by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

“This prophet lost thirteen children and wrote poignantly about his feelings in his journal.”

Never-before-published photograph of Joseph F. Smith, ca. 1874-76, C. W. Carter, LDS Church Archives (Used by Permission). This beautiful carte-de-visite image by Charles W. Carter was taken during the mid-1870s. During this decade, Joseph F. Smith witnessed the death of four of his young children, creating great anguish and suffering for him and his family.
Joseph F. Smith experienced firsthand the heartache of losing loved ones through death, beginning with his own father in 1844 and mother in 1852. Additionally, two of his wives preceded him in death: Levira Annette Clark (1888) and Sarah Ellen Richards (1915). Naturally, of particular anguish is the death of a child.

Between 1869 and 1918, Joseph F. Smith buried thirteen children, nine of whom were young: six-day-old Sarah Ella died on 11 February 1869; two-year-old Mercy Josephine died on 6 June 1870; eight-month-old Heber John died on 3 March 1877; one-year-old Alfred Jason died on 6 April 1878; one-year-old Rhoda Ann died on 6 July 1879; one-year-old Albert Jesse died on 25 August 1883; two-year-old Robert died on 4 February 1886; one-year-old John Schwartz died on 3 August 1889; four-year-old Ruth died on 17 March 1898; nineteen-year-old Alice died on 29 April 1901; thirty-six-year-old Leonora died on 23 December 1907; twenty-five-year old Zina died on 25 October 1915; and forty-six-year-old Hyrum Mack died on 23 January 1918.

In a real sense, these personal trials helped prepare President Smith for the marvelous revelation received on 3 October 1918, known today as the “Vision of the Redemption of the Dead.”(1) Additionally, some of Joseph F. Smith’s most touching and poignant personal diary entries came as he passed through this fiery furnace–the death of his children.

The Death of Rhoda Ann in 1878
Rhoda Ann, born on 20 July 1878, fell ill in late June 1879. Joseph F. Smith recorded in his diary: “This morning my little Rhoda was again taken suddenly very sick. . . . I went to the Presidents Office, and while in a meeting of the Brethren of the Twelve and the Attorneys, a messenger brought me word that my little Rhoda was having convulsions, I hastened home, calling for H. J. Richards who accompanied me, and found the baby very sick. Altho’ her temperature was only 102, I administered to her and she seemed some better.”(2)

Over the next two days, Joseph F. Smith noted the sleepless night and the anxiety about his daughter: “I began to feel alarmed about her she is very sick, and my sympathy runs away with my faith. Still I keep administering and exercising all the faith I can, and I believe she will recover–at least I claim that blessing at the hand of the Lord. I do not want to bury my children.”(3)

Rhoda Ann’s condition suddenly became very grave on 1 July: “She is in great pain,” Joseph F. Smith noted.(4) During the night, he “watched her every breath and move until 4 .a.m. when Edna again relieved me. And I got a few hours sleep.”(5) On 3 July, he wrote: “She was never so low before. Nor have we ever had a child so low, recover. Still I will hope–and pray. She is a most beautiful, intelligent, and attractive little child, and for nearly 1 year has she been the loved pet of all the family. I have often shrunk from the thought that we loved the little darling too much, for our hearts are set upon her. And now I pray God to spare her to us.”(6)

On 4 July, the little child “looked around, recognized us–and breathed easier and coughed less. Her pulse also was lower–and less rapid. So that on the whole she is much better than yesterday. Oh! How our drooping hopes revive.”(7)

Within hours of getting some rest, Joseph F. Smith noted: “I had scarcely laid down when I was called–as soon as possible I dressed and entered the sick room I found my precious beloved darling beloved one–dying. I took her on the pillow and walked the floor with her, she again revived–but only lingered about an hour–and died in my arms at 1:40 a.m. Now God only knows how deeply we mourn. This is the 5th death in my family. All my little ones most beloved! O! God help us to bear this trial!”(8)

