Emma Smith Received a Watch forletting Joseph Smith Get Married Again

This article originally ran onLDS Living in October 2015.

Of the many hardships, Joseph Smith Jr. and his married woman Emma endured, one of the most difficult, particularly for Emma, was losing so many of her precious children. But 5 of her 11 children lived past the historic period of 2, and her merely biological girl died at nascence. Later her husband was killed in 1844 and the majority of the Saints moved West, Emma stayed in Nauvoo to heighten her surviving children. Detect out what happened to each of the Smith children and where the surviving ones ended upward in their adult years.

Alvin Smith

As the first of many tragic deaths, Joseph and Emma's first baby was built-in and died on June 15, 1828, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, during the fourth dimension that the 116 pages given to Martin Harris were lost. Co-ordinate to the family Bible, the baby was named Alvin, probable after Joseph Smith's older brother who died presently before Joseph received the gold plates. Nevertheless, the headstone merely states "In Memory of An Baby Son of Joseph and Emma Smith."

Thadeus and Louisa Smith

These twins, born on Apr 30, 1831, in Kirtland, Ohio lived for only 3 hours and were given the names Thadeus and Louisa in the family Bible.

A fix of twins born to Latter-day Saints John and Julia Murdock the same day were adopted past the Smiths shortly after, as Julia Murdock died afterward giving nascence to them.

Joseph Murdock Smith

One of the twins adopted by Emma and Joseph Smith Jr., piffling Joseph died when he was 11 months old. His death was probable the result of a combination of measles and exposure to the cold air when a mob attacked the Prophet Joseph at the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio.

Julia Murdock Smith

What Happened to Joseph and Emma Smith's Children?

Julia and her twin brother, Joseph, were adopted past Joseph and Emma when they were nine days quondam, later on their mother died giving birth to them and their father could not care for them. Though her brother did not survive his first year of life, Julia lived to be 49. She was 13 when her adopted begetter, the Prophet Joseph, was killed in Carthage Jail and she was left with her mother, grandmother (Lucy Mack Smith), and siblings in deserted Nauvoo.

She married Elisha Dixon somewhere betwixt the age of 17 and 18, against the wishes of her family unit. She soon moved with him to Texas, where he died a few years later on in a steamer ship accident. After his death, she returned to live with her mother, Emma, in Nauvoo. It was at that place she met and married John J. Middleton in 1856. During her marriage to Middleton, she joined the Catholic Church, of which her new husband was a devout member. They eventually moved to St. Louis, Missouri. After 20 years in what came to be a very difficult matrimony, Julia officially separated from Middleton and moved back to Nauvoo to live with and take care of her ailing mother.

Subsequently her mother's death in 1879, Julia went to live with her brother, Alexander, for a time and later with some of her friends, the Moffitt family. While living with the Moffitts, she died of breast cancer in September 1880, leaving no posterity.

Joseph Smith 3

The namesake of his father, Joseph Smith III was born on November half-dozen, 1832, in Kirtland. He was baptized at age xi, virtually seven months before his male parent was killed. He married Emmeline Griswold on October 22, 1856, and had v children with her during their 13 years of union.

A strong opponent of polygamy, he served as president and prophet of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now the Customs of Christ), from 1860 until 1914.

After his first wife died, Joseph III married Bertha Madison in 1869. She died in October 1896, leaving him 9 more children. He met and married Ada Rachel Clark two years later in January 1898 in Ontario, Canada. They eventually moved back to Missouri and had three children together.

Joseph III died at historic period 82 on December 10, 1914, and has a big posterity.

Frederick Granger Williams Smith

Named subsequently Joseph'due south shut friend and showtime advisor in the First Presidency, Frederick 1000. Williams, the second surviving son of the Joseph Smith Jr. family was built-in in Ohio on June 20, 1836. He was only eight years old when his father was killed and his family was forced to flee mob violence notwithstanding again. He eventually married Anna Marie Jones in 1857 and had 1 kid with her. He fell ill in his early 20s and died in April 1862. His daughter, Alice Fredericka, never married, leaving no living descendants from this Smith son.

Alexander Unhurt Smith

Alexander Hale was born in Far Due west, Missouri on June 2, 1838, at the top of the early on Saints' persecution. Believed to have been named after the Church building's legal advisor and Joseph'southward friend, Alexander Doniphan, Alexander Smith was merely 6 years old when Joseph and Hyrum were killed, and the male child grew up with fiddling retentivity of his begetter.

He married Elizabeth Agnes Kendall in June 1861 and was baptized into the RLDS church by his older blood brother Joseph Smith III the following yr. He served several missions for that church, and occasionally even traveled to Utah. He held many callings within the RLDS church throughout his life and was somewhen appointed as a counselor to the RLDS church president and afterward as the RLDS patriarch before he died in Nauvoo in 1909.

He had 9 children with Elizabeth and has a large posterity today.

Don Carlos Smith

This Smith child, named later on Joseph Smith Jr.'south youngest blood brother, lived to exist merely a trivial over a yr old. He was built-in on June 13, 1840, and died on Baronial fifteen, 1841, from an illness that was sweeping through Nauvoo.

Image of Emma Smith with one of her children. Nearly likely David Hyrum Smith.

Unnamed Son

The concluding of Joseph and Emma'due south children to dice in infancy, this fiddling boy was stillborn on February half dozen, 1842, in Nauvoo, only two years before his father would exist killed.

David Hyrum Smith

Born in November 1844, most five months afterward Joseph and Hyrum's martyrdom, David never knew his father or the uncle for whom he was named. He was 3 when Emma remarried and sixteen when his blood brother began the Reorganized Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter-24-hour interval Saints. He was ordained an elderberry in the RLDS church in 1863.

He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn in May 1870 and had 1 kid, a son, with her. He was called to serve as the second counselor to his brother Joseph Smith III in the RLDS church presidency, merely his declining mental health led his family to identify him in the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane in 1877. He remained a patient in that location until he died in August 1904 at historic period 59.