Certainly there were many events that bonded Hyrum and Joseph together, but none stronger than one in When typhus fever swept the area, several members of the Smith family were stricken, including seven-year-old Joseph. As he was a good, trusty boy, we let him do so, and, in order to make the task as easy for him as possible, we laid Joseph upon a low bed and Hyrum sat beside him, almost day and night for some considerable length of time, holding the affected part of his leg in his hands and pressing it between them, so that his afflicted brother might be enabled to endure the pain.
I want you to finish the house and take care of them in their old age. On 9 December , Joseph Smith Sr.
Hyrum Smith:“Firm As the Pillars of Heaven” - M. Russell Ballard
In Hyrum had been among the first who believed and supported Joseph after the First Vision. When Joseph received the golden plates, it was Hyrum who provided the wooden box for their storage and protection. In Hyrum became one of the Eight Witnesses, who, after leafing through the plates and seeing the engravings thereon, testified of their reality. Throughout the publication process, it was Hyrum, usually accompanied by Oliver Cowdery, who delivered pages to the typesetter and retrieved them daily.
Although Hyrum had learned barrel making from his father, he supported his family as a farmer and laborer. He and Jerusha eventually became the parents of six children, two of whom died young. When the Church was organized on 6 April , Hyrum, at age 30, was the eldest of the six who signed the articles of incorporation. Soon after, Hyrum was sent to Colesville, New York, to preside over one of the first branches of the Church.
Hyrum was a persuasive missionary, often visiting communities near his home, but he also traveled to the eastern seaboard and to the South.
In the summer of , Hyrum and his companion John Murdock were two of more than a dozen pairs of missionaries called to travel, each by a different route to Missouri and back nearly 1, miles each way , preaching along the way. Williams—saw the Kirtland Temple in vision. Its construction became a priority. Two days later he and Reynolds Cahoon began digging the foundation. As a member of the committee to oversee Kirtland Temple construction, Hyrum was involved at every stage of the building, dedication, and use of the first temple of this dispensation. Ever a peacemaker, Hyrum, during this time period, counseled often with his volatile younger brother William, who struggled with his role in the Church and his relationship with Joseph.
Hyrum became an active member of the First Presidency with Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in , a time of dissension and apostasy in Kirtland. Serious economic problems following the fall of the Kirtland Safety Society, an unchartered bank, rocked the community. Most of the Saints had enough faith to weather this crisis, but a number of leaders did not. For them a central issue was not the bank failure but a broader question: Should a religious leader be involved in civic or economic affairs? To Protestant America of that day, the answer was a resounding no. But for those who desired Kirtland to become a different kind of community, the answer was a resounding yes.
Confrontation between the two irreconcilable views was unavoidable. At the darkest hour in summer , some of the brethren met in the temple fasting and praying for the Prophet. Soon after, the Saints gathered and Hyrum conducted the Sunday meeting. Before he concluded, he seemed to be filled with [the] Spirit and power of God.
In mid, Hyrum gave encouragement to Elder Heber C. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who felt inadequate and overwhelmed after the Prophet Joseph revealed that he should travel to England to open the work abroad.
Hyrum Smith:
In September a special conference in Kirtland brought a spirit of repentance and a semblance of harmony among the Saints. Hyrum felt uneasy about leaving Jerusha, who was about to deliver their sixth baby, but he also felt he had to go. He arrived in Far West on 30 October Immediately, he and the others began the challenging work of preparing for Church expansion in Missouri.
A few days after his arrival, Hyrum received a letter from his brother Samuel in Kirtland, dated 13 October, nearly a month earlier: She was delivered of a daughter on the first or second of this month.
She has been very low ever since. Jerusha had been his love, his helpmeet, his strength. With deep sadness, on 13 November, only two weeks after his arrival, Hyrum started home and arrived in Kirtland in early December. Without relief, Hyrum would not be able to carry his portion of the burden of building up the kingdom. Thus, just three weeks after his sad return from Missouri, Hyrum married Mary on 24 December In early March , Hyrum and Mary, who had spent only a few weeks together as husband and wife caring for their large household, left Kirtland. Of the five living children, only Lovina, then 10, was old enough to help her new stepmother.
- Hyrum Smith - Wikipedia?
- Hyrum Smith, Patriarch - Deseret Book!
- Anywhere She Runs;
John, oldest of the boys, was 5, Hyrum was 3, Jerusha 2, and Sarah only a few months old. Once violence erupted, it mushroomed. By October there were mobbings, burnings, pitched battles, and finally Governor Lilburn W. Some Church leaders were arrested. In September of , Joseph Smith, Sr. This venerable patriarch was dying and wanted to leave his blessing on his beloved wife and children.
At the same time, he assisted and served his brother, Joseph the Prophet, throughout the long and arduous process of the Restoration. Ultimately, he joined Joseph and other martyrs of past gospel dispensations. His blood was shed as his final testimony to the world. Through it all, Hyrum stood firm. He knew the course his life would take, and he consciously chose to follow it.
To Joseph, Hyrum became companion, protector, provider, confidant, and eventually joined him as a martyr. Unjust persecution engulfed them throughout their lives.
Elder Eldred G. Smith Dies at Age 106
While he gave Joseph strong counsel on occasion, Hyrum always deferred to his younger brother. Oh may the Eternal Jehovah crown eternal blessings upon your head, as a reward for the care you have had for my soul! O how many are the sorrows we have shared together. On another occasion, Joseph referred to his brother with these profound and tender words: Hyrum gave unfailing service to the Church.
October 1995 General Conference
At age thirty, he was the oldest of the six men chosen in to formally organize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As chairman of the temple committee, Hyrum rallied the Church to perform the seemingly impossible task of building the Kirtland Temple when most Church members literally had nothing to give to the cause. A few years later he repeated this service with the building of the Nauvoo Temple. Hyrum served in the Ohio bishopric, on the first high council, as Patriarch, counselor in the First Presidency, and finally as one of only two men ever to hold the office of Assistant President of the Church.
Hyrum served many missions for the Church. During one mission, traveling from Kirtland to Indiana, he endured one of his greatest trials when his first wife, Jerusha, died soon after giving birth to his sixth child. Although Hyrum was grieved, his faith was unshaken; his determination to serve Heavenly Father and his church never faltered. I believe God rewarded his faithfulness by bringing into his life one of the great women of Church history, Mary Fielding, whom he subsequently married. Together they built an extraordinary legacy of love and discipleship.
Clearly, Hyrum Smith was one of the firm pillars of the Restoration. But sadly, many Church members know little about him except that he was martyred with his brother in Carthage Jail. That is significant, but he did far more. In , when Joseph was finishing the translation of the Book of Mormon, Hyrum was anxious to begin spreading the gospel and building the Church.
Hyrum Smith, Patriarch
He asked Joseph to inquire of the Lord what he should do. To the very last day of his life, he devoted himself to obtaining the word through study of the scriptures. In Carthage Jail, he read and commented on extracts from the Book of Mormon. Just think of the spiritual strength we could gain in our lives and how much more effective we would be as teachers, missionaries, and friends if we studied the scriptures regularly.
I am sure we, like Hyrum, will be able to endure our greatest trials if we search the word of God as he did. The Lord let him know in his heart what was right, and he followed Joseph—faithfully—for the rest of his life. Faithful Hyrum had a believing heart; he did not have to see everything Joseph saw. We do not need more members who question every detail; we need members who have felt with their hearts, who live close to the Spirit, and who follow its promptings joyfully.
We need seeking hearts and minds that welcome gospel truths without argument or complaint and without requiring miraculous manifestation. Oh, how we are blessed when members respond joyfully to counsel from their bishops, stake presidents, quorum or auxiliary leaders, some of whom might be younger than they and less experienced. The third example from the life of Hyrum was his selfless service to others.
Hyrum was the first to extend a hand of friendship to a visitor, the first to attempt to moderate a dispute, the first to forgive an enemy. Do similar needs exist in the Church and in our families today? Are we sensitive to the concerns of those who need special attention? Are we aware of families who are struggling spiritually or emotionally and who need our love, encouragement, and support?