Chapter 4

¹ Salisbury, "Reminiscences of an Octogenarian," pp. 24-27. Joseph Smith
III was not one to call attention to such ostracism, but hints of what he must have
endured have survived. See SH 14 (October 1, 1868):105, where he refers to
having been left a legacy of shame, of having to bear the world's opprobrium, and
of receiving the rude sneer of being the son of the "Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith."
At the funeral of his step-father, in Nauvoo, he recalled how years before ladies
would cross the opposite side of the street in order not to meet him, simply
because he was the son of the prophet; SH 38 (March 14, 1891): 164.

²Quinn, "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844," pp. 217-219. Cf. T. B. H.
Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints; A Full and Complete History of the
Mormons, from the First Vision of Joseph Smith to the Last Courtship of Brigham
Young; Including the Story of the Hand-Cart Emigration—the Mormon War—the
Mountain-Meadow Massacre—the Reign of Terror in Utah—the Doctrine of Human
Sacrifice—the Political, Domestic, Social, and Theological Influences of the
Saints—the Facts of Polygamy—the Colonization of the Rocky Mountains, and the
Development of the Great Mineral Wealth of the Territory of Utah (New York: D.
Appleton and Company, 1873), pp. 262-265.

³Quinn, "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844," pp. 219-220. Cf. Reed C.
Durham, Jr., and Steven H. Heath, Succession in the Church (Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, Inc., 1970), passim.

⁴ John Taylor's denial was printed in Three Nights' Public Discussion
between the Revds. C. W. Cleeve, James Robertson, and Philip Cater, and Elder
John Taylor, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Boulogne-sur-
Mer, France, Chairman. Rev. K. Groves, M.A., Assisted by Charles Townley,
LL.D. (Liverpool; John Taylor, 1850), p. 8.B. H. Roberts. The Life of John
Taylor; Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt
Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons Co., Publishers, 1892), pp. 222-225, argues
that the Protestant clergymen accused the Mormons of gross immoralities, based
upon works such as that of John C. Bennett, and that Taylor's denial was meant to
cover a broad array of charges, including promiscuity, community of wives,
keeping of seraglios, polygamy, illicit intercourse by permission of the prophet,
and keeping of spiritual wives. Roberts caustically argues that the denial
applied only to the charges in general, not to every specific charge.

For a collation of Mormon denials of polygamy, beginning during Joseph
Smith's lifetime and continuing up to 1852, see Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner,
Joseph Smith and Polygamy (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Co., n.d.), pp. 7-
17. There is no qualitative change in the denials after 1844. Joseph Smith III, in
later years, tried to employ the denials issued during his father's lifetime to prove
that plural marriage originated later. The same logic would prove that Brigham
Young and John Taylor never practiced plural marriage.

⁵Journal of Discourses 6:282. The entire proceedings of the conference
were printed in the Deseret News, Extra, September 15, 1852. The revelation on
celestial marriage presently constitutes Section 132 in the Utah Doctrine and
Covenants.

⁶For an overview of the many factions of Latter Day Saints, see Steven L.
Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration, 3rd ed. (Bountiful, Utah: Restoration
Research, 1982).A shorter and less reliable study is Denominations That Base
Their Beliefs on the Teachings of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet (N.p.:
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1969).Several standard histories should also be
consulted: Inez Smith Davis, The Story of the Church: A History of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and of Its Legal Successor, the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 10th ed. (Independence, Missouri:
Herald Publishing House, 1981), pp. 355-389, 431-435; also HRC 3:29-91 and CHC
2:429-445. The last treatment is markedly partisan. For an excellent overview of
factional contention in one local branch, see Walter Wayne Smith, "Philadelphia
Branch," passim.

⁷0n Lyman Wight see Davis Bitton, "Mormons in Texas: The Ill-Fated
Lyman Wight Colony 1844-1858," Arizona and the West II (Spring 1969):5-26; J.
Marvin Hunter, The Lyman Wight Colony in Texas: Came to Bandera in 1854
(Bandera, Texas: Bandera Bulletin, n.d.); Heman Hale Smith, "The Lyman Wight
Colony in Texas: 1846-1858," Utah State Historical Society (copy of original
typescript at University of Texas); and C. Stanley Banks, "The Mormon Migration
into Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 49 (October 1945):233-244.

⁸Quinn, "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844," pp. 196-197, 209. Quinn's
able analysis might be strengthened by the acknowledgment that Wight regarded
the first three modes of succession as interim measures until Young Joseph (or
another son of the prophet) should assume the presidency. Wight's views on the
interim government of the church were variable and even inconsistent. His view
concerning the final disposition of the succession was consistent. His conviction
that Young Joseph should occupy his father's place displayed the same stubborn
loyalty to what he understood to be the prophet's legacy as his mission to Texas.
See n. 11.

