Portrait of Emma Hale Smith by Lee Richards. Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

ABSTRACT: This article reevaluates the life and legacy of Emma Hale Smith, the wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the first woman of the Restoration. Once misunderstood and unfairly judged, Emma emerges as a woman of deep faith, intelligence, and resilience. Through personal reflection, historical analysis, and doctrinal insight, Mary Jane Woodger highlights Emma’s crucial roles as scribe, protector of sacred records, and steadfast partner in the Restoration. Despite profound personal trials and loss, Emma exemplified devotion to God, family, and truth. The study invites readers to view Emma with compassion and recognize her as a model of enduring discipleship.

KEYWORDS: Emma Hale Smith · Joseph Smith · Restoration · Latter-day Saint women · faith and endurance

As a young assistant professor of Church history, I was sitting in a meeting of Church educators where the possibility of there being daughters of perdition was the topic. During the discussion, one professor suggested that if a Latter-day Saint woman could become a daughter of perdition, Emma Hale Smith was a possibility. I was shocked and wanted to defend Emma. Being young and inexperienced, I did not contribute to the discussion.

That kind of negative attitude about Joseph Smith’s wife Emma is not isolated. I admit that when I was a youth, my attitude toward Emma was also anything but positive. I thought if there was ever a Latter-day Saint who went wrong, it was Emma. As a teenager, I could not understand how one could be married to a prophet and then denounce the Church. It was with that attitude that I made Emma the subject of a speech at a Mutual Improvement Association (MIA)[1] Speech Festival where we were asked to make a comparison as the basis of our speeches. I thought I chose the perfect topic as I compared two early Latter-day Saint women: the wonderful Mary Fielding Smith and Emma. I did not win the speech festival. My hypothesis was judgmental, wrong, and inappropriate. Since then, I have learned how very wrong I was in my attitude toward Joseph’s wife.

Much of my change of heart came with my participation in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. After riding on a bus for three days, the volunteers met at the bottom of the hill and heard the director, Harold I. Hansen, for the first time. What Hansen chose to talk about during that introduction was Emma. He said he had envisioned Emma at the bottom of that same hill, waiting for Joseph to come down with the gold plates. Hansen then stated, “She was always waiting for Joseph.” Tears ran down his cheeks as he admonished, “Now you who have been hard on Emma, you do not understand. So many times, when Joseph Smith had no one to turn to, he could still turn to Emma. Joseph held the Church together; Emma held Joseph together. We must not judge her. You just do not understand.”

When I checked into the Rochester University dorms that night, I felt I had been rightfully chastised. In prayer that night, I told the Lord I was going to repent of my prior attitude toward Emma and would never speak ill of her again. From that time forward, I have studied the life of this first woman of the Restoration and learned much from her example. Because of my earlier transgression in judging her so unfairly, I have promised myself that I will defend her when given the opportunity and welcome the opportunity to share my Religious Educators Conference (2025) presentation in this article.

Emma and Joseph: Equally Yoked and Prepared

Emma’s preparation for her future role as the first lady of the Restoration was similar in many ways to her future husband’s preparation for his role in the Restoration, and in some ways, she had unique preparation Joseph did not have. For instance, she had more formal education than Joseph. Emma’s mother, Elizabeth Hale, was educated and made sure Emma received an education as well.[2] Even as a child, Emma was known as having “unusual intelligence” and as one who had great power to think well, which led to her knowing the Bible well and having deep faith.[3] Emma’s uncle Nathaniel Lewis converted to Methodism and became a preacher, and Emma attended the Methodist Sunday School. Her entire family joined the Methodist movement, except for her father, Isaac Hale, who became disillusioned with the organized religions of the day.[4] Believing that God was not involved in the details of people’s lives, he became a Deist. Isaac felt that God did create the earth but believed that God was distant. We, of course, understand that God is not a distant God. Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles stated, “God is in the details!”[5] Because of Isaac’s false beliefs, he forbade his family from praying. Emma, therefore, began praying in the barn or in the woods when she needed to talk to her Heavenly Father.[6]

One day, when Emma was eight years old, she was praying for her father and asking her Heavenly Father to let her pray in her house again. Unbeknownst to Emma, her father came into the woods to go hunting and overheard her praying for him. Isaac was so moved by his little daughter’s prayer that he rejected Deism, converted to Christ, and allowed his family to pray in the home again.[7] We might say that Emma was being prepared through these experiences to be equally yoked to a young fourteen-year-old boy who also went to the woods to pray aloud.

