Tag Archives: Eldred G. Smith

Witness the Restoration:The Smith Family Artifacts and Their Story

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http://deseretbook.com/Witness-RestorationThe-Smith-Family-Artifacts-Their-Story-Eldred-G/i/4917330

by Eldred G. Smith, Hortense Smith

Eldred G. Smith, Patriarch and direct descendant of Hyrum Smith, inherited many artifacts belonging to the family of Joseph Smith. For decades Elder Smith and his wife have given firesides about the artifacts and the reality of the restoration. This is the DVD of those firesides describing each artifact and the story they have to tell. Witness for yourself the martyrdom clothing and Hyrum Smith’s bullet shattered watch. Learn about the Book Mormon translation as you see the chest that held the Gold Plates. Seeing these artifacts and hearing the Smith’s words makes the story of the restoration come to life.

Descendants Celebrate 200th Anniversary of Hyrum Smith’s Birth

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https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/06/news-of-the-church/descendants-celebrate-200th-anniversary-of-hyrum-smiths-birth?lang=eng

An estimated 3,200 descendants of Hyrum Smith gathered at Temple Square on 13 February to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Some 2,300 descendants and other participants squeezed into the Assembly Hall with overflow crowds in the Tabernacle and the North Visitors’ Center.

Hyrum, loyal older brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was born on 9 February 1800. Four of the children born to Hyrum’s first wife, Jerusha Barden, survived to adulthood. After Jerusha died in childbirth, Hyrum married Mary Fielding, to whom two children were born. There are an estimated 31,000 living descendants of Hyrum Smith today. Among Hyrum’s posterity were two prophets: President Joseph F. Smith, his son, and President Joseph Fielding Smith, Hyrum’s grandson.

President Gordon B. Hinckley was among those who honored the early Church leader. “I’m not a descendant of Hyrum Smith,” he said, “But I’m a great admirer and one who loves the name of Hyrum.” Then he gave a charge to Hyrum’s posterity: “There rests upon you a tremendous and abiding responsibility to walk in the ways that Hyrum walked, with faith in the divinity of this work of the Lord, with love for this great cause, with respect for those who established it, and with resolution to do your part to strengthen it in whatever capacity you may be called to serve.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Eldred G. Smith, emeritus Patriarch to the Church—both second-great-grandsons of Hyrum Smith—also spoke. After noting that an estimated 6,000 of Hyrum’s descendants have served full-time missions, Elder Ballard said, “So upon the family of Hyrum Smith has rested a great responsibility of the carrying on of this great work.”

Elder Smith quoted from Hyrum’s patriarchal blessing: “‘The righteous shall rise up, and also thy children after thee, and say thy memory is just, that thou wert a just man and perfect in thy day.’” Certainly this gathering of thousands of his descendants was one fulfillment of that promise.

Among the items on display, courtesy of Elder Eldred Smith, were the clothes Hyrum wore when he was martyred on 27 June 1844 and Alvin Smith’s toolbox, used by the Prophet to hide the gold plates.

The meeting was conducted by Craig R. Frogley, a fourth-great-grandson of Hyrum, who noted that on 9 February 2000, a wreath had been placed by family members on the Hyrum Smith pylon in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. (Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith are buried at the family homestead in Nauvoo, Illinois.)

Smith Family Artifacts Donated to BYU Library

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By Laura Andersen Callister, Staff Writer

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/299808/SMITH-FAMILY-ARTIFACTS-DONATED-TO-BYU-LIBRARY.html?pg=all

A large collection of historical documents and artifacts – including manuscripts from Hyrum Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith Jr., the first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – were presented Monday to Brigham Young University.

The collection also includes manuscripts from Hyrum Smith’s son, John Smith.The documents contain a rich history of the origin of the LDS Church. Hyrum Smith was shot and killed with Joseph Smith Jr. while incarcerated at Carthage Jail in Illinois in 1844. John Smith later traveled to Utah with Brigham Young and the rest of the Mormon pioneers.

The core of the collection consists of diaries and letters from Hyrum Smith between 1832 and 1844 and diaries by John Smith and his correspondence with others from 1848 to 1909. The first known painting of Hyrum Smith is also included.

The collection was presented to BYU by Elder Eldred G. Smith, LDS Church patriarch emeritus, on the 222nd anniversary of the birth of his great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Smith Sr.

“We hope this will open the door to any Smith descendants who have diaries, photographs or other artifacts so we can document the rich tradition and history of the Smith family,” said David J. Whittaker, curator of the Archives of Mormon Experience at BYU.

Because of the donation, BYU established the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Collection, which is to be placed in the Harold B. Lee Library’s Department of Special Collections and Manuscripts.

“One of the major purposes in establishing the Smith Family Collection is to continue documenting this rich heritage and to thereby make this history available to others through the archives at BYU,” Whittaker said.

The collection also includes a letter from Joseph Smith Jr.’s son Joseph Smith III to his cousin John Smith explaining why he didn’t move west with Brigham Young and his opposition to polygamy. Joseph Smith III later became the first leader of the Reorganized LDS Church.

Elder Smith said he has used the documents of his ancestors as visual aids while presenting LDS Church history firesides in many places around the world.

Elder Smith’s sister, Cleone Smith Isom, also donated correspondence, legal documents and family photograph albums as part of the collection.

The manuscripts will be available for study after the professional organizing and cataloging are complete, probably in September, Whittaker said.