⁹Wight's pamphlet was entitled, An Address: By Way of an Abridged
Account and Journal of My Life from February 1844 up to April 1848, with an
Appeal to the Latter Day Saints, Scattered abroad in the Earth, and to All
Nations, Kindreds, Tongues and People, to Kings on Their Thrones, to Presidents
on Their Seats, and to Peasants in Their Cabins—without Respect to Honor, or
Distinction of Character, for One Common Fate Awaiteth All, Even the
Resurrection from the Dead. For the Dead Shall Come forth and Inherit Their
Land. Even the Land Which the Lord Their God Gave unto Jacob, and Who Said. I
Will Take the Children of Israel up out of Their Graves and Place Them in Their
Own Lands, Even the Land That I Gave unto Their Father Jacob.—Ezekiel 37.
Chapt. (N.p.;n.d.).On p. 13, Wight adamantly claimed that no one had the
authority to countermand his mission from or appointment by the prophet. He
specifically denied that Brigham Young and the rest of the Twelve could remove
him from the quorum:

"Therefore, I appeal to all those of a like ordination unto myself that they
have neither power nor authority given them, to move me from this station, nor to
place any long eared Jack Ass to fill a place, which has never been vacated.
Notwithstanding their long ears and slanderous tongue, they will find them too
short and too feeble to compete with a man who has gained his right and
inheritance by passing through the sufferings which I have passed through. And
should they come up before the throne of God, when my name is called as one of
the Twelve, and they should answer to the same, I shall be there: and they will
then find that instead of dancing over the ashes of our beloved brethren Joseph
and Hyram [sic], they will be dancing to the tune of Jack. And the only tune that
he could play was Over the Hills and Far-away."

¹⁰"Ecclesiastical solipsism" is the marvelously apt expression coined by
Quinn, "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844," p. 197, to describe Wight's policy.
"Wight," says Quinn, "was able to acknowledge individually or collectively the
prerogatives of the Quorum of the Twelve, of the Council of Fifty, of William
Smith, and of Joseph Smith III, as long as those claimants did not presume to
infringe upon his view of his own appointment and mission."

¹¹Lyman Wight's letter to the editor of the Northern Islander, July 1855,
Lyman Wight Letterbook, RLDS Archives, is cited frequently to this effect.
There are numerous other instances, stretching over many years, in which he
made the same point. Cf. his letter to Lucy Mack Smith, August 21, 1848, printed
in the Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, May 1849, p. 4: ". . . to young Joseph we
say, it is your privilege to take your father's place, and to this we will all give
head [sic] universally, but if you think it beneath your privilege some of your
younger brethren must come in according to the decree of Almighty God. . . . Tell
young Joseph that if he did but know it his calling is as high as the heavens, and
when Jackson County is redeemed he will be the sole proprietor in building the
Temple of the Great God until his father is resurrected from the dead." Other
examples are found in Wight's Appeal, p. 14; his letter to William Smith of July
16, 1849, printed in the Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, September 1849, p. 3;
and his letter to Sanford Porter, December 7, 1855 (p. 38 in the Letterbook;
original at LDS Archives, Ms d 3474). Heman Hale Smith, "The Lyman Wight
Colony in Texas," p. 22, quotes from William Leyland's Journal an account of a
conference in August 1849, at which Wight's followers voted, "That we receive J.
Smith Junior as president of the Church when he comes forward and claims that
station." Joseph Lee Robinson, History of Joseph Lee Robinson (N.p.: n.d.), p. 24,
records that in November 1849 another Wightite conference voted to receive
William Smith as head of the church until Young Joseph "can come forward,
command and claim his station." Additional data concerning Wight's views are
found in Heman C. Smith, "Succession in the Presidency," pp. 4-8.

¹²Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, September 1849, p. 2. Cf. Lyman
Wight and Harriet Wight to Sanford Porter, December 7, 1855: ". . . the
priesthood is not to be taken from one lineage and given to that of another this
you might have known as the Lord was so strenuous that he would have the man
that brought forth the book of Mormon to be of the tribe of Joseph that was sold
into Egypt and that his father's name should be Joseph and you will find . . . that
it has been a firm decree of the Lord from the foundation of [the] world, it was a
decree of the Gods that the holy priesthood should remain to come forth by the
same Lineage that each dispensation should be alike and that the lost dispensation
should gather all others into one dispensation and be ruled by the same power of
the others in their time and in their season . . . ."

¹³Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, February 1850, p. 1.

¹⁴Davis Bitton, "Mormons in Texas," p. 22, n. 31, correctly notes that
Wight's testimony lends support to the claims of the Reorganized Church
concerning succession in the presidency, but in several other respects, e.g.,
polygamy and temple ordinances, "his beliefs and practices seem to confirm the
claims of the Mormon Church in Utah." Bitton concludes: "Wight's descendants
are appropriately found in both churches."

¹⁵See William Smith, Proceedings of Trial for Adultery 1847, University of
Utah (typescript of original at Yale University).

Even before the conclusion of his trial, William Smith had set a course
independent of Strang, as evidenced by a letter of Temperance Mack to "Dear
Children," May 5, 1847, Utah State Historical Society (photocopy of original at
University of Michigan). Temperance Mack was at Winter Quarters, writing to
her family back in Michigan. She tells of getting a letter from Lucy Mack Smith,
containing the news that William Smith "has got through with Strang ism," and
that he and John C. Bennett were "going a boute like roring lions."

