She became the first woman to receive the temple endowment involving the making of sacred covenants with the Savior. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. . [125] Animosity toward Missourians by Mormons and by Missourians toward Mormons lasted for generations. They received them as they came, sent forward all who had means and strength into the interior, provided the poor and sick with lodgings, fuel, food and clothing.[74] Wandle Mace opened his house to the refugees. Triggered by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggss October 1838 extermination order against them, some ten thousand Saints engaged in a mass exodus, many going to Quincy, Illinois. Emma's brothers and sisters were all named after family members, either on her mother's side or her father's. She was baptized on 28 June 1830, shortly after the Church was organized. Why did Sidney Rigdon fall away from the Church? - TimesMojo Why did Ema Smith leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints In December 1838 and early January 1839, the Missouri state legislature, by a close vote, refused to overturn Governor Boggss extermination order. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. 8 What did Emma Emma do for the LDS Church? In Daviess County on Caldwell Countys north side, Saints had begun building about 150 log houses at Adam-ondi-Ahman, and as many as 1,500 Saints in total lived in Daviess County. . 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. Joseph and Emma adopt the Murdock twins nine days after birth. And when people say she was wrong for remaining in Nauvoo, they are implying they know what she should have done," Richard Delewski said at the Sunstone Symposium on Aug. 13. 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. Did Emma Smith leave the LDS Church? [26] Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 8586. Following Josephs murder, Emma refused to go west with the Saints. Are Joseph and Emma Smiths descendants Latter-day Saints? [3] LaMar C. Berrett and Max H. Parkin, Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites, vol. When the man saw the Saints plight, he told his tenants to go elsewhere, for the Mormons were coming and they had no place to go and he was going to let his apartments to them. He invited John to bring his family up to one of his houses where they could live for a while. Mobbers shot cows while girls were milking them. [60] Eliza R. Snow to Esqr. He was not sufficiently educated to write the translation of the plates, so while he translated through the Holy Ghost, she wrote his words. [13] Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 8284. To fulfill their instruction, some members of the Twelve left Quincy on April 18, 1839, to travel secretly to Far West. [89] Leo R. Rogers, Willis Rogers and Elizabeth Bessie Ritchie with Their Ancestors and Descendants (Bountiful, UT: L. R. Rogers, ca. . Eventually, however, she encountered a trial that became more than she thought she could handle. Emma Smith is one of the most fascinating characters of the Restoration. She wrote to him that only God knew how hard it was for her to flee her home with her children, abandoning all her possessions and leaving her husband to endure whatever was to come. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. This website is not owned by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). [52] Heber C. Kimball Journals, 18381839, in Porter, Brigham Young and the Twelve, 134. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The Mormon Church distributes free copies of the King James Version of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Some of Emmas friends, as well as many members of the Smith family, alienated themselves from Youngs followers. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Emma Smith and the Pain of Polygamy | by Holly Hardy | Medium John P. Greene reported that during the months of February and March, the Mormons who were already in Quincy, formed a committee among themselves, to aid to the best of their power the committee of Far West in giving assistance to their suffering brethren. We all just made it on the opposite bank when the ice started to snap and pile up in great heaps, and the water broke thru! [101] Cited in Baugh, We Took Our Change of Venue, 52. [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. Martha, about eight months pregnant, said, To hear them [children] crying at night with their feet cracked and bleeding was hardly bearable. Her husband, on the other hand, had only a handful of years of formal education. [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. [63] Eliza R. Snow, an Immortal: Selected Works by Eliza R. Snow (Salt Lake City: Nicholas G. Morgan Sr., 1957), 1011. The Thomas family stayed strong in the faith and emigrated to Utah in 1849. When a group of black Mormons arrived after a very difficult and painful journey fraught with danger and racial prejudice, their feet bleeding because they no longer had shoes, she sat them at her own dinner table and took them all into her home as guests until they could find work. Such souls will have to suffer for the ill treatment of the Saints, he wrote, adding that they need not think that they will escape, for the Lord is just and He will punish those that have ill treated His children (Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 89). Im guessing something to do with the meter, but I cant figure it out! The exodus had no large, organized wagon trains. At other times, she found she could not handle the choices she had made, much as Sarah in the Old Testament first encouraged her husband to marry her handmaiden and then discovered it was more than she was prepared to handle. We all use history to suit our purposes, and Emma simply did not suit the purposes of the LDS Church in the years following her husbands death. "I will suggest that she didn't change. It does not store any personal data. [116] A plague of sickness that befell Nauvoo residents in the summer of 1839 was due in large measure to physical debility caused by sufferings during the previous year. Brigham Youngs family was also stranded at Huntsville, having too many goods for their wagon to haul. [42] Joseph Holbrook and two other men, to escape those that would like to do us harm, moved out the night of January 20. