Samuel H. Smith (Latter Day Saints)

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Samuel H. Smith
Drawing of Samuel H. Smith
Personal details
Born (1808-03-13)March 13, 1808
Tunbridge, Vermont
Died July 30, 1844(1844-07-30) (aged 36)
Nauvoo, Illinois
Resting place Smith Family Cemetery
40°32′25.98″N 91°23′31.06″W / 40.5405500°N 91.3919611°W / 40.5405500; -91.3919611 (Smith Family Cemetery)
Spouse Mary Bailey (1834-1841)
Levira Clark 1841-1844
Children 7
Parents Joseph Smith, Sr.
Lucy Mack Smith


Samuel Harrison Smith (13 March 1808 – 30 July 1844) was one of the younger brothers of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Samuel was a leader in his own right and a successful missionary. Smith is commonly regarded as the first Latter Day Saint missionary following the organization of the Church of Christ by his brother Joseph. One of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates, Samuel Smith remained devoted to his brother and his church throughout his life.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born in Tunbridge, Vermont to Joseph Smith, Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith, Samuel moved with his family to western New York by the 1820s. When Smith's father missed a mortgage payment on the family farm on the outskirts of Manchester Township, near Palmyra, a local Quaker named Lemuel Durfee purchased the land and allowed the Smiths to continue to live there in exchange for Samuel's labor at Durfee's store.

[edit] Book of Mormon witness and church establishment

On May 25, 1829, Smith became the third person baptized as a Latter Day Saint.[1] Smith was baptized by Oliver Cowdery, who had become the first baptized Latter Day Saint on May 15, 1829 (Joseph Smith had been baptized immediately after Cowdery).

At the end of June 1829, Samuel, along with his brother Hyrum, his father, and several men of the Peter Whitmer, Sr. family, signed a joint statement declaring their testimony of the golden plates that Joseph Smith claimed to have translated into the Book of Mormon. The witnesses stated that "we did handle [the golden plates] with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereo". This "Testimony of the Eight Witnesses" was printed as the final page of the Book of Mormon and is still included in the preface of most current editions.

Smith became one of the first six members of the Church of Christ when it was organized on April 6, 1830.[1]

[edit] Latter Day Saint missionary

At the next church conference, Smith was ordained one of the church's earliest elders. Smith was a successful missionary and served a number of missions. His first mission involved going to Mendon, New York where he gave John P. Greene a copy of the Book of Mormon, which not only led to Greene joining the church but also Greene's brother-in-law Brigham Young.

In December 1830 Smith went on a mission to Kirtland, Ohio to follow up on the success of Oliver Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt in teaching at that location.[2] Smith later went on a mission with Reynolds Cahoon in which they traveled to Missouri in 1831. During this mission they taught and baptized William E. McLellin.[3] This mission also involved some of the first Latter Day Saint missionary work in Indiana, involving preaching at Unionville, Indiana, Madison, Indiana and Vienna, Indiana.[4]

In June 1832 Smith and Orson Hyde were the first Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach in Connecticut.[5] Also in June 1832 Smith and Hyde went to Boston. Because of their efforts branches were established in both Boston and New Rowley, Massachusetts.[6] In July 1832, Smith and Hyde went to Providence, Rhode Island; they baptized two people but in response to threats of violence left the state after being there only twelve days.[7] In September 1832, Smith and Hyde were the first Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach in Maine.[8] On this 1832 mission Smith and Hyde also baptized people in Spafford, New York.[9]

[edit] High council and other church service

When the first "high council" of the church — at the time the chief judicial and legislative body — was organized on February 17, 1834, Samuel was one of twelve men called to be high councilors. Later that year, Samuel married Mary Bailey, his first wife, with whom he had four children.

In 1835 Smith was made a general agent for the firm in charge of publishing a Latter Day Saint hymnal and school books for children, thus working closely with Emma Smith and William W. Phelps.[10]

Smith moved with his family to Far West, Missouri in 1838 and took part in the subsequent Mormon War that took place in northwestern Missouri that year. At the Battle of Crooked River, Smith fought next to apostle David W. Patten, who subsequently died from wounds received in the skirmish. As a result of the conflict, the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Missouri and Smith moved with the main body to their new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. Due to his role in the Battle of Crooked River Smith fled Missouri almost immediately, along with Lorenzo D. Young, Benjamin L. Clapp and Charles C. Rich.

In 1839 Smith settled in the general vicinity of Macomb, Illinois.[11]

[edit] Family

Smith's wife Mary died in Nauvoo in 1841 and he married Lavira Clark later that year. Smith and Lavira had three children together.

[edit] Death

Smith's brothers, Joseph and Hyrum, were assassinated June 27, 1844 while held in Carthage Jail, in Illinois. Samuel, risking attack by a mob, traveled to the jail and retrieved his brothers' bodies. Some church members assumed that Samuel would succeed his brother Joseph as the president of the Latter Day Saint church (see Lineal Succession (Latter Day Saints)). However, Samuel fell ill shortly after their deaths and died just one month later, possibly from internal injuries he suffered while fleeing the mob on horseback on the day his brothers were murdered.[1] The cause of death was attributed to "bilious fever".[1] Eleven years after Samuel's death, the sole remaining Smith brother, William, charged that Brigham Young had arranged for Samuel to be poisoned to prevent his accession to the presidency.[12][13][14] William Smith's charges were not pursued by legal authorities.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d LaRene Porter Gaunt and Robert A. Smith, “Samuel H. Smith: Faithful Brother of Joseph and Hyrum,” Ensign, Aug. 2008, pp. 44–51.
  2. ^ Jenson. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1, p. 278
  3. ^ Jenson. Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1, p. 278
  4. ^ LDS Church Almanac. 2006 Edition. p. 208
  5. ^ LDS Church Almanac. 2006 Edition. p. 190
  6. ^ Church Almanac. p. 218
  7. ^ LDS Church Almanac. p. 249
  8. ^ Church Almanac. p. 215
  9. ^ Jenson. Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1, p. 278
  10. ^ Jenson. Biographical Encyclopedia. p. 278
  11. ^ Jenson. Biographical Encyclopedia. p. 278
  12. ^ Jon Krakauer (2003). Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (New York: Doubleday) p. 194.
  13. ^ D. Michael Quinn (1994). The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) pp. 152–153.
  14. ^ William Smith, "Mormonism: A Letter from William Smith, Brother of Joseph the Prophet", New York Tribune, 1857-05-19.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading
Three Witnesses
Front page of the Book of Mormon   
Eight Witnesses
Authority control
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