Come Follow Me D&C 23-26 Emma and her children

 

BYU Studies has a WEALTH of resources linked here for all of these sections.

https://byustudies.byu.edu/come-follow-me/doctrine-and-covenants/12

 

I want to focus on Emma (D&C 25)

Many years ago at a conference I attended, a presenter – maybe Susan Easton Black? – gave us an overview of LDS Church History by talking about what was happening in the church at the time of the births of each of Emma and Joseph’s ELEVEN children (including the Murdock twins).  I was so fascinated by that approach that I copied it for a couple of presentations I have done.

Here is a brief summary of those births and the corresponding Church events.

1.       15 June 1828 – Alvin

Harmony, Pennsylvania. 

Emma had helped as a scribe for the Book of Mormon translation during her pregnancy, along with others.  After Martin Harris borrowed the 116 finished pages, Emma gave birth to a son, named for Joseph’s oldest brother who had died in 1823.  Baby Alvin died soon after birth and Emma was in fairly critical condition for two weeks.  Joseph took care of her, delaying his quest to recover the 116 pages.  Then the angel Moroni came and took back the gold plates.  This was a very dark time for the Smith family.

2.       -3.    30 April 1831 – Twins, Thaddeus and Louisa

Morley Farm near Kirtland, Ohio

The final leg of Joseph and Emma’s journey to a new home for the church in Ohio in January of 1831 was by sleigh.  At one point, the sleigh overturned and the pregnant Emma was thrown out on the roadside.  This may have added to stresses that led to premature labor and delivery of twins in April.  Neither Thaddeus nor Louisa survived. 

Liz Lemon Swindle

5. 4. – 5.That night, 30 Apr-1 May 1831,  in Mentor, just north of Kirtland, John Murdock suffered the loss of his wife Julia Clapp Murdock in childbirth, leaving surviving twins, a boy and a girl, and a total of five children under the age of 7. John Murdock took his twin babies to the Smiths to raise as their own, and the Smiths adopted them on 9 May 1831. Those babies were named Joseph Murdock Smith and Julia Murdock Smith. The baby boy, Joseph, died the next year 29 March 1832, at the Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio from measles and possibly from exposure to cold air during attack on Joseph Smith six days earlier, when he was beaten and tarred and feathered by a mob. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had received the vision of the three degrees of glory (D&C 76)  the month before

6.    6 November 1832 – Joseph Smith, III.

                Newel K Whitney Store, Kirtland OH.  Joseph Smith had traveled to Independence, Missouri, identifying it as Zion, the New Jerusalem in April, 1832. In September, he received D&C 84, the revelation on the priesthood and was working on the Inspired Translation of the bible when Emma gave birth to their first child who lived.  Within months, Emma’s comments about cleaning up the mess from chewing tobacco in the School of the Prophets – the room across the hall from Joseph and Emma’s bedroom - prompted Joseph’s questioning the Lord, leading to the Word of Wisdom (D&C 89).

7.    29 June 1836 – Frederick Granger Williams Smith

Kirtland Ohio

In 1835, the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants had been published by Frederick Granger Williams. The "Doctrine" part of the book consisted of a theological course now called the "Lectures on Faith". The lectures were a series of doctrinal courses used in the School of the Prophets.  The "Covenants" part of the book contained a total of 103 revelations. When the D&C was finished, Williams then printed the first edition of Emma Smith hymnbook which she had been commanded to make in July, 1830 (D&C 25). The print shop was just west of the Kirtland Temple, which was dedicated during Emma’s fourth pregnancy in March-April, 1836. Grateful to have the book finally in print, Emma named her son for her publisher, Frederick Granger Williams.

                          

Joseph Brinkley

Liz Lemon Swindle

8.    2 June 1838 – Alexander Hale Smith

Far West, Missouri.

Emma was pregnant again when the Mormons were forced out of Kirtland, Ohio in January 1838  and Jackson County, Missouri.  She was 7 month pregnant when they finally arrived in Far West.  There Joseph was betrayed and spent months in Liberty Jail.  Meanwhile, Emma gave birth to another son and named him after Alexander Doniphan, who had refused an order to execute Joseph Smith, and then was Joseph's defense attorney during Joseph's incarceration at Liberty Jail.

9. 13 June, 1840   Don Carlos Smith

Nauvoo, Illinois

In February 1839, Emma crossed the frozen Mississippi River to Illinois, carrying baby Alexander with 3 other young children clinging to her skirt, under which she carried the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon in a bag tied around her waist.  Joseph and Hyrum were allowed to escape from Liberty Jail in April.  Together in Illinois, the Mormons built a new city, Nauvoo. In June, 1840, Emma gave birth to another son, named Don Carlos after Joseph Smith’s brother.  Both the brother and baby would die in 1841.

   

Liz Lemon Swindle

     

10.   6 February 1842 – unnamed stillborn son

Nauvoo, Illinois.

On March 17, 1842, just 5 weeks after giving birth to a stillborn son, Emma Smith was appointed president of the newly organized Women’s Relief Society in Smith’s redbrick store in Nauvoo, Illinois. 

11. 17 November 1844 – David Hyrum Smith

Nauvoo, Illinois

Emma was 4 month pregnant with another son when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were arrested and taken to
Carthage Jail in Illinois, where they were killed 27 June 1844.

 

Rebecca Holt Stay   March 2025