a vital role in the development of this form of treatment.

Homeopaths such as Thomsonians believed wholeheartedly in the concept of medical liberty, even going so far as to form a political force known as the Popular Health Movement. However, while mild and often alleviatory, herbal remedies with little scientific backing were often powerless against incessant strains of cholera, smallpox, thyphoid, and yellow fever.

Marginalization of the “Other”/Dangerous Divisions

By definition, socio-political tensions dominated the years before the Civil War. The matter of “separate spheres” for both men and women drove the basis for which inequality between the sexes remained.

While white women began to see an increase in educational and vocational opportunities, they were often demeaned and ridiculed for their attempts at merging into “men’s affairs.” Women’s suffrage was, therefore, a pressing issue. So much so, that the discourse inspired by the 1848 Seneca Falls women’s rights convention heavily influenced Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s 1881 The History of Women’s Suffrage. 

Arm in arm with the division over women’s rights came the turmoil that accompanied the abolitionist movement. In the Antebellum spirit of reform, abolitionists called attention to slavery as yet another damaging, archaic system to turn over.

Numerous arguments to slavery were gaining traction. The Second Great Awakening had shaken America’s moral heart, as Quakers such as Benjamin Lay began to proclaim that slavery should offend any decent Christian’s virtuous sensibilities.

Women such as Angelina Grimke and Sarah Moore Grimke saw the similarities in the persecution of women and African-Americans, and often gave speeches to mixed audiences regarding the absolute need to end slavery. Black abolitionists, such as Fredrick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, brought their own stories as slaves to the forefront, rendering the deeply dehumanizing experience of human bondage as impossible to ignore.

Joseph Smith: America’s Prophet or More?

However central setting may be to the LDS Church’s genesis, Richard Bushman—whose research remains authoritative in studies of the prophet Joseph Smith—advises against restricting his narrative to that of an American venue.

In order to truly understand his contribution to both secular and non-secular realms, Bushman can only advocate a global perspective, stating that it remains “…the only way to highlight the nature of Smith’s achievement…[in tying] him to upstate New York, we will miss the expansiveness of his thinking, like explaining Shakespeare from the small town mentality of Stratford” (Underwood, “Attempting to Situate Joseph Smith“).

Regardless, to seek to understand the culture to which Smith was undoubtedly exposed, and more importantly, the implications of said culture, is not a vain effort; one need only look to the expansive vision that Smith had for his gospel, and the worldwide ripple effect it has since achieved.

Via Mormon.org.

Megan Finley

In between writing short stories she’ll never finish and marathoning Marvel movies, Megan Finley is often found missing the loves of her life, her two cats Leia and Loki. Her passion for “geek culture” extends into her passion for academics, as she is an optimistic MA student with plans to be the next Professor X (with hair). Her life’s dream is a simple one—to drink a hot chocolate in every Disney park in the world.

This article which was written by Danielle B. Wagner appeared in the 23 June 2016 online edition of LDS Living Magazine.

“As with many other truths of the gospel, our present knowledge about a Mother in Heaven is limited,” the Church’s Gospel Topics Essay “Mother in Heaven” states.

While we do have quotes from Church leaders that give us insight into Her nature and role in our lives, many understand our unique knowledge of Her is sacred.

However, the First Presidency shared in 1909 that “all men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity,” and in 1995 the First Presidency declared in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” ” Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

While we might not know as much about our Heavenly Mother as we do our Heavenly Father, the words of prophets and apostles, as well as Church records still provide a surprising amount of information about our other divine Parent.

For instance, the LDS archives contain a journal entry from Abraham H. Cannon, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and son of George Q. Cannon. On August 25, 1880, Abraham Cannon recorded a time when the Prophet Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Zebedee Coltrin saw a vision of our Heavenly Mother:

One day the Prophet Joseph Smith asked him (Zebedee Coltrin) and Sidney Rigdon to accompany him into the woods to pray. When they had reached a secluded spot Joseph laid down on his back and stretched out his arms. He told the brethren to lie one on each arm and then shut their eyes.

After they had prayed he told them to open their eyes. They did so and they saw a brilliant light surrounding a pedestal which seemed to rest on the ground. They closed their eyes and again prayed. They then saw, on opening them, the Father seated upon a throne; they prayed again and on looking saw the Mother also; after praying and looking the fourth time they saw the Savior added to the group. He had auburn brown, rather long, wavy hair and appeared quite young” (Journal of Abraham H. Cannon , 25 Aug. 1880, LDS archives).

Though rare, this vision might not have been a singular occurrence. The Church’s Gospel Topics Essay “Mother in Heaven” states, “Susa Young Gates, a prominent leader in the Church, wrote in 1920 that Joseph Smith’s visions and teachings revealed the truth that ‘the divine Mother, [is] side by side with the divine Father'” (emphasis added).

The use of the plural in this case suggests that Joseph Smith may have had other visions in which Heavenly Mother was revealed to him, which means other prophets and apostles could have been blessed with such a divine visitations.

But whether or not others have seen our Heavenly Mother, many Church leaders have talked about her great influence in our lives. According to an article published in BYU Studies, “‘A Mother There’: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven,” Susa Young Gates called Heavenly Mother a great “molder,” who watches over us with “watchful care” and provides “careful training.” In addition, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” teaches us that we were born to Heavenly Parents who guided and reared us in the pre-existence.

Guest Author

The following article by Jannalee Rosner appeared in the 27 June 2016 online edition of LDS Living.com.

Most members of the Church are familiar with the events surrounding the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. But what they might not realize is that news of their murder made headlines all across the country, from Arkansas and Connecticut to Florida and Maine. And though many didn’t believe Joseph was a prophet, the majority of these media sources condemned the act as murder and a scandal.

