[95] At that point, Brigham Young felt that the covenant to move the poor Saints had been fulfilled: We had entered into a covenant to see the poor Saints all moved out of Missouri to Illinois, that they might be delivered out of the hands of such vile persecutors, and we spared no pains to accomplish this object until the Lord gave us the desires of our heart. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. . Emma and Joseph eloped on January 18, 1827, in South Bainbridge, New York, and then went to live with the Smith family. Later witnesses would be permitted to view the plates, but God asked Emma to accept them on faith, a testimony that God recognized her as a woman of great faith. . It was difficult, dramatic, sometimes harrowing, and only partly organized. A Quincy Heritage Celebration was held July 24, 1999. Memoirs of Joseph Smith III (18321914), ed. He crossed the river and found some hundred of the brethren waiting for the new ferry boat to be completed, which was done the next day. I am blown away at how single-handedly he is responsible for the majority of what we know about the Nauvoo years and the very adventurous last few years of Joseph Smith's life. On the Joseph Smith Papers website, readers can turn through the original hymnbook page by page. Some church members inappropriately rejected her because of her rejection of polygamy and her outspokenness on the subject. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church. [39] Joseph Holbrook said that Saints understood that if the Church would make haste and move as fast as possible it would [do] much to the relieve our brethren who were now in jail as our enemies were determined to hold them as hostages until the church left the state so that every exertion was made in the dead of the winter to remove as fast as possible (Life of Joseph Holbrook, 46). . This forced expulsion of Saints from Missouri produced short- and long-term consequences, as enumerated here for various of the parties involved. Julia: Some say that there were other reasons. [18] Diaries of William Huntington, typescript, in Miscellaneous Mormon Diaries, vol. [73], Church members living in Quincy and nearby tried to help the refugees when they crossed the river. That morning we crossed over to Quincy, Illinois. After losing twins, she adopted a set of twins, but one died after being exposed to the cold when a mob invaded their home while the children were ill. One child died at the age of fourteen months and another died less than a year later. In the same year, Smith founded the Church of Christlater known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsin Fayette Township. [110] Smith, History of the Church, 3:349. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Mental and emotional scars. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. [121] James Galligher claimed he was exposed to the weather in which sickness followed & the loss of one of my Children.[122] Innumerable such examples can be cited. She had no example to follow and no real support group, as later women would have. Their first twenty miles was through snow six inches deep. She also learned how to cook and be a good host when her parents ran a boarding house. In conversation, he appears intelligent and candid, and divested of all malicious thought and feeling towards his relentless persecutors.[102], Joseph Smith quickly finalized plans for a new gathering place for the homeless Saints upriver at Commerce, soon to be renamed Nauvoo. She was baptized for the dead on behalf of her mother and sister. He was the son of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. She seems, among other things, to have been worried about providing for her children, as well as protecting them from the violence which had claimed Joseph. Being forced from Missouri posed a test of faith that most Saints passed, but some failed, as the extended Knight family illustrates. In July 1830 the Lord outlined her mission, in a revelation: Thou art an elect lady, whom I have called. Food was scarce, and housing inadequate. In mid-February, Anson Call headed east. See discussion in Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery. Deseret News Archives, Deseret News Archives. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Their numbers exceed 5,000 peoplewithout any means and literally beggarsto be thrust upon the charities of Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin. Joseph Holbrook, thirty-two, said his wife Nancy had verry poor health that fall and winter because of being exposed to inclement weather by having to remove from place to place as our house had been burned and we were yet left to seek a home whenever our friends could accommodate us and for my safety. Saints in flourishing condition but a few months before, he said, were now destitute. . Many people have focused almost entirely on the decisions she made in the last years of Joseph Smiths life and after his death, and sometimes those events trouble Mormons and please non-Mormons. L. Hannah Stoddard is the lead author of Faith Crisis, Volume 1: We Were NOT Betrayed!, Seer Stone v. Urim & Thummim: Book of Mormon Translation on Trial, and Faith Crisis, Volume 2: New Mormon History Exiled from Church Headquarters.She is the executive director of the Joseph Smith Foundation, and producer or director of seven . Who was the oldest president of the LDS Church? Nov. 10, 2014. Its a beautiful article, but its not a fully honest one; polygamy is not mentioned once anywhere. On February 19 or 20, Joseph Smiths parents, Joseph Sr. and Lucy, finally joined the exodus. She carried two children while two others hung on to her skirt. During this time, their relationship improved and Joseph may have agreed to stop taking on additional wives. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It is the county seat for Adams County. The last words out of Emmas mouth when she died were Joseph. He had one illegitimate child and after marrying Emma had another, which she raised, making her a most extraordinary woman. Thank you for your insight about and compassion for Emma, and for taking the time to write about and share it with us. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. When we came to within six miles of the Mississippi river, the weather grew colder, and, in the place of rain we had snow and hail. They walked six miles across low and swampy ground, sinking to their ankles in mud. Joseph Smiths parents. Why did Emma Smith leave the LDS Church? [27] Gentry, Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 41419. It is possible that polygamy would have come more easily if it had not been added to an already extraordinary number of other trials and if she had not been the first wife to face it in the Church. It was that she hated polygamy and flatly refused to countenance its presence among the Mormon people. I hope this helps too! And the last words out of Brighams mouth, and he died before Emma, were Joseph,' Elggren said. He referred to a handmade chart that showed the homes Emma Smith had during her 17-year marriage to Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. Another story about bleeding feet involves Nancy Hammer, whose husband Austin was murdered in the Hauns Mill Massacre a few months earlier. 1) Formal Dress. She also learned how to cook and be a good host when her parents ran a boarding house. They reached the bank of the Mississippi in eight days and found the river frozen over. Holbrook left behind his wife Nancy, who a week later gave birth to their fourth child, and three small children ages seven, five, and two. Quincy, he said, was full of memberseven though Saints were scattering out from there almost constantly. They reached Quincy on January 29 and found ourselves in a land of Freedom once more by the help of God and his blessings. Holbrook observed that brethren were continually coming to Quincy from the Missouri as I had done.[43] In late January, Ebenezer Robinson and three other men walked from Far West to Quincy through the snow.[44]. The Saints persecution in several states and then expulsion by order of a state governor helps explain why they obtained a charter for a self-defensive city-state in Nauvoo with the Nauvoo Legion; why some Saints justified retaliation against persecutors; why many gladly exited the United States and headed toward Mexican territory in 1846; and why many Saints, if not the Church, expressed distaste for judges, courts, deputies, the federal army during the Utah War, and antipolygamy laws. Joseph Smith's death on June 27, 1844, created tremendous upheaval for Emma. The comfortable and peaceful life she had led as a girl had done little to prepare her for this new life, but she faced it with faith. [38] Larry C. Porter, Brigham Young and the Twelve in Quincy: A Return to the Eye of the Missouri Storm, 26 April 1839, in A City of Refuge: Quincy, Illinois, ed. Constant delays meant that the Knights did not reach the Mississippi River until early May. He went to the room where the Committee of Removal was meeting and told them to wind up affairs and be off to save their lives. [104] Donna Toland Smart, Exemplary Elder: The Life and Missionary Diaries of Perrigrine Sessions, 18141893 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies and Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 2002), 43. Their tough experiences produced definite impactsboth short- and long-termon Missouri and Illinois, on the course of the Church, and on individual members.[1]. How Orrin Hatch protected people of faith, KSL Newsradio is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. They formed the first wave of the exodus. Why did God ask Emma Smith to accept the plates? [65] Elisha Whiting Petition, in Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 374. Emma knew better, but she also knew that a polygamous history would not serve her needs. Training experience for 1846 exodus. . These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of the Latter Day Saints was published in 1835. When the boy, Charles, was 4 years old, Emma took him in and raised him as her own. [117] Weakened by the rigorous trek in midwinter after the severe ordeal of persecution in Missouri, the exiles who were camped along the Mississippi River began to feel the effects of the hardships such that almost every family succumbed to the ague and bilious fever (Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration [Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1973], 439). To fulfill their instruction, some members of the Twelve left Quincy on April 18, 1839, to travel secretly to Far West. Emma had been disappeared. 1981), 23031. Events of the 1838 Mormon War soon escalated, resulting in Joseph's surrender and imprisonment by Missouri officials. Caroline suffered from dropsy, or painful swellings, and the cold intensified her pain. Winter exposure and food shortages in Caldwell County and during exodus caused health problems for many and a host of deaths during 1839. We put our goods into the wagon a second time, but the wagon was wanted for Emma and her family, so our goods were again taken out.[48] Stephen Markham, a member of the Committee of Removal, helped Emma Smith leave on February 7. They collected donations of furniture, farm implements, and money from farm sales. Emma Smith was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania. Before long, typhoid fever came into West Lebanon and "raged tremendously.". [51] Ronald K. Esplin, The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve in Mormon Leadership, 18301841 (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1981), 370; Times and Seasons, September 1840, 165. We had not the privilege of hunting our cattle and horses.[14] Newel Knight noted that because the Saints were unarmed, they became prey for small parties of armed men insulting our women, driving off our stock, and plundering. To him it seemed as though all hell was aroused to do us injury.[15] Newels cousin Reed Peck said that some horses, wagons and much other property were stolen from the Mormons by some of the militia who were villains enough to plunder.[16] By late November, most crops around Far West were unharvested, and potatoes still in the ground were frose solid. Soldiers rifled through homes, Albert Rockwood said, and our sheep & hogs, & horses [are] drove off before our eyes by the Missourians who come in small companies well armed.