A year before that young prophet met his future wife, Isaac heard about a woman who was said to be a peeper. In that day, peepers were for the most part looked upon fondly, and most people took them seriously—but not Isaac. This woman claimed to have the power to see underground and said that she had seen buried treasure on the Hale farm.[8] So, when Joseph arrived at the Hales, Isaac was already leery of such claims as buried treasure.

In October 1825 Josiah Stowell employed Joseph for the same reason the peeper was hired: Joseph was known for his spiritual power to see things unseen by the natural eye. Josiah wanted Joseph to find a lost Spanish silver mine, but Joseph persuaded him to give up the venture and let Joseph help on Josiah’s farm instead.[9] While Joseph worked on the Stowell farm, he boarded on Isaac’s property, where he met Emma.[10]

Love at First Sight

Joseph loved Emma from the moment he saw her. He adored her and told his mother, “I have been very lonely ever since Alvin died. . . . I have concluded to get married; and, if you have no objections, Miss Emma Hale would be my choice before any other woman I have ever seen.”[11]

Meanwhile, Joseph was preparing with the angel Moroni to obtain the plates. After the First Vision, Joseph went to the hill to meet Moroni once a year. When Joseph went there the third year, Moroni chastised him for not spending enough time on the work of the Lord. Moroni then made Joseph a promise, giving him a bit of encouragement: “Joseph, if you bring the right person with you next year, you’ll get the plates.”[12] Joseph was led to understood that the right person was Emma. However, gaining her father’s approval would be easier said than done.

Joseph went to Isaac twice to ask for Emma’s hand, and the answer each time was a clear and emphatic no. One antagonistic source actually claimed that Isaac stated, “I’d rather follow her to the grave than have her marry up with the likes of you.”[13] The third time, Joseph Knight gave Joseph new clothes and lent Joseph his horse and sleigh so he could propose in style. Isaac’s answer was still no. However, this time Emma and Joseph went for a ride, and she chose not to come back. We might ask what Emma gave up for Joseph. When they eloped, the only thing Emma seems to have had was the clothes on her back. They were married at the home of the local justice of the peace, Zachariah Tarbell, on January 18, 1827. The newlyweds then went to Palmyra, where Joseph’s parents welcomed Emma with open arms. Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith became Emma’s second parents while she lived in their home. After a few months of marriage, Joseph and Emma returned to Harmony to get her clothes, furniture, and some cows. Isaac told Joseph, “You have stolen my daughter; I would rather follow her to the grave.”[14]

Emma and the Plates

On September 22, 1827, Emma put on her bonnet and riding dress and accompanied her husband in Joseph Knight’s carriage, headed for the Hill Cumorah. She sat at the bottom of the hill with the horses while Joseph disappeared in the darkness to finally receive the golden plates from the angel Moroni. Martin Harris stated that Emma was kneeling in prayer while Joseph obtained the plates.[15] Emma was not only the right person to become Joseph’s eternal companion—she was also the right person to aid in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The image of her praying at the bottom of that hill lends new significance to the scene that Hansen envisioned.

As Joseph appeared with the plates, which weighed roughly sixty pounds, Emma took her place as a co-protector of the plates. Immediately concerned about the safety of the record, the couple hid the plates in a hollowed-out log.[16] From that point on, Emma focused on protecting the plates. For instance, once while Joseph was digging a well for a widow, Emma got wind of a plot to steal the plates. She rushed to the well bareback on a horse to warn Joseph. Another time, Emma and Lucy (Joseph’s mother) buried the plates in the hearthstone.[17] When persecution increased in December 1827, the protectors asked the Hales whether they could return to Harmony. Emma’s brother Alva Hale came to Manchester to get Joseph and Emma, bringing along large clubs, including a club for Emma, so they could fight back against the thieves as they went along.[18]

The summer before, when Joseph went to Harmony and asked for Emma’s things, he assured Isaac in good faith that he had given up money digging. Isaac’s heart had softened as the couple returned to Harmony. Isaac told the couple they could stay with the Hales if he could see the plates. When Joseph told Isaac he had taken a solemn vow not to show the plates to anyone, Isaac refused to let them move in.[19] However, Isaac supported Joseph’s purchase of a hunting cabin once owned by Alva that was located close to the Hales.[20]

After Joseph and Emma moved into the cabin, translation of the plates began in earnest, with Emma acting as scribe for the translation. The Lord counseled Emma, “Be unto him for a scribe.”[21] The manuscript includes Emma’s delicate handwriting. Even though she acted as a scribe, she was not allowed to see the gold plates. How difficult it must have been to have that responsibility yet never see the plates. Mary Whitmer saw the plates.[22] Lucy Harris saw them as well.[23] But not Emma. She could easily have looked at them. She provided a glass box to contain the plates, and they were locked in it each night and placed under the bed, but she never looked at them. She also supplied a linen tablecloth for Joseph to cover them. When dusting, she would lift the plates while they were still covered with the cloth and was careful never to peek.[24] Emma’s faith in Joseph was remarkable, but so was Joseph’s faith in Emma. He told her no one was allowed to see the plates but never hid them from her.

