Emma Hale Smith

Emma Hale Smith about 1844

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon ( July 10, 1804 in Harmony Township , Susquehanna County , Pennsylvania , † April 30, 1879 in Nauvoo , Illinois ) was the first wife of Joseph Smith and an early Mormon leader during the life of Joseph Smith and after as a member in the fellowship of Christ . In 1842 she was named first Relief Society general president.

Life

Early life and first marriage, 1804–1829

Emma Hale was born the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elisabeth Lewis Hale in Harmony Township, Pennsylvania . She first met her future husband, Joseph Smith, in 1825 . Smith lived near Palmyra, New York , but lived temporarily with the Hales in Harmony, where he worked in a silver mine . Although the mine was depleted of silver, Smith returned to Harmony several times because of Emma. Emma's father refused to consent to his daughter's marriage to Smith because he saw his profession as dishonorable. On January 17, 1827, Emma and Joseph crossed the state border and were married in New York the following day. The couple moved to live near Smith's parents' home in New York. On September 22, 1827, Joseph and Emma took a horse and their belongings and went to see Joseph Knight, Sr. They then went up a hill now known as Cumorah , where Joseph is said to have received the gold plates . That caused a lot of excitement in the area. In December 1827 they moved back to Harmony and some of them got along with Emma's parents. They in turn helped her and Joseph own a small house and farm. As soon as they moved in, Joseph began work on the Book of Mormon , with Emma as his scribe. So Emma became a physical witness to the gold plates. In Harmony she gave birth to a child named Alvin, who only lived for a few hours on June 15, 1828.

In May 1829 they left Harmony and lived with David Whitmer . There they are said to have seen the angel Moroni . Joseph later finished working on the Book of Mormon and published it in March 1830.

"Chosen Lady" and the Early Church, 1830–1839

On April 6, 1830, Joseph and five other men organized Christ's Church . Emma was baptized by Oliver Cowdery on June 28, 1830, in Colesville, where there was an early branch of the Church. During the next few weeks Joseph was arrested, charged, and exonerated from treasure hunting charges. Soon after, Joseph received a revelation that Emma should not be sad and made her a great promise: "You are forgiven for your sins, you are a chosen lady, that I have called ”.

Emma gave birth to Joseph Smith III on November 6, 1832 in Kirtland . Joseph's first son to reach adulthood. A second son named Frederick Granger Williams Smith followed on June 29, 1836. While they were in Kirtland, their reaction to tobacco use was one reason Joseph received the revelation now referred to as the " Word of Wisdom. " . Emma was also the editor of the book Collection of Sacred Hymns . The bankruptcy of the Kirtland Safety Society forced the family to leave Kirtland. They tried to start over in Far West, Missouri , but Joseph was arrested and imprisoned there.

Early Nauvoo Years, 1839–1844

Emma and her family lived with friendly non-Mormons in Quincy until Joseph escaped from prison in Missouri. The family moved to a new Mormon settlement called " Nauvoo ". On March 17, 1842, the Relief Society was established as the Church's women's organization. Emma became the first female president of the association when it was founded. Shortly before that, she also became a member of the Elected Quorum , a prayer group of important women and men in the Church. Rumors of multiple marriages and other practices became public in 1842. Emma was involved in Campania, which publicly condemned polygamy and absolved her husband of all guilt. Emma authorized and was the main signatory of a petition, in the summer of 1842, with a thousand signatures from women, denying that Joseph was linked to polygamy. As Relief Society general president, she authorized the publication of a certificate, in October 1842, condemning polygamy and denying that Joseph invented or participated in it. In March 1844, Emma published:

“We raise our voices and our hands against the 'Spiritual Women System' of John C. Bennett as a vicious plan to seduce women. The people who always use the same lyre want to popularize it for their greed. While the marriage bed is immaculately honorable, let us condemn polygamy, bigamy, fornication, adultery and prostitution from the hearts of honest men and throw them into the chasm of fallen nature. "

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In June 1844, the Nauvoo Expositor was published by dissatisfied church members. The printing press was destroyed on the orders of the City Council, of which Joseph Smith was a member. These events resulted in Smith's arrest and imprisonment in Carthage . While he was in prison, a mob of 200 men stormed the building and killed Joseph and his brother Hyrum on the afternoon of June 27, 1844.

Later Nauvoo Years 1844–1879

Emma later in her life circa 1870

Grave of Joseph, Emma, ​​and Hyrum Smith

Almost two years later, the non-Mormon Mayor of Nauvoo, Lewis C. Bidamon , proposed marriage and became Emma's second husband on December 23, 1847. Bidamon then lived in the Smiths' home and became the stepfather to the children of Emma. Emma and Bidamon tried to run a shop and tried to run their big house as a hotel, but Nauvoo had too few residents and visitors to make these businesses profitable. Emma and her family remained real estate rich but poor in money.

