Remembering the Prophet Joseph Smith

The Prophet Joseph Smith, along with his devoted brother, Hyrum, was martyred 169 years ago on June 27, 1844, in Carthage, Illinois. We remember him today through the stories of two family connections.

John Harris Greer’s mother, Catherine Ellen Camp Greer, first met Joseph when she was a young girl in Dresden, Tennessee. Her father, Williams Washington Camp, had joined the Church when she was five. When she was 84 she reminisced about her life, starting at this time period.

         The most that I remember was in Tennessee when he was in my mother’s house and the mob was after him. I was awake and up one night about twelve o’clock and heard someone singing and I listened. The first song was ‘The Pure Testimony.’ Joseph and Hyrum were singing it. I was in my sixth year then and my mother said she did not believe it. I told her I got down under the table and listened to them. They had prayer and then sang ‘Afflicted Saints of Christ Draw Near.’ I recollect when they sang this verse—

                        Should persecution rage and flame,

                        Still trust in thy Redeemer’s name.

                        In fiery trial thou shalt see,

                        That as thy day, thy strength shall be.

          Ike (her father’s slave) kept the mob away this night. He met them at the gate and told them that they had not better come inside of that gate or they would get hurt. They did not come in, and later when Brother Joseph and Hyrum walked right out by them, not one of the mob lifted his hand against them.

She later moved with her family to Nauvoo. She heard Joseph Smith speak in the Nauvoo Temple. Throughout her whole life she remembered the day she delivered a letter to the Prophet at his home.

          I remember him very well and remember going to his house. My father sent me there to take some papers that were some Church business, and he put his hand on my head and said to me, ‘You are a nice little red-headed girl.’ I liked all but the ‘red-headed’ part. That was the first time I ever thought of him as being a prophet. I felt such a thrill go through me as I had never felt in my life before. My father told me it was the inspiration of the Lord when he put his hand on me. My father said he was a prophet of God.

Everyone who lived in Nauvoo was well acquainted with Joseph Smith, especially the children. Ellen shared another sweet remembrance of him:

         He was tall and straight and a nice looking man and the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I saw him and his wife, Emma, out riding. She used to ride with him. They were both dressed in blue and rode a big black horse called ‘Dan’ I believe. I know he was a big black horse and so pretty. Brother Joseph was the nicest man, riding or walking, that I ever saw. I was only seven years old when he was killed….

At this same time, Orpha Elzetta Nicoll’s maternal grandfather, Arza Adams, was living on a farm about two miles north of Carthage. On the night of the murders he was in bed sick with the ague, but around nine o’clock that night, two men showed up at Arza’s door with two official letters of the news written by Willard Richards and also signed by the severely wounded John Taylor. They were afraid to deliver the letters to Nauvoo themselves and asked Arza if he would do it for them. Though very sick, he agreed to do it. Anticipating danger on the main road to Nauvoo, Arza took a much longer way, arriving shortly before sunrise. In his journal that night Arza recorded:

       The countenance of nearly all were fallen and all wept in deep anguish at the loss of two men of the greatest minds and best men that are on the footstool of God.