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Their difficult trip to Mississippi River took twelve days: We had snow and rain every day but 2. Despite her parents disapproval, she eventually eloped. This made the poisoning accusation plausible for him. They averaged ten miles per day. It's Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives John was one of dozens of Mormon militiamen who fled from Missouri in November. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It turned out that such calls had gone out to bishops and stake presidents in several states. During November and December, Joseph C. Kingsbury and Caroline, his wife of two years, lived in a little cabin with meager provisions. Shortly after Joseph's brother, William, was born in 1811, the Smiths moved to the small community of West Lebanon, New Hampshire. The group then included one man, two women, and children ages seven, four, three, and one. The Atonement of Christ Redeems Us from the Fall. Every thing my family took with them out of Missouri, could have been packed on the backs of two horses; the mob took all the rest.[52]. [44] Ebenezer Robinson, Items of Personal History of the Editor, Including Some items of Church History Not Generally Known. Mormon Takeover of the West and Why - stolenhistory.net Although she never lost her faith in the Mormon religion and in the sacred nature of the Book of Mormon, she had no testimony of Brigham Young and other polygamous LDS leaders. Anti-Mormons had vowed to keep that ceremony from happening. Alpheus Cutler placed it in position. It notes, Many of them crossed into Illinois at Quincy and were made welcome by the people here. In recent years, several related commemoration events have taken place in Quincy.[113]. Required fields are marked *. [29] Smith, History of the Church, 3:249. 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. 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. Their hospitality stemmed more from pity than anything else. Many found refuge not only in Quincy but throughout Adams County and all over western Illinois. Your email address will not be published. H. Redmond, History of Quincy and Its Men of Mark (Quincy, IL: Heirs and Russell, 1863), 15; Richard E. Bennett, Quincythe Home of Our Adoption: A Study of the Mormons in Quincy, Illinois, 18381839, 8788, and Susan Easton Black, QuincyA City of Refuge, 69, in A City of Refuge. 2022 FAIR Conference videos are now available to watch! Joseph Smith did not have a Will but like today when the husband dies the surviving spouse is still entitled to a certain part of her husband's assets as defined by law, even without a will; but Emma would still have to go through court probate to obtain these assets. She was not perfect, but what is amazing is that she was as perfect as she was given the powerful trials and persecutions she experienced. [76] They moved in with Judge John Cleveland and his Latter-day Saint wife, Sarah, four miles east of Quincy. appoint the oldest of those of the Twelve, who were first appointed, to be the president of your quorum., Brigham Young was the senior Apostle, hence the presiding Church officer on the ground. Brigham Young, in danger from anti-Mormons, joined the exodus on February 14. She also learned how to cook and be a good host when her parents ran a boarding house. He had one illegitimate child and after marrying Emma had another, which she raised, making her a most extraordinary woman. Emma and her family were forced to leave the state with the majority of Latter Day Saints. 10 Interesting Facts About Emma Smith | LDS Daily [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. To add an RSC website shortcut to your home screen, open the website in the Safari browser. [9] Leonard J. Arrington, Charles C. Rich (Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1974), 60; Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 18441861 (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press and the Utah State Historical Society, 1964), xvi; Lorenzo Dow Young, Recollections, Four Faith Promoting Classics (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968), 5254. I attended the premier of the Emma Smith Story [with] several of my children and grandchildren. It is fairly well known that these twins were adopted by Emma and Joseph as infants shortly after their own set of newborn twins died. Emma Smith would make tremendous sacrifices for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for her husband, and for the church. They belonged to a large, extended family headed by Joseph Knight Sr., who converted to Mormonism in New York state in 1830, the year the Church was organized. While living in Pennsylvania, she rode a horse to warn Joseph Smith of people coming after the gold plates. So she made a deal with Abraham O. Smoot and Martha, his bride of three months. Its a beautiful article, but its not a fully honest one; polygamy is not mentioned once anywhere. a much-debated stair-pushing catfight with Eliza R. Snow. Joseph and Emma apparently discussing the nastiness of cleaning up from cleaning up spit on the . [20] After Joseph Smith died, Emma Smith moved away from Nauvoo for about six months before returning. . At the time of the third printing, however, Vals bishop received a call from a higher-up in Salt Lake who said that two girls had written a book about Emma Smith and were not to be invited to speak about the topic in sacrament meetings. Because Joseph Smith was in prison during the exodus, attention focuses here on Joseph Smiths 