In History of the Church Vol. The Apostles group arrived at Far West soon after midnight on April 26. President Sidney Rigdon, Bishop Edward Partridge, and a few others felt the Saints could avoid problems like the ones they had in Missouri by spreading out rather than gathering together into Latter-day Saint communities. She admitted that she had been reluctant to give her children any formal religious lifejust personal reading of the Bible and Book of Mormonbecause she was afraid of a return to the many trials she had faced. She said she was sorry to see the Mormons suffer so much and be driven from their homes. Baggage filled the wagon, so Martha and Caroline sometimes took turns riding next to Abraham, the driver, while the other walked with and carried children. Required fields are marked *. Later, when Brigham Young was the prophet, the practice would be refined so that the first wife had to approve each subsequent wife, but as we also see in the Bible, refinements of new practices often come over time as prophets continue to pray for guidance. There can be no question, though, that she made sacrifices far beyond what most Mormons would be asked to make, and that she experienced more than her fair share of suffering. Her funeral was held May 2, 1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon. Newel prayed for help, for I knew not how to extricate myself but as I had never been forsaken by my Heavenly Father I commited myself and family into his care. For a week they were stranded, but finally a man asked his son to drive the Knights the rest of the way. She became the first woman to receive the temple endowment involving the making of sacred covenants with the Savior. Emma knew better, but she also knew that a polygamous history would not serve her needs. [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). They pulled out of Far West on February 18, leaving behind a house and farm. Because if the LDS Church is false, none of those things matter! I fitted up a small wagon, procured a span of ponies, and sent my Wife and three children, in company with Bro. 6 What did Lucy Mack Smith say about Emma Smith? | April 1, 2022, 6:08 a.m. "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" often addresses Latter-day Saint issues, even though there are no fully active members of the faith in . 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. In addition to grieving the loss of her husband, she was expecting their final child. [45] The Mosiah Hancock Journal (Salt Lake City: reprint by Pioneer Press, n.d.), 11. Which is another way of saying that a particular view of history does not suit institutional needs in the moment. [Deseret News Weekly 15:364, 10/10/66, p 4-5 and 15:372, 10/17/66, p 4-5; MS 28:764, 774]) off-site. Although their marriage was often troubled following the introduction of polygamy, Emma continued to care for Joseph. Further, the committee agreed to find employment for those able and willing to labor. Joseph.[103] Perrigrine Sessions said that Joseph being there gave us much joy to see his face among the Saints and here the voice of inspiration that flowed from his lips this caused our drooping spirits to revive as we were like sheap with out a shepherd that had been scatered in a cloudy and dark day.[104] After Joseph heard the congregation enthusiastically sing the hymn Zion, City of Our God, Wandle Mace observed that Joseph rose to speak but had difficulty controlling his emotions: To look upon the Saints who had been driven from their homes, and scattered as they were, among strangers, without homes, robbed of everything, and to see them under all these trying circumstances assemble to this General Conference from all the region around, and sing of Zion, the city of our God, with so much spirit, showing their love and confidence in the gospel, and the pleasure he felt in meeting with them. Heres what they have planned, Why the Christian flag can fly on this government flagpole, Breaking the fast: Eid ul-Fitr is an occasion of peace, The unique stories and struggles of Latino Muslims, The Black church, religious freedom and gay rights. A few ancient metal plates that were described as being similar to the Mormon origin were discovered by archaeologists in recent years but the golden plates havent been found yet. They collected donations of furniture, farm implements, and money from farm sales. Since he did father many children with Emma, parenthood was possible, but there is, at this time, no biological proof of traditional marriage relationships and the only accounts came from others, not the women or Joseph. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. At Quincy, where some Church members lived, John taught school for a short period. Emma was baptized in Colesville, New York, on June 28, 1830. Adams County, organized in 1825, was named after John Quincy Adams, who that year became Americas sixth president, and the town of Quincy received his middle name. The John Murdock family left on February 4 without any team or animal or carriage of any kind. They put Mrs. Murdock and the household furniture in a Brother Humphreys wagon. However, she had to wait for two months before she was confirmed, as Joseph was arrested the next day for his preaching about the Book of Mormon. 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. The Saints exodus from Nauvoo took place a year and a half later, leaving Emma, a 41-year-old widow, with her aged mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, and five children, ranging in age from fourteen years to fifteen months old, to care for. [76] Smith, History of the Church, 3:262. In a remarkable twist of irony, her version of history is increasingly the LDS Churchs as well. He finally broke with all organized religion. Later, while reading the book History of the Prophet Joseph Smith by His Mother, I found Lucy Mack Smiths tribute to Emma: I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship, from month to month, and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, which . These hymns had a great influence on the Saints during the early days of the Church. Taken from The Return, typescript, 243, Perry Special Collections. 343-362. For the official Church websites, please visit churchofjesuschrist.org or comeuntochrist.org. Joseph taught what God revealed, nothing more. Aroet Hale said a Mr. Stilson employed his father. [86] Truman O. Angell Journal, reprinted in Kate B. Carter, comp., Our Pioneer Heritage (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1967), 10:199. She frequently found herself living in the homes of others and just as frequently took complete strangers into her own home. [13] Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 8284. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. Given these losses, it appears to me that Emma managed quite well.". Father said, Run, Mosiah, and I did run! They threatened to send the committee to hell jumping and put daylight through them. The men gathered up what they could and hastily fled from Far West within the hour. Emma and Joseph's descendants grew up separated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After Joseph Smith died, Emma Smith moved away from Nauvoo for about six months before returning. [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. 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. Joseph was susceptible to vomiting anyway. Leaders compiled these petitions and affidavits and presented them three times, possibly four, to U.S. president Martin Van Buren and to Congress, but the federal government refused to act on them.[109]. She, in turn, was instructed by Joseph to officiate in these ordinances for the women, which she did until shortly before his martyrdom. [36] With Joseph Smiths approval, leaders in Far West decided to sell Church properties in Jackson County to help raise money for the exodus. Julia: Some say that there were other reasons. [75] Wandle Mace Autobiography, typescript, 3132, Perry Special Collections. They started in February, but it was bitter cold, and they suffered fearfully, Caroline said. by Terrie Lynn Bittner | May 3, 2013 | Joseph Smith | 2 comments. [20] So without further ado, here is my list of 21 reasons leaving the Mormon Church might be a great idea, even if it is true. A Comfort unto My Servant, Joseph. Women of faith in the latter days. Brigham Young and his family, with several others, Kimball said. Memoirs of Joseph Smith III (18321914), ed. About sunset we landed in Quincy, Lucy said. 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. It nearly broke both of our hearts. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Their tough experiences produced definite impactsboth short- and long-termon Missouri and Illinois, on the course of the Church, and on individual members.[1]. So adamant was Emma on this point that the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held it as an article of faith, and Emma's children never accepted the idea that Joseph had instituted plural marriage. Linda requested and was granted a meeting with some general authorities, including Dallin Oaks, to discuss the ban and discover what aspects of the book had been found objectionable. Why did Emma Smith leave the LDS Church? . 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.' Emmas disappearance from LDS history was so total that Linda says when she and Valeen co-authored an article about her for the Ensign in 1979, it was the first writing about her to appear in any official church publication in 113 years. [100] Stanley B. Kimball, The Saints and St. Louis, 18311857: An Oasis of Tolerance and Security, BYU Studies 13 (Summer 1973): 489519. For example, did Charles Wesley have any songs in her hymnal? Thank you so much. 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. It does not store any personal data. [124] Berrett and Parkin, Sacred Places: Missouri, 329, 402, 411. [17] Dean C. Jesse and David J. Whittaker, The Last Months of Mormonism in Missouri: The Albert Perry Rockwood Journal, BYU Studies 28 (Winter 1988): 2729. Until that time, Emma had been largely written out of official LDS history. They averaged ten miles per day. She was told that her calling was to be a support and comfort to . Brigham also doubtless considered Emma dishonest and a liar because she continued to insist that her husband had never taught the doctrine of plural marriage. Mary Audentia Smith Anderson. 1856Emma takes in orphaned Elizabeth Agnes Kendall, eight years old, and rears her as her own daughter . Is there a list anywhere of all the composers who had songs in Emmas 1835 hymnal? 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. 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. 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. Then, because it was planting season, they moved about ten miles out and rented a farm. [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. [120] Levi W. Hancock petition in Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 225. Whats especially interesting to me about the unfolding historiography of Emma Smith is that she herself would have been happy with the disappearance of polygamy and Josephs other wives from Mormonisms official party line. This forced expulsion of Saints from Missouri produced short- and long-term consequences, as enumerated here for various of the parties involved. Shortly after her baptism in July 1830, Emma Smithwas called by God to compile a hymnbook to edify the Church. 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. These souls, by and large, were poor, bedraggled, and sickly. Print. [6], In the exodus, Mormon militiamen were the first to leaveor rather escape. The animosity toward Emma Smith after the death of Joseph Smith quickly became evident. My 11 year old granddaughter who is not baptized into the LDS Church wanted a poster after which we obtained and she visited with the actors and actresses. While locals let the suffering Saints crowd into farms, sheds, huts, and tents, they judged the refugees to be generally of the poorer and more illiterate classes.[78] On February 25, Quincy leaders met and adopted measures to provide relief. Richard Bushman writes of the poisoning accusation: Through the late fall and winter of 1843 and 1844, Joseph and Emma's relationship broke down only once. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Sidney Rigdon had been released in January. [49] Brother Markham then drove the wagon back to Far West to bring others out. She was not perfect and made choices that seem hard for us to understand today. [71] In 1837 the population was 1,653 according to Pat. This article examines the results of the Religious Landscape Study conducted in 2014 by the Pew organization, looking specifically at information related to the questions of who is leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, why they leave, where they go, and what factors seem to contribute to their exodus. It took me a minute to find what you were looking at, but if I am correct, I see the PMs in Emma Smiths original hymnbook. They ran out of provisions and became so weak they couldnt continue, so they held a council and prayed to know where to hunt.