Tag Archives: Hyrum Smith

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A large collection of historical documents and artifacts – including manuscripts from Hyrum Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith Jr., the first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints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

Smith, Hyrum

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Encyclopedia of Mormonism
by Bruce A. Van Orden

http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Smith,_Hyrum

Among early Mormon leaders, Hyrum Smith (1800-1844) stands next to his brother the Prophet Joseph Smith in the esteem of many Latter-day Saints. Although nearly six years older than his prophet brother, Hyrum became Joseph’s closest adviser and confidant. When he died a martyr with Joseph on June 27, 1844, Hyrum was Associate President of the Church, second in authority.

Hyrum was born to Joseph Smith, Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith on February 9, 1800, in Tunbridge, Vermont. During his childhood, the family moved to eight different locations near the Connecticut River while the father struggled as a farmer, storekeeper, and tenant farmer. At age eleven, Hyrum was sent to Moor’s Charity School, associated with Dartmouth College. About two years later, a severe epidemic of typhoid fever broke out and Hyrum returned home ill to find several siblings ill as well. Joseph, Jr., was stricken with the dreaded disease, which developed into osteomyelitis in his left leg. Hyrum, who was already recognized for his tender and compassionate nature, became young Joseph’s nurse, developing an enduring bond between the brothers.

After the family moved to New York, Hyrum and the other Smith brothers helped the family finances by hiring out as farm laborers, coopers, and masons, in addition to clearing their own land for farming. On November 2, 1826, Hyrum married Jerusha Barden (1805-1837).

After Joseph received the plates and started translating the Book of Mormon, Hyrum journeyed to Harmony, Pennsylvania, in 1828, and again in May 1829, to learn how the work was progressing. Joseph sought a revelation at Hyrum’s earnest request in which Hyrum learned that after he had prepared himself by studying the Bible and the teachings soon to come forth in the Book of Mormon, he was called to “assist to bring forth my work” and to preach “nothing but repentance” (D&C 11:9, 22). Early in June 1829, Hyrum was baptized in Seneca Lake, New York. Toward the end of June, he became one of the Eight Witnesses, examining and “hefting” the plates of gold (see Book of Mormon Witnesses). He served as Oliver Cowdery’s bodyguard as he delivered a few pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript each day to the printer in Palmyra.

When the Church was organized under New York state law on April 6, 1830, Hyrum was the oldest at age thirty of the six men who signed their names as charter members (see Organization of the Church, 1830). He was told, “Thy duty is unto the church forever” (D&C 23:3), a duty he faithfully fulfilled. Hyrum became one of the first preachers of the Church in surrounding communities in New York, baptizing some of the earliest converts. When a substantial branch of the Church was formed in Colesville, Hyrum was called as its presiding officer.

In 1831 Hyrum Smith moved, along with most Church members, to Kirtland, Ohio. Between 1831 and 1833 he served three proselytizing missions to Missouri and Ohio. In 1834 he helped recruit members for Zion’s Camp and served as Joseph Smith’s chief aide in that military March. Upon his return, Hyrum became foreman of the stone quarry for the rising Kirtland Temple. Having proved his ability and faithfulness, Hyrum was ordained an Assistant President of the Church in December 1834. His responsibilities were further increased in November 1837 when he became Second Counselor in the First Presidency with Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and with Oliver Cowdery as Associate President.

In Missouri in October 1838, when the Latter-day Saints clashed with their neighbors, Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, and several other Mormons were arrested on false charges of treason, murder, arson, and stealing. They were taken to Richmond, Missouri, for trial, while the rest of the Saints were driven from the state (see Missouri Conflict). After a preliminary hearing in November, Joseph and Hyrum were bound over for trial. For nearly five more months, they and three others shared a jail cell in the village of Liberty, Missouri, while state officials deliberated on their fate. On April 16, 1839, during a second change of venue, they were allowed to escape.

In the Saints’ new home along the Mississippi in Illinois, Hyrum Smith was ordained to two prominent positions in the Church: Presiding patriarch, in place of his deceased father (D&C 124:91), and Associate President of the Church, in place of Oliver Cowdery (D&C 124:95). When Joseph Smith traveled to Washington, D.C., to seek redress from federal officials for the Saints’ Missouri grievances, Hyrum served as Acting President of the Church in Nauvoo. Hyrum pronounced hundreds of patriarchal blessings upon the members of the Church, including numerous converts arriving from Britain. He was a founding leader of the Nauvoo Masonic lodge. In 1842 he clarified that “hot drinks” in the Word of Wisdom (D&C 89:9) referred to tea and coffee (T&S 3:800), a point that had been controversial. He was also the chairman of the Nauvoo Temple Building Committee and stood close to the Prophet Joseph, acting “in concert” with him in all leadership capacities (D&C 124:95).

