After Smith was criticized by some followers, he returned and was reported to have said, "If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself. Saying the blood was that of Hyrum makes more sense. Strang claimed that Smith designated him as the successor in a letter that was received a week before Smith's death. Correspondences, legal affairs, and Church matters were constantly thrust upon Joseph Smith the last few months of his life. [35], There have been conflicting reports about injuries to members of the mob during the attack, and whether any died. Taylor and Richards used a long walking stick in order to deflect the guns as they were thrust inside the room, from behind the door. Absolutely. Three men (John Wills, William Voorhees, and William Gallagher) were wounded, but no one died, and none of these three were arrested or appeared for trial. Information from Joseph Smith—History, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, JosephSmith.net, and History of the Church. [31], There are varying accounts of what happened next. He died thirty days later, possibly as a result of injuries sustained avoiding the mob. [37] Wills, Vorhease, Gallaher, and a Mr. Allen (possibly the fourth man) were all indicted for the murder of the Smith brothers. [5]:v6,p620 Taylor and Richards' accounts both report that as Smith fell from the window, he called out, "Oh Lord, my God!". In response, Smith (who was also Nauvoo’s mayor) and the Nauvoo city council voted to declare the paper a public nuisance and sent an order to the city marshal that stated, “You are here commanded to destroy the printing press from whence issues the Nauvoo Expositor, and pi [scatter] the type of said printing establishment in the street, and burn all the expositors and libelous handbills found in said establishment” (History of the Church 6:448). It has been popularly believed that his pocket watch stopped one shot. Ford denied this, but he later wrote that it was good for the Mormons to have been driven out of the state and said that their beliefs and actions were too different to have survived in Illinois. In 1928, Frederick M. Smith, president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) and grandson of Joseph Smith, feared that rising water from the Mississippi River would destroy the grave site. Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith was a farm boy from New York who, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe, was selected by God to be a prophet. [23], The Carthage Greys reportedly feigned defense of the jail by firing shots or blanks over the attackers' heads, and some of the Greys even reportedly joined the mob, who rushed up the stairs. Joseph and Emma's first three children died … Soon afterwards, Taylor “saw a number of men, with painted faces, coming around the corner of the jail, and aiming towards the stairs.” Immediately Willard Richards and Hyrum Smith leaned against the door to prevent the mob from entering the room. They undoubtedly recognized their vulnerability and fled the county. The majority of Latter Day Saints followed Young; these adherents later emigrated to Utah Territory and continued as the LDS Church. In response, a motion to declare the newspaper a public nuisance was passed by the Nauvoo City Council, and Smith consequently ordered its press destroyed.[1]. Its first and only issue was published June 7, 1844. After surrendering to authorities, the brothers were also charged with treason against Illinois for declaring martial law. In a letter dated July 22, 1844, Sarah Scott wrote: Religious founder Joseph Smith killed by mob Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more commonly known as … Smith’s arrogance and reckless actions set in motion his ultimate demise. and collapsed. If not, one could ask why he didn’t fire his smuggled pistol into the ceiling of the jail, or, if he had no intention to cause bodily harm, why fire it at all? Hands conducted extensive digging on the Smith homestead and located the bodies, as well as finding the remains of Joseph's wife, Emma, who was buried in the same place. The municipal court of Nauvoo, composed of Mormons sympathetic to Smith, did not see it this way and acquitted all of the accused. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. Followers of the Latter Day Saint movement, or Mormons, began to move into Hancock County, Illinois, in 1839; at the time, most supported the Democratic Party. [5]:v6,p430 Based on allegations by some of these associates, the newspaper reported that Smith practiced polygamy and that he tried to marry wives of some of his associates. Foster, a co-publisher of the Expositor, reported on June 12 that not only was the printing press destroyed, but that "several hundred minions ... injured the building very materially". T. M. Davis, An Authentic Account of the Massacre of Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet and Hyrum Smith, His Brother, together with a brief history of the rise and progress of Mormonism, and all the circumstances which led to their death (St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1844), 7-8, emphasis retained. Joseph Smith was shot near the window, not the door. It was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and heavy, and it was sent for to revive us. That affirmation later was denied. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER AND BALL!!! Joseph's younger brother Samuel Harrison Smith had come to visit the same day and, after evading capture from a group of attackers, is said to have been the first Mormon to arrive and helped attend the bodies back to Nauvoo. Alvin SMITH was born February 11, 1798, in Tunbridge, Vermont, and died November 19, 1823, in Manchester Township, New York, at the age of 25. After emptying the pistol with which he tried to defend himself, Joseph was then shot several times while trying to escape from a second-story window, and fell from the window as he died. Joseph Smith boasted that he did more than Jesus to keep a church together. John Wills was shot in the arm, William Vorhease was shot in the shoulder, and William Gallaher was shot in the face. In his book Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, author Robert B. Flanders lays the groundwork for what was to become one of the darker days in Mormon history. Later, others came to believe that Smith's son, Joseph Smith III, was the rightful successor under the doctrine of lineal succession. "[5]:v6,p549 Smith reluctantly submitted to arrest. Joseph Smith, Sr., and Lucy Mack were married in 1796 at Tunbridge, Vermont. This rash decision caused the publishers to go to the nearby town of Carthage to obtain an arrest warrant for Smith and the council, charging them with riot. Smith’s last words were, “Oh Lord my God.” Standing alone these words do not mean much, but Mormon historian Reed C. Durham notes on page 28 of the booklet, The Death of Joseph Smith June 27-28, 2019. ", The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research, "Chapter IX: The assault upon the prison - The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith", List of lynching victims in the United States, William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner, Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN), Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, National Museum of African American History and Culture, "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain), Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Joseph_Smith&oldid=997749344, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012, Articles needing additional references from June 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at 01:34. The apostle Paul or Joseph Smith? I afterwards understood that two or three were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed, died.”. Twin of Julia, birth son of Julia Clapp Murdock and John Murdock who upon his wife's death in childbirth gave the infants to the Smiths for adoption. Some accounts say Smith may have had sexual relations with one wife, who later in her life stated that he fathered children by one or two of his wives. Smith, therefore, did not. From the information given above it can be seen that the death of Joseph Smith can in no way be compared to the death of Jesus. There were no bars on this room, and the door was so warped that it would not latch. When my good friends Art and Edna Budvarson, the founders of Utah Christian Tract Society, visited the jail in 1967, there was a glass frame covering a bloodstain just a few feet from the door of Smith’s cell. Richards dragged Taylor into the jail cell (they had not been held in the cell, but in the guard's room across the hallway). Reports are that he survived the fall and was finished off on the ground. The outstanding charges against him were for illegal sex crimes, financial crimes, and crimes of violence. In an April 5, 1896 conference address, Franklin D. Richards said, “Well before the temple was completed our Prophet laid down his life, having been led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Collected Discourses 5:109). Alvin Smith, the eldest of the Smith sons, was born on 11 February 1798 in Tunbridge, Vermont. [36][37] Others claimed that a fourth unnamed man was also wounded. Governor Ford was accused of knowing about the plot to kill Smith. Eyewitness William Daniels wrote in his 1845 account that Smith was alive when mob members propped his body against a nearby well, assembled a makeshift firing squad, and shot him before fleeing. Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. In 2010, forensic research by J. Lynn Lyon of the University of Utah and Mormon historian Glen M. Leonard suggested that Taylor's watch was not struck by a ball, but rather broke against a window ledge. Joseph Smith, originally Joseph Smith, Jr., (born December 23, 1805, Sharon, Vermont, U.S.—died June 27, 1844, Carthage, Illinois), American prophet and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. The mob violence is due to the fact that Smith had effectively used … The act was carried out as ordered on June 10th. In the 1860s, those who felt that Smith should have been succeeded by Joseph Smith III established the RLDS Church, which later changed its name to the Community of Christ. Typically, Christian martyrs are known for willingly and peacefully giving their lives for the cause of Christ. Initially, the primary contenders to succeed Smith were Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young, and James Strang. Thank you! Wasson. Typically, these women continued to live with their first husbands, not Smith. It was a typically hot, early summer day in western Illinois when Joseph and Hyrum Smith rode into Carthage to turn themselves in to local authorities. For more, check out The “Martyrdom” of Joseph Smith. Ultimately, five defendants—Thomas C. Sharp, Mark Aldrich, William N. Grover, Jacob C. Davis and Levi Williams—were tried for the murders of the Smiths. In their book, The Carthage Conspiracy, Dallin Oaks and Marvin Hill write that Smith didn’t kill anyone in the mob. 1844 extrajudicial murder of the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, Consequences in the Latter Day Saint movement. ye false swearers! Richards, physically the largest of the Mormon captives, escaped unscathed; Lyon speculates that after the door opened, Smith was in the line of sight and Richards was not targeted. Heber J. When Roberts was commissioned by the LDS First Presidency to produce what came to be known as History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a., History of the Church, or Documentary History of the Church), he again chose to include Taylor’s remark when this seven-volume set began being published in 1902. Our history is full of examples, both ancient and modern, of Christians who chose not to fight back when death for their faith was immanent. Thomas C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal in Warsaw, Illinois, a newspaper hostile to the Mormons, editorialized:[10]. I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two of the prison guards. Did Joseph Smith manipulate women into marrying him? February Joseph Smith Sr. visits Joseph. According to Hay, Wills, whom the Mormon prophet had shot in the arm, was an Irishman who had joined the mob from “his congenital love of a brawl.” Gallaher was a young man from Mississippi who was shot in the face. Richards had escaped all harm except for a bullet grazing his ear. Hay described Voras (Voorhees) as a “half-grown hobbledehoy from Bear Creek” whom Joseph shot in the shoulder. But because Wells did not have authority in such a case, this led to a third examination. Both Richards and Taylor survived. On page 308 Flanders writes: “When an opportunity to murder Smith finally came, it grew paradoxically out of events within the Mormon Church. While many Mormons might breathe a sigh of relief that Smith didn’t kill anyone at the jail, this doesn’t explain the fact that Smith apparently wanted to. Paul states that no man can see God (the Father). Not hardly! !