 |
| Samuel H. Smith (1808–1844) |
| First baptized after Joseph and Oliver §,
probably one of the six church founders, one of the Eight Witnesses, early
missionary, member of the Kirtland high council. Joseph designated Samuel
to succeed him if both he and Hyrum were killed §,
but after retrieving their bodies after the martyrdom, Samuel was taken
ill and died, many believed under suspicious circumstances §. |
| Born |
|
Samuel Harrison Smith, March 13, 1808 in Tunbridge,
Orange Co., Vermont |
|
|
| Died |
|
July 30, 1844 in Nauvoo,
Hancock Co., Illinois |
|
|
| Father |
|
Joseph Smith Sr. (1771–1840) |
|
|
| Mother |
|
Lucy Mack (1775–1856) |
|
|
| Works
to keep family on farm |
|
April 16, 1827 begins seven months' labor for
Lemuel Durfee, who agreed in December 1825 to allow the family to continue
living on the farm after they lost it to him for debts. |
|
Lucy,
172. |
| Visits
Joseph and Emma |
|
February 29, 1829 Joseph Sr. and
Samuel visit Joseph and Emma in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Samuel may serve
as scribe during visit. Joseph receives D&C 4 for Joseph Sr. |
|
Lucy,
173. |
| Baptized |
|
May 25, 1829 by Oliver
Cowdery (ten
days after Joseph and Oliver baptize each other). |
|
HC
1:44. |
| Eight
Witnesses |
|
Late June 1829 (either 22 or 23, or 29 or 30)
signs statement as one of the Eight Witnesses. |
|
Lucy,
174. |
| Out
of Presbyterians |
|
March 29, 1830 suspended from the Presbyterian
church for nonattendance with his mother and Hyrum. |
|
Lucy,
176. |
| Founding member |
|
April 6, 1830 probably one of the
six founders of the church. |
|
Named
by Brigham Young and Jonathan Turner but not by others. Inventing,
154. |
| Ordained
an elder |
|
June 9, 1830 ordained at the first church conference,
as are Hyrum and Joseph Sr. |
|
Minutes
of June 9, 1830 |
| First missionary? |
|
June 30, 1830 begins mission to sell Books of Mormon in Livonia,
New York. |
|
Samuel's Books |
| |
|
July 1, 1830 at Mendon (midway
between Palmyra and Livonia), Samuel leaves a Book of Mormon with Brigham's
sister, Rhoda Young Greene, who is married to Rev. John P. Greene. |
|
|
| "Mostly
illiterate" |
|
Fall 1830 calls on Orson
Hyde with three companions. They are, Hyde notes, "mostly illiterate." |
|
¶
Orson Hyde (h) |
| Visit
to Joseph Sr. |
|
October 10, 1830 visits his father in jail. |
|
Lucy,
176. |
| To
Waterloo |
|
October [17], 1830 moves his mother and younger
siblings to Waterloo. |
|
Lucy,
178. |
| Ordained to the High
Priesthood |
|
June 3, 1831 ordained to the High Priesthood
by Lyman Wight (h) (swh)
in Kirtland. |
|
Minutes
of June [3–6], 1831 |
| Jackson county |
|
June 6, 1831 called to travel to Jackson county
with Reynolds Cahoon, preaching as they go.
On their return in August, they are told not to part company until they
reach their homes. |
|
D&C 52:30, ¶ D&C
61:35 |
| 1831 mission |
|
October 29, 1831 called on a mission with
William E. McLellin (h). They start
November 16, 1831 and labor primarily in eastern Ohio until December 24,
when Samuel leaves his sick companion and returns to Hiram, Ohio. |
|
¶ D&C
66:7
McLellin journals, 45, 46. |
| 1832
mission |
|
1832 mission to New York and New England with
Orson Hyde who describes Samuel as "a
man slow of speech and unlearned, yet a man of good faith and extreme integrity."
In Lowell, Massachsetts, Orson's brother-in-law refuses to put Samuel up
for the night. |
|
¶
Orson Hyde (h)
¶
Orson Hyde (h) |
| High
council |
|
February 17, 1834 called to the
first high council of the Church of Christ, organized (serves to 1838). |
|
Minutes
of Feb. 17, 1834 |
| House of the Lord |
|
March 1835 listed among the 111 workers on the
House of the Lord in Kirtland. |
|
¶ Minutes
of Mar. 7–8, 1835 |
| Fined
for avoiding militia service |
|
October 26, 1835 fined $20 for failure
to attend Ohio militia musters. Defense that he is a minister is rejected.
|
|
Diary-1
in Papers, 2:54n1. |
| Far
West |
|
March [16], 1838 arrives in Missouri
with his family two or three days after Joseph. |
|
Papers,
2:213. |
| Battle
of Crooked River |
|
October 25, 1838 is standing next
to David W. Patten when the apostle is mortally wounded at the Battle of
Crooked River. |
|
|
| Nauvoo
alderman |
|
1841 Nauvoo alderman. |
|
|
| Mason |
|
1842 becomes a Mason. |
|
|
| Declines
bishopric |
|
August 20, 1842 Nauvoo high council
resolves to appoint Samuel bishop in the place of Vinson Knight, deceased,
but Samuel declines. |
|
HC
5:119; Origins,
320n180. |
| Endowed |
|
1843 endowed. |
|
|
| Tavern
keeper |
|
Keeps "a public house" in Plymouth,
thirty-four miles southeast of Nauvoo. |
|
HC
5:201. |
| Anointed
Quorum |
|
March 3, 1844 member of the Anointed Quorum. |
|
Origins,
356n71. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Early
convert |
|
|
| Baptism |
|
Samuel was the first person, after
Joseph and Oliver, to be baptized: |
|
|
| |
|
Soon after Joseph and Oliver had baptized each other, my brother Samuel
H. Smith came to visit us. We soon informed him of what the Lord was
about to do for the Children of men, and to reason with him out of the
Bible, we also showed him that part the work which we had translated,
and laboured to persuade him concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ which
was now about to be revealed in its fullness. He however was not very
easily persuaded of these things, but after much inquiry and explanation
he retired to the woods in order that by secret and fervent prayer he
might obtain of a merciful God, wisdom to enable him to judge for himself:
The result was that he obtained revelation for himself sufficient to convince
him of the truth of our assertions to him, and on the [blank] day of that
same month in which we had been baptized and ordained, Oliver Cowdery
baptized him, and he returned to his father's house greatly glorifying
and praising God, being filled with the Holy Spirit.> |
|
Joseph's
1839 history draft in Papers, 1:232. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Samuel's death
and the succession crisis |
|
|
| Illness |
|
Following the viewing of Joseph's and Hyrum's corpses
in Nauvoo, Samuel tells his mother that he has"had a dreadful
distress in my side ever since I was chased by the mob, and I think
I have received some injury which is going to make me sick." He
went to bed and died a few days later. Lucy attributes his death to
severe fatigue and the shock of the death of his brothers. She had hoped
he would become church patriarch. |
|
Lucy,
750. |
| Succession
crisis |
|
Emma favors stake president
William Marks as her husband's successor in the presidency of the church.
Marks rejected plural marriage, while most other leaders, especially
those of the Anointed Quorum, oppose Marks. |
|
William Clayton journals (Smith),
136. |
| Heir
apparent |
|
To complicate matters,
as William Clayton wrote in his diary on July 12, 1844, "Joseph has
said that if he and Hyrum were taken away Samuel H. Smith would be his
successor."
Samuel was Joseph's oldest living brother after the martyrdom. |
|
William
Clayton journal, July 12, 1844 in William Clayton journals (Smith),
138–139. |
|
|
Later that day, according to Clayton, Emma meets
with church leaders and: |
|
|
| Emma
wants trustee |
|
urged the necessity of appoint a Trustee immediately.
But on investigation, it was considered we could not lawfully do it. …
Dr. Richards and Phelps seem to take all the matters into their own hands
and won't tell us anthing what the intend or have thought to do. |
|
|
|
|
However, on July 15 Emma tells Clayton that she
was: |
|
|
| Emma
v. Richards/Phelps |
|
dissatisfied with the conduct of Richard[s] and
Phelps and says if they undertake to trample upon her she will look to herself.
I conversed with Richards and Phelps and told them our feelings and they
seem to feel more free. They told me the names of those they had thought
of nominating for Trustees, Myself and A. Cutler are two of them. I told
Emma of this and she seems better satisfied. |
|
|
| William alleges poison |
|
In the October 1849 issue of his newspaper, the Melchisedek & Aaronic
Herald, William
Smith publishes a list
of Mormon martyrs, including Samuel H., "who died from the effects
of poison administered to him. He died within one month after the martyrdom
of his brother." |
|
"Martyrs of the
Latter Day Saints," Melchisedek & Aaronic
Herald (Covington, Kentucky) 1, no. 7 (Oct. 1849). Source |
| |
|
The Strangite paper
passes on the same charge the next month under the same title. |
|
"Martyrs
of the Latter Day Saints," Gospel Herald 4, no. 33 (Nov.
1, 1849), 168 in Lucy, 750n122. |
|
|
In a letter to the New York Tribune in 1857, Samuel
amplifies on his allegation: |
|
"Mormonism," letter from William
Smith, New York Tribune, May 28 1857.
Source |
|
|
I have good reason for believing that my brother Samuel H.
Smith, died of poison at Nauvoo, administered by order of Brigham Young
and Willard Richards, only a few weeks subsequent to the unlawful murder
of my other brothers, Joseph and Hiram Smith, while incarcerated in Carthage
jail. Several other persons who were presumed to stand between Brigham
Young and the accomplishment of his ambitions and wicked designs, mysteriously
disappeared from Nauvoo about the same time, and have never been heard
from since. |
|
| Willard Richards and Hosea Stout |
|
In 1892 William Smith charges that Willard Richards
asked Hosea Stout, who was caring for Samuel, to murder him to prevent
him from taking office before the Twelve could assemble. |
|
William
to "Bro. [..] Kelley, June 1, 1892, cited in Origins,
153. |
| Daughter believes allegation |
|
Samuel's daughter Mary writes in 1908 that
her father and Arthur Milliken were poisoned at the same time and the
same doctors were treating both. Arthur discontinued taking the medicine
but Samuel continued to the last dose, which "he spit out and said
he was poisoned. But it was too late—he died." |
|
Mary
B. Smith Norman to Ina Coolbrith, Mar. 27 1908, qtd. in Origins,153. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
Families |
|
|
| Wife |
|
Mary Bailey (1808–1841) md. August 13, 1834 |
|
|
| Children |
|
Susanna Bailey (1835–1905)
Mary Bailey (1837–1916)
Samuel Harrison Bailey (1838–1914)
Lucy Bailey (1841–1841) |
|
|
| Wife |
|
Levira Clark (1815–1893) md. April 29, 1841 |
|
|
| Children |
|
Levira Annette Clark (1842–1888)
Lovisa C. (1843–?)
Lucy J. C. (1844–1844) |
|
Levira is the first wife of Joseph F. Smith. |
|
|
Biographies
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|