Latter-day Saints revered their “Prophet Joseph” and “Patriarch Hyrum”; enemies of the Church despised both them and the power they represented. As events led toward Joseph’s assassination in Carthage, Hyrum refused to leave him, even though Joseph requested that Hyrum flee with his family to Cincinnati. He went with Joseph to Carthage in June 1844 and was charged with riot and treason, along with his brother. When a mob stormed the jail where they were confined awaiting trial, Hyrum, standing to hold the door shut, was the first to die from gunfire through the door. Joseph and Hyrum became dual martyrs. Like many of “the Lord’s anointed in ancient times,” they sealed their works with their own blood; “in life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated” (D&C 135:3;see also Carthage Jail; Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith).

Hyrum Smith is credited in Church history with being an astute organizer who gave ecclesiastical leadership to the emerging Church. As a person, he was considered a man without guile. One scripture concerning him reads, “I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart” (D&C 124:15). With a love for Hyrum that was stronger than death, Joseph once described him as possessing “the mildness of a lamb, and the integrity of a Job, and in short, the meekness and humility of Christ” (HC 2:338). When John Taylor looked upon Hyrum’s slain body, he reflected, “He was a great and good man, and my soul was cemented to his. If ever there was an exemplary, honest, and virtuous man, an embodiment of all that is noble in the human form, Hyrum Smith was its representative” (HC7:107).

Hyrum and his first wife, Jerusha, had four daughters and two sons. After Jerusha’s death, he married Mary Fielding in 1837, and she bore him a son and a daughter. When Joseph Smith introduced plural marriage to him, Hyrum at first opposed the idea, but when converted to the principle, he became one of its staunchest advocates.

Many of Hyrum’s descendants have played significant roles in Church history. A son, Joseph F. Smith, became the sixth President of the Church, and a grandson, Joseph Fielding Smith, became the tenth President. Four of the six Patriarchs to the Church since 1845 have been descendants of Hyrum Smith.

Bibliography

Bennett, C Gary. “Hyrum: A Life of Integrity.” BYU Studies 45:3 (2006):184-185.

Corbett, Pearson H. Hyrum Smith, Patriarch. Salt Lake City, 1963.

Mascill, Craig L. “‘Journal of the Branch of the Church of Christ in Pontiac,…1834’.” BYU Studies 39:1 (2000):215-218.

Smith, Joseph Fielding. “The Martyrs.” IE 47 (June 1944):364-65, 414-15.

BRUCE A. VAN ORDEN

Teenage Witness to the Martyrdom

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https://www.lds.org/ensign/1974/06/mormon-journal/teenage-witness-to-the-martyrdom?lang=eng

BY GOLDEN R. BUCHANAN

Just a lad of eight or nine was I, but I have not forgotten what he said, or how the old man trembled as he talked.

Grandpa Archie sat in Mother’s rocker, waiting for his lunch. Suddenly he called me to him, took me on his lap, and said, “Golden, I am old. I won’t be around much longer, but I have something to say to you that must not be lost. I want my grandchildren and their children to know that I was in Nauvoo when they murdered our Prophet.”

His old body trembled, and he squeezed me until I was almost frightened as I felt the deep anger in his soul. His feeble eyes blazed, and his soft, faltering voice became as hard as ice, and as cold:

“How I hated those who dared lay their hands upon the prophet I loved.”

He sighed, and his old body relaxed a little. “I was there when they brought their bodies back from Carthage. I saw their bloody, lifeless forms; I heard the anguished cries of their wives and neighbors; I saw their sobbing children and tried to comfort them.

“I knew the Prophet’s boys, played with them. They were often in our home, and I in theirs. Now they were fatherless, even as I. Their father was a martyr by bullets; my father was dead because of drivings, persecutions, and hate—but no less a martyr for the truth.

“I was there when they buried the sandbags to deceive the mob and laid the bodies in secret graves.”

Grandfather paused. He needed strength. And then he went on: “Listen again, my son. I tell you this because I want you to know. After the Prophet’s body fell from the window at Carthage, the mob rushed upon him to desecrate his body. But God would not permit this act of violence. He sent a sheet of lightning between the Prophet and those sons of the infernal pit, and they dared not touch him. Golden, my son, remember this—they could not touch him. They ran and are running still and will run till judgment day.”

He was tired now and his voice trailed off, “I hope I am present at that day.”

He dozed. Slowly the color crept back into his face, and when he opened his eyes, they shone with a light I had not seen before. Holding me at arm’s length, he commanded with a voice that no longer shook:

“My boy, look at me and listen. I want you to hear it from one who was there. I want you to hear it from one who loved him. I want you to hear it from one who knows.

“Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Through him God restored his church, and it will never be destroyed or taken from the earth. Now, my boy, remember what I say. I, your grandfather, was 14 then, and I wasthere.”

Editor’s note: The family of Archibald Buchanan (1830–1915) joined the Church in 1835 at Lima, Illinois. He came to Utah in 1852, filled a mission in the Elk Mountain Indian Mission, and afterward served for many years as Brigham Young’s interpreter to the Ute Indians. Brother Buchanan was a member of the first Sevier Stake high council.

[illustrations] Illustrated by Larry Norton

Brother Golden Buchanan is an assistant sealing supervisor in the Salt Lake Temple. He lives in Big Cottonwood 12th Ward, Salt Lake Big Cottonwood Stake.