Always Expecting During a Crisis

Service to the Lord is rarely convenient. Records show that each time the Saints were kicked out of a town, it was during winter. Almost every time Emma experienced a crisis, she was pregnant, and most of her babies did not survive. For the rest of the article, I will focus on Emma’s pregnancies. Women often mark their lives by which child they were expecting or which baby they gave birth to, so I will chronicle Emma’s life through her pregnancies.

First pregnancy

Emma’s first child was born on June 15, 1828, following a difficult labor and delivery. This birth was only one day after Martin, who had come to assist Joseph as a scribe, left with 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript. Is it possible that the stress Emma must have felt about Martin taking the translated pages may have contributed to Emma going into preterm labor? That little son was born with birth defects and lived only three hours. Emma and Joseph named him Alvin Smith after Joseph’s brother.[25] For the next two weeks, Emma was so sick that she hovered between life and death. In the days after Martin took the pages, the angel Moroni took the plates away from Joseph temporarily. The stress of knowing that her husband had done the wrong thing with the manuscript may have added to her sickness.[26]

After Moroni returned the plates to Joseph in September 1828, Emma and Joseph went to Colesville for Emma’s baptism, and a mob greeted them. The mob arrested Joseph “for causing an uproar, running the country upside down, [and] preaching the Book of Mormon.”[27] As Emma and Joseph headed back to Harmony, Emma decided they would stay, and Joseph planted a crop. She was tired of living off charity and did not want to go back to Colesville. In response to her decision, she received the only scripture addressed solely to a woman where she was instructed to go with Joseph “at the time of his going” (D&C 25:6).

Second pregnancy

With this revelation, the Smiths returned to Colesville with Emma expecting once again. Her second pregnancy was six months along when the Lord told Joseph to go to Ohio.[28] In December, at age twenty-six, Emma traveled over the frozen tundra toward Kirtland, unaware that she was expecting twins.

When Joseph and Emma arrived in Kirtland, they first visited Newel K. Whitney’s store. Ann Whitney later recorded this event:

Joseph Smith, with his wife, Emma, . . . drove up in front of my husband’s store; Joseph jumped out and went in; he reached his hand across the counter to my husband, and called him by name. My husband, not thinking it was anyone in whom he was interested, spoke, saying: “I could not call you by name as you have me.” He answered, “I am Joseph the Prophet; you have prayed me here, now what do you want of me?” My husband brought them directly to our own house; we were more than glad to welcome them and share with them all the comforts and blessings we enjoyed.[29]

The Whitneys’ grandson later recounted that Joseph called Newel by name, followed by “Thou art the man.”[30]

As Joseph and Newel conversed, it was suggested that Emma be taken by a young stock boy in a sleigh to the Whitney home to rest. During the journey, Emma’s driver lost control, and the wagon lurched sideways, overturned, and threw Emma into the snowbank. Although she did not seem hurt at the time, it seems possible that it led to the twins, Thadeus and Louisa Smith, being born prematurely on April 30, 1831, and living only a few hours. At this point in her four years of marriage, Emma had three children in graves.

The next day, May 1, 1831, Julia Murdock gave birth to twins Joseph and Julia Murdock. Unfortunately, the mother died during the birth. The twins’ father, John Murdock, sought a wet nurse. He asked Emma to nurse his twins and she agreed. The fact that Emma nursed another’s infants so quickly after losing her own displays Emma’s unselfishness. Seeing the great love Emma and Joseph had for the infants, John requested that the Smiths adopt his twins.

A few months later Joseph, Emma, and the twins moved to Hiram, Ohio. While the family was living on the Johnson farm, persecution turned violent, and Joseph was tarred and feathered. The night of the attack, Joseph had been caring for the eleven-month-old boy twin, who was suffering from measles. When the mob grabbed Joseph, they left a door open, exposing the infant son to the March chill. Joseph Murdock Smith died on March 30, 1832. This baby’s death marked four years of marriage and four buried babies for Joseph and Emma. It is interesting that four months later, Joseph received revelation addressing what happens in the afterlife to children who die young (D&C 137:10).

