Joseph Fielding Smith

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Joseph Fielding Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith.jpg
10th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
January 23, 1970 (1970-01-23) – July 2, 1972 (1972-07-02)
Predecessor David O. McKay
Successor Harold B. Lee
Counselor in the First Presidency
October 29, 1965 (1965-10-29) – January 18, 1970 (1970-01-18)
Called by David O. McKay
End reason Dissolution of First Presidency upon the death of David O. McKay
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 9, 1951 (1951-04-09) – January 23, 1970 (1970-01-23)
End reason Became President of the Church
Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
August 8, 1950 (1950-08-08) – April 4, 1951 (1951-04-04)
End reason Became President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 7, 1910 (1910-04-07) – January 23, 1970 (1970-01-23)
Called by Joseph F. Smith
End reason Became President of the Church
LDS Church Apostle
April 7, 1910 (1910-04-07) – July 2, 1972 (1972-07-02T1876)
Called by Joseph F. Smith
Reason John Henry Smith added to First Presidency
Reorganization at end of term Bruce R. McConkie ordained
Personal details
Born Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr.
(1876-07-19)July 19, 1876
Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States
Died July 2, 1972(1972-07-02) (aged 95)
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Resting place Salt Lake City Cemetery
40°46′37.92″N 111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772000°N 111.858000°W / 40.7772000; -111.858000
Spouse Louie Emily Shurtliff
(1898-1908)(her death)
Ethel Georgina Reynolds
(1908-1937)(her death)
Jessie Ella Evans
(1938-1971)(her death)
Children 11
Signature  
Signature of Joseph Fielding Smith


Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. (19 July 1876 – 2 July 1972) was the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1970 until his death in 1972. He was the son of Joseph F. Smith, who was the sixth president of the LDS Church. His grandfather was Hyrum Smith, brother of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith, Jr., who was Joseph Fielding's great-uncle.

Smith was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1910, when his father was president of the church. When he became president of the LDS Church, he was the oldest person to attain that office up to that point, which continued until Gordon B. Hinckley reached Smith's equivalent age in June 2006 (Hinckley continued as president for another 19 months). Smith's time as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1951 to 1970 has been surpassed by few; he served in that capacity during the entire presidency of David O. McKay.

Smith spent some of his years among the Twelve Apostles as the Church Historian and Recorder.

Smith was a religious scholar and a prolific writer. Many of his works are used as references for church members. He wrote the text of a hymn called "Does the Journey Seem Long?" which appears as hymn #127 in the current edition of the LDS hymnal.

Contents

Early life [edit]

Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., was the first son born to Julina Lambson Smith, the second wife and first plural wife of Joseph F. Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. By agreement between Joseph F. Smith and Julina, Smith was given his father's name, even though Joseph F. Smith's third and fourth wives had previously had sons.[1] Growing up, Smith lived in Joseph F. Smith's large family home at 333 West 100 North.[2] The home stood directly opposite of the University of Deseret (name changed in 1892 to the University of Utah),[2] on the site of the modern LDS Business College.

In January 1879, when Smith was two years old, the U.S. Supreme Court in Reynolds v. United States upheld the constitutionality of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862, which had criminalized the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage.[3] Due to the aggressive federal enforcement of this ruling, as well as the Edmunds Act of 1882 and the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, many LDS Church leaders, including Smith's father, were either imprisoned or forced into hiding and exile during most of the 1880s.[4] In January 1885, Smith's parents and his younger sister, Julina, left for the Sandwich Islands (modern Hawaii), where Smith's father had served a mission as a teenager in the 1850s.[4] In their absence, Smith continued to live in the family home with his brothers and sisters and his father's other wives, whom he lovingly referred to as "aunties".[5] Smith's mother returned to Salt Lake City in 1887, followed later by his father.[4] Even after his return, Joseph F. Smith was unable to openly visit and care for his wives and children until receiving a presidential pardon from U.S. President Benjamin Harrison in September 1891.[6]

Smith's mother, Julina, worked as a midwife to help provide for the family; she delivered nearly 1,000 babies in her career without ever having a mother or infant die in childbirth.[7] As a boy, Smith often drove his mother by wagon to the various deliveries that she attended in Salt Lake City. Smith's primary schooling took place in "ward schools", which were semi-formal schools run by members of each ward in the 19th century and taught the traditional "three R's": reading, writing, and arithmetic.[8] As a teenager, he completed two years of study at the Latter-day Saint College, an institution equivalent to the modern U.S. high school, which provided courses in the basic areas of mathematics, geography, history, basic science, and penmanship.[9] After leaving the college, Smith began working as a stock clerk doing manual labor at ZCMI to supplement the family's income.[9] Smith was present in the large assembly room of the Salt Lake Temple for its dedication on 6 April 1893 by church president Wilford Woodruff.[10]

Family and personal life [edit]

Smith married his first wife, Louie Emily "Emyla" Shurtliff (born 16 June 1876) on April 26, 1898. In March 1899, Smith was called on a mission to Great Britain by church president Lorenzo Snow. On May 12, 1899, Smith was set apart as a missionary and ordained a Seventy by his father. A small group of missionaries, including Smith and his older brother, Joseph Richards Smith, left the next day for England. After his return from the British mission in July 1901, Smith and his wife Louise had two daughters, Josephine and Julina. Louie Shurtliff Smith died of complications of a third pregnancy on March 28, 1908.[11]

Smith married Ethel Georgina Reynolds (born 23 October 1889), the daughter of prominent LDS Church leader George Reynolds, on November 2, 1908. They had four girls (Emily, Naomi, Lois, and Amelia) and five boys (Joseph Fielding - most often called Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Lewis Warren, George Reynolds, Douglas Allan and Milton Edmund). Their youngest daughter, Amelia, married Bruce R. McConkie; McConkie became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shortly after Smith's death. Ethel Reynolds Smith died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 26 August 1937, at age 47.[12]

