This is the beginning of a series of posts recording the author's exploration into the wives of Joseph Smith. These are summaries of the information the author has compiled and is in no way exhaustive. The author has enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about his faith heritage and hopes this will be as enjoyable a read for you as it was for the author to research and write. More detailed resources about these women can be found under the 'LDS Resources' page.
Her father, Isaac Hale, allowed Joseph Smith to board at his home while Smith worked for a nearby farmer, Josiah Stowell. Joseph Smith had a simple task as a hired hand: search for, locate, and dig up the hidden treasures buried in the land. Specifically, this team of treasure hunters searched for a silver mine, rumored to be protected and hidden by the spirits of those who first inhabited the land. It was this magic world view, a world paradigm that included a strong belief in the reality of demons, spirits, and hidden treasures, that initiated Joseph Smith's travels to Harmony, Pennsylvania. Without a sincere belief in hidden treasures to be unearthed through hard work, peep stones and even special magical incantations, Joseph Smith would likely never have met his first wife, Emma Hale.
It was 1825 when Emma first met the itinerant treasure-hunter living in her home. Emma was 21 years old; Joseph Smith was 20 years old. I can't help but interject my internal question: What did Isaac Hale think would happen?
No treasure was found, and Joseph would return to his home near Palmyra, New York. He did not forget Emma Hale, and would frequently return to the farm in Harmony, Pennsylvania to court the fair skinned young woman. She was to become his wife, but not without opposition. Isaac Hale oppposed the budding love between his daughter and the prospect-less treasure hunter. It was a hapless career path, and as a protective father, Isaac Hale wished only the best for his daughter. Twice Smith would ask Hale for his daughter in marriage, each time met with a refusal. Isaac Hale's opposition to marriage met with explicit defiance on January 17, 1827, when the poor farm boy and his damsel rode away on horseback. They would elope in South Bainbridge, New York the next day. They went to live at the home of Joseph Smith's parents near Palmyra, New York.
The fallout between Joseph and his in-laws was inevitable. He had stolen away their daughter, defying the multiple refusals of Isaac Hale to allow the marriage to take place. The newly weds returned to Harmony to retrieve Emma's things and attempt a reconciliation with her parents. It was then that Joseph Smith swore off the profession of treasure hunting.
THE BOOK OF MORMON AND THE PAIN OF LOSS
That same year on September 22, Emma accompanied her husband to a hill near Palmyra. She stayed with the cart and horses while Smith ascended the hill. When he returned to the cart, he carried something wrapped in his coat, something that Emma would only later be able to touch, never to actually see with her own eyes - the gold plates. These were Ancient writings of the inhabitants of America, written on gold leafs, bound like a three ring binder, and protected by the power of God. Enscribed on the gold plates were the history, theology, and revelations of the original inhabitants of America. Joseph was to be the translator of this record and Emma his scribe.
The translation process did not begin until December 1827 after Joseph and Emma moved to Harmony, Pennsylvania. Emma's parents helped the young couple by purchasing a home in the area. In their new home, Joseph began to translate the gold plates utilizing a special form of vision and inspiration. Emma later described the translation process as such: "
In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us." Joseph utilized seer stones, the same ones he used for treasure hunting, placed in a hat over which he would place his face to block out any light. With his face in his hat, the words of this sacred text - the golden plates - would appear on the stones in plain English. While Joseph read vocally what he saw in the stones, Emma would write down his words. The golden plates would lie on the table, closed and covered by a cloth during this process, or would not be within proximity.
The frailty of life was inescapable for the Smith family despite this time of divine inspiration. Emma gave birth to the Smith's first son, Alvin, on June 15, 1828. It was over a year since the couple eloped, but their first child would only live for a few hours.
In May 1829, Joseph and Emma moved to live with David Whitmer in Fayette, New York. The Book of Mormon was finished and published in March 1830.
1830-1839: FAITH, HOMELESSNESS AND EXPULSION
Emma was baptized on June 28, 1830 as a member of the newly formed Church of Christ in Colesville, New York. It was only three months previous that Joseph Smith founded the Church of Christ, and it was just a few weeks after her baptism that Joseph would be tried for 'glass looking' under South Bainridge laws which prohibited the practice. He was exonerated from the charges. Emma would soon after receive a revelation from the Lord through her husband, wherein she was forgiven of her sins and called an 'elect lady.' She was commissioned to compile a collection of hymns for the newly formed Church.