A broadside entitled William Smith, Patriarch & Prophet of the Most High
God. Latter Day Saints, Beware of Imposition! [Ottawa, Illinois: 1847],
publicized Strang's chicanery in his endowment ceremonies: ". . . Mr. Strang has
knowingly and wilfully lied in the name of the Lord, in promising an endowment to
the Saints, and then mixing oil with phosphorous and palming it off upon them as
that endowment."

On the excommunications at the fall conference, see Russell, "King James
Strang," p. 241.

¹⁶On William's overtures to the Twelve, addressed to Orson Hyde, see
Quinn, "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844," p. 205. Not satisfied with Hyde's
reply, William Smith reprinted an extract which he considered particularly
disparaging to the Smith family, in William Smith, Patriarch & Prophet of the
Most High God. Latter Day Saints, Beware of Imposition: Hyde had written:
"William, cease your whining about your martyred brothers; cease your whining
about your poor old mother; cease your preaching, and go to work at some
business, and get money, and join the camp in the west. Go to the camp, if you
have to go on foot without money."

¹⁷William Smith. Patriarch & Prophet of the Most High God. Latter Day
Saints, Beware of Imposition; and another broadside, Zion's Standard. A Voice
from the Smith Family (Princeton, Illinois: P. Lynch, 1848).
The Melchisedec and Aaronic Herald, August 1849, p. 2, lists agents of
William Smith in the following states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, and Iowa.
The Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald periodically published letters of
support from Lucy Mack Smith, which indicates that she vacillated between a
latent regard for the Saints in Utah and loyalty to her son William. Emma Smith
must have been informed of William's activities through Lucy's correspondence,
but kept William at arm's length. Her nephew Harmon Wasson, who lived in Lee
County, Illinois, informed her of William's doings there and conveyed the general
consensus that the character of William's supporters was of low repute. See
Harmon Wasson to Emma Smith Bidamon, May 14, 1848, Wilford C. Wood
Collection (microfilm at LDS Archives, Ms f 413, Reel 25).

¹⁸A Revelation Given to William Smith, in 1847, on the Apostacy of the
Church and the Pruning of the Vineyard of the Lord [Philadelphia: 1848], pp. 1-2.

¹⁹Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, March 1849, p. 2. (The first number
was entitled the Aaronic Herald.

²⁰Ibid., March 1849, pp. 1-2; May 1849, pp. 3-4.

²¹ Ibid., October 1849, p. 3.

²²For information on the merging of William Smith and Lyman Wight's
movements, see the following: John Young to William Smith and Isaac Sheen,
February 9, 1850, LDS Archives; Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, June 1849, pp.
1 and 4; September 1849, pp. 1 and 4; and February 1850, p. 1.

Isaac Sheen's denunciation of William was printed in the Cincinnati Daily
Commercial, May 22, 1850. His son, John K. Sheen, in 1889, recalled how his
father broke with William Smith:

"In February, 1849, Isaac Sheen began the publication of a small paper
devoted exclusively to 'lineal rights' of the 'Smith family.' In June of that year a
conference was held in Covington, Ky., and it was there resolved that they
recognized the right of 'young Joseph' to be the President of the church 'whenever
he should so claim.' In the meantime, William Smith was to officiate. A
combination with Lyman Wight was made and it was planned to go to Texas, but
'the best laid plans of mice and men, gang aft algee.' Through the visit an[d]
death of Otis Hobart it was learned that the 'devil' was in Texas and that William
was not above suspicion. Father laid a plan to entrap him, and succeeded in
getting a polygamous letter from William, who was then in Illinois. He
immediately exposed 'the Elijah of the last dispensation;' withdrew his name from
the petition against the 'State of Deseret' and pulled up the 'Stake of Zion' in
Covington." See John K. Sheen, Polygamy, or the Veil Lifted, pp. 14-15.

²³Jason W. Briggs, "History of the Reorganization of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints; Being a Brief Statement of the Principal Facts
Connected with Its Rise and Early Progress, Together with the Principles
Underlying It, or Which Distinguishes It from the Various Factions Which Have
Arisen among the Latter Day Saints," The Messenger of the Reorganized Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (November 1875):1.

Briggs' "History of the Reorganization" continued to appear in serial form
through the August 1876 number of The Messenger. A similar account, based on a
manuscript of Jason W. Briggs, was prepared by Mark H. Forscutt. Entitled "A
Condensed Account of the Rise and Progress of the Reorganization of the Church
of Latter Day Saints," it is found in the M. H. Forscutt-H. A. Stebbins Letter
Press Book, 1870-1880, RLDS Archives, pp. 143-173.

Two printed primary sources which should be consulted for the history of
the early Reorganization are the minutes of the conferences of the Reorganized
Church, 1852 through 1859, published under the title, "Church Record," Journal of
History 14 (April 1921): 192-229; and Zenos H. Gurley, "History of the New
Organization of the Church," SH 1 (January 1860):25-29, (February 1860):51-52,
and (March 1860):53-58.