Soon after losing the baby Joseph Murdock Smith, the prophet’s father, Patriarch Joseph Sr., gave Emma her patriarchal blessing, and the Lord gave her hope for future posterity:

Emma, . . . thou art blessed of the Lord, for thy faithfulness and truth, thou shalt be blessed with thy husband, and rejoice in the glory which shall come upon him. Thou hast seen much sorrow because the Lord has taken from thee three of thy children. In this thou art not to be blamed for He knows thy pure desires to raise up a family, that the name of my Son might be blessed. And now, behold, I say unto thee, that thus saith the Lord, if thou wilt believe thou shalt yet be blessed in this thing and thou shalt bring forth other children, to the joy and satisfaction of thy soul and to the rejoicing of thy friends. Thou shalt be blessed with understanding, and have power to instruct thy sex, teach thy family righteousness, and thy little ones the way of life, and the holy angels shall watch over thee, and thou shalt be saved in the Kingdom of God. Thou shalt see many days, yea, the Lord will spare thee till thou art satisfied, for thou shalt see thy Redeemer. Even so, Amen.[31]

Third pregnancy

I would suggest that one thing that precipitated the revelation now known as the Word of Wisdom was likely Emma’s morning sickness. Emma was expecting at the time the School of Prophets met in a second-floor room just above her kitchen. As the brethren met, they lit their pipes or filled their mouths with tobacco chew. Often as they spit out the chaw, they missed the spittoons, leaving the spittle on the floor for Emma to clean. Emma’s pregnancy may have made cleaning up the tobacco spit even more unpleasant. At one point Emma approached her husband and asked him how the Lord felt about tobacco.[32] As Joseph went to the Lord, seeking revelation at Emma’s request, he received Doctrine and Covenants 89.

On November 6, 1832, Emma gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom she and Joseph named Joseph Smith III, after his father.

Fourth pregnancy

Emma gave birth to another healthy baby boy on June 20, 1836, in Kirtland, Ohio, whom she and Joseph named Frederick Granger Williams Smith after a member of the First Presidency who was the publisher of Emma’s hymnal, which was finished that same year. Emma even wrote a few of the hymns.[33]

Fifth pregnancy

In January 1838 Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were run out of Kirtland. They fled for Missouri, narrowly escaping mob violence. Joseph had to leave Emma and the children behind. Emma, age thirty-three, was once again expecting. She packed her wagon with scanty provisions and with her children: Julia, age six; Joseph, age five; and Frederick, age eighteen months. She left Kirtland in much the same way as she had arrived: pregnant and in the dead of winter. Zion lay 800 miles away in Missouri.

After Emma and the children joined Joseph in Far West, Missouri, she gave birth to another son on June 2, 1838. She and Joseph named him Alexander Hale Smith. There, with a new baby, things were difficult as Emma once again watched a mob take her husband.

Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other Latter-day Saints not only turned on the prophet but also turned on his wife. Emma had fed and clothed some of the men who signed an affidavit that spurred on a mob. The mob drove Emma and the children into the street and pillaged the house. As Joseph was arrested on October 31, 1838, his young son Joseph III clung to his leg, crying, “Father, is the mob going to kill you?” Pushing him away with the side of a sword, a mobster retorted, “You little brat, go back, you’ll see your father no more,” eventually taking Joseph to the miserable Liberty Jail.[34] Joseph wrote from prison, “My dear and beloved companion of my bosom in tribulation and affliction. My heart is entwined around yours forever and ever.”[35]

Several times that winter, Emma took the forty-mile round trip to see her husband in Liberty Jail. When the Far West extermination order was given in February 1839, Emma became a refugee, traversing the frozen Mississippi in a horse-drawn wagon to flee to Illinois.[36] Fearful of thin ice, she separated the two horses, using one horse to pull the wagon while the other horse trailed behind. She walked in front of the wagon with two-and-a-half-year-old Frederick and eighteen-month-old Alexander in her arms, while Julia held tightly to Emma’s skirt on one side and young Joseph clung to her other side, and she had fastened heavy bags with Joseph’s papers securely to her waist. When Emma was forced to leave her home, an important thing she chose to save was Joseph’s translation of the Bible. This translation of the Bible can be read today because of Emma’s efforts. Later, she described the experience to Joseph, who languished in Liberty Jail:

No one but God knows the reflection of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home and almost all of everything we possessed excepting our little children and took my journey out of the State of Missouri leaving you shut up in that lonesome prison. But the reflection is more than human nature ought to bear and if God does not record suffering and avenge our wrongs on them that are guilty, I shall be sadly mistaken.[37]

Emma sought no revenge; she trusted that God would take care of it.

