Joseph Smith III

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Joseph Smith III
Lineal succession
Personal details
Born(1832-11-06)November 6, 1832
Kirtland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedDecember 10, 1914(1914-12-10) (aged 82)
Independence, Missouri, U.S.
Resting placeMound Grove Cemetery
39°6′41.20″N 94°25′34.78″W / 39.1114444°N 94.4263278°W / 39.1114444; -94.4263278
Spouse(s)
Emmeline Griswold
(m. 1856; died 1869)
[1]
Bertha Madison
(m. 1869; died 1896)
[1]
Ada R. Clark
(m. 1898)
Emma Hale Smith
Signature 
Signature of Joseph Smith III
Signature of Joseph Smith III
Smith later in his life

Joseph Smith III (November 6, 1832 – December 10, 1914) was the eldest surviving son of

Prophet-President of what became the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church), renamed Community of Christ in 2001, which considers itself a continuation of the church established by Smith's father in 1830.[2][3] For fifty-four years until his own death, Smith presided over the church.[4]
Smith's moderate ideas and nature set much of the tone for the church's development, earning him the sobriquet of "the pragmatic prophet".

Biography

Childhood

The Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Joseph Smith III
Emmeline Griswold

Joseph Smith III was born in

apostle Lyman Wight that during one of these visits, his father laid his hands upon Joseph III's head and said, "You are my successor when I depart."[5] While his father was still imprisoned in 1839, Joseph III left Missouri with his mother and siblings and moved to Quincy, Illinois, and later to the new settlement of Nauvoo
. The elder Smith escaped custody later that year and rejoined the family.

At Nauvoo, the

Latter Day Saints created a militia known as the Nauvoo Legion
and soon afterward, 500 of the town's boys created their own junior version of the militia. Joseph III became general of the junior militia whose motto was, "our fathers we respect, our mothers we'll protect."

According to later reminiscences, Joseph III was blessed by his father at a special council meeting of church officials held on the second floor of the Smith family's

W. W. Phelps, and John M. Bernhisel. Joseph III's father reportedly seated him in a chair and Whitney anointed his head with oil. Then the elder Smith reportedly pronounced a special blessing upon his son's head that suggested that Joseph III would succeed him as church president if he lived righteously.[5]

Lewis Bidamon
.

Joseph III began to study and eventually

practice law. In 1856, he married Emmeline Griswold and the couple moved into a house that was his parents' first residence in Nauvoo. They had five children: Rebecca, Emma, Carrie, Zaide, and Joseph Arthur. After Emmeline died of probable tuberculosis, he married their housekeeper, Bertha Madison, on November 12, 1869. They had seven children: David Carlos, Mary Audentia, Frederick Madison, Israel "Dutch" Alexander, Kenneth, Bertha Azuba, and Hale. Bertha Madison Smith died from injuries sustained in a carriage accident in 1895. On January 12, 1898 Joseph Smith III wed Ada Rachel Clark of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They had three sons, William Wallace, Richard Clark, and Reginald Archer.[6]

Reorganization of the church

In the late 1840s and early 1850s, the bulk of the Latter Day Saints either aligned themselves with Young and emigrated to

assassins
, he refused to name a successor, and when he died he left his church leaderless.

The midwestern Saints began to call for the need to establish a "New Organization" of the church and many believed that Joseph III should be its head. Latter Day Saints repeatedly visited Smith and asked him to take up his father's mantle, but his reply was that he would only assume the church presidency if he were inspired by God to do so. Finally, in 1860, Smith said that he had received this inspiration and at a conference in Amboy, Illinois on April 6, 1860, he was sustained as president of the RLDS Church. Smith III stated at the conference:

I would say to you, brethren, as I hope you may be, and in faith I trust you are, as a people that God has promised his blessings upon, I came not here of myself, but by the influence of the Spirit. For some time past I have received manifestations pointing to the position which I am about to assume. I wish to say that I have come here not to be dictated by any men or set of men. I have come in obedience to a power not my own, and shall be dictated by the power that sent me.[7]

At the time both this organization and Young's Utah-based church claimed to be the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[8]

President of the church

As church president, Smith was what his biographer has called a "

plural marriage and that this practice was an invention of Young and his followers. Smith also resisted calls from his followers to announce a new gathering place or to quickly "redeem" and build up "Zion" (Independence, Missouri
).

