[72] Roberts, Comprehensive History, 2:3. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Babbitt would make Brigham's requests to Emma sound abrupt and thoughtless, and her responses to him selfish and defensive.[5]. Unfortunately, Apple's iOS doesn't support home screen shortcuts in the Chrome browser. [27] That left the Saints no choice but to leave Missouri as soon as possible. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. In time, most of the houses were torn down for firewood or hauled away. [87] Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 9192. In intense cold, Lydia recalled, they sometimes scraped away snow beside the wagon so they could put down their beds at night. She had no example to follow and no real support group, as later women would have. [73] Bennett, Quincythe Home of Our Adoption, 86. Josephs death occurred on 27 June 1844. If you look in the back of an LDS hymnbook, there is a whole section talking about meter as well. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. . [62] Eliza Roxey (Snow) Smith, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1884), 45. Five reasons best explain why Saints moved during winter conditions: (1) by January, armed patrols were showing up and threatening the Saints, so in the January 26 public meeting the people agreed to begin moving immediately; (2) the Saints had been told that Joseph Smith would not be released from prison until they all had left Missouri, so the sooner that happened, the better;[39] (3) individuals were running out of food and supplies; (4) in February, Far West experienced some stretches of weather that seemed favorable for traveling; and (5) wagons going to Illinois and then returning to take others needed four to six weeks to make the two trips before the late March deadline. Emma did, from time to time, offer approval of specific marriages. . A test passed by the faithful. Emmas role in Mormon history is as enigmatic as ever. These may have been given as payment for teaching. She comforted other women, instructed them, and helped them to build their own faith. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. She had a lock of his hair cut and given to her. Twas a very cold and blustering night. They put clothes over the wagon tongue to make a tent and put their beds underneath. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. [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). The episode seems to have been a family quarrel between Joseph and Emmatwo mortals living in something of a fishbowl, under enormous pressures and strains. "When Emma died, she was surrounded by her family and friends. [76] They moved in with Judge John Cleveland and his Latter-day Saint wife, Sarah, four miles east of Quincy. The CES Director asked Jeremy to send him a list of issues that had caused him to lose his faith, with the intention of helping him out. It nearly broke both of our hearts. 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. Brigham Young and his family, with several others, Kimball said. To reach safety in Illinois, the closest state, they had to cross the broad Mississippi River, and Quincy had ferryboat facilities. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Church Service When Joseph returned to Harmony, he received a revelation for Emma, now known as Doctrine and Covenants 25, calling her an elect lady and encouraging her to comfort and support Joseph in his afflictions. [69] Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruffs Journal, 1:322. He could find no way to bring the Butlers wagon across the river, so he spent the night with his family. 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. After a quick Google search, I found out that PM probably stands for peculiar meter. I hadnt heard of that before, and it isnt in the current edition of the LDS hymnbook. Three or four Latter-day Saint families lived in his houses adjoining the Butlers, and the man treated them all with kindness, which seemed a new thing to us, John confessed. [70] John Taylor, Brigham Young, Isaac Higbee, Israel Barlow, John P. Greene to Dear Brethren, March 29, 1839, at Quincy, reprinted in Kate B. Carter, comp., Our Pioneer Heritage (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1960), 3:122. The biography Linda and Valeen published with Doubleday several years later was not so guarded, detailing Josephs many polygamous alliances, his repeated lies to Emma about those marriages, and her conflicts with his plural wivesincluding a much-debated stair-pushing catfight with Eliza R. Snow. That covenant became the foundation for the Churchs emigration programs from then until 1869, producing the Perpetual Emigrating Fund in 1849, the handcart program from 1856 to 1860, and the 1860s team trains going down and back from Utah to provide transportation to Utah for emigrants in need.[126]. The sight filled my eyes with tears, while my heart was made glad at the cheerfulness of the Saints in the midst of their affliction.[66] He visited Saints on his side of the river who were camped in a sufering Condition with Cold, rain & mud & some want of food.[67], Fugitive Joseph Holbrook, two months after leaving his expectant wife and three children back on January 20, learned of their arrival at the Mississippi River late in March. Emma Smith was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania and had unusual opportunities for a girl in her time. In fact, he generally took another man with him or even asked a father or brother to approach the woman. Her family stayed behind after the Saints went West, and Elizabeth eventually remarried, the same year that Emma remarried. Saints had until late March to vacate Missouri, but they started leaving in earnest during January. By primitive Missouri roads, the distance from Far West to Quincy was about 180 miles. ( 6-8 Oct 1866, 36th Semi-Annual Conference, Bowery, G. S. L. City. [84] William Cahoon noted that a family named Travis offered him employment;[85] Mr. Travis also hired refugee Truman Angell to frame a barn. [3], By October 1838, Newel and Lydia Knight and their three children were among the Saints living in and near Far West, the Churchs headquarters city. 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. Hi Nathan, thanks for your interest in Emma Smiths hymnbook! 