As we remember the anniversary of this tragic moment in Mormon history, here’s a look at a few of the reactions of newspapers across the country:

The New York Sun reported, “It is no small thing, in the blaze of this nineteenth century, to give to men a new revelation, found a new religion, establish new forms of worship, to build a city, with new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture, to establish ecclesiastic, civil and military jurisdiction, found colleges, send out missionaries, and make proselytes in two hemispheres: yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution.”

The New York Weekly Herald added, “Thus died the plowboy Prophet of America at the hands of an assassin, the object of intense, local persecution within Hancock County, where feeling ran high in the communities of Carthage and Warsaw against Nauvoo, its balance of power and the Prophet. Yet, out beyond the vineyards of Hancock County, beyond that beautiful bend in the Mississippi, he was a respected and an admired Prophet and statesman.”

However, like any event in the media, there were multiple sides to every story. In fact, an article in the Herald of Freedom in Concord, New Hampshire stated, “. . .but I do not put the slightest confidence in the stories told of him by our political and religious presses. They tell as bad stories of the abolitionists as they do of Smith. They are not entitled to any credit. . . As to the Mormons, I would say here, that though I know nothing of their religion or character, I venture to guess they are both better—or at least as good, as those of the ruffians who killed them—or the other ruffians who virtually back them up in it” (pg 697).

There were several other papers, including, of course, the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor, who also put Joseph Smith in a more favorable light. In talking about the funeral procession, the Times and Seasons reported “It was a vast assemblage of some 8 or 10,000 persons, and with one united voice resolved to trust the law for a remedy of such a high-handed assassination, and when that failed, to call upon God to avenge us of our wrongs! Oh, widows and orphans! Oh Americans, weep, for the glory of freedom has departed!”

A piece printed in the Daily Evening Transcript in Boston, Massachusetts, seemed to reinforce a prophecy given to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni that his name would be shared for good or for evil around the world:

“Joe Smith is dead and gone. He was one of the most remarkable men of the age. The time for writing his history has not arrived. Men who have known him long and well, differ in their estimate of his character; the future historian alone can reconcile the contradictory statements of his friends and enemies, and place him in his true position. The personal manners of every man make him friends or enemies, regardless of his principles and of his conduct. This remark is clearly illustrated in the case of Smith. He was a man of rough exterior and course manners, thousands who approached him were so completely disgusted at once by his manners, that they refused to look at the good he claimed to have done. But notwithstanding this he was a remarkable man, and has left the impress of his genius upon the age in which he lived; he has carved out for himself a title to a page in the history of his country, and his name will be remembered, for good or for evil, when the names of half the ephemeral Statesmen of the age will be forgotten. . .

“He was a man of genuine courage, and would have fought to the last moment of his life. He was pursued by a band of three hundred infuriated demons and cruelly shot down like a wild beast, while confined in a small room where he could not escape. It was a glorious exit for him. Whatever there was of evil in his heart will be forgotten in the recollection of his death. He will be eulogized by his disciples, and worshiped as a God. Time and distance will embellish his life with new and rare virtues, and more than earthly power; his doctrines will flourish, his influence will extend to ages yet unborn, and future generations will celebrate his birth and death by public festivals, public prayers, and an unlimited devotion [signed] H. J.” (pg. 668-671, emphasis added).

The news even spread in Europe. The Portland Transcript in Maine shared part of a story printed in the Liverpool Mercury: “The scenes which have taken place in Pennsylvania and Illinois would have disgraced a nation of savages. We question whether. . . any record can be found more sanguinary than the riots in Philadelphia, or the massacre of the Mormon leader and his brother, in the prison at Carthage” (pg. 661).

On the extreme other hand, some papers, such as the Jonesborough Whig, thoroughly supported the actions of the mob, praising the murders as a victory: “Some of the public Journals of the country, we are sorry to see, regret the death of that blasphemous wretch Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet. Our deliberate judgment is, that he ought to have been dead ten years ago and that those who at length have deprived him of his life, have done the cause of God, and of the country, good service.”

Reverend Brownlow did not hide his enthusiasm when he concluded, “Smith was killed, as he should have been. THREE CHEERS to the brave company who shot him to pieces!”

The New York Herald even went so far as to say that “The death of the modern mahomet will seal the fate of Mormonism. They cannot get another Joe Smith. The holy city must tumble into ruins, and the ‘latter-day saints’ have indeed come to the latter day.” Others also spoke out against Joseph, calling his death the end of the “great deceiver, who has no doubt, seduced and ensnared numbers to their ruin” and claiming he would be remembered for his “deeds of darkness.”

Still others took a middle ground, denying Joseph’s standing as a prophet, but speaking out against his death in defense of a fair trial: “It will probably never be known who shot Joseph and Hyrum Smith—but their murder was a cold-blooded cowardly act, which will consign the perpetrators if discovered to merited infamy and disgrace. They have broken the pledges to the Government—disgraced themselves and the State to which they belong. They have crimsoned their perfidy with blood. . . It will long be regretted that things have taken the turn they have in relation to the Mormons” (Quincy Herald).

The Lee County Democrat in Fort Madison, Iowa, added, “The murder of Jo Smith and his Brother has caused feelings of deep regret in the breasts of every peaceable and law-abiding people; they look upon it as a high-handed outrage, and as a cruel, cold-blooded, cowardly and contemptible murder. That Jo and his brother were guilty of acts which required the interposition of the law, we are well aware, but after he and his brother had voluntarily surrendered themselves up to justice, under the full assurance that they would receive the protection of Governor Ford from all violence; they were entitled to all protection against all danger and all enemies” (pg. 659).