Joseph's death disrupted both the Church and the family. The ownership structure between the family and the church had to be clarified. The church has no clear successor and a succession crisis has arisen. After meeting on August 8, a ward of the Church elected the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as the governing body of the Church. Thus was Brigham Young de facto president of the church in Nauvoo. The relationship between Young and Emma got worse and worse. Emma's friends, as well as the Smith family, were repulsed by Young's followers. When Young made the decision to relocate the Church to the Salt Lake Valley , the majority of the Mormons left town and Emma was left with her children in the empty town. When their eldest son, Joseph Smith III, grew up, the Amboy Conference was held in Amboy . There it was decided on April 6, 1860 that her son would become president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Today this church is called the Community of Christ .

polygamy

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Emma announced during her lifetime that she was unaware of any alleged polygamous practices of her husband. She even proclaimed on her deathbed that there were never any polygamous practices by Joseph:

“Never were such things as polygamy or spiritual plural marriage taught, publicly or privately, before my husband died. I don't know anything about it ... He had no other wife besides me. "

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Emma also said that she only found out about such rumors later. Their opposition to polygamy was inherited by the fellowship of Christ and a hallmark of the church. Many historians of the Christian community have tried to prove that the practice began with Brigham Young . However, Young indicated that he had inherited the practice from Joseph and that his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , would be the rightful followers for practicing polygamy. The LDS Church even published a list of Joseph Smith's wives as early as 1887 intended to prove that the fellowship of Christ and Emma made false statements about Joseph.

Further literature

• Emma Hale Smith in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Times and Seasons , April 1, 1842, p. 743
2. ^ History of the Church , 4 : 567; 5 : 25.
3. ^ The workers were searching for a silver mine for Josiah Stowell, a farmer whose home still stands on the north side of the Susquehanna River on New York State Route 7 in Nineveh, New York, just west of Afton.
4. ↑ The marriage site is now the Afton Fairgrounds, located on New York State Route 41 on the east side of the Susquehanna River; and a New York State Historical Marker commemorates the location.
5. ↑ "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." Last Testimony of Sister Emma in History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , 8 vols. Independence, Missouri: Herald House , 1951, 3 : 356.
6. ↑ Tom Pettit: Moroni Appeared to 17 Different People! . In: Living Heritage Tours . Retrieved April 24, 2016.
7. ↑ In 1838, the name was changed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints : Manuscript History of the Church , LDS Church Archives, book A-1, p. 37; reproduced in Dean C. Jessee (comp.) (1989). The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) 1 : 302-03.
8. ↑ Glass looking was a common scam in which the glass looker claimed to have the ability to find buried treasure for a fee.
9. ↑ Emma's 1835 Hymnal . Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Times and Seasons 3 [August 1, 1842]: 869.
11. ↑ Times and Seasons 3 [October 1, 1842]: 940.
12. ↑ "The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo" in "Virtue Will Triumph", Nauvoo Neighbor , March 20, 1844. "The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo" is also referred to in History of the Church 6 : 236, 241.
13. ^ History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , volume 3, pp. 355-56.
14. ^ Saints' Herald 65 : 1044-45.
15. ^ Journal of Mormon History , Spring 2005, Volume 31, p. 70.
16. ↑ A journey to Great-Salt-Lake City, Volume 2 By Julius Lucius Brenchle p119-120: “The doctrine which Orson Pratt discoursed upon this morning was the subject of a revelation anterior to the death of Joseph Smith. It is in opposition to what is received by a small minority of the world; but our people have believed it for many years, though it may not have been practiced by the elders. The original of this revelation has been burnt. William Clayton wrote it down from the Prophet's mouth; it found its way into the hands of Bishop [Newel K.] Whitney [father of Smith's 16th wife Sarah Ann Whitney], who obtained Joseph Smith's permission to copy it. Sister Emma [Smith] burnt the original. I mention this to you because such of you as are aware of the revelation, suppose that it no longer exists. I prophesy to you that the principle of polygamy will make its way, and will triumph over the prejudices and all the priestcraft of the day; It will be embraced by the most intelligent parts of the world as one of the best doctrines ever proclaimed to any people. You have no reason whatever to be uneasy; there is no occasion for your fearing that a vile mob will come hither to trample underfoot the sacred liberty which, by the Constitution of our country, is guaranteed to us. It has been a long time publicly known, and in fact was known during his life, that Joseph had more than one wife. A Senator, a member of Congress, was well aware of it, and was not the less our friend for all that; so much so, as to say that this principle was not adopted by the United States, we would live to see human life reduced to a maximum of thirty years. He said openly that Joseph had hit upon the best plan for re-invigorating men, and assuring a long life to them; and, also, that the Mormons are very good and very virtuous. We could not have proclaimed this principle a few years ago; everything must abide its time, but I am now ready to proclaim it. This revelation has been in my possession for many years, and who knew it? No one, except those whose business it was to know it. I have a patent lock to my writing desk, and nothing gets out of it that ought not to get out of it. Without the doctrine which this revelation makes known to us, no one could raise himself high enough to become a god. "
17. ↑ Jenson, A. Historical Record 6 [May 1887]: 233-34.