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). "Some people might say that something about her changed, and that is why she did not come to Salt Lake Valley," Delewski said. She was not perfect and made choices that seem hard for us to understand today. The religion he founded continues to the present day, with millions of global adherents. By Scott D. Pierce. I understand Long meter and Common meter, but what is PM? Emma Smith had so much on her plate, so its inspiring to learn how she was willing to contribute to the growth of the Church while she was dealing with everything else. [5] Gentry, Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 32527; Alexander L. Baugh, A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996), 34047. 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. 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. At Adam-ondi-Ahman they obtained provisions from fellow Saints. He was a lieutenant colonel of the 32nd Regiment of the Illinois militia, and he helped control the violence being perpetuated against the Latter Day Saints. 3. 16, Lee Library, 67; Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. 1856Emma takes in orphaned Elizabeth Agnes Kendall, eight years old, and rears her as her own daughter . They were enough to wear out any woman and if she, in the end, was tired of fighting her way through life, that can be understood. Joseph Smith and the Latter Day Saints leadership had always asked for help from the US government. Given that Brigham was blamed by Emma for being the inventor of plural marriage, he probably felt rather ill-used by her. Find out a few things you may not have known about this prominent woman in Church history. Within three weeks, the press got wind of the authors ecclesiastical silencing and began to report about itthereby tripling sales of the book. 1981), 23031. In the October session of General Conference 1866, Brigham Young made these comments: "To my certain knowledge, Emma Smith is one of the damnedest liars I know of on this earth; yet there is no good thing I would refuse to do for her, if she would only be a righteous woman; but she will continue in her wickedness. These hymns had a great influence on the Saints during the early days of the Church. 40 Wives Emma Smith would make tremendous sacrifices for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for her husband, and for the church. He had been separated from the family for three months or more. These were the top four reasons for leaving the LDS Church: "I studied church history and lost my belief" (39% primary factor, 81% moderate to strong factor); "I lost faith in Joseph Smith" (39% primary, 84% mod-strong); "I ceased to believe in the church's doctrine/theology" (38% primary, 87% mod-strong); Joseph and Emma adopt the Murdock twins nine days after birth. 4 (2000): 622. God commanded and Joseph obeyed. Extermination order not rescinded for 137 years. Then three hundred militiamen escorted them away to face trial and prison. [19] John P. Greene, Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter-day Saints from the State of Missouri, Under the Exterminating Order (Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839), 8. On the anniversary of her birth, which. In July 1830 the Lord outlined her mission, in a revelation: Thou art an elect lady, whom I have called. [34] Smith, History of the Church, 3:255. Economic impact on Illinois and Iowa. I, 29 December 1833 to 31 December 1840 (Midvale, UT: Signature Books, 1983), 322. 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. Joseph Smiths parents. When the Mormons left for Utah, she elected to remain behind. [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. Time and again, she was uprooted, often without warning and frequently without time to pack her belongings. [52] Heber C. Kimball Journals, 18381839, in Porter, Brigham Young and the Twelve, 134. She had a home and her children and she just had to carry on the best she could. She held on to her faith in God, in the gospel, and in Joseph Smith as a prophet throughout it all. Emma: People say all kinds of things, but Julia I know better. [109] Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, xixxxvii. Dirty smoking school of prophets. [47] Dated entries in An Abridged Record of the Life of John Murdock, Taken from His Journal by Himself, typescript, n.p., n.d., Perry Special Collections. Bishop Partridge felt the poor could be better served if scattered in various communities and not gathered in one place. [35], On February 11 the committee accepted applications for assistance, and the next day they appointed Theodore Turley to superintend the management of the teams provided for removing the poor. The plan was for some wagons to go east, unload passengers and belongings at the Mississippi, and then return empty to help others move out. The first night, our wagon tipped over into the creek. [101] Cited in Baugh, We Took Our Change of Venue, 52. Why did Emma Smith leave the LDS Church? Her husband, on the other hand, had only a handful of years of formal education. Brigham Young, in danger from anti-Mormons, joined the exodus on February 14. . Green, a Quincy innkeeper and cousin by marriage to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, encouraged the Apostles and other Saints to come there. Who was the oldest president of the LDS Church? 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. [29] Smith, History of the Church, 3:249. 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. The religion rapidly gained converts, and Smith set up . The animosity toward Emma Smith after the death of Joseph Smith quickly became evident. After deliberating on the best means to finish the job, we have thought that considering the bad state of the roads, the expense of ferrage in consequence of high water, that the teams are all nearly worn out, and the brethren here very poor and very much scattered that the best solution was to forward the remainder of the poor brethren by water. By contracting with a steam boat, the poor brethren might all be removed at once and the Far West committee would be free to get out of the state. Under these conditions, one could reasonably conclude that she did not travel west in order to avoid losing any more of her children. In fear of threats that the bodies would be stolen or desecrated, coffins filled with sandbags were used in the public funeral of the two martyrs. He had no steady occupation and was involved intensely with religion. [28] Greene, Expulsion of the Saints from Missouri, 8. He was the son of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. Louis. [84] Aroet Hale, Autobiography, typescript, 6, Perry Special Collections. On four she had to move because of disruption caused by neighbors. [123] Butler denounced the hard-heartedness that Missourians had shown his wife and children and Church authorities. . It would be 2 months before she could be confirmed as a member of the Church. William G. Hartley, The Saints Forced Exodus from Missouri, in Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer, ed. [5] Meanwhile, a militia force headed to Adam-ondi-Ahman, made the Mormons there surrender, and on November 10 gave them ten days to relocate to Far West or elsewhere in Caldwell County. They pulled out of Far West on February 18, leaving behind a house and farm. Until that time, Emma had been largely written out of official LDS history. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976 reprint), 3:210. 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. . After a long time, Mother Smith said, We succeeded . 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. "Joseph did not marry a wilting violet," Delewski said. This was exactly what she had tried to institute herself as a theological agent in her own right, so much so that when the Reorganization was founded in the 1860s she declared that Joseph had never been married to anyone but herself. Emma and her family were forced to leave the state with the majority of Latter Day Saints. In the past three decades, there has been more published about Emma Smith in official church channels, including the new Daughters in My Kingdom manual, which mentions her very positively as the founder of the Relief Society, and the Gospel Doctrine manual for church history, which holds her up as an examplesomewhat reproachfullyof how to support ones spouse. There was scarcely a day while we were on the road that it did not either snow or rain, son John said. But in a series of new essays, it describes the now-banned practice in detail. 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. They left Far West on February 14. . [10] They crossed the icy Mississippi River, some at Quincy, where Charles C. Rich said, We found friends and was kindly received.[11], Another half dozen Mormon militiamen led by Dimick Huntington left separately. The temple site has been salvaged and given modern landscaping, but no houses remain. Tears roll down Emily Rennie's face as she recalls a church counsellor telling her she needed to give up her child for adoption because he was conceived out of wedlock one of the most . They developed communities, farms, roads, livestock herds, commerce, and trade in parts of Adam and Hancock counties, Illinois, and in Lee County, Iowa. She was a schoolteacher and even owned items of value, including cows. I could have commanded some two thousand dollars but now I had only 1 yoke of old oxen and 2 cows left.[20], Two families moved in with Newel Knights family. Caroline said that at one point that winter, Joseph Smith got word to Emma to send him quilts or bed clothes. 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. She was not perfect and made choices that seem hard for us to understand today. [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. For example, in the support materials for the Joseph Smith manual, polygamy is once again nowhere mentioned. First, Emma had intense anxiety over the protection of Joseph's and Hyrum's bodies. In 1842, when the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed as a . After his death she resisted encouragement to deny his role as a prophet. Her refined childhood and girlhood was not designed to give her the skills she needed in adulthood, and yet she managed nearly everything thrown at her. The streets and city square became corn fields. Emma and Joseph eloped on January 18, 1827, in South Bainbridge, New York, and then went to live with the Smith family. Uncertain which policy to push, the conference voted against accepting the land offer (Journal History, February 1, 1839). This most likely caused people to behave differently than they might have in gentler circumstances. Terrie, you are a treasure. 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. The poem praised those Who have put forth your liberal hand to meet / The urgent wants of the oppressd and poor! In 1841 Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, the First Presidency, issued a proclamation of appreciation, saying, It would be impossible to enumerate all those who in our time of deep distress, nobly came forward to our relief and like the good Samaritan poured oil into our wounds and contributed liberally to our necessities as the citizens of Quincy en masse and the people of Illinois generally seemed to emulate each other in the labor of love.[112], In Quincys Washington Park stands a simple historical marker erected in 1976 to memorialize the Saints exodus. 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. . He never charged them rent. [30] John Taylor, Alanson Ripley, Brigham Young, Theodore Turley, Heber C. Kimball, John Smith (the Prophets uncle), and Don C. Smith (the Prophets brother). [54] The Saints Petition to Congress, November 1839, in Smith, History of the Church, 4:2438; the mention of bloody footsteps is on p. 36. So she made a deal with Abraham O. Smoot and Martha, his bride of three months. Emma died peacefully in the Nauvoo House on April 30, 1879 at the age of 74. Julia: Some say that there were other reasons. Emma's brothers and sisters were all named after family members, either on her mother's side or her father's. [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. [44] Ebenezer Robinson, Items of Personal History of the Editor, Including Some items of Church History Not Generally Known. Conflicts between church members and neighbors also continued to escalate, and eventually Young made the decision to relocate the church to the Salt Lake Valley. 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. . [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. After the church dispersed in 1844, those folks who did not head west with Brigham Young kind of scattered until April 6, 1860 when Joseph's son, Joseph Smith III, was ordained prophet-president (Hence the name Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of LDS) The church did not bring into our beliefs doctrines dealing with the practice of secret .