²⁴An example of William Smith's strong denunciation of polygamy is found
in his remonstrance against the admission of Deseret into the Union. See U.S.,
Congress, House, Deseret. Remonstrance of William Smith et al., of Covington,
Kentucky, against the Admission of Deseret into the Union, H.R. Misc. Doc. No.
43, 31 st Cong., 1st sess., 1850, p. 2.

²⁵Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," p. 1

²⁶Ibid.

²⁷Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," The Messenger of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (December 1875):5.

²⁸Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," The Messenger of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (January 1876):9.

²⁹Ibid.

³⁰Ibid.

³¹ A. R. Blair, "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
Moderate Mormonism," in The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History,
ed. F. Mark McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul M. Edwards (Independence,
Missouri: Herald House, 1979), p. 210.

³²Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," The Messenger of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (February 1876): 15.

³³Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," The Messenger of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (March 1876): 17.

³⁴Briggs, J. W.; Gurley, Z. H.; and Harrington, J., A Word of Consolation
to the Scattered Saints. The Law of Succession in the First Presidency of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Duty of the Saints and the
Redemption of Zion (Janesville, Wisconsin:D. W. Scott and Co's. Job Office,
1853), pp. 3-20.

³⁵lbid., pp. 21-23. Richard P. Howard, "The Reorganized Church in Illinois,
1852-82: Search for Identity," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 5 (Spring
1970):42, concludes that Brigham Young's announcement of polygamy created
serious problems for the fledgling Reorganization which sought to distance itself
from the Utah church:

"It may be valid to assume that with the public endorsement of polygamy
by leaders of the largest single colony of Saints, and with the immediate negative
public reaction thereto, the budding church had an identity crisis of far greater
proportions than had previously been the case in its clash with James Strang and
William Smith. Thus it was quite natural for the new organization of Briggs and
Gurley, in the face of wide and intesifying public contumely directed against the
Salt Lake City Saints for their views on marriage, to spare no effort to inform the
world that the Reorganization had little in common with the Mormons of Utah
Territory. So it was that during the period under review here and far beyond that
. . . the RLDS Church sought to erect a wall between the two churches."

³⁶Briggs, "History of the Reorganization," The Messenger of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 2 (April 1876);21.

³⁷Blair, "Moderate Mormonism," p. 216.

³⁸"Sermon by Pres. Joseph Smith, of Lamoni, Iowa, at the Saints' Chapel,
Lamoni, December 17th, 1882," SH 30 (February 10, 1883):88.

³⁹Joseph Smith III later recollected that this episode probably took place
during the winter of 1855-1856. See Tullidge, p. 759, and Joseph Smith III to
Lyman O. Littlefield, August 14, 1883, LB #4, pp. 15-16. But he stated that the
interview occurred while Walker was on his way to the Cape Colony, which would
place it in 1852, not 1855-1856. Walker arrived in Nauvoo on November 16, 1852,
and spent a two-day visit with the Smith family. See "Diary of William Holmes
Walker," typescript at LDS Archives, pp. 27-28.

It is remotely possible that the interview occurred in the fall of 1856, when
Walker was returning from South Africa. However, against this are the following
considerations: (1) Joseph Smith III plainly said Walker was travelling from Utah
to South Africa. (2) Joseph Smith Ill's chronological recollections of the 1850s are
notoriously imprecise. (3) It seems more likely that Joseph Smith Ill's first
controversy over polygamy would have occurred shortly after August 29, 1852, not
three years later.

⁴⁰There is a good deal of material on Lorin and William Walker in Joseph
Smith III, Memoirs, pp. 12, 13, 18, 22, 25, 36, 39, 160. The brothers obviously had
been on close terms with the Smith family.

⁴¹Tullidge, p. 759.

⁴² Joseph Smith III to F. P. Scarcliff, October 4, 1893, LB #1 A, p. 410.

⁴³In 1886, John Henry Smith wrote to Joseph Smith from Salt Lake City:
"William Walker has just called in to see me, and I asked him if he knew anything
in regard to the introduction of plural marriage ... he says: tell 'Joseph that B.
Young never taught me that doctrine but that Joseph Smith the prophet did, and
he did ask me for my sister Lucy for a wife for himself.'" John Henry Smith to
Joseph Smith III, April 21, 1886, RLDS Archives.

⁴⁴"Last Testimony of Sister Emma," SH 26 (October 1, 1879):289. Here
Joseph Smith III said that he never discussed with his mother the possibility of his
father's involvement in polygamy until 1879. His younger brother, David H.
Smith also expressed reluctance to question her about the subject. See David H.
Smith to "Brother Sherman," July 27, 1872, RLDS Archives. Writing from Salt
Lake City, he expressed concern that his father might have been involved in
polygamy, from testimony he had heard in Utah, but still "I do not wish to ask her
in regard to polygamy . . . ."