The Smiths were homeless. They returned to Harmony to live with Emma's parents, but the inner-family tension lead them to an itinerant lifestyle living with members of the church. They moved back to the Whitmer's home in Fayette, then to the Whitney's home in Kirtland, Ohio, then to a cabin owned by Isaac Morley. Slightly a year after the Church of Christ was formed, and practically homeless and reliant on the goodwill of members of the Church, Emma gave birth to twins, Thaddeus and Louisa on April 30, 1831. They both died only a few hours after birth. In the span of three years, Emma saw three of her children die, all three passing away only hours after they entered the world.
The same day that Emma lost the twins in childbirth, Julia Clapp Murdock also died, she passing away while giving birth to twins. The widowed father, John Murdock gave the twins, Joseph and Julia, to Emma and Joseph Smith. The Smiths with their two adopted children moved to John Johnson's home on September 2, 1831. The adopted son, Joseph would die of pneumonia in March of 1832. By the time the adopted Joseph dies, Emma has lost four children - three biological and one adopted - in the span of four years. At this point, only Louisa is left as the surviving child of the Smith family. She would greet the coming of a younger brother, Joseph Smith III on November 6, 1832. Young Joseph, as he was called, was born in the Whitney's home in Kirtland, Ohio. He would live to adulthood, the first of Emma's biological children to do so. Emma would also bring into the world Frederick Granger William Smith on June 29, 1836.
Emma would play a role in the further development of church teachings and practices. Emma completed the first hymnal of the church published in 1836. It was while in Kirtland during the early 1830's that Emma voiced her annoyance of the men's use of tobacco and excessive drinking. She reqested that Joseph pray to God and ask for instruction on the proper dietary guidelines that the members of the Church of Christ were to follow. What came as response would come to be known as the Word of Wisdom, a guideline for all the saints to follow as wise dietary council with the promise of blessings from heaven.
It was in the early 1830's that rumors of polygamy began to spread concerning the Mormons. By 1832 Mormon missionaries converted members of the Cochranite movement, the founder, Jacob Cochran having gone into hiding for his illegal polygamist practices. Those that converted from the Cochranite movement to become Mormons made their way to Kirtland, Ohio. The inclusion of Cochranite converts, along with rumors concerning Joseph Smith's marriage to Fanny Alger, led to quick rebuttal by the prophet and the Church. A revelation in 1835 was published in the Church's Doctrine and Covenants:
Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.
The rumors of Joseph Smith's involvement in polygamy squarley faced Emma's disdain for the practice. Emma would spend the rest of her married life to Joseph battling with the "new and everlasting covenant" that would be made official, yet still secret from the public, in 1843. Even then, when Joseph showed Emma the revelation in print (D&C 132), she did not believe it.
It is important to note that Emma's prophet-husband, Joseph, not only dealt with the sustainment of a fledgling church in Kirtland, Ohio, but also managed to support another major location of saints in Jackson County, Missouri. Between 1830-1838, Joseph spent much of his time traveling back and forth between the two settlements, often leaving Emma to care for the children by herself, all the while dependent on the family she was living with for food, shelter and aid. Even while revelation poured in to the prophet and seer Joseph Smith, the saints in Kirtland were to suffer major financial loss. Joseph Smith made the bold move of starting a banking venture which failed, resulting in many of the saints losing much of their savings and assets. On January 12, 1838 Joseph fled Kirtland to avoid facing charges of fraud and illegal banking. His wife Emma, and her three children, Louisa, young Joseph and Frederick, followed him to the frontier settlement of Far West, Missouri.
It was in Far West, Missouri where Emma gave birth to Alexander Hale Smith on June 2, 1838. They had left Kirtland and hoped for a stable home in Far West, but the 1838 Mormon War - a bloody series of skirmishes between the Mormon settlers in Missouri and their 'gentile,' non-mormon and hostile neighors - left Joseph Smith in prison. Emma, her children and the rest of the Mormon settlers were forced to cross the icy Mississippi River in February 1839 to find a new home in Illinois. Missouri's governor Boggs made clear through an extermination order that Mormons were not welcome in Missouri.