Though these are just a few of dozens of comments made about the death of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum, they show the wide range of influence the gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored by Joseph Smith, had and continues to have in the world. Despite the Church’s small numbers and the fact that most people did not believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, many people knew who the Latter-day Saints were, and believed that the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were unjust.

Ultimately, the description Latter-day Saints will remember best is now recorded in our scriptures, penned by Elder John Taylor in D&C section 135 verse 3:

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum.”

Lead image from Wikimedia Commons:
Statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on their way from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Carthage Jail. Located in front of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple. This 2003 sculpture is by Stanley J. Watts (human figures) and Kim Corpany (horses).

Guest Author

Millions of people worldwide, both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and non-members alike, have come to know Brother Joseph again. Many revere him as a prophet, seer, and revelator, while others are critical of him and defame his name. Nevertheless, with all of the information that has been collected and published about his life, there are still some interesting factoids about the life of Joseph Smith that are rarely, if ever, mentioned. Here are some unusual facts about Joseph Smith that most people probably never knew.

Joseph Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, the fifth of eleven children born to Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith on 23 December 1805. By 1817, Joseph and his family moved to the “burned-over district” of western New York, an area repeatedly swept by religious revivals during the Second Great Awakening. Views about organized religion differed among family members, but they did believe in visions and prophecies.

His mother described him as “much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the rest of the children, but far more given to meditation and deep study.” Various people described Joseph as “remarkably quiet,” and “taciturn,” and “proverbially good-natured,” and “never known to laugh.” The first little-known fact about him is that according to one of his acquaintances in Palmyra, New York, O. Turner, Joseph had “a jovial, easy, don’t-care way about him,” and he had an aptitude for debating moral and political issues in a local junior debating club.

A second fact that many people may not be aware of concerns Joseph’s genealogy. Through his mother’s line, he is related to such well-known people as George W. Bush, Winston Churchill, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John P. Morgan, Mitt Romney, Richard Nixon, and David Marriott.

He met and fell in love with Emma Smith from Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, whom he married in 1827. Another trivia fact is that Emma refused to let Joseph in her garden because she believed that dozens of people would gather around to be near him, and they would trample all of the plants.

It appears that Joseph was also a pet lover and owned two dogs. Reports state that his favorite dog was named Major, and Sylvester Smith threatened to kill it while on Zion’s Camp march. He also had a bulldog named Baker.

What the angel Moroni told him in the vision that his “name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues” rang true in Hiram, Ohio. He was tarred and feathered there, and during the ordeal, he chipped a tooth causing him to speak with a slight whistle for the rest of his life.

How many people would ever think that such a great leader as Joseph Smith would have stage fright? One of the original twelve apostles in the early Church, Heber C. Kimball, reportedly often heard Joseph Smith say that his legs often “trembled like Belshazzar’s when he got up to speak before the world, and before the Saints.”

Unbeknownst to Joseph during his lifetime, several of the people whom he had a close association with such as Parley Pratt, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, and Harold B. Lee were his cousins. Brigham Young, the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, was his fifth cousin.

On 28 June 1830, in route to New York, Joseph was arrested and falsely accused by people purporting that he owed them money. He was given a hearing, found to be innocent, and subsequently released. Events such as this occurred six times in the course of one day, and in each instance, the charges were dropped. After the last hearing, Joseph returned to Kirtland.

Finally, a fact that some may already be aware of is that decoy caskets were used at Joseph and Hyrum’s funeral after the martyrdom in the Carthage jail in Carthage, Illinois. There was a $1,000 reward for the head of Joseph Smith, so the caskets were filled with sandbags to try and prevent the bodies from being desecrated. Later, the bodies of the two brothers were buried in secret.  “In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3). The chorus of the LDS hymn Praise to the Man written by William W. Phelps is a fitting closing commentary on the life of Joseph Smith:

Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven!
Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain.
Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren;
Death cannot conquer the hero again.

** Information for this article was taken from the article titled “10 Rare Facts about the Prophet Joseph Smith” by Aleah Ingram posted on 29 May 2016 on LDS Daily.com.

Keith L. Brown

Keith L. Brown is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been born and raised Baptist. He was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time of his conversion to the LDS faith. He was baptized on 10 March 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland while serving on active duty in the United States Navy in Keflavic, Iceland. He currently serves as the First Assistant to the High Priest Group for the Annapolis, Maryland Ward. He is a 30-year honorably retired United States Navy Veteran.

of-common-sense.site123.me/

Of the many hardships Joseph Smith Jr. and his wife Emma endured, the one that was perhaps the most difficult, especially for Emma, was losing so many of her precious babies. Only 5 of her 11 children lived past the age of 2, and her only biological daughter died at birth. After her husband was killed in 1844 and the majority of the Saints moved West, Emma was left in Nauvoo to raise their surviving children alone. Find out what happened to each of the Smith children and where the surviving ones ended up in their adult years.

Alvin Smith

The first of many tragic deaths, Joseph and Emma’s first baby was born and died on June 15, 1828, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, during the time that the 116 pages given to Martin Harris were lost. According to the family Bible, the baby was named Alvin, likely after Joseph Smith’s older brother, who died shortly before Joseph received the gold plates. However, the name was recorded by someone other than Joseph and Emma, and the headstone merely states “In Memory of An Infant Son of Joseph and Emma Smith.”

Thadeus and Louisa Smith

These twins lived for only three hours, born on April 30, 1831, in Kirtland, Ohio. Though they were given the names Thadeus and Louisa in the family Bible, the handwriting is not Joseph or Emma’s, and Emma Smith was recorded to have said in 1879 that the twins had not been named.