⁴⁵Tullidge, pp. 756-757. Here Joseph gave the time of this interview as
the spring of 1853. In a letter to Lyman O. Littlefield, August 14, 1883, LB #4, p.
12, he stated that it took place during the summer of that year.
Additional verification of the dating of this interview is found in Frederick
Piercy, Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley: Illustrated with Steel
Engravings and Wood Cuts from Sketches Made by Frederick Piercy, Including
Views of Nauvoo and the Ruins of the Temple, with a Historical Account of the
City; Views of Carthage Jail; and Portraits and Memoirs of Joseph and Hyrum
Smith; Their Mother, Lucy Smith; Joseph and David Smith, Sons of the Prophet
Joseph; President Brigham Young; Heber C. Kimball; Willard Richards; Jedediah
M. Grant; John Taylor; the Late Chief Patriarch, John Smith, Son of Hyrum.
Together with a Geographical and Historical Description of Utah, and a Map of
the Overland Routes to That Territory from the Missouri River. Also an
Authentic History of the Latter-day Saints' Emigration from Europe from the
Commencement up to the Close of 1855, with Statistics, ed. by James Linforth
(Liverpool:Franklin D. Richards; Liverpool:Latter-day Saints' Book Depot,
1855), p. 58. Here Piercy commented that in 1853 the emigrants to Utah, "instead
of going up the dangerous Missouri River in steam-boats would . . . start from
Keokuk and cross the State of Iowa to Kanesville . . . ." The year 1853 was the
only one in which Keokuk was used as the main outfitting post for the westward
trek.

⁴⁶Tullidge, p. 762. Joseph Smith Ill's conversations with Putnam Yates, as
recorded in Tullidge, pp. 760-763, present some vexing chronological difficulties.
On p. 762, he placed his main discussion with Yates in 1856. He also stated that on
earlier conversation took place "a year or two before this," and that they
frequently discussed the subject. His syntax is such that one cannot be absolutely
certain at which time the conversation about Utah was followed by the vision of
the luminous, funnel-shaped cloud. To further complicate matters, Joseph Smith
Ill's chronology of events in the 1850s, in Tullidge, was based on memory and
frequently is unreliable.

This writer concludes, subject to persuasion by better evidence, that there
was one conversation with Putnam Yates around the time of Joseph Smith Ill's
first great spiritual crisis, and that there was another in 1856 which was followed
by the aforesaid vision.

⁴⁷This explains his drawn appearance in the portrait appearing in Piercy's
Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley. It was drawn while Joseph was
still recuperating from the illness. Piercy, p. 64, states that he drew it on Joseph
Smith Ill's twenty-first birthday, November 6, 1853.

⁴⁸Tullidge, p. 757.

⁴⁹Joseph Smith III to Lyman O. Littlefield, August 14, 1883, LB #4, pp. 13-
15. The precise number and chronology of the spiritual manifestations which
Joseph Smith III experienced during the 1850s present serious historiographical
problems. The ultimate conclusion which he drew from them is clear enough—
that polygamy was wrong, that he was not to go to Utah, and—later—that he was
to join the Reorganization, but the number and sequence is murky. In this letter
to Littlefield he clearly stated that he had such manifestations while recovering
from illness in 1853. In his autobiography in Tullidge, pp. 757-758, he mentioned
only a vision which told him that he must choose between self-serving success and
humble service (to God), in 1853. In Tullidge, pp. 762-763, he seemed to place the
instructions concerning polygamy and Utah in 1856.

Joseph Smith III probably received several such manifestations concerning
Utah and polygamy, rather than one. Angus Munn Cannon, Statement of an
Interview with Joseph Smith III, (typescript), LDS Archives, records one such
manifestation, which differs from the vision recorded in Tullidge, pp. 762-763.
"He remarked, calling some man by name, whose name I cannot remember, that
he came to him and advised him to come to this people [the Utah Mormons] at an
early day, he had earnestly prayed to the Lord for light, that he might know what
to do. In the night he dreamed and where he stood there was a light descending
from above upon him, and sprays of light came down and enveloped him, and a
voice said, 'Go not after them,' indicating that the light proceeded from above
accompanied him. He took this as an evidence that his duty was to maintain his
position, and he had acted accordingly." The vision of 1856 took place during
daylight and involved a luminous, funnel-shaped cloud. The messages were similar
but not identical.

This writer concludes, subject to better evidence, that the vision recorded
by Cannon probably took place in 1853. All of the circumstances match those
mentioned in the letter to Littlefield of August 14, 1883.

⁵⁰Tullidge, pp. 757-758.

⁵¹Ibid., p. 758.

⁵² Joseph Smith III, later in life, recognized the scene as Lamoni, Iowa. See
Heman C. Smith, "The Return." Journal of History 9 (April 1916): 163-164.

According to his daughter, after his severe illness, Joseph Smith III was
uncertain whether or not he would take up his father's work, feeling the necessity
of calling prior to taking such a step. But whatever his personal course might be,
he formed two great resolutions: "One was that he would live in such a manner
that no one, from his actions, could say that his father had been a bad man—in the
sense of 'like father, like son.' The other was that he would lose no opportunity to
try to make the religion for which his father had lost his life, honorable in the
sight of men." Anderson, "Lucy Mack Smith and the Latter Day Saints," pp. 9-10.