Ethel had specifically requested that Jessie Ella Evans (December 29, 1902-1971) sing at her funeral. Evans, born to Jonathan Evans and his wife, the former Janet Buchanan, joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 1918,[13] was a member of the American Light Opera Company (1923-1927) and the Salt Lake County Recorder.[14] In November 1937 Evans and Smith got engaged.[15]

In April 1938, Smith married Evans in the Salt Lake Temple. The marriage was performed by Heber J. Grant.[16] The couple had no children, although Milton was eleven when Joseph and Jessie married, with George and Douglas still under the age of 18. Jessie Evans Smith died on 2 August 1971.[17]

Church service [edit]

Smith while a member of the Quorum of the Twelve (Ca. 1942)

After completing his mission in 1901, Smith began working in the office of the Church Historian and Recorder. He authored the book entitled The Origins of the Reorganized Church and the Question of Succession in 1909,[18] which was written to defend the LDS Church against the recent proselytizing of missionaries for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) in Utah. He was the acting recorder of the general conference in 1910 when he was called as an apostle. Prior to his call as a general authority, Smith served as the secretary and treasurer of the Genealogical Society of Utah.[19] In 1921 Smith assumed the office of Church Historian and Recorder, which he held until 1970.

Early in his apostleship, his creationist[20][21][22] views on the dispute between Mormonism's Biblical teachings and the theory of evolution brought him attention. (See Mormonism and evolution.)

Smith spent most of his time as an apostle living in Salt Lake City. He also was president of the Salt Lake Temple from 1945 to 1949. During this time, Smith was sent on a tour of the church's Spanish-American Mission. Before his return to Salt Lake he informed the president of the Arizona Temple that he would recommend to the First Presidency that the temple ceremonies be translated into Spanish.[23]

Smith served as president of the Genealogical Society of Utah and its successor the Genealogical Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1934 to 1961. At the time of his release from this position he had been president of the Quorum of the Twelve for over a decade. During the late 1950s, Smith attempted to reduce staff turnover at the Society by trying to convince the First Presidency that women should be permitted to stay on as employees after they married. However, Smith was only able to get a change to allow them to work six months past marriage.[24]

Service abroad [edit]

Smith did, however, at times take church assignments abroad. In 1939 he was touring the missions in Europe and supervised the withdrawal of missionaries immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II. In 1950 Smith toured the church's Mexican Mission.[25] In 1955 Smith made an extensive tour of Asia. On this journey he dedicated Korea and the Philippines for the preaching of the gospel. In 1957 he went to Europe for the dedication of the London Temple and also presided over the excommunication of several missionaries in the French mission who had apostatized.

Administration as President of the Church [edit]

Smith became President of the Church on January 23, 1970, following the death of David O. McKay. Although he only served as president of the church for two and a half years, his administration introduced several new initiatives: Area Conferences were introduced; significant organizational restructuring in the church's Sunday School system and the Church Department of Social Services; and the church magazines were realigned into the Ensign, New Era and Friend in English, with centralized planning for all publications. His tenure was also marked by steady growth in the number of serving missionaries and the dedication of LDS temples in Ogden and Provo, Utah.

Death [edit]

Smith died at Salt Lake City at age 95. He was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

  • Grave marker of Joseph Fielding Smith.

See also [edit]

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Works [edit]

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

Citations
  1. ^ Gibbons (1992): 1.
  2. ^ a b Gibbons (1992): 3.
  3. ^ Gibbons (1992): 13.
  4. ^ a b c Gibbons (1992): 14.
  5. ^ Gibbons (1992): 15.
  6. ^ Gibbons (1992): 42.
  7. ^ Gibbons (1992): 17.
  8. ^ Gibbons (1992): 19.
  9. ^ a b Gibbons (1992): 44.
  10. ^ Gibbons (1992): 47.
  11. ^ Smith & Stewart 1972, p. 162
  12. ^ Smith & Stewart 1972, pp. 216, 249
  13. ^ Jessie Evans Smith 1902–1971," Ensign, September 1971, p. 23
  14. ^ Card, Orson Scott. "Songs affirm our heritage," Mormon Times, 29 January 2009
  15. ^ Smith & Stewart 1972, p. 255
  16. ^ Smith & Stewart 1972, p. 254
  17. ^ Smith & Stewart 1972, p. 373
  18. ^ Origin of the Reorganized Church and the question of succession (Open Library)
  19. ^ Allen, Embry & Mehr 1995, pp. 71–74
  20. ^ Richard Sherlock, "'We Can See No Advantage to a Continuation of the Discussion': The Roberts/Smith/Talmage Affair," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 13(3):63–78 (Fall 1980)
  21. ^ William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffrey (2005). Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books) ISBN 1-58958-093-1
  22. ^ Joseph Fielding Smith (1954). Man, His Origin and Destiny (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book)
  23. ^ Balderas, Eduardo. "Northward to Mesa", Ensign, September 1972, p. 30
  24. ^ Allen, Embry & Mehr 1995, pp. 72, 150
  25. ^ Church News Index[dead link]
Bibliography

External links [edit]

Media related to Joseph Fielding Smith at Wikimedia Commons

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titles
Preceded by
David O. McKay		 President of the Church
January 23, 1970–July 2, 1972		 Succeeded by
Harold B. Lee
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 9, 1951–January 23, 1970
Preceded by
Anthony W. Ivins		 Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 7, 1910–January 23, 1970		 Succeeded by
James E. Talmage
Counselors in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Official church historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Authority control
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