Lucy Mack Smith

Family Background

1776. July 8: Born in Gilsum, New Hampshire. In 1796 she married Joseph Smith; they had eleven children: Alvin (1798-1823), Hyrum (1800-1844), Sophronia (1803-?), Joseph (1805-1844), Samuel Harrison (1808-1844), Ephraim (1810-1810), William (1811-1894), Catherine (1812-1900), Don Carlos (1816-1841), and Lucy (1824-1882). Their first child, an unnamed daughter, died shortly after birth in 1797.

Lucy Smith was the matriarch of a Church patriarchy. Her son Joseph published the Book of Mormon and became the Church's founding Prophet in 1830. Her husband, Joseph, Sr., one of the Eight Witnesses, became Church patriarch in 1833 and assistant president in 1834. Hyrum, one of the Eight Witnesses, became assistant president in 1834, second counselor in 1837, Church patriarch in 1840, and associate president in 1841. Samuel H.—another of the Eight Witnesses—became a member of the Church's first high council in 1834, William became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835, and Don Carlos became president of the central high priests quorum of the Church in 1836.

Visionary

Near death from consumption during adolescence, she promised to serve God if her life were spared, then heard a voice proclaim, "Let your heart be comforted; ye believe in God, believe also in me." Recovering rapidly, she sought out a "minister who was willing to baptize me, and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination, I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance; after which I continued to read the Bible as formerly."

Hard Times

1803. Shortly after opening a store in Randolph, Vermont, the Smiths lost everything in a ginseng root venture. They drifted from Randolph to Royalton, to Sharon, to Tunbridge, and back to Royalton.

1811. The family moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where several of the children contracted typhus. Sophronia nearly died. Complications threatened young Joseph's leg; an operation— without anesthesia—left him with a permanent limp.

1816. Three consecutive crop failures forced the Smiths from Vermont. Joseph, Sr., went ahead to Palmyra, New York; Lucy and the eight children arrived later—with "barely two cents in cash." In Palmyra she earned money painting oilcloth coverings for tables and stands.

1823. November 19: Alvin, the eldest son, died of a physician's overdose of calomel. Shortly thereafter the family lost their farm.

Convert

1830. April 6: Lucy was baptized the day the Church was organized. One year later she led a company of eighty Saints down the Erie Canal to Kirtland, Ohio. After nearly seven years in Kirtland, the Smiths moved to Caldwell County, Missouri, then to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Nauvoo

In Nauvoo her house was often filled with needy Saints. "Many of the sick owed the preservation of their lives to her motherly care, attention and skill in nursing them, which she did without pecuniary consideration and the extent of which can only be appreciated by those who are personally acquainted with the dreadful scenes of sickness and distress, in consequence of the Missouri expulsion."

Widow

1840. September 14: Shortly before he died, Joseph, Sr., said, "Mother, do you not know, that you are one of the most singular women in the world… ? You have brought up all my children, and could always comfort them when I could not. We have often wished that we might both die at the same time, but you must not desire to die when I do, for you must stay to comfort the children when I am gone. Do not mourn, but try to be comforted. Your last days shall be your best days." Within four years Lucy Smith also lost four sons—Don Carlos, Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel.

After her husband died, Lucy moved into the Mansion House with Joseph and Emma. To provide income, a small museum was established under her care in a lower room. Josiah Quincy, one-time mayor of Boston, wrote of an 1844 tour of the mansion with Joseph Smith, who introduced Mother Smith: "This is my mother, gentlemen. The curiosities we shall see belong to her. They were purchased with her own money at the cost of six thousand dollars." After disclosing four mummies, Joseph closed the cabinet with, "Gentlemen, those who see these curiosities generally pay my mother a quarter of a dollar."

Lucy Mack Smith received her endowment in 1843, and participated in the Holy Order prayer circle in 1843-44. After the deaths of Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel in 1844, she briefly urged that her last surviving son, William, be named Church president. But in October, 1845, she publicly endorsed Brigham Young, and participated in the opening of the Nauvoo Temple two months later.