⁵³ Joseph Smith III to Lyman O. Littlefield, August 14, 1883, LB #4, pp. 12-
13.

⁵⁴Piercy, Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley, pp. 64-66.

⁵⁵Paragraphs based upon E. C. Briggs, "A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856," Journal
of History 9 (October 1916):446-448, 453-454, 460-461.

⁵⁶ Jason W. Briggs to Joseph Smith III, November 20, 1853, LDS Archives.
(This letter is a copy of the original.)

⁵⁷George A. Smith and John L. Smith to Joseph Smith III, RLDS Archives.

⁵⁸ln "Sermon by Pres. Joseph Smith, of Lamoni, Iowa, at the Saints'
Chapel, Lamoni, December 17th, 1882," SH 30 (February 10, 1883):90, he stated,
with tongue-in-cheek, "I wanted to be a black-smith, and I am sorry now I did not
make one. I had the smith part, and it would not have taken long to have made
the black." He then continued, "But my step-father and mother had more
ambitious views. I must be per force a lawyer."

That Emma may have been less enthusiastic than the Major about Joseph's
legal studies may be gathered from a letter she wrote when the idea of her
youngest son's entry into law was contemplated. She stated that she believed it
useful to know a little law, but that she had "a horror of one of my children being
entirely dependant upon being a lawier for a living." Emma Smith Bidamon to
Joseph Smith III, October 11, 1866, RLDS Archives. She probably shared the
common conviction that law was a "shady" business. Certainly she had spent
enough of her time and substance dealing with lawyers to have developed a
distaste for a profession which made an opportunity of other people's necessity.
(She once advised her nephew, Harmon Wasson, not to enter the medical
profession, because it made an opportunity of other people's necessity. Harmon
Wasson to Emma Smith Bidamon, May 14, 1848, Wilford C. Wood Collection;
microfilm at LDS Archives, Ms f 413, Reel 25.)

In a letter to his daughter Audie, Joseph Smith III humorously recalled that
he had enjoyed blacksmithing as a youth, opining that "the Major spoiled a good
black Smith, to make a poor lawyer; and if I had not turned out a preacher, I dont
know what I should have been—possibly a loafer. Joseph Smith III to Mary
Audentia Smith, April 12, 1889, RLDS Archives.

⁵⁹There were two men named William Kellogg practicing law in Fulton
County in 1855. The first was William Kellogg of Canton, Illinois (1814-1872).
The second was William Pitt Kellogg of Farmington, Illinois (1830-1918). Launius,
"And There Came Prophets in the Land Again," p. 125, wrongly identifies the
"William Kellogg" under whom Joseph Smith III studied as the younger man,
William Pitt Kellogg. In fact, it was the older William Kellogg, of Canton.
The correct identification is based on the following data:

1) In SH 21 (March 1, 1874):144, Joseph Smith III gave details of a visit to Canton.
He mentioned that he read law there "in the office of Judge William Kellogg, now
deceased." The older Kellogg died in 1872; the younger in 1918.
2) William Pitt Kellogg lived in Farmington, about ten miles north of Canton. See
"Anti-Nebraska County Convention," Canton Register, September 2, 1856.
3) The older William Kellogg served as judge of the Circuit Court of Illinois, 1852-
1855, and Joseph Smith III therefore called him "Judge Kellogg."
4) The younger Kellogg was admitted to the bar in 1853, while the older man was
a lawyer of widespread reputation. Joseph Smith III would hardly undergo the
expense of studying in Fulton County under a neophyte attorney.

Following is a sketch of William Kellogg's career. He was born in Ohio in
1814 and removed to Canton, Illinois in 1837. In Illinois he built up an extensive
practice in the area of disputed land titles. He was a superb defense attorney,
reputed to possess forensic power equal to any lawyer in the state and stood at
the head of the Fulton County bar. He served in the Illinois legislature (1849-
1850) and was judge of the Circuit Court of Illinois for three years. He became
active in the fledgling Republican Party and was elected to Congress in 1856,
1858, and 1860. Lincoln appointed him U.S. Minister to Guatemala in 1864, but he
declined the appointment. Andrew Johnson appointed him Chief Justice of
Nebraska Territory, in which capacity he served until the territory became a state
in 1867. He served briefly as a federal collector for Peoria district and made an
abortive attempt at a political career in Mississippi as a Republican carpetbagger.
In 1870 he returned to Peoria and practiced law with his son William. He died
there in 1872.

See History of Fulton County Illinois; together with Sketches of Its Cities,
Villages and Townships. Educational. Religious. Civil. Military, and Political
History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative
Citizens (Peoria: Chas. C. Chapman & Co., 1879), p. 404; Jesse Hevlin, History of
Fulton County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers, 1908), p. 493;
The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and
Self-Made Men, Illinois volume (Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York; American
Biographical Publishing Co., 1876), pp. 215-216; and Charles Lanman, comp.,
Dictionary of the United States Congress, Compiled as a Manual of Reference for
the Legislator and Statesman (N.p.; Government Printing Office, 1864), p. 211.

⁶⁰Tullidge, p. 759.