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 started in February, but it was bitter cold, and they suffered fearfully, Caroline said. [122] James Galligher Petition in Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 218. A test passed by the faithful. [109] Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, xixxxvii. Emma: People say all kinds of things, but Julia I know better. View our community standards here. Find out how to attend either in person or virtually: The winners of the Church History Museums 12th International Art Competition have been announced, and the artwork is breathtaking. Events unfolded rapidly, with men from the neighboring towns staging raids on Nauvoo, trying to once again, drive out the Saints and claim their. Out went everything by the log, Martha said, the looking glass by a stump. That night Martha, soon to give birth, became ill, so Daniel rigged up a bed frame made of forked sticks and rope strands, and then drove in the frozen ground four six-foot poles topped by cross poles, hung quilts all around, and left openings at the bottom so the heat of the log fire would shine in to keep them warm. Because of his position in the Illinois militia, he was often referred to as "Major" Bidamon. She worried if John had escaped Missouri or been caught. Although their marriage was often troubled following the introduction of polygamy, Emma continued to care for Joseph. [31] Smith, History of the Church, 3:25054. Newel and all men in the city had to surrender their arms. During this time, their relationship improved and Joseph may have agreed to stop taking on additional wives. [65] Elisha Whiting Petition, in Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 374. Emma: Because it was the price of faith. (Later, on April 6, 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be officially organized there.) William E. McLellin, apostle and apostate, died in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, April 24, 1883, and is buried in Woodlawn Municipal Cemetery of the same city. Why did God ask Emma Smith to accept the plates? He was not, however, a member of her familys faith and in fact, had received a vision at age fourteen telling him not to join any existing church because none were completely right. Not for Daniel Stillwell and Martha Payne Jones Thomas and their family. The CES Director apparently never got around to responding. That morning we crossed over to Quincy, Illinois. When one was unable to find employment, she hired Jane Manning herself. Mormon women have the specific responsibility to be righteous daughters of God; good, faithful wives; and loving mothers. Was also Governor of Utah Territory from February 3, 1851 to April 12, 1858. Emma Hale Smith - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints LDS Church History documents that their mormon founder, Joseph Smith, lied to a large group of people about his having multiple wives. He never charged them rent. [42] Jesse and Whittaker, Albert Perry Rockwood Journal, 34. Anson Call. The temple site has been salvaged and given modern landscaping, but no houses remain. Green, a Quincy innkeeper and cousin by marriage to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, encouraged the Apostles and other Saints to come there. "When people ask what caused a change in Emma Smith's behavior, what they really are asking is, 'Why didn't she go west with the Saints?' [55] The shoes belonged to the oldest boy, Morgan. Until that time, Emma had been largely written out of official LDS history. A few days later, the horses ran away. Fugitive John Butler, in Quincy, learned of their arrival, and he rowed across the river in a canoe, dodging ice. John Lowe Butler, for one, wanted his written record to stand as a witness against Missourians who were cruel to his suffering family during the exodus and earlier. Emma Hale Smith was the seventh of nine children. Delewski shared many of the words used to describe Emma: "Quick wit and pleasant personality," "intelligence," "fearless integrity," "kindness of heart," "discretion," "benevolent," "hospitable," "motherly in nature to young people," "very high-spirited," "dignified," "courage," "zeal," "patience," "no gossiper," "commanding presence" and "innate refinement.". He told here where she got the poison, and how she put it in a cup of coffee; said he 'You got that poison from so and so, and I drank it, but you could not kill me.' But the way Emmas story is carefully sculpted reveals as much about gender expectations and religious norms in our own era as it did when Brigham Young declared her mormona non grata. [73], Church members living in Quincy and nearby tried to help the refugees when they crossed the river. [71] In 1837 the population was 1,653 according to Pat. They organized into a company with Rich as captain. [26], Some opinions downstate held that Mormons would not have to leave at all. It was difficult, dramatic, sometimes harrowing, and only partly organized. [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. Not six months before the death of Joseph, he called his wife Emma into a secret council, and there he told her the truth, and called upon her to deny it if she could. Those coming from outside Far West suffered because as John Greene wrote, we have been robbed of our corn, wheat, horses, cattle, cows, hogs, wearing apparel, houses and homes, and indeed, of all that renders life tolerable.[19] On November 9 the Missouri Republican Daily reported that the Saints situation was a case of great difficulty because they are generally poor and facing starvation. Joseph had been translating the Bible before he was imprisoned, and Emma also carried these documents with her, hidden in bags under her skirts. 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. [69] Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruffs Journal, 1:322. She was often anxious and sad, but she coped. Print. In History of the Church Vol.