Wilford Woodruff died in 1898, and was succeeded by Lorenzo Snow, who led the church until his death in 1901. Joseph F. Smith was counselor to both. His family continued to grow, and finally to prosper.

Every child was a joy and each death a searing pain for Joseph. In the days before childhood immunizations, common serious illnesses were an unfortunate and deadly reality. Julina gave birth to eleven children and adopted two, and only lost Dodo.(S1) Sarah also had eleven children, but lost five, three of them as babies and two as young adults. Edna lost six of her ten children, two as babies, two as young children, and two as adults. Alice was lucky that none of her seven children did. Four of them were born after her marriage to Joseph. Mary lost one of her seven when he died at one year old.(1)
In 1901 Joseph F. Smith became President of the Church. As President, he was asked to move into the Beehive House, which he did with Julina, who acted as hostess for the many guests.

Despite the Manifesto and granting of amnesty, many accused the church of continuing to practice plural marriage. In 1903, nineteen citizens of Salt Lake City asked for the expulsion of Apostle Reed Smoot from the United States Congress. Hearings commenced in 1904 and continued until 1906. Joseph F. Smith went before the committee as the first witness in the trial on March 2, 1904, and continued under examination until near the close of the third day. By the time he was finally excused he had made many friends because of his frank, free and honest expressions.(2) This tended to be the case wherever he went. As Anthon H. Lund, his counselor, mentioned,

I have walked with him in the street and nearly every few steps he would meet acquaintances and have to stop and shake hands with them. He was loved by those who knew him. He never forgot his friends, even if he had not seen them for many years. … When a case came before him to judge, he and his counselors would talk it over and give it their careful consideration until they came to the same conclusion. … When it came to anything pertaining to the Church, whatever he thought was for the best good of the work, he was not afraid to undertake it.(3)

New technology was welcome. Joseph had a telephone in his residence, and was the first President to have a car, though he may not have known how to drive it. Every picture of him in a car or story of him shows someone else as his driver, often one of his sons.(4) He had his voice recorded and was filmed with other General Authorities in front of the Salt Lake Temple.(5)

As President, he became the focus of a number of negative articles and comics in the Salt Lake Tribune and other papers whenever they disagreed with Church policy or practices. He largely took this in stride, spending his effort in the many duties incumbent to his position. In 1906 he was very glad to finally announce the church was completely out of debt.(6) He announced and dedicated ground for new temples, including one in Hawaii, oversaw the building of a number of prominent structures such as the Hotel Utah and the LDS Hospital, and travelled across the country and to Europe.

In one service, Joseph spoke about “The Third and Fourth Generations,” how the church would continue or fail based on how the youth carried on the work. Evan Stephens, conductor of the Tabernacle Choir, was very moved by the sermon. At the close of the service, Evan Stephens walked alone up City Creek Canyon and sat, observing a rock standing firm in the creek. There he wrote with a pencil the words of the hymn “True to the Faith” together with roughly drawn staves of the music.(7)

Joseph tended to drive himself hard and fill every obligation, yet he would still try to spend time with his family at every opportunity. He would work from early morning until late at night and then go from home to home to plant the loving kiss of a father upon each of his young children and wives.(8) When he was away from home he would write personal letters to his children. He loved his wives and he loved his children, and tried to treat them as wives should be treated and as children should be treated—no favorites among them.(9) Wives and children took turns travelling or vacationing with him.

Joseph did have trouble sleeping and was jealous of George Q. Cannon’s ability to fall right asleep.(10) He recognized that he may have pushed too hard, as seen in his May 21, 1914 letter to a young niece:

Our Dear Little Emma:
Aunt Sarah and I received your most welcome letter of the 19th … We realize we are not only indebted to you for your kindness in remembering us, but also to that indomitable energy and will of yours, by which you seem to be moved with vim and intelligence at every turn.
We freely confess we have never met with your superior in action, if with your equal. It would test the endurance of a steam engine to keep up with you from day to day and week to week.
But that is all right, Dear girl, in your youth, but you know that even the finest steel will brake under too great a strain. Use your wisdom in connection with your ambition and energy, and conserve your strength until you get so well along in years as to need and appreciate it. Please take the good advise of one who does not always take it to himself. And for that very reason, knows best what will be good for you.(11)

Joseph loved spending time with his family. His grandchildren remembered that his favorite meal was a bowl of corn meal and a bowl of milk or cream. He would eat a dip of one and then of the other. He would also take a bowl of raw eggs, make a hole in either end, suck out the contents, and throw the shells to the children.(12) He was also known for naming his children and grandchildren, giving them their names when he blessed them.(13)

One of the hardest trials for Joseph was one of the last. Joseph’s health had been failing for some time when his firstborn and fully grown son Hyrum, an apostle himself, died suddenly of appendicitis in January 1918. Joseph’s health never recovered. On November 10, 1918, his children assembled, fasting, to pay him honor and receive any last counsel. In his short address, he told them:

I struggled along with hard knocks in early life, and believe, perhaps, my wives and I were responsible to some degree, for the loss of some of our children, who were the most beautiful and perfect children that were ever born, because we did not have the nourishment nor the convenience nor the comforts that were necessary to take care of them and to preserve their lives.
…I married five girls, all young ladies, in days of poverty. I had nothing when I married Aunt Mary, the last one of the five; and I have fought along against fate. I have saved my means whenever I could.
…I have a beautiful watch and chain and rings. I never spent a dollar for any of them in my life because I could not afford it, but I have had friends and they have, from time to time, given me rings. A beautiful watch chain and fob were given me on the day of the dedication of the monument to the honor of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Vermont. And I had left to me the gold watch that belonged to my Uncle Joseph Smith. I have had inscribed on it that it was Joseph’s and that it had been handed down to me, but so far as jewelry is concerned that is a matter of trivial concern. But when I look around me and see my boys and girls, whom the Lord has given to me, and I have succeeded, with His help, to make them tolerably comfortable, and at least respectable in the world, I have reached the treasure of my life, the whole substance that makes life worth living.(14)