[17], In neighboring Daviess County, Missouri militia ordered all the Saints out and gave William Huntington and eleven other Mormons four weeks to round up the Latter-day Saints livestock, wagons, and personal property. And where shall they be sent? the newspaper asked. There are several reasons Emma stayed in Nauvoo after Joseph Smith's death, but a few in particular stand out. The religion he founded continues to the present day, with millions of global adherents. At Huntsville, the driver said his horses could not go on, so the Knights unhitched the wagon and camped. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. [4] William G. Hartley, Stand by My Servant Joseph: The Story of the Joseph Knight Family and the Restoration (Salt Lake City: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University and Deseret Book, 2003); and William G. Hartley, Newel and Lydia Bailey Knights Kirtland Love Story and Historic Wedding, BYU Studies 39, no. Joseph. [67] Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff Journal, 18331898, Typescript, Vol. [118] Dean R. Zimmerman, I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letters of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (Bountiful, UT: Horizon, 1976), 1011. Today, the world is divided into two, torn apart on whether or not to believe the story due to the lack of evidence. [125] Animosity toward Missourians by Mormons and by Missourians toward Mormons lasted for generations. I understand Long meter and Common meter, but what is PM? So, he said, Sold my cook stove and the only cow the mob had not killed. With that money he hired a man with a team to drive him, Lydia, and their three children east. Many nights the floors, upstairs and down, were covered with beds so closely it was impossible to set a foot anywhere without stepping on someone elses bed.[75], Emma Smith and the children arrived on February 15. She made an understandable effort to keep some of the property and this put her at odds with Brigham Young, since it was unclear which of those properties belonged to the church and which to her. Because Joseph Smith was in prison during the exodus, attention focuses here on Joseph Smith's parents, his wife Emma, Elders Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, and four selected families: the John and Caroline Butler family, the Newel and Lydia Knight family, the Daniel and Martha Thomas family, and the Levi and Clarissa Hancock family. . They numbered twelve families with more than sixty souls, having surnames of Knight, DeMille, Peck, Slade, Culver, and Stringham. She would leave her parents in 1830, never to see them again as she and her family were forced to move from place to place to avoid persecution and violence. Early Life and Marriage of Emma Smith. On horseback, he, fellow Kentuckian David Lewis, and Elias Higbee endured December snows, cold, and meager food to reach Quincy, Illinois. They left Far West on February 14. Within three weeks, the press got wind of the authors ecclesiastical silencing and began to report about itthereby tripling sales of the book. What does the L.M., C.M. They restarted on February 14 and reached the Mississippi two weeks later, on March 1, where they camped and waited for more than a week.[47]. While her brothers and sisters attended only the traditional grammar school, Emma went on to do an extra year of schooling beyond that. After one severe storm, Daniel said, Our corn bread was frosen so hard I had to take the ax and break it and give it to the children to gnaw at, the bread looking like chunks of ice. As many as one hundred families were camped along the banks, he said. He had even dislocated his jaw while vomiting once before; and five weeks after the 1843 dinner episode, he was sick again, vomiting more violently than ever. She seems, among other things, to have been worried about providing for her children, as well as protecting them from the violence which had claimed Joseph. Smith's wives were believed to be between the ages of 20 and 40 at the time they were "sealed" or married to him. Isaac Laney said the committee had moved all but thirty or forty families when armed men from Daviess County ordered him and others to be out of the County by the next Friday night which was giving us Six dayes for to do that that Requird a month. So the committee urgently hired teams and sent families to Tenneys Grove, twenty miles away, with a minimum of personal belongings. Innumerable able-bodied men needed jobs. In honor of the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, LDS Living is sharing a series of articles about early Church history and some of its key figures. This weekend at the Midwest Pilgrims retreat in Nauvoo, Illinois, I had the opportunity to listen to a fascinating talk by Linda King Newell, co-biographer of Emma Smith, first wife of LDS founding prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. Their chief settlement was Far West in Caldwell County. [107] In todays currency, that equals $52,325,000 total, or $77,000 per petitioner. The old man for whom John taught school treated them generously. In an essay published on its website quoting "careful estimates", the church said the wives. They asked a committee of Latter-day Saints to provide them facts about the needy. The Smoots lacked a team, so their wagon was useless. While living in Pennsylvania, she rode a horse to warn Joseph Smith of people coming after the gold plates. [14] Autobiography of Anson Call, typescript, 13, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. This difficult situation was complicated by the immense demands on Brigham Young's time. She had to provide for the family after being deprived of the corn they had grown on their farm, which vigilantes had prevented them from harvesting. It would be 2 months before she could be confirmed as a member of the Church. Joseph Knight Jr., for one, claimed $200 for a mill burned down, $50 for a house burned, $50 for 3 acres of land and 50 peach trees, $25 for hay and corn, $475 for losses of land and town properties, and $150 for expenses for moving twice. They moved into a Brother Wiswangers crowded home. One day while Martha was sitting in the front of the wagon with three-year-old Keziah Butler on her lap, one of the horses began to kick.

Parks Brothers Funeral Home Okemah Obituaries, Malu Byrne Partner, Greyhound Rescue South Yorkshire, Yamaha Street Legal Golf Cart, Articles W