Letters from Emma to Joseph show that her love, affection, and loyalty sustained him during his days in jail.[38] However, as Emma shared what she was going through, it affected her husband—he felt incapable of caring for her. He wrote, “If God will spare my life once more to have the privilege of taking care of you, I will ease your care and endeavor to comfort your heart.”[39] The sections of Doctrine and Covenants revealed in Liberty Jail (121–23) are in many ways the result of Joseph’s concern not just for himself and fellow captives but also for his wife and what she had endured.[40]

Sixth pregnancy

Looking at Emma’s life raises a question as to whether she ever experienced a time without trials. Such a time of contentment and happiness did occur in Nauvoo. Much of that contentment came for Emma when, for the first time in her and Joseph’s married life, they had a home of their own. Emma took her place in society as a woman of commanding presence, only rarely losing self-control or giving way to tears.

Emma was known as a brilliant conversationalist with a quick wit and had a reputation for being high-spirited. For instance, one time a man teased her about fishing for a compliment, and she retorted, “I never fish in that shallow of water.”[41] On another occasion, when Emma was preparing large amounts of food for the many visitors at the Mansion House, W. W. Phelps told her, “You should cook like Napoleon Bonaparte and spread a small table.” Emma graciously responded, “Mr. Smith is a much bigger man than Bonaparte, he can never eat without his friends.” Joseph complimented Emma’s answer and told her it was “the wisest thing [he’d] ever heard [her] say.”[42]

As a mother, Emma displayed an incredible forgiving attitude for what she had experienced, modeling such behavior for her children. At one point, her children were playing a game called Mormons and the Missourians, and the play became rough. When Joseph III came home and described the game to his mother, she listened but was concerned about the ideas of revenge that he was describing to her. She then asked her boys not to play the game. They ignored her, so she used a willow branch to reinforce the lesson. She had to do that two or more times to get him to quit playing the game of revenge.[43]

On June 13, 1840, Emma gave birth to her fifth son, Don Carlos Smith, named after her husband’s younger brother. This birth was most assuredly her happiest, but the happiness was soon marred, this time by an outbreak of malaria in Nauvoo. At one time, there were so many suffering with malaria that the Mansion House was turned into a hospital, and Emma and Joseph gave up their beds and slept in a tent on the front lawn. The disease took the lives of many citizens of Nauvoo, including her brother-in-law Don Carlos Smith and her father-in-law, Joseph Sr. But perhaps the biggest tragedy for Emma at that time occurred when her eighteen-month-old son Don Carlos died in her arms on June 14, 1840. She was expecting again, so the anticipation of filling her arms again may have given her a bit of solace.[44]

Seventh pregnancy

Emma gave birth on February 6, 1842, but the baby died. She and Joseph named him Thomas Smith.[45] During this time when she lost two more babies, Emma served as the first Relief Society president. She was the first woman in this dispensation to receive her endowment and the first temple matron to give other women theirs. She also had time for her husband. It was during this time that Joseph instructed the Relief Society.[46] He might have been thinking of Emma and all she was to him when he counseled the Relief Society sisters, “When a man is borne down with troubles, when he is perplexed if he can meet a smile, not an argument, if he can be met with mildness it will calm down his soul and sooth his feelings. When the mind is going to despair, it needs a solace.”[47]

Eighth pregnancy

In 1844, at the age of forty, Emma was pregnant again. Being hunted, her husband was forced to go into hiding. At one point, a meeting was arranged between Emma and Joseph on an island in the middle of Missouri River. After this meeting, Joseph wrote of his beloved Emma in his journal:

With what unspeakable delight and what transports of joy swelled my bosom, when I took by the hand on that night my beloved Emma, she that was my wife, even the wife of my youth, and the choice of my heart. Many were the reverberations of my mind when I contemplated for a moment the many scenes we had been called to pass through. Oh, what a commingling of thought filled my mind for the moment again she is here, even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm, unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate, and perfect Emma.[48]

Joseph had planned to go west. He was safe with his bodyguard Orrin Porter Rockwell and with Hyrum when a letter came from Emma. Emma told Joseph that the Saints in Nauvoo were calling him a coward, and her letter coaxed him back. Joseph said, “If my life is of no good to my friends it is of none to myself,” and he returned to Nauvoo.[49] The fact that Emma’s letter eventually brought her husband to his death must have been unbearable for Emma.