⁶¹ Joseph Smith III, untitled Biographical Sketch of Emma Hale Smith
Bidamon, PI 3, f2302, RLDS Archives, p. 25. Her action was, Joseph concluded,
"the key to her character and the steadfast policy of her life."

⁶²Joseph Smith III to Emma Smith Bidamon, June 15, 1855, RLDS Archives.

⁶³Joseph Chitty (1776-1841) was an English legal writer whose legal
manuals enjoyed a considerable reputation. His lawyer-sons Joseph, Thomas, and
Edward also authored legal tomes. Joseph Smith III might have been reading the
works of any of them.

⁶⁴Joseph Smith III to Alexander H. Smith, September 27, 1855, RLDS
Archives.

⁶⁵Tullidge, p. 759.

⁶⁶Ibid.

⁶⁷See Buddy Youngreen, "The Death Date of Lucy Mack Smith: 8 July
1775-14 May 1856," Brigham Young University Studies 12 (Spring 1972):318.
Joseph Smith III to "Cousin Mary B.," December 7, 1877, LB #1 A, pp. 59-61, states
that when his grandmother died, he and a hired girl were "her only attendants,
while my mother sought an hour's rest after a long siege of sleepless attendance
upon her."

⁶⁸Memoirs, p. 215.

⁶⁹Joseph Smith III to Emma Knight, May 24, 1855, RLDS Archives
(photocopy). Copies of Joseph Smith Ill's correspondence with Emma Knight ore
also housed at the Utah State Historical Society, MAN A658, together with
explanatory background material by Ralph Martin McGrath, a great-grandson of
Wesley Knight, father of Emma Knight.

⁷⁰"Sermon by Pres. Joseph Smith, of Lamoni, Iowa, at the Saints' Chapel,
Lamoni, December 17th, 1882, SH 30 (February 10, 1883):91.

⁷¹Scofield, History of Hancock County, p. 896, explains the important
social role attendance at religious services played in the lives of young people:

"In an early day church services were largely attended. Entertainments in
the modern sense were of infrequent occurrence, and so, while the older people
went to church' to worship, the younger people went from mixed motives, among
which was the opportunity for meeting one another and a little love-making on the
'aside,' cloaked with the profession of religious enthusiasm. The young men lined
up at the church door at the conclusion of the services, and the young women
(with giggling willingness) had to run the gauntlet of an offered elbow and a 'may I
see you home?' in their apparently strenuous efforts to reach the friendly covert
of parental protection."

⁷²Memoirs, p. 51. Joseph Smith III to E. L. Kelley, July 10, 1883, RLDS
Archives, contains a lengthy retrospective account of the explanation given to
Emaline Griswold when proposing marriage.

⁷³Memoirs, p. 52.

⁷⁴Joseph Smith III to Emma Knight, May 4, 1856, RLDS Archives
(photocopy).

⁷⁵Tullidge, pp. 760-761.

⁷⁶In Tullidge, p. 764, Joseph Smith III recollected that the visit was a little
more than a month after his marriage on October 22nd. Actually, it was only ten
days after his marriage. See George A. Smith to Joseph F. Smith, July 17, 1872,
Church Historian's Letterpress Book, LDS Archives.

⁷⁷George A. Smith to Joseph F. Smith, July 17, 1872, Church Historian's
Letterpress Book, LDS Archives, emphasized the purely unofficial nature of the
visit. Joseph F. Smith had inquired whether a statement of Judge Boren were
true, to the effect that Brigham Young had sent George A. Smith as an emissary
to urge Joseph Smith III to come to Utah and assume the presidency of the church.
George A. Smith replied that the rumor was unfounded, that Brigham Young was
ignorant of the visit, and that no delegation was ever sent to offer Joseph Smith
III any position in the church. George A. Smith explained that he was, at that
time, a delegate to Congress, to seek Utah's admission into the Union, and that
between sessions of Congress he did missionary work. Finding himself near
Nauvoo, he paid a social visit to his old home, relatives, and friends.

⁷⁸Tullidge, pp. 764-765.

⁷⁹For George A. Smith's view see George A. Smith to Joseph F. Smith, July
17, 1872, Church Historian's Letterpress Book, LDS Archives: "Elder Snow was
anxious to ascertain if Joseph believed in the Book of Mormon and the divine
mission of his father, his evasive answer to Elder Snow's interrogatories led us to
the conclusion that he did not." Cf. Avery, "Insanity and the Sweet Singer," pp.
39-41. For Joseph Smith Ill's view see Joseph Smith III to James T. Cobb,
November 1, 1878, LB #1 A, pp. 100-103: "Much that has been said for Mormonism
I can not endorse; but in stating thus, I do not authorize you to carry the inference
that I am in doubt as to the truth of it. I once said to George A. Smith and
Erastus Snow, that I did not believe the Book of Mormon, as they taught it,. He
straightway reported that I was infidel as to that book."

⁸⁰Briggs, "A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856," pp. 448-449.

⁸¹Ibid., pp. 449-451; Tullidge, p. 767.

⁸²Tullidge, p. 768. Cf. Briggs, "A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856," pp. 451-452.