Mother Smith did not go west, choosing instead to remain in Nauvoo with her family. She felt wronged by Church trustees-in-trust Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph L. Heywood, and John S. Fullmer, who refused her Church financial assistance because of her allegiance to her ex-apostle son, William: "You restrict my conscience," she wrote them, "put limits to my affections, threaten me with poverty, if I do not drive my children from my doors because they resent insultance and abuse that has been heaped upon them without measure."

1845 Lucy wrote Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and his Progenitors for Many Generations, with the assistance of Howard and Martha Coray. It was published in England by Orson Pratt in 1853 and came under immediate attack from the First Presidency, who declared it "utterly unreliable as a history, as it contains many falsehoods." They recommended that "every one in the Church, male and female, if they have such a book… dispose of it so that it will never be read by any person again."

In retrospect, the errors in the book seem less glaring than the criticism suggests. Mother Smith did, however, treat her excommunicated son William favorably. "He is my son," she told Church agents, "and he has rights. As to the Twelve you say they have rights, but who shall decide between them. Are you the judge?"

Death

Lucy Smith lived in Nauvoo with daughter Lucy Milliken until the last two years of her life, when she moved into the Nauvoo home of daughter-in-law Emma Smith Bidamon.

1856. May 5: Died in Nauvoo at age seventy-nine. She remained active to the end, reading the smallest print without glasses. Buried near her husband behind the Smith family homestead in Nauvoo.

Sources
Barrett, Ivan J. Heroines of the Church. Provo, Utah: Extension Publications Division of Continuing Education, Brigham Young University, 1966.
Bergera, Gary James. "The Orson Pratt-Brigham Young Controversy: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868." Dialogue 13 (Summer 1980):7-49.
Clark, James R., ed. Messages of the First Presidency of the Church. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956-1975.
History of the Church, 7:471, 519.
Quinn, D. Michael. "Latter-day Saint Prayer Circles." Brigham Young University Studies 19 (Fall 1978):79-105.
_____. "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844." Brigham Young University Studies 16 (Winter 1976):187-233.
Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Brigham Young Papers.
Smith, Lucy Mack. Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. Liverpool/London: Published for Orson Pratt by S.W. Richards, 1853.

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents


	Lucy Mack Smith (1776-1855)

				Lucy Mack Smith was the prophet's mother and biographer. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives.


