‘My dear sister’: Joseph F. Smith’s letters to Martha Ann Smith subject of lecture

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By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer

Carole Call King may not have realized the treasure she inherited when her father, Anson B. Call Jr. died in 1993, but some time later, when she opened a box bearing the words “letters to mother,” she found a historian’s bonanza.

Inside, were “nearly a hundred original letters written by Joseph F. Smith, the sixth president of the Church,” said Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Oct. 9 in the latest offering of the Men and Women of Faith Lecture Series sponsored by the Church History Library and held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Continue reading →

Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Lecture

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October 9, 2014

“My Dear Sister”: Joseph F. Smith’s Letters to His Sister, Martha Ann Smith Harris, 1854–1916
by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

As a 15-year-old missionary on an island in the Pacific, thousands of miles away from his home in Utah, Joseph F. Smith began writing letters to his sister, Martha Ann Smith Harris. During the next six decades, he wrote to her often, sharing insights into his life, dreams, struggles, and work as a missionary, father, and Church leader.

The lectures are held in the Assembly Hall at 7:00 p.m. Validated parking is available at the Conference Center. As you enter the Conference Center parking, inform the attendant that you are going to a lecture and ask for a parking token to use when you exit.

170th anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith

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By Ben Tullis
For the Deseret News

On June 27, 1844, a mob of between 100 and 200 armed men, their faces painted black to hide their identities, marched to the Carthage city jail.

A few minutes after 5 p.m. in an upstairs room in the jail, the Prophet Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, John Taylor and Willard Richards heard shots outside and footsteps scrambling up the stairs. The men rushed to the door to keep the assailants from entering the room.

One of the attackers shot a bullet through the door, which struck Hyrum in the face. Hyrum fell to the ground, crying, “I am a dead man!” (see “Church History in the Fulness of Times,” Chapter 22). Continue reading →

Archaeologists seek site of Joseph Smith Sr’s home

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http://www.ksl.com/?sid=30331259&nid=148

By The Associated Press

NAUVOO, Ill. (AP) — An archaeological dig is underway in a tiny western Illinois community for the possible location of a home built for the one-time patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Searchers for the one-time dwelling of Joseph Smith Sr. and wife Lucy Mack — parents of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church — have uncovered what appears to be a structural support for the house that research indicates was a double log cabin, the Quincy Herald-Whig reported.

They’ve also found a small house key, along with thousands of bits of pottery, window glass, metal and buttons.

Those discoveries by volunteers over the past three years suggest that the site being sought is just south of the historic Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House in 1,100-resident Nauvoo in Hancock County.

“This is a special spot,” Bob Smith, a descendant, told the newspaper of the possible location of Joseph Smith Sr.’s home where archaeologists have unearthed a breezeway that Joseph Smith Jr. once linked with that of his father. “We found walkway all along here. You can see remnants.”

“To discover, preserve and share. That’s what we’re about,” Smith added of the search for the former digs of the elder Smith, who died in 1840. “Religion doesn’t matter.”

As part of the archaeological team headed by Paul DeBarthe, whose digging around Nauvoo dates to 1971, recent Utah State University graduate Michelle Murri called the work “a perfect opportunity to visit (Nauvoo) and get some professional experience.”

“It’s taught me a lot about the history of Nauvoo and my own family history, and it’s also taught me a lot of skills that I can use in my further archaeology jobs,” said Murri, of LeVerkin, Utah.

“Any time you can touch something, it just makes you more aware of history,” added Synthia DeBarthe, another longtime volunteer. “It gets into your heart and your soul, and you never forget it.”

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Information from: The Quincy Herald-Whig, http://www.whig.com