At 6:30 a.m. at the Mansion House, Joseph readied to leave for Carthage as he kissed each of his children. One witness said that Joseph then turned to Emma and requested, “Can you train my sons to walk in their father’s footsteps.” Emma responded, “Oh, Joseph, you’re coming back!” The question and response were repeated a second time. The third time when he asked, Emma tearfully responded, “Oh Joseph, you are coming back!”[50]

It was then that Emma asked her husband for a priesthood blessing. With the Carthage Greys waiting to escort him to jail, Joseph could not give her a blessing. Instead, he told her to write the best blessing she could think of and said that he would sign it when he returned. One can see the incredible soul of Emma in what she asked for in that blessing:

First of all that I would crave the richest of heaven’s blessings would be wisdom from my Heavenly Father bestowed daily, is that whatever I might do or say, I could not look back at the close of the day with regret, nor neglect the performance of any act that would bring a blessing. I desire the Spirit of God to know and understand myself, that I desire a fruitful, active mind that I may be able to comprehend the designs of God when revealed through his servants without doubting. I desire the spirit of discernment, which is one of the promised blessings of the Holy Ghost. I particularly desire wisdom to bring up all the children that are or may be committed to my charge in such a manner that they will be useful ornaments in the Kingdom of God, and in a coming day arise up and call me blessed. I desire prudence that I may not through ambition abuse my body or cause it to become prematurely old and care-worn, but that I may wear a cheerful countenance, live to perform all the work that I covenanted to perform in the spirit-world, and be a blessing to all who may in a wise need aught at my hands. I desire with all my heart to honor and respect my husband as my head, ever to live in his confidence and by acting in unison with him retain a place which God has given me by his side, . . . I desire to see that I may rejoice with them in the blessings which God has in store for all who are willing to be obedient to his requirements. Finally, I desire that whatever may be my lot through life I may be enabled to acknowledge the hand of God in all things.[51]

Emma left that blessing on Joseph’s desk for when he came home. Joseph never returned from Carthage to sign it.

Emma gave birth the last time at age forty-one on November 17, 1844, to a healthy baby boy that Joseph wanted to be named David Hyrum Smith.

Judging Emma

There seems to be two things that some Latter-day Saints hold against Emma. The first issue is that Emma did not travel west with the pioneers. The prophet’s mother, Lucy, was not a pioneer either, yet one never hears of the same complaints against Lucy. It is interesting to note that in the final years of Lucy’s life, she did not choose to live with her one remaining son, William, or her daughters Sophronia or Katharine. She lived with her daughter-in-law Emma in the Mansion House. Lucy described Joseph’s wife as follows: “I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship. From month to month and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, she has been tossed upon the ocean of uncertainty—she has breasted the storms of persecution, and buffeted the rage of men and devils, which would have borne down almost any other woman.”[52]

The other issue that some Latter-day Saints hold against Emma is her response to plural marriage. It is well documented that she had a difficult time with jealousy regarding to this practice. Who wouldn’t? While Emma was unable to overcome her jealousy during Joseph’s lifetime, there is one more pregnancy that reveals that Emma learned to rein in her jealous instincts.

Ninth and last pregnancy

The last pregnancy to affect Emma’s life was not her own. When Emma was fifty-nine years old, her second husband, Major Lewis Crum Bidamon, had an affair with nineteen-year-old Nancy Abercrombie. A baby boy named Charles was born from the liaison. When Charles was nine years old, his mother, Nancy, took him to the Mansion House and knocked on the door. When Emma answered the door, Nancy told Emma that she was having a difficult time supporting herself and her son and asked Emma to take Charles in and raise him as her own. Emma initially opposed the proposition but later told Nancy that she and Charles could move into the Mansion House and live with her and her husband. Emma and Major Lewis supported Nancy and Charles, and Nancy was able to raise her own son. One of the last things Emma did was to request that Major Lewis marry Nancy and give Charles his proper name.[53]

With all that Emma suffered during her lifetime, it is discouraging that she still must suffer being criticized by Latter-day Saints. Joseph once told one of his other wives, “If you desire my love, you must never speak evil of Emma.”[54] I desire Joseph’s love, and I will never speak evil of Emma again. I would heartily disagree with those who claim that she has lost her exaltation or her place as Joseph’s wife.