	Family Background 1776. July 8: Born in Gilsum, New Hampshire. In 1796 she married Joseph Smith; they had eleven children: Alvin (1798-1823), Hyrum (1800-1844), Sophronia (1803-?), Joseph (1805-1844), Samuel Harrison (1808-1844), Ephraim (1810-1810), William (1811-1894), Catherine (1812-1900), Don Carlos (1816-1841), and Lucy (1824-1882). Their first child, an unnamed daughter, died shortly after birth in 1797. Lucy Smith was the matriarch of a Church patriarchy. Her son Joseph published the Book of Mormon and became the Church's founding Prophet in 1830. Her husband, Joseph, Sr., one of the Eight Witnesses, became Church patriarch in 1833 and assistant president in 1834. Hyrum, one of the Eight Witnesses, became assistant president in 1834, second counselor in 1837, Church patriarch in 1840, and associate president in 1841. Samuel H.—another of the Eight Witnesses—became a member of the Church's first high council in 1834, William became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835, and Don Carlos became president of the central high priests quorum of the Church in 1836. Visionary Near death from consumption during adolescence, she promised to serve God if her life were spared, then heard a voice proclaim, "Let your heart be comforted; ye believe in God, believe also in me." Recovering rapidly, she sought out a "minister who was willing to baptize me, and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination, I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance; after which I continued to read the Bible as formerly." Hard Times 1803. Shortly after opening a store in Randolph, Vermont, the Smiths lost everything in a ginseng root venture. They drifted from Randolph to Royalton, to Sharon, to Tunbridge, and back to Royalton. 1811. The family moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where several of the children contracted typhus. Sophronia nearly died. Complications threatened young Joseph's leg; an operation— without anesthesia—left him with a permanent limp. 1816. Three consecutive crop failures forced the Smiths from Vermont. Joseph, Sr., went ahead to Palmyra, New York; Lucy and the eight children arrived later—with "barely two cents in cash." In Palmyra she earned money painting oilcloth coverings for tables and stands. 1823. November 19: Alvin, the eldest son, died of a physician's overdose of calomel. Shortly thereafter the family lost their farm. Convert 1830. April 6: Lucy was baptized the day the Church was organized. One year later she led a company of eighty Saints down the Erie Canal to Kirtland, Ohio. After nearly seven years in Kirtland, the Smiths moved to Caldwell County, Missouri, then to Nauvoo, Illinois. Nauvoo In Nauvoo her house was often filled with needy Saints. "Many of the sick owed the preservation of their lives to her motherly care, attention and skill in nursing them, which she did without pecuniary consideration and the extent of which can only be appreciated by those who are personally acquainted with the dreadful scenes of sickness and distress, in consequence of the Missouri expulsion." Widow 1840. September 14: Shortly before he died, Joseph, Sr., said, "Mother, do you not know, that you are one of the most singular women in the world… ? You have brought up all my children, and could always comfort them when I could not. We have often wished that we might both die at the same time, but you must not desire to die when I do, for you must stay to comfort the children when I am gone. Do not mourn, but try to be comforted. Your last days shall be your best days." Within four years Lucy Smith also lost four sons—Don Carlos, Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel. After her husband died, Lucy moved into the Mansion House with Joseph and Emma. To provide income, a small museum was established under her care in a lower room. Josiah Quincy, one-time mayor of Boston, wrote of an 1844 tour of the mansion with Joseph Smith, who introduced Mother Smith: "This is my mother, gentlemen. The curiosities we shall see belong to her. They were purchased with her own money at the cost of six thousand dollars." After disclosing four mummies, Joseph closed the cabinet with, "Gentlemen, those who see these curiosities generally pay my mother a quarter of a dollar." Lucy Mack Smith received her endowment in 1843, and participated in the Holy Order prayer circle in 1843-44. After the deaths of Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel in 1844, she briefly urged that her last surviving son, William, be named Church president. But in October, 1845, she publicly endorsed Brigham Young, and participated in the opening of the Nauvoo Temple two months later. Mother Smith did not go west, choosing instead to remain in Nauvoo with her family. She felt wronged by Church trustees-in-trust Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph L. Heywood, and John S. Fullmer, who refused her Church financial assistance because of her allegiance to her ex-apostle son, William: "You restrict my conscience," she wrote them, "put limits to my affections, threaten me with poverty, if I do not drive my children from my doors because they resent insultance and abuse that has been heaped upon them without measure." 1845 Lucy wrote Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and his Progenitors for Many Generations, with the assistance of Howard and Martha Coray. It was published in England by Orson Pratt in 1853 and came under immediate attack from the First Presidency, who declared it "utterly unreliable as a history, as it contains many falsehoods." They recommended that "every one in the Church, male and female, if they have such a book… dispose of it so that it will never be read by any person again." In retrospect, the errors in the book seem less glaring than the criticism suggests. Mother Smith did, however, treat her excommunicated son William favorably. "He is my son," she told Church agents, "and he has rights. As to the Twelve you say they have rights, but who shall decide between them. Are you the judge?" Death Lucy Smith lived in Nauvoo with daughter Lucy Milliken until the last two years of her life, when she moved into the Nauvoo home of daughter-in-law Emma Smith Bidamon. 1856. May 5: Died in Nauvoo at age seventy-nine. She remained active to the end, reading the smallest print without glasses. Buried near her husband behind the Smith family homestead in Nauvoo. Sources Barrett, Ivan J. Heroines of the Church. Provo, Utah: Extension Publications Division of Continuing Education, Brigham Young University, 1966. Bergera, Gary James. "The Orson Pratt-Brigham Young Controversy: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868." Dialogue 13 (Summer 1980):7-49. Clark, James R., ed. Messages of the First Presidency of the Church. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956-1975. History of the Church, 7:471, 519. Quinn, D. Michael. "Latter-day Saint Prayer Circles." Brigham Young University Studies 19 (Fall 1978):79-105. _____. "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844." Brigham Young University Studies 16 (Winter 1976):187-233. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Brigham Young Papers. Smith, Lucy Mack. Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. Liverpool/London: Published for Orson Pratt by S.W. Richards, 1853.