A set of twins born to John and Julia Murdock the same day were adopted by the Smiths shortly after losing their own when Julia Murdock died after giving birth to them.

Joseph Murdock Smith

One of the twins adopted by Emma and Joseph Smith Jr., he was probably named after his adopted father. Little Joseph died when he was 11 months old. His death was likely the result of a combination of the measles and exposure to the cold air when a mob attacked the Prophet Joseph at the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio.

Julia Murdock Smith

Julia and her twin brother Joseph were adopted by Joseph and Emma when they were nine days old, after their mother died giving birth to them and their father could not care for them. Though her brother did not survive his first year of life, Julia lived to be 49. She was 13 when her adopted father, the Prophet Joseph, was killed in Carthage Jail and she was left with her mother, grandmother (Lucy Mack Smith), and siblings in deserted Nauvoo.

She married Elisha Dixon somewhere between the age of 17 and 18, against the wishes of her family. She soon after moved with him to Texas, where he died a few years later in a steamer ship accident. After his death, she returned to live with her mother, Emma, in Nauvoo. It was there she met and married John J. Middleton in 1856. During her marriage to Middleton, she joined the Catholic Church, of which her new husband was a devout member. They eventually moved to St. Louis, Missouri. After 20 years, in what came to be a very difficult marriage, Julia officially separated from Middleton and moved back to Nauvoo to live with and take care of her ailing mother.

After her mother’s death in 1879, Julia went to live with her brother, Alexander, for a time and later with some of her friends, the Moffitt family. While living with the Moffitts, she died of breast cancer in September 1880, leaving no posterity.

Joseph Smith III

The second namesake of his father, Joseph Smith III was born on November 6, 1832, in Kirtland. He was baptized at age 11, about 7 months before his father was killed. He married Emmeline Griswold on October 22, and had five children with her during their 13 years of marriage.

A strong opponent of polygamy, he started the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now the Community of Christ) on April 6, 1860, in Illinois and became its first Prophet-President. The followers of the RLDS church believe it to be a continuation of the one Joseph III’s father had established decades before.

After his first wife died, Joseph III married Bertha Madison in 1869. She died in October 1896, leaving him nine more children. He met and married Ada Rachel Clark two years later in January 1898 in Ontario, Canada. They eventually moved back to Missouri and had three children together.

Joseph III died at age 82 on December 10, 1914, and has a large posterity.

Frederick Granger Williams Smith

Named after Joseph’s close friend and first counselor in the First Presidency, Frederick G. Williams, the second surviving son of the Joseph Smith Jr. family was born in Ohio on June 20, 1836. He was only 8 years old when his father was killed and his family forced to flee mob violence yet again. He eventually married Anna Marie Jones in 1857 and had one child with her. He fell ill in his early 20s and died in April 1862. His daughter, Alice Fredericka, never married, leaving no living descendants from this Smith son.

Alexander Hale Smith

Alexander Hale was born in Far West, Missouri on June 2, 1838, at the height of the early Saints’ persecution. Believed to have been named after the Church’s legal counselor and Joseph’s friend, Alexander Doniphan, Alexander Smith was only 6 years old when Joseph and Hyrum were killed and grew up with little memory of his father.

He married Elizabeth Agnes Kendall in June 1861 and was baptized into the RLDS church by his older brother, Joseph Smith III, the following year. He served several missions for that church, and occasionally even traveled to Utah. He held many callings within the RLDS church throughout his life, and was eventually appointed as a counselor to the RLDS church president and later as the RLDS patriarch before he died in Nauvoo in 1909.

He had nine children with Elizabeth and has a large posterity today.

Don Carlos Smith

This sweet Smith child, named after Joseph’s youngest brother, lived to be only a little over a year old. He was born on June 13, 1840, and died on August 15, 1841, from an illness that was sweeping through Nauvoo.

Emma Snith Holding One of Her Children

Image of Emma Smith with one of her children. Most likely David Hyrum Smith.

Unnamed Son

The last of Emma’s children to die in infancy, this little boy was stillborn on February 6, 1842, in Nauvoo, just two years before his father would be killed.

David Hyrum Smith

Born in November 1844, nearly 5 months after Joseph and Hyrum’s martyrdom, David never knew his father, or the uncle for whom he was partly named after. He was 3 when Emma remarried and 16 when his brother began the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was ordained an elder in the RLDS church in 1863.

He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn in May 1870 and had one child, a son, with her. He was called to serve as the second counselor to his brother Joseph Smith III in the RLDS church presidency, but his declining mental health led his family to place him in the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane in 1877. He remained a patient there until he died in August 1904 at age 59.

Lead image and all portraits from Wikimedia Commons. Alvin Smith gravestone image from findagrave.com.

Guest Author

The Cause and Effects of the Strange Phenomenon

The chain of events that developed into what would become known as “Year without a summer” were a result of a series of volcanic eruptions. Crop harvests in the areas of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of Western Europe had been poor for several years. The final devastating blow came in 1815 with the eruption of Mount Tambora located in Sumbawa, Indonesia.

History records that on 10 April 1815, Mount Tambora produced the largest eruption known on the planet during the past 500 years, erupting about 50-150 cubic kilometers of magma and measuring 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) scale. The eruption produced global climatic effects and killed more than 120,000 people, directly and indirectly.

According to an article in The Economist magazine dated 11 April 2015 titled “After Tambora”:

On the 10th and 11th [of April 1815] it sent molten rock more than 40 kilometres into the sky in the most powerful eruption of the past 500 years. The umbrella of ash spread out over a million square kilometres; in its shadow day was as night. Billions of tonnes of dust, gas, rock and ash scoured the mountain’s flanks in pyroclastic flows, hitting the surrounding sea hard enough to set off deadly tsunamis; the wave that hit eastern Java, 500km away, two hours later was still two metres high when it did so. The dying mountain’s roar was heard 2,000km away. Ships saw floating islands of pumice in the surrounding seas for years.