A few days before her death, Emma had a dream wherein Joseph appeared to her and asked her to come with him. Her son Alexander stated that Emma’s nurse reported that Emma said:

I put on my bonnet and my shawl and went with him; I did not think that it was anything unusual. I went with him into a mansion, and he showed me the different apartments of that beautiful mansion. And one room was the nursery. In that nursery was a babe in the cradle. She said, “I knew my babe, my Don Carlos, that was taken from me.” She sprang forward, caught the child up in her arms, and wept with joy over the child. When Emma recovered sufficiently, she turned to Joseph and said, “Joseph, where are the rest of my children.” He said to her, “Emma, be patient, and you shall have all of your children.” Then she saw standing by his side, a personage of light, even the Lord Jesus Christ.[55]

This dream is a fulfillment of Emma’s patriarchal blessing where she was promised, “Thou shalt see many days, yea, the Lord will spare thee till thou art satisfied, for thou shalt see thy Redeemer.”[56]

A few days later, on April 3, 1879, when Emma was on her deathbed with her son Alexander at her bedside, she called, “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph,” and extended her left arm and then was gone.[57]

Emma a Role Model?

Many times, my students will lament that there are not more women in the scriptures that they can look to as role models. I often tell them that they can use Emma as a role model.

As we have looked at the life of Emma, I would suggest that she can certainly be used as a role model for our youth. It is true that Emma chose not to follow Brigham Young and the Twelve, and that decision seems to have had consequences as her children and posterity by and large have not been part of the kingdom of God Joseph helped establish. Yet, in her dream, when Emma asked Joseph, “Where are the rest of my children?” Joseph responded, “Be patient. You will have them all.”

For 128 years, Emma’s patience had to be exercised, for there was not one of her descendants who held the Melchizedek Priesthood. But slowly, Emma found the rest of her children. In 1972 her third great-grandson Michael Kennedy joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He shared his feelings about his ancestors:

I have full confidence today that Joseph Smith, my third great grandfather, who still guides the affairs on this earth of this last dispensation, is watching closely over the ministering of his family, and does so with the mother of his posterity, Emma Hale Smith. . . . Joseph taught: this life is about the perpetuation of the family and preserving that family so my wife and my children will always be mine and always be with me. I know the Lord made this promise to Joseph and Emma. They trusted and relied on that promise. Emma wants her children and grandchildren as much as Joseph does. I know they are depending on me to lead this gathering effort. Joseph Smith knew before his death that he would be dependent on his own posterity to bless his family through the temple ordinances, like other families are dependent on their posterity to do their work in the temple.[58]

Yes, our students can use Emma as a role model. However, there is one greater. I often ask my students why they would choose a mere mortal to be their role model. The best role model for men and women alike is always the Savior. He is our ultimate role model, guiding us through life and helping us avoid the pitfalls that mortals, including Emma, fall into. It is by following him that we can receive our exaltation and eventually, as Emma did, behold a being of light, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notes

[1] The Mutual Improvement Association is now the Young Women and Young Men programs.

[2] Jennifer Reeder, First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith (Deseret Book, 2021), 9.

[3] Serphina Gardner, ed. Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee County (Inez A. Kennedy, 1893), 96.

[4] Reeder, First, 9.

[5] Neal A. Maxwell, “Encircled in the Arms of His Love,” Ensign, Nov. 2002, 18.

[6] Mark Staker, “A Faithful Girl Named Emma,” The Friend, Sept. 2010, 28–29.

[7] Mark Hill Forscutt, “Commemorative Discourse on the Death of Mrs. Emma Bidamon, Wife of Major Lewis C. Bidamon, of Nauvoo, Ill., formerly Wife and Widow of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” The Saints’ Herald, July 15, 1879, 209; W. W. Blair, “Correspondence,” The Saints’ Herald, June 1, 1879, 191.

[8] Reeder, First, 59–60.

[9] Reeder, First, 16–17.

[10] History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 (23 December 1805–30 August 1834), 141, www. josephsmithpapers.org.

[11] Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 97, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[12] According to Joseph Knight, Joseph was first told by the angel Moroni that he must bring his oldest brother Alvin with him. After Alvin’s death, Joseph was shown that he was to bring Emma. Dean C. Jessee, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies Quarterly 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1977): 31.

[13] Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of that Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. with Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World to Which Are Added, Enquiries into the Probability that the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding More than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance (pub. by author, 1834), 234–35.

[14] Reeder, First, 61–62.

[15] Martin Harris, “Mormonism—No. II,” Tiffany’s Monthly 5, no. 4 (Aug. 1859): 164–65.

