Lucy Mack Smith

Lucy Mack Smith

Lucy Mack Smith (born July 8, 1775 in Gilsum , New Hampshire Colony , † May 14, 1856 ) was the mother of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith . She also wrote her memoir , entitled Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations . She was an important leader in Mormonism during Joseph's lifetime.

Background and early life

Lucy was born on July 8, 1775 in Gilsum, New Hampshire . It was a time of economic and social change. The second half of the 18th century saw a further development within the American family. Although the American Revolutionary War had intensified these changes, the reason for these changes was economic. Mack was proud of her father's involvement in the American Revolutionary War . Although her father did not have an organized belief system, he was glad that his wife looked after the spiritual and intellectual needs of his children. Mack's mother was a "moral mother" as celebrated at the time. Mack's older brother became a "seeker" and formed his own religious community. Her two older sisters both had a vision that their sins would be forgiven and that they should call to repentance. Such gestures of faith were encouraged by the emerging climate of religious renewal at this time. Mack's father received his own religious conversion after suffering mentally and physically. In rural New England , the proliferation of Protestant sects and the pre-Victorian reference to the family as a moral force added to Mack's life. Mack was a product of that environment.

Marriage and children

Your memoir .

Lucy Mack married Joseph Smith, Sr. in January 1796. She brought a wedding present of $ 1,000. Lucy took responsibility for the spiritual and spiritual education of the children. Therefore she was very influential in the genesis of Mormonism . After six years of marriage, she became seriously ill. It was tuberculosis diagnosed with. Her two sisters had already died of the disease and the doctors gave them up. Smith felt unprepared for death. She prays all night and asked God to let her live. She really wanted to be there for her two sons (Alvin and Hyrum ) and her husband. She pleaded with God that if she survived this disease, she would serve him wholeheartedly. She heard a voice telling her to believe in God. From that day on, Smith began a search for a religion that would bring her salvation.

Smith continued to educate her children in spiritual and secular matters. She taught the Bible to her ten children (the first child died in childbirth) . Joseph Smith was illiterate , but made great strides when he received home schooling from his mother. Smith's ambitions and belief in their children were not uncommon for mothers during this period. One of their sons, William Smith, confirmed that his mother was very interested in the spiritual and material well-being of her children. She was also concerned about her husband's spiritual well-being. Smith took the initiative to seek the "true Church" for her family. When her husband got seven symbolic dreams, she was able to describe five of them very precisely.

Book of Mormon

Smith's efforts to find the true Church continued. It went from sect to sect. She and three of her children joined the Presbyterian Church , the only one with a meetinghouse in Palmyra. Smith wanted her family to be united in one religion. But she was unable to convince her husband or son Joseph to join this church.

When Joseph received the gold plates in 1827 , she stopped attending the Presbyterian Church. All of their attention has been directed to bringing salvation to the entire human family. When Joseph organized Latter-day Saints' Church of Jesus Christ , she saw her dream come true of uniting all families under one religion.

Church service

Smith became a mother figure for converts to the Church of Christ . She shared her home with newly arrived converts in Kirtland . She participated in the missionary work and defended her faith before a Presbyterian minister. She supported her husband, Joseph Smith, Sr. , who was the Church's Chief Patriarch. He insisted that she go with him when he distributes his patriarchal blessing. When their sons Joseph and Hyrum were in prison, their influence in the Church waned. She took care of her dying husband. Her dying husband's blessings should confirm her role as a mother who is an instrument of God.

Death in the family

Her sons Joseph and Hyrum were murdered on June 27, 1844. A month later, their son Samuel died. About that time, Smith said: “I was left devastated in my distress. I raised six sons to be men. But only one of them was left. This one is too far away to give me words of comfort at this sad hour. ” William , the surviving son, was on a mission in New York when his brothers died.

Succession crisis

After the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum, the Church experienced a succession crisis. Hyrum was the chosen successor and it was unclear who would lead the church when both were killed. Smith initially supported James Strang's leadership , while a majority of the Mormons chose Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . James Strang released a document allegedly signed by Smith, their son William, and their three daughters. That document proclaimed that Stang was the rightful successor of Joseph Smith . However, in general conference in 1844, Smith announced that she hoped all of her children would move west with the Mormons. She even wanted to go west herself.

At that time, Smith became a symbol of continuity and again more important. This was due to Young's poor relationship with Emma Hale Smith , Joseph's widow. Smith also asked permission to speak at general conference in Nauvoo in 1845. After sharing her family's suffering for the Church, she asked if she deserved the title of Mother in Israel . Young gave her this title after everyone in attendance answered "yes".

Smith made no comment on the quarrels in the Church over succession. Her son William refused to follow Young and the quorum. One thing is certain, however. She never tried to travel to the Utah Territory . Smith stayed with Emma Hale Smith and her son Joseph Smith III in Nauvoo.

relationship

Smith was Oliver Cowdery's third cousin .