The year after the eruption clothes froze to washing lines in the New England summer and glaciers surged down Alpine valleys at an alarming rate. Countless thousands starved in China’s Yunnan province and typhus spread across Europe. Grain was in such short supply in Britain that the Corn Laws were suspended and a poetic coterie succumbing to cabin fever on the shores of Lake Geneva dreamed up nightmares that would haunt the imagination for centuries to come.

Mixed in with the 30 cubic kilometres or more of rock spewed out from Tambora’s crater were more than 50m tonnes of sulphur dioxide, a large fraction of which rose up with the ash cloud into the stratosphere. While most of the ash fell back quite quickly, the sulphur dioxide stayed up and spread both around the equator and towards the poles. Over the following months it oxidised to form sulphate ions, which developed into tiny particles that reflected away some of the light coming from the sun. Because less sunlight was reaching the surface, the Earth began to cool down.

At that time, Europe was still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars and suffered from massive food shortages. There were food riots in the United Kingdom and France, and grain warehouses were looted. Conditions in Switzerland, which had become landlocked, were worse as the famine caused such violence that the government had to declare a national emergency. In addition to those catastrophic events, huge storms and abnormal rainfall caused major European rivers to flood, including the Rhine River. Rainfall over the planet as a whole was down by between 3.6% and 4% in 1816. Between 1816 and 1819, a major typhus epidemic occurred in Ireland induced by the famine caused by the “Year without a summer” claiming the lives of approximately 100,000 Irish. An approximate European fatality total for the year 1816 was 200,000 deaths.

The crop failure in New England at that time is also attributed to the eruption of Mount Tambora. Prior to the eruption, the corn crop was flourishing. By the summer of 1816, it was reported that the corn crop had ripened so poorly that only about a quarter of it was useable as a food source. As a result of the crop failures in New England, Canada, and parts of Europe, the price of wheat, grains, meat, vegetables, butter, milk, and flour rose significantly.

It is further reported that the eruption of Tambora also caused Hungary to experience brown snow. Italy’s northern and north-central region experienced something similar, with red snow falling throughout the year. The cause of this is believed to have been volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

The Devastating Effects of the Phenomenon in North America

This strange turn of events which historian John D. Post has called “the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world” resulted in an agricultural disaster with major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere. As aforementioned, most of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of Western Europe were the areas most affected.

It is recorded that in May 1816 frost killed off most crops in the higher elevations of New England and New York, and on 6 June 1816, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine. In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as northwestern Pennsylvania. A Massachusetts historian summed up the disaster:

Severe frosts occurred every month; June 7th and 8th snow fell, and it was so cold that crops were cut down, even freezing the roots …. In the early Autumn when corn was in the milk it was so thoroughly frozen that it never ripened and was scarcely worth harvesting. Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food. It must be remembered that the granaries of the great west had not then been opened to us by railroad communication, and people were obliged to rely upon their own resources or upon others in their immediate locality (William G. Atkins, “History of Hawley” (West Cummington, Massachusetts (1887)), 86.)

For those accustomed to long winters, the weather itself was not as much a hardship as the effect that it had on crops, and thus on the food and firewood supply. During this period the prices for corn and grain rose significantly. The price of oats, for example, rose from 12¢ a bushel in 1815 (equal to $1.55 at today’s prices) to 92¢ a bushel in 1816 (equal to $12.78 at today’s prices).

The Joseph Smith Sr. Family – Joseph’s Leg Operation

Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on 23 December 1805, in Sharon, Vermont. He was the son of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. Shortly after Joseph’s brother, William, was born in 1811, the Smiths moved to the small community of West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Before long, typhoid fever came into West Lebanon and “raged tremendously.” The epidemic which affected the Smith children one by one, swept the upper Connecticut valley, leaving six thousand people dead.

Joseph Smith, Jr was seven years old at that time. After two weeks he recovered from his fever, but suffered major complications which eventually required four surgeries. The most serious complication involved a swelling and infection in the tibia of his left leg, a condition that today would be called osteomyelitis, leaving Joseph in agony for over two weeks. In her history, his mother recorded the love and tenderness that Joseph’s older brother, Hyrum, showed towards him during that two week period:

Hyrum sat beside him, almost day and night for some considerable length of time, holding the affected part of his leg in his hands and pressing it between them, so that his afflicted brother might be enabled to endure the pain (Smith, History of Joseph Smith, p. 55.)

When the first two attempts to reduce the swelling and drain the infection in Joseph’s leg failed, the chief surgeon recommended amputation, but Lucy refused and urged the doctors, “You will not, you must not, take off his leg, until you try once more” (Smith, History of Joseph Smith, p. 56.)

The student manual for “Church History in the Fullness of Times” in chapter two of that manual titled “Joseph Smith’s New England Heritage” gives the following account of the operation on Joseph’s leg:

Providentially, “the only physician in the United States who aggressively and successfully operated for osteomyelitis” in that era was Dr. Nathan Smith, a brilliant physician at Dartmouth Medical College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He was the principal surgeon, or at least the chief adviser, in Joseph’s case. In his treatment of the disease, Dr. Smith was generations ahead of his time.

Joseph insisted on enduring the operation without being bound or drinking brandy wine to dull his senses. He asked his mother to leave the room so she would not have to see him suffer. She consented, but when the physicians broke off part of the bone with forceps and Joseph screamed, she rushed back into the room. “Oh, mother, go back, go back,” Joseph cried out. She did, but returned a second time only to be removed again. After the ordeal Joseph went with his Uncle Jesse Smith to the seaport town of Salem, Massachusetts, hoping that the sea breezes would help his recovery. Due to the severity of the operation, his recovery was slow. He walked with crutches for three years and sometimes limped slightly thereafter, but he returned to health and led a robust life.

