34 Facts About Emma Smith

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement and a prominent member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as well as the first wife of Joseph Smith, the movement's founder.

Emma Smith was the seventh child and third daughter of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale.

Emma Smith's father stepped away from the church for a time and became a deist, but later returned to the church after Emma Smith's requests.

Emma Smith learned how to read and write and was considered to be intelligent.

Emma Smith attended a girls school for a year and taught school in Harmony when she returned.

On January 17,1827, Joseph and Emma Smith left the Stowell house and traveled to the house of Zachariah Tarbill in South Bainbridge, New York, where they were married the following day.

On September 22,1827, Joseph and Emma Smith took a horse and carriage belonging to Joseph Knight, Sr.

Once they settled in, Joseph began work on the Book of Mormon, with Emma Smith acting as a scribe.

Emma Smith became a physical witness of the plates, reporting that she felt them through a cloth, traced the pages through the cloth with her fingers, heard the metallic sound they made as she moved them, and felt their weight.

Emma Smith was baptized by Oliver Cowdery on June 28,1830, in Colesville, New York, surrounded by a group of mocking people.

Emma Smith was directed to be Joseph's scribe and to create a hymnbook for the new church.

Joseph and Emma Smith returned to Harmony for a time, but relations with Emma Smith's parents remained strained.

Emma Smith's father was displeased that Joseph and Emma Smith were living off charity and Joseph was late to return money he borrowed to purchase a farm.

On November 6,1832, Emma gave birth to Joseph Smith III in the upper room of Whitney's store in Kirtland.

Emma and her family followed and made a new home on the frontier in the Latter Day Saint settlement of Far West, Missouri, where Emma gave birth on June 2,1838, to Alexander Hale Smith.

Emma Smith crossed the Mississippi River, which had frozen over in February 1839.

On June 13,1840, Emma gave birth to a son, Don Carlos, named after his uncle Don Carlos Smith, Joseph's brother.

Emma Smith often took in young girls in need of work, giving them jobs as maids.

Emma Smith had persuaded John Taylor and Joseph Smith to call the organization the "Relief Society" instead of the "Benevolent Society".

The Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia records that Emma Smith "filled [the position] with marked distinction as long as the society continued to hold meetings in that city [Nauvoo]".

Emma Smith saw upholding morality as the primary purpose of the Relief Society.

Emma Smith publicly condemned polygamy and denied any involvement by her husband.

Emma authorized and was the main signatory of a petition in summer 1842 with a thousand female signatures, denying Joseph Smith was connected with polygamy.

Emma Smith wanted William Marks, president of the church's central stake, to assume the church presidency, but Marks favored Sidney Rigdon for the role.

Some of Emma's friends, as well as many members of the Smith family, alienated themselves from Young's followers.

Emma Smith became a member of the RLDS Church without rebaptism, as her original 1830 baptism was still considered valid.

Emma Smith died peacefully in the Nauvoo House on April 30,1879, at the age of 74.

Emma Smith's funeral was held May 2,1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon.

Phelps, Emma Smith compiled a Latter Day Saint hymnal, published in 1835.

Emma Smith compiled a second hymnal by the same title, which was published in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841.

In 1843, Emma temporarily accepted Smith's marriage to four women of her choosing who boarded in the Smith household, but later regretted her decision and demanded the other wives leave.

Joseph and Emma Smith were not reconciled over the matter until September 1843, after Emma Smith began participating in temple ceremonies, and after Joseph made other concessions to her.

Emma Smith's continuing public denial of the practice seemed to lend strength to their cause, and opposition to polygamy became a tenet of the RLDS Church.

Emma Smith had eleven children with Joseph, five of whom lived into adulthood.