| The Trials of Young Joseph F. Smith (8) |
Joseph as husband of plural
families, deals with death of children, his violent temper, acknowledges personal
failings; his victories.
| essentially a domestic man | ||||
| Husband and father | The divorce probably did not improve
Joseph's temper, but his marriage to Julina was blessed, as, for the most
part, were the marriages to his succeeding wives. They all dealt with the
jealousies, personality conflicts, and misunderstandings of most relationships,
but considering the stresses they had to deal with, Joseph was remarkably
successful as a husband and father. |
|||
| Sacred precincts of my home | "I am essentially a domestic
man," he wrote Julina. "I lack cosmopolitan qualities. I could
burrow in the sacred precincts of my home and be content to dwell forever
in the society and hearts of my family, and no more go out from them." |
JFS to Julina Lambson Smith, January 21, 1875. | ||
| Josephine, the apple of his eye | On August 14, 1867 (eleven days before
completing his response to Levira's charges), Julina blessed Joseph with
his first child, Mercy Josephine. In 1869 Julina and Joseph's next wife,
Sarah Ellen Richards, both bore daughters. Sarah's infant lived only six
days. Julina's daughter, Mary Sophronia, survived, but Josephine remained
the apple of her father's eye. |
|||
| Then in the spring of 1870 Josephine
became ill. Joseph stayed up with her several nights in a row. On June 5
wrote in his diary, |
||||
|
||||
| Death | She died the next day. Joseph grieved.
"It is one month yesterday since my little loved, cherished, darling
Josephine died," he wrote on July 7. "O! that I could have saved
her to grow up to womanhood. I miss her every day, and I am lonely. My heart
is sad. God forgive my weakness, if it is wrong to love my little ones as
I love them and especially my first darling babe." |
|||
| Marriage to Edna, children | Joseph married Julina's sister, Edna, on January 1, 1871, and on January 30 Sarah delivered another daughter, Leonora. Edna brought the first son, Hyrum Mack, into the family on March 21, 1872. | |||
| the huge, ugly black bird skulking on the ground | ||||
| James McKnight | In September or October 1872, James
and Mary Ann Fielding McKnight moved into the house next door. If ever there
was a man to test Joseph F.'s patience it was James McKnight. He had an
irritating habit of turning his animals into the Smith corn patch at night,
where they did considerable damage—and he had married one of Joseph
F.'s cousins, and treated her shabbily. |
Mary
Ann McKnight to JFS, June 9 and August [n.d.] 1875; JFS diary, December
31, 1873; Mercy R. Thompson to JFS, May 14, 1875. When Joseph's barn burned to the ground in 1875, It was widely believed that McKnight was responsible. L. John Nuttall to JFS, June 21, 1875. After the fire, Julina informed Mary Ann that Joseph had come to regret his advice earlier advice that she stay with McKnight. Julina Lambson Smith to JFS, June 6, 1875. Mary Ann was Joseph Fielding's daughter by his second wife, and McKnight's fourth wife. |
||
| In late December Joseph dreamed
he heard |
||||
| Dream of caning a huge black bird |
|
JFS diary, December 21, 1872. | ||
| Joseph paid attention to his dreams, and this one seemed to be a portent of things to come. | ||||
| JFS
clubs McKnight Turns himself in |
On New Year's Day, 1873 he went
next door to "have a settlement" with McKnight. An argument ensued,
"He insulted me, and would give me no satisfaction. I struck him 3
time with my cane. I then went and complained of myself to [Justice Jeter]
Clinton, for breaking the peace, explaining the whole matter." Then
he returned to see how McKnight, ten years older than he, was faring. |
JFS
diary November 22, 1872; January 1, 7, 1873. At April conference, Joseph said he "did not claim to be perfect, as he had many weaknesses; he was a passionate man, and had sometimes been, to a certain extent, overcome by it, but had not done anything criminal in that respect. The gospel kept him at peace with his neighbors and his brethren, with whom he never had any quarrels—that is, said Mr. Smith, but to a very limited extent." Salt Lake Tribune, May 3, 1873. |
||
| Apology, accepted | The next day Joseph returned and "apologized for losing my temper, and asked his forgiveness for striking him." McKnight accepted the apology. | |||
| McKnight's letter to JFS | A year later McKnight wrote Joseph
a nasty letter, claiming his injuries were painful and permanent, and alleging
some doctors even believed his life would be shortened. He added, |
James McKnight to JFS, January 25, 1874. | ||
| Your life-long plea of uncontrollable frenzy at the sight of some hobgoblin the heart of your temper |
|
|||
| A quarter of a century past | The year the Smith family journeyed
to Utah with Cornelius P. Lott was 1848—reasonably close to "a
quarter of a century past." McKnight had evidently heard of Joseph's
rage against Lott. |
|||
| That feeling born in you | Julina understood the problem went
back even further. In 1875, when Brigham Young was briefly jailed for polygamy,
she wrote Joseph in England, "I have felt thankful lately that you
were in England. If you had been here the night the President was sent to
prison I think it would have riled that feeling you had born in you." |
Julina Lambson Smith to JFS, March 14, 1875. | ||
| the question is could I do better | ||||
| To England | Fortunately for everyone, Joseph
had been called to preside over the European Mission and departed on February
28, 1874. |
|||
| In Liverpool he had more time to
reflect on his life. At thirty-six he had three wives and nine living children.
On January 21, 1875 he wrote Julina, |
||||
| I deeply regret many foolish, wrong, impetuous actions |
|
|||
| When we forget to love each the other |
|
|||
| A propencity to find fault | On the same day he wrote Edna, "I
notice in myself a propencity to find fault or grumble, or to be dissatisfied
with as many things as I can. I am sorry for it and I am glad I can see
it to some extent and I hope to overcome it." |
|||
| 1905 | He hadn't conquered his weaknesses,
but he had begun to see them more clearly. In 1905, when he was sixty-six,
he wrote a son, |
JFS to Alvin F. Smith, June 8, 1905. | ||
| My greatest difficulty, my temper |
|
|||
| Trials of 1904 | This he wrote a year after Frank J. Cannon launched vicious personal attacks on him in the Tribune, a year after his difficult appearance before the Senate committee investigating the election of Reed Smoot, a year after he was forced to begin the end of plural marriage. It was a year he needed the utmost control of his temper—and he had succeeded. | |||
| Still learning | Like all of us, Joseph still had blind spots, even at sixty-six. But he had also learned from the trials of his youth. He recognized most of his weakensses. Some he had conquered, others needed work—but he still had thirteen years before he would be called home. | |||