1839-1844: A BEAUTIFUL CITY
Non-mormons John and Sarah Cleveland provided shelter and aid to Emma and her four children in Quincy, Illinois. Emma stayed with the Clevelands until Joseph Smith escaped custody from Missouri officials. Joseph returned to Emma and took his family to a new settlement he named Nauvoo. On May 9, 1839 they moved into a homestead, the first place Emma could call her own home since being married. In 1842, the Smiths would move across the street to live in the Mansion House, which also functioned as a hotel. The Mormon settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois would welcome many visitors and become a beautful city along the Mississippi River.
Nauvoo became the location of many of Joseph's most extreme theological explorations, including the formation of the Anointed Quorum, a select group of men and women who would gather to pray. Emma was a member of the Anointed Quorum. She also became the first president of the Ladies's Relief Society on March 24, 1842. She would lead this group of women to inspire charitable work among the members of the church. The Relief Society also publicly defended the church, denying and openly speaking against the rumors that polygamy was practiced by top leaders, including her husband. In the summer of 1842 Emma signed a petition that included the signatures of some 1,000 women in the church who swore that Joseph Smith Jr. was not involved in polygamy. In October 1842 Emma authorized the publication of a certificate that denounced the practice of polygamy and stated that Joseph Smith was not the creator or participant of such a practice. By October of 1842, Joseph Smith had married 17 additional women, nine of which were married to other men of the church at the time.
In June of 1844 the
Nauvoo Expositor attempted to expose Joseph Smith's polygamist practices, but the printing press was destroyed under order of the town council of which Joseph Smith was a part. Smith was arrested, along with his brother, Hyrum and two other leaders of the church. While waiting trial in Carthage, 200 men stormed the jail and killed the prophet and his brother. On June 27, 1844, Emma lost her husband.
1844-1879: THE CHURCH AND POST-JOSEPH LIFE
Emma Smith gave birth to David Hyrum Smith on November 17, 1844. Her husband had been killed some four months prior. She had lost four children and now she lost her husband and prophet. Not only was Joseph the president of the church, but he was also the trustee-in-trust, meaning that all of the Smith's property and personal debt were intermingled with the property and debts of the church. Unraveling personal debt and property from church debt and property proved to be a long and financially costly process for Emma.
There was no clear leader of the church, and while Emma favored William Marks to ascend to the role of president and prophet of the church, the general membership favored the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The favor of the membership of the Quorum made Brigham Young the head of the church. Over time the relationship deteriorated between Emma and Young, and when Young lead the saints West out of Nauvoo in 1846, Emma stayed with her children.
On her deathbed, Emma denied that her husband ever practiced polygamy. She was quoted to have said, "
No such thing as polygamy, or spiritual wifery, was taught, publicly or privately, before my husband's death, that I have now, or ever had any knowledge of...He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have."
Emma remarried in 1847. Her second husband, Major Lewis C. Bidamon, lived in the Mansion House in Nauvoo. He became a stepfather to Emma's five children. There were many Latter-Day Saints who believed Joseph Smith III would ascend to become the rightful prophet. He became the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ('Reorganized' was added to the beginning of the name of the church in 1872, which was later changed to its current name, Community of Christ) on April 6, 1860. Emma became a member of this branch of the Latter-Day Saint movement that her husband originated. She created a hymnal for the new church headed by her son, just as she had done for her husband.
Emma would pass away in Nauvoo, Illinois on April 30, 1879. Her son had the following to say about his mother:
“
My mother was one of the best poised women I ever met. Of the purest and noblest intentions herself, she never submitted to be made a party to anything low, wrong, or evil, was absolutely fearless where the right was concerned; and was a just and generous mother. Her heart never changed toward her children, and her fidelity to them never wavered. It’s needless to say that we loved her.”