The Joseph Smith Sr. Family – Norwich, Vermont

The family moved to Norwich, Vermont, about 1813. Joseph’s brother, Don Carlos, the ninth child in the Smith family, was born on 15 March 1816.

Most LDS writers accept the date of 1816 as the time the Smith family arrived in Palmyra, New York. Respectively, they place the duration of the Smiths’ stay in Norwich, Vermont (the town from which they departed for Palmyra) during the years 1814, 1815, and 1816.

This is based on Lucy Mack Smith’s historical account. In that history she recounts the family’s move to Norwich, Vermont, where they lived on a farm belonging to Esquire Murdock. She stated that the crops failed the first year, yet they were able to sustain themselves by selling fruit from the farm. The crops also failed the second year, but Joseph Smith, Sr. was determined to plant crop for a third year vowing that if he had no greater success than the previous two years, he would move to the state of New York, where wheat was raised in abundance. The third year the crops were destroyed by an untimely frost and he made preparations to go to New York. He left Norwich, Vermont, for New York with a Mr. Howard after making sure that his affairs were in order, leaving his family behind to pack and to get ready to vacate (Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother (R. Vernon Ingleton, 2005), 99-100).

According to Craig N. Ray’s FAIR article titled “Joseph Smith’s History Confirmed”:

With careful investigation of the extant Vermont and New Hampshire documents, these dates can be verified. The Smiths were in Lebanon, New Hampshire in May 1814, as the township tax rolls verify. Of equal importance, the Norwich town records report that Joseph Smith and his family were “warned out of town” in March 1816. This record, the only one found for a “Joseph Smith and family” found in the town’s “Warning Out” book, shows that the town’s selectmen issued the warrant on March 15, and it was served on the family on March 27, 1816. A “warning out of town” should not be thought of as a prejudicial treatment of the Smiths, because almost every family settling in a Vermont town in those days received such a warning. These warnings reminded strangers “that it was time for them to ‘depart this town. These “Warning Outs” consisted of two parts. The first part was the notification of the selectmen when strangers had been taken in. (This included information of arrival date and the previous town from which they could be sent back to.) The second part consisting of the warning out (meaning it was time to “depart said town hereof.”

As Ray points out in his article, a “warning out of town” by no means rendered any type of prejudicial treatment of the Smith family. “Warning out of town” was a widespread method in the United States for established New England communities to pressure or coerce “outsiders” to settle elsewhere. As Ray also points out, almost every family settling in Vermont at that time received such a notification. It is also interesting to note that the law was changed to disallow “warning out” in 1817.

Ray’s FAIR article also points out:

Rev. Wesley Walters found the second part of the notification, the warning out of town for 1816, for the Smith family. It is a paper on which the selectmen ordered the constable “to summon Joseph Smith and family now residing in Norwich to depart said town hereof.” This was dated “15th day of March AD 1816.” It was served on the Smith home on March 27, 1816.

The fact that three crop failures in a row caused the Smiths to be in a poor and destitute situation was probably a key in the selectmen deciding it was time to require the Smiths to “depart their town.”

The weather pattern for 1816 also helps to substantiate the final crop failure of 1816 that forced the Smith family to leave Vermont and move to Palmyra, New York. It was reported that the month of February was warmer than usual and crops were planted. However, by March, the weather took a turn for the worse, and “the people were visited by a piercing northeast wind, with a hail or drizzling sleet during the day. By the next day “the bloom of apricot and peach trees [were] covered with icicles” (C. Edward Skeen, “The Year without a summer: A Historical View,” Journal of the Early Republic (Spring 1981)).

The Joseph Smith Sr. Family – The Journey to Palmyra, New York

In his own history, the Prophet Joseph Smith does not state any reasons such as crop failure or unreasonable weather, for the family’s move to Palmyra. He only states, “My father, Joseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when I was in my tenth year, or thereabouts” (Joseph Smith History 1:3).

The time came when Joseph Sr. sent for his family to join him in Palmyra. By the time that Lucy and the rest of the family had things sold and the rest of their debts settled, she only had $60 to $80 dollars left for the journey from Vermont to Palmyra. It was a 300 mile trip and the family faced many challenges along the way, such as the team master threatening to take the family wagon and team and throw the family belongings onto the street when Lucy ran out of money. Joseph Jr. who had surgery on his leg in 1812-1813, limped in the snow for most of the journey. It should be noted that the journey took place in the summer, thus the snow was an unusual occurrence. The journey itself lasted three to four weeks before the family was finally happily reunited in Palmyra.

Keith L. Brown

Keith L. Brown is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been born and raised Baptist. He was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time of his conversion to the LDS faith. He was baptized on 10 March 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland while serving on active duty in the United States Navy in Keflavic, Iceland. He currently serves as the First Assistant to the High Priest Group for the Annapolis, Maryland Ward. He is a 30-year honorably retired United States Navy Veteran.

of-common-sense.site123.me/

In the fall of 1838, during the Missouri Persecutions, Joseph’s father became ill. In spite of that illness, he made the forced exodus from Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839 and died there on 14 September 1840. He was considered a martyr for the cause.

Joseph, like his father for whom he was named, would also die as a martyr at the age of 38 when he was assassinated in the Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois by an angry mob on 27 June 1844. But, what happened to his brothers?