[16] Anthony Sweat, “Hefted and Handled: Tangible Interactions with Book of Mormon Objects,” in The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, ed. Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry M. Hull (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015), 43–59.

[17] Andrew H. Hedges, “‘Take Heed Continually’: Protecting the Gold Plates,” Ensign, Jan. 2001, 37.

[18] Reeder, First, 80.

[19] Isaac Hale, “Statement, March 20, 1834, as published in ‘Mormonism,’” Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian, May 1, 1834, 1.

[20] Reeder, First, 20.

[21] Minutes, Oct. 27, 1839, 27, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[22] Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Whitmers: A Family That Nourished the Church,” Ensign, Aug. 1979, 36.

[23] Mark Ashurst-McGee, “Witnesses of the Gold Plates of the Book of Mormon,” Liahona, June 2024, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[24] Reeder, First, 81; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 136.

[25] “Joseph and Emma’s Family,” Ensign, Feb. 2008, 39.

[26] Reeder, First, 83.

[27] Reeder, First, 188–200.

[28] “Joseph and Emma’s Family,” 39

[29] Elizabeth Ann Whitney, Woman’s Exponent, Sept. 1, 1878, 51.

[30] Orson F. Whitney, Contributor, January 1885, 125; Mark Staker, “Thou Art the Man,” Ensign, Apr. 2005, 37.

[31] Blessing from Joseph Smith Sr., 9 December 1834, 4, www.josephsmithpapers.org

[32] Gerry Avant, “Homemakers Can Empathize with Emma’s Cleaning Plight,” Church News, Jan. 22, 1994.

[33] Reeder, First, 93–94.

[34] Reeder, First, 97–98.

[35] Carol Cornwall Madsen “My Dear and Beloved Companion”: The Letters of Joseph and Emma Smith,” Ensign, September 2008; Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011), 242, 244.

[36] William G. Hartley, “The Saints’ Forced Exodus from Missouri,” in Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2010), 347–90.

[37] Emma Smith to Joseph Smith, 7 March 1839, 37, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[38] Reeder, First, 95–97.

[39] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 245.

[40] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 245.

[41] Richard G. Moore, “Sister Emma Smith,” speech at the Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Reunion, 2014, https://josephsmithsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sister-Emma-Smith-by-Richard-Moore.pdf.

[42] Diary of Joseph Smith, January 4, 1844, History of the Church 6:165–66, as cited in Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma, 2nd ed. (University of Illinois Press, 1994), 166.

[43] Vera Crawford Notes, University of Utah, as cited in Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, 93.

[44] Reeder, First, 31–32.

[45] “Joseph and Emma’s Family.”

[46] Reeder, First, 179–80.

[47] Joseph Smith History, vol. C-1, addenda, 41, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[48] Joseph Smith, Journal, December 1841–December 1842, 16 August 1842, 164, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[49] Joseph Smith History, vol. F-1 (1 May 1844–8 August 1844), 148, www.josephsmithpapers.org.

[50] Edwin Rushton, “Bridge Builder and Faithful Pioneer,” Pioneer Journals, page 3 (n.d.), Church Manuscripts, BYU, as cited in Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, 190.

[51] Buddy Youngreen, “Joseph and Emma: A Slide-Film Presentation,” BYU Studies Quarterly 14, no. 2 (Winter 1974): 216; Relief Society Courses of Study, 1985 (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1984), 199–200.

[52] Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 190.

[53] Moore, “Sister Emma Smith.”

[54] Lucy M. Wright, “Emma Hale Smith,” Woman’s Exponent, Dec. 12, 1901, 59.

[55] Gracia N. Jones, “My Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith,” Ensign, Aug. 1992, 38, quoting Alexander Hale Smith, sermon given 1 July 1903, Bottlineau, North Dakota. The statement from Alexander comes from Emma’s nurse, Elizabeth Revel. This is a late reminiscence, a thirdhand account that has not been corroborated.

[56] Blessing from Joseph Smith Sr., 4; Avant, “Homemakers Can Empathize.”

[57] Reeder, First, 275–77.

[58] Darcy Kennedy, “Missionary Moment: The Michael Kennedy Conversion Story (Third Great Grandson of Joseph Smith)—The First Descendant of the Prophet to Receive the Melchizedek Priesthood,” speech to the Joseph Smith and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society, October 21, 2017, https://josephsmithjr.org/missionary-moment-the-michael-kennedy-conversion-story-third-great-grandson-of-joseph-smith/.