⁸³Briggs, A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856," pp. 455-456.

⁸⁴Tullidge, p. 769; cf. Memoirs, pp. 52-53 for some differences in detail.
Some hints of the financial difficulties facing Joseph Smith III and the rest of the
family may be gathered from three events: First, on February 19, 1856, Joseph
Smith III sold some land holdings for $2,500. See contract between Joseph Smith
III and H. R. Dickinson, February 19, 1856, Brigham Young University. Second,
after the death of Lucy Mack Smith, her Egyptian papyri and mummies were sold
almost immediately to raise cash. Cf. the bill of sale, dated May 26, 1856, and
signed by L. C. Bidamon, Emma Bidamon, and Joseph Smith III, LDS Archives.
Third, there are entries in Joseph Smith Ill's journal, during the spring of 1859,
indicative of financial problems. The entry for April 25th indicates that Joseph,
his brother Frederick, and "Bernard" [Risse? ] went to the farm, looked at stock,
and made a mortgage of $472.80. On May 7th, there is on ambiguous entry.
"Sale. saved Tatty coram, & machine property all gone." This sounds as though
some farm land had been sold to satisfy a debt. See Joseph Smith III, Journal,
RLDS Archives. Joseph Smith III to "Cousin Mary B.," December 7, 1877, LB 7/1 A,
pp. 59-61, summarized his financial plight: ". . . ever since my Bro. Frederick's
death, I have been constantly harassed by debts contracted by him and for him; we
having been in partnership for two unfortunate and disastrous years, which left me
involved about 2500 dollars . . . ."

⁸⁵Joseph Smith III to John Smith, December 28, 1876, LB #1 A, pp. 11-17.

⁸⁶Two important essays which shed light on Joseph Smith's unpublished oral
and/or secret teachings at Nauvoo are Stan Larson, "The King Follett Discourse:
A Newly Amalgamated Text," Briqham Young University Studies 18 (Winter
1978):198-208; and Ronald K. Esplin, "Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve: A
Succession of Continuity," Briqham Young University Studies 21 (Summer
1981):301-341. Esplin, p. 304, estimates that only 20 of Joseph Smith's known
public sermons were recorded in reasonably accurate summaries.

⁸⁷ Joseph Smith III to John Smith, December 28, 1876, LB #1 A, pp. 11-17.

⁸⁸Memoirs, p. 70.

⁸⁹Ibid.

⁹⁰Ibid.

⁹¹ Ibid., pp. 70-71. As a youth, after becoming aware that his father's name
was held in disrepute by many, Joseph Smith III resolved "that I would so live that
no man would say, from my example, that my father was a bad man. SH 39
(April 16, 1892):243. Redeeming his father's name became a lifelong goal of the
prophet's son.

⁹²Memoirs, p. 71.

⁹³Ibid.

⁹⁴Ibid.

⁹⁵Ibid.

⁹⁶Ibid., p. 54. Launius, "And There Came Prophets in the Land Again: The
Life of Joseph Smith III," p. 169, wrongly dates this episode in 1857. The mention
of "little ones" and "children" clearly places it in 1859, during Evalyn Rebecca's
brief life. The "little ones" were Emma Josepha and Evalyn Rebecca.

⁹⁷Memoirs, p. 53. Cf. Joseph Smith III, Journal, September 2 through
October 1, 1859, RLDS Archives. The entry for September 30 reads: "At home
all day evening little Eva dying Oh! how sorrowful 9 oclock Eva dead[.]"

⁹⁸Memoirs, p. 53.

⁹⁹Ibid., p. 72.

¹⁰⁰Tullidge,p.772.

¹⁰¹ Memoirs, pp. 71-72.

¹⁰² Joseph Smith III to William Marks, March 5, 1860, RLDS Archives.

¹⁰³Tullidge, p. 773.

¹⁰⁴Tullidge, p. 774; W. W. Blair, Journal, March 19 through 22, 1860, RLDS
Archives. W. W. Blair told E. C. Briggs that Joseph desired counsel from Marks,
Rogers, and himself about the best means of redeeming the Utah Church from
evil, expressing the opinion that many in Utah had been honestly deceived. Joseph
Smith III therefore was inclined to adopt a mild course toward them. See E. C.
Briggs, Journal, March 30, 1860, RLDS Archives.

¹⁰⁵Joseph Fielding Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith, pp. 130-156.

¹⁰⁶Buddy Youngreen, "Sons of the Martyrs' Nauvoo Reunion—1860,"
Briqham Young University Studies 20 (Summer 1980):354.

¹⁰⁷ Memoirs, p. 243.

¹⁰⁸Ibid.

¹⁰⁹John Smith to Joseph Smith III, April 3, 1860, RLDS Archives. John's
fears concerning persons taking advantage of his cousin in speculative schemes
were far from groundless, although the schemers were not leaders of the
Reorganization. L. C. Bidamon entertained grandiose dreams of vast profits to be
made selling lands to Saints "gathering" to a new stake of Zion. Others
entertained similar ideas, as will be seen in the following chapter.