The funeral was held on 7 July: “I wrote several friends. Yesterday I ordered a coffin and arranged for the grave–and for burial today at 1 p.m. I got 50 lbs of ice . . . in which to pack the body–and Edna went to the Co’op for some burial clothes. Bro. Dowden kindly favoring us on Sunday–I also got bro. D. Weggland to make a sketch of the body, in which he succeeded admirably. Paid out $6.60. Today at 11 a.m. some friends gathered–and bro. Kesler spoke to them, and we deposited the loved remains of our cherished little Rhoda Ann in their long resting place at 1:30 p.m. . . . O! Who can tell the aching sorrows of the heart torn and lacerated to the very core–by cruel, merciless hand of death! O! How we loved that brightest-sweetest darling babe! I dare not trust my thoughts. My heart aches.”(9)

Following the funeral, Joseph F. Smith vented his feelings and yearnings: “In the kind mercy of God we have still 8 children left out of 13–and yet we are lonesome and desolate–disconsolate without our God-given little darling Rhoda. O! Why are they–which are most beloved–who by nature nestle closest to the heart, taken away? My reason has fled me–my philosophy is gone and just now I cannot think of nay thing but grief. Yet I will not complain, nor murmur–nor attempt to express my sorrow–and will only repeat again Why–oh! Why in the name of reason can we not preserve the lives of our children?”(10)

The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead
Joseph F. Smith loved and cherished his children and struggled when they died, even though his testimony was firm and was grounded in the Restored Gospel. Through years of reflections, study, meditation, and personal experience, he was uniquely prepared for a revelation that provides the world a great flood of light and knowledge concerning the spirit world (see Doctrine and Covenants 138).

As he lay on his own death bed, President Smith noted: “On the third day of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room pondering over the scriptures; And reflecting upon the great atoning sacrifice that was made by the Son of God, for the redemption of the world; And the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world; That through his atonement, and by obedience to the principles of the gospel, mankind might be saved.”(11)

During the vision, it was reconfirmed that his own father, Hyrum Smith, and his uncle, Joseph Smith Jr., had been prepared to lay the foundation of the last dispensation. In particular, their foreordination included “The building of the temples and the performance of ordinances therein.”(12) The blessings and promises of the Lord, provided to the Saints through the ordinances of the temple, gave Joseph F. Smith hope that he had not lost his children in death. The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead, received at the end of his life, not only increased President Smith’s understanding of the Spirit World, but provided an additional witness that life continues beyond the grave.

Conclusion
Joseph F. Smith absolutely believed and testified that the family, through the atonement and the ordinances of the Gospel, could be an eternal unit. He taught: “Our associations (family) are not exclusively intended for this life, for time, as we distinguish it from eternity. We live for time and for eternity. We form associations and relations for time and all eternity. Our affections and our desires are found fitted and prepared to endure not only throughout the temporal or mortal life, but through all eternity. Who are there besides the Latter-day Saints who contemplate the thought that beyond the grave we will continue in the family organization? The father, the mother, the children recognizing each other in the relations which they owe to each other and in which they stand to each other? . . . Death does not part us from one another, if we have entered into sacred relationships with each other by virtue of the authority that God has revealed to the children of men. Our relationships are formed for eternity.”(13)

This knowledge and testimony came to President Smith as he walked through a fiery furnace–the death of his children. Such heart-retching experiences helped prepare to receive a revelation full of light and knowledge concerning the Spirit World. And while in the midst of the fiery furnace itself, President Smith penned some of the most moving personal expressions of grief, humility, hope and faith as any of the prophets before him. These personal writings allow us to look deep into this prophet’s soul and provides us with an example of faith and courage which may help us walk through our own fiery furnace of tribulation with a little more patience, submissiveness, anticipation and confidence before the Lord.

Notes
1. Doctrine and Covenants 138.

2. Joseph F. Smith Diary, 28 June 1879, typescript, Joseph F. Smith Papers, 1856-1918, Archive Division, Historical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spelling has been standardized from the diary qutations.

3. Ibid., 30 June 1879.

4. Ibid., 1 July 1879.

5. Ibid., 2 July 1879.

6. Ibid., 3 July 1879.

7. Ibid., 4 July 1879.

8. Ibid., 6 July 1879.

9. Ibid., 7 July 1879.

10. Ibid., 8 July 1879.

11. Doctrine and Covenants 138:1-4.

12. Doctrine and Covenants 138:54.

13. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 277.

© 2000 Meridian Magazine. All Rights Reserved.