John Fuller (1656-1726)

Shubael Fuller (1697–1769)

siblings

John Fuller Jr (1697-1758)

Lydia Fuller (1709–1778)

Cousins

William Fuller (1729)

Lydia Gates (1732-1817)

2nd cousins

Rebecca Fuller (1768)

Lucy Mack Smith

3rd cousins

Oliver Cowdery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "According to women's historian Linda Kerber, the growing market economy and 'industrial technology reshaped the contours of domestic labor'" (7). “This shift toward commercialism pushed the father's work farther away from the home, with the result that the mother now took over the father's former role of final responsibility for the children's education and for their moral and religious training” (Bloch, 113). “Magazines and educational publications heralded mothers as 'the chief transmitters of religious and moral values'” (Bloch, 101).
2. ↑ “'All the flowery eloquence of the pulpit,' he said, could not match the influence of his wife on their children” (chap. 1).
3. ^ "As historians have noted, clergymen 'encouraged people to induce" visions "" (Buel, 11).
4. ↑ “'The grip of colonial religious culture was broken and a new American style of religious diversity came into being.' Such a setting became fertile ground for religious experimentation and the birth of indigenous religious sects, some of which 'undertook to redefine social and economic order through the model of the extended family.' Without stable institutional structures, the family thus became the 'crucible' for 'forming primary identity, socialization, and cultural norms for rural life' ”(Marini, 7, 56, 31).
5. ^ Smith, chap. 11
6. ↑ Bloch, 118
7. ↑ (Bird 2: 122)
8. ↑ “She prevailed on us to attend the meetings [the Methodist revival being preached by George Lane], and almost the whole family became interested in the matter and seekers after truth. ... My mother continued her importunities and exertions to interest us in the importance of seeking for the salvation of our immortal souls, until almost all of the family became either converted or seriously inclined ”(Vogel 1: 494–95).
9. ^ John Matzko : The Encounter of the Young Joseph Smith with Presbyterianism . In: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought . 40, No. 3, 2007, pp. 68-70. : "Lucy Mack Smith had been reared by a devout Congregationalist mother through a childhood that can truly be described as 'a series of losses.' Thus, not surprisingly, when Lucy reached Palmyra, she developed a connection with the Presbyterian church, even though she held aloof from membership. "
10. ↑ “She said, 'We were now confirmed in the opinion that God was about to bring to light something upon which we could stay our minds, or that he would give us a more perfect knowledge of the plan of salvation and the redemption of the human family. This caused us greatly to rejoice, the sweetest union and happiness pervaded our house, and tranquility reigned in our midst '”(Smith, ch. 19).
11. ↑ chap. 54
12. ↑ “ Brigham Young said: 'We have extended the helping hand to Mother Smith. She has the best carriage in the city, and, while she lives, shall ride in it when and where she pleases' ”( Millennial Star , vol. 7, p. 23).
13. ↑ “Young formally conferred this title on Smith by saying: 'All who consider Mother Smith as a mother in Israel, signify by saying» yes. «One universal» yes «rang throughout'” ( History of the Church 7: 470-71 ).
14. ↑ (Quaife, 246-48)
15. ^ Cowdery genealogy ; Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 222; Bushman, RSR , 578, n.51. There is also a distant geographical connection between the Smiths and the Cowderys. During the 1790s, both Joseph Smith, Sr. and two of Oliver Cowdery's relatives were living in Tunbridge , Vermont.

credentials

• Leonard J. Arrington: The Intellectual Tradition of the Latter-day Saints . In: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought . tape 4 , 1969, p. 13-26 .
• Leonard J. Arrington: Mothers of the Prophets . 3. Edition. Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah 2009, ISBN 978-1-60641-044-8 , pp. 1-28 .
• William Buchan: Advice to Mothers on the Subject of Their Own Health and on the Means of Promoting the Health, Strength and Beauty of their Offspring . John Bioren, 1804.
• Joy Day and Richard Buel: The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America . WW Norton & Company, 1995, ISBN 0-393-31210-0 .
• William Kelley: The Hill Cumorah and the Book of Mormon . The Saints' Herald, Plano, Illinois 1881 ( boap.org ).
• Stephen A. Marini: Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England . Signature Books, 2000, ISBN 1-58348-531-7 .
• Jan Shipps: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition . University of Illinois Press , Liverpool 1987, ISBN 0-252-01417-0 .
• Lucy Mack Smith: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations . SW Richards, Liverpool 1853 ( archive.org ).
• Barbara Welter: The cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860 . In: American Quarterly . tape 18 , 1966, p. 151-174 .
• Lucy Smith: Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir . Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah 2001, ISBN 1-56085-137-6 ( signaturebooks.com ).
• Richard S. Van Wagoner: A Book of Mormons . Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah 1982, ISBN 0-941214-06-0 ( signaturebookslibrary.org ).
• Nancy Woloch: Women and the American Experience . McGraw-Hill, 1999, ISBN 0-07-229319-5 .

Further literature

• Lucy Mack Smith in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism