[31] Smith, History of the Church, 3:25054. My mother called my legs pipe stems, and my arms straws! he said. [34] Saints used existing roads as much as possible, although some took detours to avoid problems with local residents or to avoid being recognized. 1 She had been promised in her 1830 revelation: "Thy time shall be given to writing, and to learning much." 2 She probably gathered hymns from her hometown newspaper as well as other papers and denominational hymnals. were destroyed or lost.[92], A year earlier, Joseph Smith had received a commandment for the Twelve to leave for missions over the great waters from the Far West temple site on April 26, 1839 (Doctrine and Covenants 118). These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Fanny lived in the Smiths' house with Emma, which caused much tension. That did not stop Emma, a visionary woman in her own sense of the word. You might also enjoy Emma Smith: My Storyor Emma and Lucy. To begin again in Illinois was heartbreaking. [18], Far West was ill equipped to become a refugee center for Saints displaced by Missouri militia. Finally, in some respects, the exodus from Missouri was a training exercise for the Saints exodus from Nauvoo seven years later. Some sneaked southward to the Missouri River and took boat passage to St. [90], By mid-April, the mobs lost patience with the Saints still in Caldwell County. [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). You might notice something a bit surprisingtheres no musical notation! Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on 23 December 1805, in Sharon, Vermont. Events of the 1838 Mormon War soon escalated, resulting in Joseph's surrender and imprisonment by Missouri officials. I being barefooted and the ice so rough, I staggered all over. Elggren believes they had that face-to-face after they had both died. [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. Far West Saints met in a public meeting on January 26 to consider measures to expedite the move out of state, given the seeming impossibility of moving in consequence of the extreme poverty of many.[29] A seven-man committee was appointed to find out how many needed help and how much help members could give to those in need. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Levis nearly five-year-old son Mosiah recalled, The snow was deep enough to take me to the middle of the thigh, and I was bare footed and in my shirt tail. They hitched their horse old Tom to the cart, Mosiah said, and father drove the horse and carried the rifle on his shoulder. Whatever the situation, Emma eventually found herself unable to cope with polygamy. [89] Leo R. Rogers, Willis Rogers and Elizabeth Bessie Ritchie with Their Ancestors and Descendants (Bountiful, UT: L. R. Rogers, ca. They left Far West on February 14. As was common in their day, the early Saints sang the printed lyrics to familiar tunes. [112] A Proclamation to the Saints Scattered AbroadGreeting, Times and Seasons, January 15, 1841, 6. Emmas role in Mormon history is as enigmatic as ever. a boy whom many Saints felt to be Smiths rightful prophetic heir, The biography Linda and Valeen published with Doubleday several years later. 40 Wives Jeremy's response was an 84-page document that came to be known as the "CES Letter.". He instructed them to have the women pray about the request. In an essay published on its website quoting "careful estimates", the church said the wives. She helped to care for Josephs mother and her mother-in-law noted that few women had endured as many trials as she had with so much grace. One is that Emma had lived her adult life moving from place to place and house to house, crossing frozen rivers and walking in lots of mud and snow. Her funeral was held May 2, 1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon. Her husband Joseph Smith had been killed in 1844, and after his death Emma Smith decided to remain in Nauvoo. Did Emma Smith leave the LDS Church? Emma, as she often did, was searching the home for Joseph when he and a girl were missing. Its almost as if youre holding the hymnbook in your own hands. https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/HTML/what_is_meter.htm. During Sunday dinner on November 5, Joseph became ill, rushed to the door, and vomited so violently that he dislocated his jaw. Thank you for your insight about and compassion for Emma, and for taking the time to write about and share it with us. Emma and Joseph's descendants grew up separated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Years later, in the anti-Emma atmosphere of Utah, Brigham Young spoke of a meeting where Joseph accused his wife of slipping poison into his coffee. [111] Starting with this poem, Eliza R. Snow published a total of eighteen poems in the Quincy Whig during the 183941 period. Joseph was susceptible to vomiting anyway. In the meantime, Emma assumed that because these men represented the Twelve they acted on direct orders from Brigham. [36] Brigham H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century I (reprint, Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 1:510511, and Smith, History of the Church, 3:26163. Minute Book 1, 14 Sept. 1835; Joseph Smith III, "Last Testimony of Sister Emma," Saints' Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, 289; "Hale, Emma," in Black, Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848, 19:846; Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, 57; Cook, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 37. As they moved on they found camp fires and tent poles already struck nearly all the way after this, apparently provided by the Committee of Removal. Huntington estimated that in Daviess County the Saints lost nearly thirty thousand bushels of corn because of the militia takeover. Are Joseph and Emma Smiths descendants Latter-day Saints? 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. . LM is long meter, CM is common meter, and so forth. Her fugitive son Samuel came from Quincy and arranged for a ferryman to take the Smith party across. had not heard anything from me during this time, neither dare I write to [them].[68], At a March 17 meeting, Saints in Quincy heard a letter read from the Committee of Removal in Far West asking for teams & money for the removing of fifty families of poor Saints from far west to Quincy.[69] On March 29 the committee in Quincy wrote to their counterparts in Far West sympathizing with their extreme labor and travail to move out the last poor Saints. I hope this helps too! 16, Lee Library, 67; Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. 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. This most likely caused people to behave differently than they might have in gentler circumstances. Some of Emma's friends, as well as many members of the Smith family, alienated themselves from Young's followers. She was not perfect and made choices that seem hard for us to understand today. 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. A few visitors from Brigham Young's faction of the Latter-day Saints came from Utah Territory to visit Smith at this house. Its an improvement that shes discussed at all. 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. [62] Eliza Roxey (Snow) Smith, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1884), 45. In order to understand this, we need to look at her personality and what she experienced prior to the death of Joseph.". [120] Levi W. Hancock petition in Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 225. Understanding how early Saints worked earnestly to build up the Church helps us better appreciate the value of their work. 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.". Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. If Mormonism is not true, it is a fraudulent version of Christianity and an enormous sham. 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. Many found refuge not only in Quincy but throughout Adams County and all over western Illinois. 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 taught school before she met Joseph Smith. Emma Hale Smith Bidamon passed away in Nauvoo on April 30, 1879 , and is buried next to Joseph. [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. She would smile with her lips, but to me, as small as I was, I never saw the brown eyes smile. With other refugees, she and six children ages two through nine accompanied their small wagon, pulled by a blind horse. All but the youngest two had to walk every step of the entire distance. They were almost barefooted and some had to wrap their feet in clothes in order to keep them from freezing and protect them from the sharp points of the frozen ground. Son John, nine, later said that often the blood from our feet marked the frozen earth.[57]. 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. In May that year the Mormon History Association held their annual meetings there. 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]. Saddleback Church doubles down on support for female pastors, Mormonisms slow shift away from demonizing working mothers, Faith leaders urge Biden to sign executive order for reparations study by Juneteenth, For many congregations, wiping out medical debt has become a popular calling, More Jesus, less touching: 14 changes to the Mormon temple endowment ceremony, Real Housewife Heather Gay pens a juicy ex-Mormon memoir, How to stay Mormon after a faith crisis (if staying is what you want), Copyright 2020, Religion News Service. After a long time, Mother Smith said, We succeeded . For the official Church websites, please visit churchofjesuschrist.org or comeuntochrist.org. Im guessing something to do with the meter, but I cant figure it out! Caroline Butler, whose husband had fled Missouri in November, couldnt care for her four young children, ages seven years to two months, and drive her wagon at the same time. [84] Aroet Hale, Autobiography, typescript, 6, Perry Special Collections. 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. On March 5, Bishop Edward Partridge reported in Quincy that ice had been running for three days so that no one could cross the Mississippi. Though there probably was an argument, the poisoning accusation was unfounded. Being forced from Missouri posed a test of faith that most Saints passed, but some failed, as the extended Knight family illustrates. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. 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. 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. | 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 . She compiled the first hymnbook. This made the poisoning accusation plausible for him. Not for Daniel Stillwell and Martha Payne Jones Thomas and their family. [76] Smith, History of the Church, 3:262. Thank you so much. We were not permitted to leave Far West, Anson Call said, only to get our firewood. Is there a list anywhere of all the composers who had songs in Emmas 1835 hymnal? Emma was baptized in Colesville, New York, on June 28, 1830. 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. During the exodus, Truman Angells wife Elizabeth, already ill, took a cold upon cold and was expected to die. He referred to a handmade chart that showed the homes Emma Smith had during her 17-year marriage to Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. After they left, the mob plundered thousands of dollars worth of property donated to help the poor move. The Butler and Smoot families. She was not perfect and made choices that seem hard for us to understand today. Many could not get into houses, Newel said, and had to take shelter in wagons, tents, and under bedclothes and while in this situation we had a severe snow storm, which rendered their suffering intense. An acre of land in front of Lucy Mack Smiths home became completely covered with beds, lying in the open sun, where families were compelled to sleep, exposed to all kinds of weather. Houses in Far West were so full, Mother Smith said, that people could not find shelter. . Required fields are marked *. She was a schoolteacher and even owned items of value, including cows. 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. Another died young at age 26. When the river opened, the Thomases used two boats to move their effects across, while Daniel and son Morgan, twelve, stayed behind to ferry the cow across later. Quincy was the closest Illinois city to Far West. Only his mother and sisters had shoes, but these wore out and became almost useless before they reached Illinois. He attended school as they courted, trying to live up to her. 6 What did Lucy Mack Smith say about Emma Smith? [94] Porter, Brigham Young and the Twelve, 14149. 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. Far West had a population by then of about five thousand Saints, and another five thousand lived in at least nineteen other Latter-day Saint communities in Caldwell County. [84] William Cahoon noted that a family named Travis offered him employment;[85] Mr. Travis also hired refugee Truman Angell to frame a barn.

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