- Joseph Smith III, January 17, 1893
CHILDREN OF EMMA HALE SMITH
Alvin Smith: June 15, 1828 – June 15, 1828
Thaddeus Smith: April 30, 1831 – April 30, 1831
Louisa Smith: April 30, 1831 – April 30, 1831
Joseph Smith Murdock (adopted): April 30, 1831 – March 29, 1832 (10 months)
Julia Murdock Smith (adopted): April 30, 1831 – September 12, 1880
(1880-09-12) (age 49)
Joseph Smith III: November 6, 1832 – December 10, 1914
(1914-12-10) (age 82)
Frederick Granger William Smith: June 20, 1836 – April 13, 1862
(1862-04-13) (age 25)
Alexander Hale Smith: June 2, 1838 – August 12, 1909
(1909-08-12) (age 71)
Don Carlos Smith: June 13, 1840 – August 15, 1841 (age 14 months)
Male Child: December 26, 1842 (stillborn)
David Hyrum Smith: November 17, 1844 – August 29, 1904
(1904-08-29) (age 59)
TIMELINE OF EMMA HALE SMITH
July 10 1804: Born to Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale in Harmony, Pennsylvania.
1825: First meets Joseph Smith
January 17 1827: Joseph and Emma elope in Bainbridge, New York, move near Palmyra, NY.
September 22 1827: Emma waits with the horses and cart while Joseph ascends the Hill Cumorah and returns with the golden plates.
December 1827: Joseph and Emma move to Harmony, Pennsylvania. Emma becomes a scribe to Joseph Smith during the translation of the Book of Mormon.
June 15 1828: Alvin is born and dies within a few hours.
May 1829: Joseph and Emma travel to Fayette, NY to live with David Whitmer.
March 1830: The Book of Mormon is published.
April 06 1830: Joseph and five other men establish the Church of Christ
June 28 1830: Emma is baptized by Olilver Cowdery
July 1830: Joseph Smith receives revelation (D&C 25) directed to Emma. She is called an elect lady, told to comfort her husband, and to make a collection of hymns for the church.
April 30 1831: Emma gives birth to Thaddeus and Louisa, who die shortly after birth.
May 09 1831: Emma and Joseph adopt Joseph and Julia Murdock.
September 02 1831: The Smith family move to John Johnson's house in Hiram, Ohio.
March 29 1832: Joseph Smith Murdock dies of pneumonia.
November 06 1832: Emma gives birth to Joseph Smith III in Kirtland while living with the Whitney family.
1833: Joseph Smith prays and receives the 'Word of Wisdom'.
1836: The first publication of
A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, containing 90 hymns compiled by Emma.
June 20 1836: Emma gives birth to Frederick Granger William Smith.
January 12 1838: Emma and her children flee Kirtland after Joseph's banking venture fails. They travel to Far West, Missouri.
June 02 1838: Emma gives birth to Alexander Hale Smith in Far West, Missouri.
February 1839: Emma and her family cross the frozen Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois.
May 09 1839: The Smith family move into the Homestead, a two story cabin in Nauvoo, Illinois.
June 13 1840: Emma gives birth to Don Carlos Smith
1841: Emma compiles a second edition of
A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, this time including over 300 hymns compiled by Emma.
August 15 1841: At 14 months Don Carlos dies.
1842: The Smith family move across the street to the Manion House.
May 24 1842: The Ladies's Relief Society is organized with Emma as the president.
Summer 1842: Emma signs a petition stating that polygamy is not practiced among leaders of the church, including her husband Joseph Smith.
October 1842: Emma signs a certificate denouncing polygamy and denying her husband as a participant and originator.
December 26 1842: Emma gives birth to a male child (stillborn).
July 12 1843: Emma is counseled to be true and faithful in a revelation given to Joseph Smith concerning plural marriage (D&C 132).
March 1844: Emma publishes a statement against John C. Bennett's spiritual wife system.
June 27 1844: Joseph Smith is killed in Carthage Jail.
Novemeber 17 1844: Emma gives birth to David Hyrum Smith
Early 1846: Most of the members of the church follow Brigham Young to the western territory.
December 23 1847: Emma marries Major Lewis C. Bidamon.
April 06 1860: Joseph Smith III is sustaing president of the (Reoganized) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
1861: Emma compiles and has published
Latter Day Saints' Selection of Hymns, collection of hymns for the (Reorganized) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
April 13 1862: Frederick William Granger Smith dies at age 25.
(1862-04-13)
April 30 1879: Emma dies in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Search, Ponder,
Pray and Repeat