In the 1860s and 1870s, Smith began to rebuild the structure of the church, establishing a new

, to be his counselors in the First Presidency.

In 1866, Smith moved from Nauvoo to

Law of Consecration" or "Order of Enoch." In 1881, Smith decided to move to Lamoni which became the new headquarters of the church. Although the practice of the Order of Enoch proved a failure, the town of Lamoni continued to grow. The church established a college there which became Graceland University
.

Under Smith's presidency, the RLDS Church gained clear legal title to the Kirtland Temple in the 1880 Kirtland Temple Suit. However, the RLDS Church failed in its bid to acquire legal title to the Temple Lot in the Temple Lot Case of the late 1890s. The trial court in both cases declared that the RLDS Church was the legal rightful successor to the original Latter Day Saint church founded in 1830 by Smith's father (it failed to gain the Temple Lot because the owners at the time appealed on the grounds that the RLDS Church waited too long to act, but the earlier rightful successor decision was upheld). Rather than focusing on the practical ownership results of the cases, Smith emphasized these court judgements for the remainder of his life as legal validation of the RLDS Church's claims.

Redemption of Zion

In Smith's final years, members of the church began to move to

Frederick Madison Smith
, remained in Lamoni and took over active leadership of the church. Finally, on December 10, 1914, at the age of 82, Smith suffered a heart seizure in his home and died. He had been president of the church for more than fifty years and he was admired and mourned by thousands.

Teachings on plural marriage

Joseph Smith III was an ardent opponent of the practice of

plural marriage throughout his life. For most of his career, Smith denied that his father had been involved in the practice and insisted that it had originated with Young. Smith served many missions to the western United States where he met with and interviewed associates and women claiming to be widows of his father, who attempted to present him with evidence to the contrary. In the end, Smith concluded that he was "not positive nor sure that [his father] was innocent"[9] and that if, indeed, the elder Smith had been involved, it was still a false practice. However, many members of the Community of Christ, and some of the groups that were formerly associated with it are still not convinced that Joseph Smith III's father did indeed engage in plural marriage, and feel that the evidence that he did so is largely flawed.[10][11]

Family chart

The inter-relationship of the offices of
doctrine of Lineal succession, of pre and post-reorganization in the Community of Christ
:
Joseph Smith, Sr.
1771–1840
Presiding Patriarch
(1833–1840)

1776–1856
Emma Hale Smith
1804–1879
Elect Lady

1811–1893
Presiding Patriarch
(1845)

Bertha Madison
1843–1896

Joseph Smith III
1832–1914
Prophet-President
(1860–1914)
Ada Clark
1871–1914

Alexander Hale Smith
1838–1909
Presiding Patriarch
(1897–1902)
Frederick A. Smith
1862–1954
Presiding Patriarch
(1913–1938)

1871–1959
Presiding Patriarch
(1938–1958)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Jones, Gracia. "Joseph Smith III". The Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  2. ^ The Early Church (1830), Community of Christ website (accessed July 20, 2008)
  3. ^ "The Early Church (1830)". Community of Christ. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  4. ^ "History". Community of Christ. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Wight, Lyman: letter to "The Northern Islander.", July 1855; reprinted in Saints Advocate, Vol. 7 (September 1884), p. 478. also quoted in "Chapter 35". The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Vol. 2. p. 789. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  6. .
  7. True Latter Day Saints' Herald
    . 1 (5): 102–104. May 1860. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  8. ^ While retaining use of this original name, Smith's church for legal purposes was eventually incorporated as the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" in 1872, partly to distinguish it from the Utah church enmeshed in federal problems associated with polygamy and today is known as the Community of Christ, although the legal name remains the long Reorganized title. Young's church had reincorporated in Utah as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  9. S2CID 254387866, archived from the original
    on July 7, 2012. University of Utah web site.
  10. ^ "Community of Christ." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. June 15, 2007.
  11. ISBN 1-891-35305-5. Archived from the original
    on February 18, 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2017.

Other sources

External links


Community of Christ titles
Preceded by
Prophet–President

June 6, 1860 (1860-06-06)–December 10, 1914 (1914-12-10)
Succeeded by
Frederick M. Smith