Alvin Smith – Faithful Supporter of Joseph’s Work

Alvin Smith, the eldest of the Smith sons, was born on 11 February 1798 in Tunbridge, Vermont. When the family moved to upstate New York, he made the offer to leave home to find work, where he would be paid higher wages to help the family pay their debts and build a home. His mother, Lucy Mack Smith would later write:

By my son’s persevering industry he was able to return to us after much labor, suffering and fatigue with the necessary amount of money for all except the last payment. In two years from the time we entered Palmyra, strangers, destitute of friends, home or employment, we were able to settle ourselves upon our own land in a snug, comfortable, though humble habitation, built and neatly furnished by our own industry (“History of Joseph Smith by His Mother”).

Being a loyal and devoted son, Alvin always wanted to care for his parents, and had a desire to build them a larger and better home in which they could enjoy their later years of life. However, he did not live to fulfill his dream. In mid-November 1823, at the young age of 25, engaged to be married and looking forward to a bright future, he became very ill. His doctor gave him a heavy dose of calomel which lodged in his stomach, and he passed away on Wednesday, 19 November 1823, as a result of mercury poisoning from the calomel he had been given.

As he lay dying, his mother recorded his final words to his young brother Joseph concerning the work which he had been called to do:

Do everything in your power to obtain the record. Be faithful in receiving instruction and in keeping every commandment that is given you … your brother Alvin must now leave you, but remember the example which he has set for you” (“History of Joseph Smith by His Mother”).

On 21 January 1836, in a vision given to Joseph Smith in the temple at Kirtland, Ohio, he saw his brother Alvin in the celestial kingdom. From that vision, Joseph was taught the doctrine of salvation for the dead. Modern-day revelation records the vision and doctrinal teaching in Doctrine and Covenants 137:

The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell. I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire; also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son. I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold. I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept; and marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins. Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: all who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts. And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.

Hyrum Smith – By His Brother’s Side in Life and in Death

The second eldest son, Hyrum Smith, was born in Tunbridge, Vermont on 9 February 1800. He was as close a brother to Joseph as Alvin had been. Their bond grew even closer when as a boy, Joseph suffered excruciating pain from an abscessed infection in his leg. For hours Hyrum would sit by Joseph’s bedside and hold his leg as tight as he could to help alleviate the pain.

He lived a life of humble service and obedience, and was ordained Patriarch of The Church of Jesus Christ following his father’s death. Throughout his lifetime, he remained a true friend, confidant, counselor, and support to his younger brother in his role as Prophet of the Restoration. Joseph said of Hyrum:

I could pray in my heart that all my brethren were like unto my beloved brother Hyrum, who possesses the mildness of a lamb, and the integrity of a Job, and in short, the meekness and humility of Christ; and I love him with that love that is stronger than death, for I never had occasion to rebuke him, nor he me (Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, comp. and ed. Dean C. Jessee, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 138.)

Mary Ann Stearns Winters recalled:

I rejoice in my acquaintance with the Prophet Joseph, and with his brother Hyrum also, for one is not complete without the other—they were nearly always together, and are inseparably connected in mind—Joseph and Hyrum— names ever dear to the faithful (Mary Ann Winters, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Young Woman’s Journal December 1905, 557, quoted in Jeffrey S. O’Driscoll, Hyrum Smith: A Life of Integrity (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 227.)

The two brothers were inseparable in the work of the Lord. Hyrum said of Joseph, “There were prophets before, but Joseph has the spirit and power of all the prophets” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 6:346.) At the time that Hyrum was called to serve as the Patriarch of the Church, the Lord said to him:

And from this time forth I appoint unto him that he may be a prophet, and a seer, and a revelator unto my church, as well as my servant Joseph. That my servant Hyrum may bear record of the things which I shall show unto him, that his name may be had in honorable remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever (Doctrine and Covenants 124:94,96.)

Modern-day revelation also tells us that not only were Joseph and Hyrum inseparable in life, but they were also inseparable in death. Doctrine and Covenants 135:3 reads:

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

Don Carlos – Similar in Personality to Joseph

Don Carlos, the youngest brother of Joseph Smith and similar to him in personality, was born in Norwich, Windsor, Vermont on 25 March 1816. He was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ on 9 June 1830 at the age of 14. He bore a strong testimony, and throughout his life, he was a leader, missionary, and periodical editor. On 15 January 1836, he was called to serve as the first president of the High Priests Quorum (today is referred to as the Stake President). He was also a member of the construction crew for the Kirtland Temple, and participated in the ceremony of laying the cornerstones for that temple in early 1841.

In 1839, he became the first editor of the Nauvoo, Illinois-based Latter-day Saint newspaper Times and Seasons. As a printer and editor, he was involved in the printing of the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, several editions of the Book of Mormon, and also served as the publisher and editor for the short-lived periodical Elders’ Journal.

Don Carlos also served on the Nauvoo, Illinois, city council, and as brigadier general of the Legion. On 7 August 1841, at the age of 25, after complaining of pain in his side, he died quite suddenly of uncertain causes, sometimes described as a form of pneumonia, sometimes as quick consumption, in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois.

According to a 22 February 2015 Deseret News article:

In January of this same year, Samuel Smith’s wife died, and Robert B. Thompson, Hyrum’s brother-in-law and joint editor of the Times and Seasons, died of the same complaint a month after Don Carlos. September 1841 also saw the death of Joseph and Emma’s youngest son, also named Don Carlos, and the death of Hyrum’s son, named Hyrum.

Samuel Harrison Smith – A Witness of the Book of Mormon

Samuel Harrison Smith was born in Tunbridge, Vermont, on 13 March 1808. He moved with his family to western New York by the 1820s. When his father missed a mortgage payment on the family farm on the outskirts of Manchester Township, near Palmyra, a local Quaker named Lemuel Durfee purchased the land and allowed the Smiths to continue to live there in exchange for Samuel’s labor at Durfee’s store.