—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! [19] Most visitors were rigidly searched,[20] but the guards forgot to check Wheelock's overcoat,[21] and he was able to smuggle the gun to Smith. In a conference message delivered in 1948, Seventy Milton R. Hunter said Smith decided not to flee Nauvoo as a result “of his deep love for the Saints.” Hunter said he returned voluntarily “to give his life as a sacrifice for them” (Conference Report, April 1948, p.31, emphasis mine). Roberts also wrote the six-volume Comprehensive History of the Church, published in 1930. Mormons have used the above statement to insist that Taylor was misinformed, and while that may be, it fails to explain why Mormon historian B.H. [29] Columbia University historian Richard Bushman, the author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, also supports this view. The bodies were cleaned and examined, and death masks were made, preserving their facial features and structures. We all of us felt unusually dull and languid, with a remarkable depression of spirits. On June 15, 1828, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph and Emma’s first son, Alvin, died a short time after birth. Hyrum was shot in the face, just to the left of his nose, which threw him to the floor. *Infant son SMITH was born and died in 1797, Tunbridge, Vermont. After briefly fleeing Illinois, Smith returned and the brothers then voluntarily traveled to the county seat at Carthage to face the charges. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me. Also, listen to the following Viewpoint on Mormonism podcasts: Your generous support makes the work of MRM possible. After the attack was over, Richards, who was trained as a medical doctor, went back to see if anyone besides himself had survived, and he found Taylor lying on the floor. Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!! Smith returned to Illinois and vowed to join the Whig Party. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion that continues to the present with millions of global adherents. Moses, Paul himself saw God the Father and the Son side by side, or that might have been Timothy. Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States, on June 27, 1844, while awaiting trial in the town jail. Townsend, being among those who forced that jail door at Carthage, and was wounded in the arm near the shoulder, from the effects of which he died in about six months.” In that same footnote, Roberts cites some of the information supplied by Oaks and Hill above, including the wounds sustained by Wills, Voras, and Gallaher. In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devil–all corruption. The brothers were in the Carthage Jail awaiting trial when an armed mob of about 200 men stormed the building, their faces painted black with wet gunpowder. Orrin Porter Rockwell arrived with a message from his wife who urged her husband to return and give himself up because several of his followers were accusing him of cowardice. Joseph Smith married Emma Hale on 18 January 1827. Daniels' account also states that one man tried to decapitate Smith for a bounty, but was prevented by divine intervention. There was an urgency to keep records even though the circumstances were perilous. John Taylor also testified:“Elder Cyrus H. Wheelock came in to … They reached this decision after some discussion, including citation of William Blackstone's legal canon, which defined a libelous press as a public nuisance. [5]:v7,p102, Most accounts seem to agree that at least three mob members were wounded by Smith's gunfire, but there is no other evidence that any of them died as a result. The course that George Miller followed after Joseph Smith's death, in contrast to that followed by Brigham Young and the Twelve, evidences that Miller probably left the Church, at least partially, over the very issue of the political Kingdom of God. Alex: He proceeded to restore the fullness of His gospel once again to us. [32] Additional reports said that thunder and lightning frightened off the mob. Like most stories, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The events leading to the death of Mormon founder Joseph Smith are much like the events surrounding his life—full of contradiction. Named after Joseph’s close friend and first counselor in the First Presidency, Frederick G. Williams, the second surviving son of the Joseph Smith Jr. family was born in … Smith fled the jurisdiction to avoid arrest, crossing the Mississippi River into the Iowa Territory. A contemporary witness reported these three as saying that they were the first men at the jail, that one of them shot through the door killing Hyrum, that Joseph wounded all three with his pistol, and that Gallaher shot Joseph as he ran to the window. On June 7 they issued the first and only edition of their paper.”. Warrants for Smith's arrest were dismissed by Nauvoo courts. When it was learned that the municipal court had no right to decide such a case, the defendants were then examined by Justice Daniel H. Wells. “God is in the still small voice. Am I somehow condoning Smith’s death? After the killings, there was speculation about who was responsible. However, no escorts were provided. Joseph Smith Murdock* April 30, 1831 – March 29, 1832 (age 10 months) *Adopted. [30] [citation needed], The Smith brothers were held at the Carthage Jail and were joined there by Willard Richards, John Taylor, and John Solomon Fullmer. 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