Joseph F. Smith died shortly after his 80th birthday on November 19, 1918. Former critics were united in honoring him, particularly the Salt Lake Tribune, who noted that

With his alert glance, his erect figure, his brisk walk, his benign countenance, his dignified bearing and his cordial greeting, he was a striking personality wherever he went. … Joseph F. Smith was sincere and intense in whatever he believed; he was loyal and courageous under whatever banner he marched, … his integrity, his interest and his sympathy made him a welcome and influential member of every board on which he served.(15)

No funeral was held because of quarantines imposed by the great influenza following and killing more people than the entire first World War, but many came to view his body and join in the funeral procession to the cemetery. All streetcars and businesses shut down for one hour.(16) Quarantine restrictions meant the church’s general conference was not held until June 1, 1919. At President Heber J. Grant’s request, all speakers devoted their time and remarks to the memory of Joseph F. Smith, who had been their Prophet for the past two decades.(17)

When asked for memories of their “Papa,” in addition to the candy that they all knew he kept in a secret pocket for them, many of his grandchildren focused on seeing him and his white beard on his deathbed or lying in state in the Lion House in 1918.(18)

After 1918: The Family Presses On

In 1916, the Deseret News reported on Joseph F. Smith’s 75th birthday party, which sounded a lot like the reunions that were to continue after his death:

About 120 persons were present, including 30 of President Smith’s children and 50 grandchildren … The program was wholly informal and consisted of miscellaneous numbers, songs, piano selections, duets, etc., a feature being a vocal sextet by six of President Smith’s daughters. Prominent in the exercises of the evening was the showing of motion pictures under the direction of E. Wesley Smith. The reels shown included pictures of the mission field in the Sandwich Islands, view of the general conference in this city two years ago, and comedy pictures. Informal chats and reminiscences added to the pleasure of the occasion.(19)

The family decided to keep the tradition of getting together for Papa’s birthday party. For many years into the early 1950’s they had a dinner at the Lion House, showed reel-to-reel films and held a separate Children’s program. Showing the movies of Papa were a must which was revived in 1954, at which point he had 743 living decendants.(20)

Later the reunion moved around from one church meetinghouse to another, until it ended up at the Monument Park Stake Center, where it has been held the Monday closest to his birthday in November every year for decades. Family members would bring potluck finger dishes and lines of the family would take turns at being in charge of the program and children’s programs. And so here we are, over ninety years later, still remembering him and gathering as a family.

(1) Richard Nietzel Holzapfel & R.Q. Shupe, Joseph F. Smith: Portrait of a Prophet, Deseret Book Company, 2000, p.
(2) Joseph Fielding Smith’s compilation Life of Joseph F. Smith: Sixth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Deseret News Press, 1938), p. 333-334.
(3) Anthon Lund in his tribute to Joseph F. Smith, Holzapfel & Shupe, p 278. They have include the text of each speaker at the general conference tribute to Joseph F. Smith on June 1919.
(4) Holzapfel & Shupe, p 142.
(5) A recording of him bearing testimony in 1917 is on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZcMP6flPuc , there is also a recording of him reading a letter to his son Calvin on this website at http://www.josephfsmith.org/sites/default/files/jfsmith.au . The movie he is in is available on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHvknks6zSA . He is the one shown stroking his beard in a dark suit and getting into a car in a white suit. His is the first closeup after that where he speaks, starting about 2:08 of the footage, speaking, taking off his hat and glasses, and smiling. Smiles were rarely seen in photos before this time because early photography needed long exposures and required subjects to hold still for a minute or more for a clear picture.
(6) Holzapfel & Shupe, p 158-159.
(7) J. Spencer Cornwall, Stories of our Mormon Hymns, Deseret Book Company, 1961, quoted in Lawrence R. Flakes’s Devotional address at Brigham Young University 18 July 1995, available online at http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7810
(8) R , speaking in his tribute, Holzapfel & Shupe, p 331.
(9) Smith, son of Joseph F., speaking in his tribute, Holzapfel & Shupe, p 346.
(10) Smith 1938, p 441.
(11) See Katherine Bowman Cannon’s memories on this website at http://www.josephfsmith.org/node/77 .
(12) Facsimile of the actual letter on p. 198-199 of Holzapfel and Shupe.
(13) A number of memories from his grandchildren are compiled on this website; look at “Family Memories” http://www.josephfsmith.org/node/67
(14) Smith 1938, p 477-478.
(15) Smith 1938, p 483-484.
(16) Holzapfel & Shupe, p 321.
(17) Holzapfel & Shupe, p 267.
(18) See the grandchildren’s memories on this website at http://www.josephfsmith.org/node/67 .
(19) Holzapfel & Shupe, p 194.
(20) See Darrell F. Smith‘s program talk from the 1998 reunion on this website at http://www.josephfsmith.org/node/194. As of 2011, there are almost 14,000 registered descendants, including spouses, though the actual number is probably higher.

Slide (first): Picture of Joseph F. and Julina and their children; “Dodo” is in the center. Available on this website.

Slide (last) Photo can be found in Holzapfel & Shupe front cover and at seminary.lds.org/manuals/church-history-institute-student-manual/chft-36-40-36.asp