Samuel was one of the original members of The Church of Jesus Christ. He was baptized by Oliver Cowdery on 25 May 1829. He was also one of the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon and joined their testimony that “we did handle [the golden plates] with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon”.

He is considered to be the first missionary of the Church. As a missionary, he distributed copies of the Book of Mormon to anyone who would receive one, including the brother and brother-in-law of Brigham Young. In June 1832, he and Orson Hyde became the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to preach in Connecticut. They also preached in Boston in June 1832, and as a result of their efforts, branches of the Church were established in Boston and New Rowley, Massachusetts. In July 1832, they went to Providence, Rhode Island, where they baptized two people, but due to threats of violence, they were forced to leave after being there only twelve days. In September 1832, they became the first missionaries to preach in Maine. They also baptized people in Spafford, New York, during their 1832 mission.

When the first High Council of the Church—at the time the chief judicial and legislative body of the Church—was organized on 17 February 1834, Samuel was one of twelve men chosen as a member. In 1835, he was made a general agent for the firm in charge of publishing a Latter-day Saint hymnal and school books for children, working closely with Emma Smith and W. W. Phelps.

According to the 22 February 2015 Deseret News article:

On June 27, 1844, the day Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred, sounded a death knell for Samuel Smith as well. He was living several miles outside of Carthage, Missouri, and determined to ride in and see if he could help. But he was pursued and shot at, escaping only because of his endurance and superior horsemanship. He arrived too late but took his place in guarding the bodies of his brothers on their grim journey back to Nauvoo.

However, unable to even sit up because of weakness, he confided to his mother that “he had suffered ‘a dreadful distress in my side ever since I was chased by the mob, and I think I have received some injury which is going to make me sick.’” He died one month later [30 July 1844], truly one of the martyrs to the truth (“Joseph Smith’s Brothers: Nauvoo and after,” by Richard B. Anderson, Ensign, September 1979).

William Smith – The Dissenter among the Ranks

William Smith was the eighth child of Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. He was born on 13 March 1811 in Royalton, Vermont. He was baptized by David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, on 9 June 1830, the same day as his brother Don Carlos. He was ordained an Apostle on 15 February 1835, and became one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

At the time of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, William was living in the East. Because of his wife’s poor health, he returned to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1845. On 24 May 1845, he was called to serve as Presiding Patriarch of the Church in Hyrum’s stead. Shortly after being ordained as Presiding Patriarch, Brigham Young printed a clarification in a church newspaper that stated that William had not been ordained as patriarch over the church, but rather as patriarch to the church. William took offense to the clarification, and the growing tension between himself and Brigham was increased. Smith was patriarch to the church until 6 October 1845 when his name and positions were read at General Conference. Fellow Apostle, Parley P. Pratt, expressed objections based on William’s character and delinquent practices. Those attending General Conference unanimously voted against William being sustained as both an Apostle and as Patriarch and he was disfellowshipped from the Church. He responded by submitting a lengthy statement to the anti-Mormon newspaper the Warsaw Signal in which he compared Brigham Young to Pontius Pilate and Nero and accused him and other members of the Twelve of secretly keeping multiple “spiritual wives.” As a result of his statement he was excommunicated from the Church on 19 October 1845 on the grounds of apostasy.

As a result of his excommunication, he did not follow Young and the majority of Latter-day Saints who settled in Utah Territory and established The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but rather he followed the leadership of James J. Strang and was involved with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Strangite).

In 1847, William announced that he was the new president of the Latter-day Saint church and that he held a right to leadership due to the doctrine of lineal succession. He excommunicated Young and the leadership of the LDS Church and announced that the Latter-day Saints who were not in apostasy by following Young should gather in Lee County, Illinois. In 1849, he gained the support of Lyman Wight, who led a small group of Latter-day Saints in Texas. However, his church did not last, and within a few years it dissolved.

His relationship with Young remained strained until Young’s death in 1877. He believed that Young had arranged for his older brother Samuel to be poisoned in 1844 to prevent his accession to the presidency of the church. Yet, in 1860, he wrote a letter to Young and stated that he desired to join the Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley. However, shortly thereafter he became a soldier in the American Civil War, and after the war he did not show any interest in moving to Utah Territory.

In 1878, William became a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS Church) which was organized in 1860 with his nephew, Joseph Smith III, as its leader. He died on 13 November 1893 at the age of 82 in Osterdock, Iowa.

A Loving Mother Responds to Death of Sons

I was left desolate in my distress. I had reared six sons to manhood, and of them all, only one remained … as I entered the room and saw my murdered sons … it was too much; I sank back, crying to the Lord in the agony of my soul, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken this family!’ A voice replied, ‘I have taken them to myself, that they might have rest.

As I looked upon their peaceful, smiling countenances, I seemed almost to hear them say, ‘Mother, weep not for us, we have overcome the world by love; we carried to them the gospel, that their souls might be saved; they slew us for our testimony, and thus placed us beyond their power; their ascendancy is for a moment, ours is an eternal triumph’ (“History of Joseph Smith by His Mother”).

Additional Resources:

Joseph Smith’s Challenging Brother – William B. Smith

Keith L. Brown

Keith L. Brown is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been born and raised Baptist. He was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time of his conversion to the LDS faith. He was baptized on 10 March 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland while serving on active duty in the United States Navy in Keflavic, Iceland. He currently serves as the First Assistant to the High Priest Group for the Annapolis, Maryland Ward. He is a 30-year honorably retired United States Navy Veteran.

of-common-sense.site123.me/