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Joseph Smith Sr.’s descendants descend on Utah
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56686702-78/smith-joseph-family-church.html.csp
Family reunion • Hundreds of cousins related to LDS founder’s parents gather every other year.
BY BRIAN MAFFLY
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 3, 2013 07:59PM
UPDATED: AUGUST 3, 2013 09:57PM
Cramming several hundred people into a group photograph is no mean feat, but it’s a little easier when they are all cousins.
Descendants of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, the parents of the LDS Church founder, gathered for their biennial family reunion at Salt Lake City’s This Is the Place Heritage Park this week for picnics, activities, conferences and catching up. On Saturday, at least 700 snuggled up close, kids in front, under the towering monument commemorating the Mormons’ 1847 arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.
“It’s the people. It’s the family,†said Gayle A. Miller, of East Millcreek, who has been traveling to the reunions for years. “It’s the relationships you make and keep with each other. I’ve seen people who remember me from years ago.â€
Smith reunions are usually held in places like Nauvoo, Ill., Kirtland, Ohio, and other towns important in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It’s a real sacred and unique event,†said Derek Beck, of Kuna, Idaho, attending his first reunion with his four young children. “It gives us an opportunity to discuss the Smith family and what they have gone through and what they did to help the work of the church in these latter days.â€
Like many attendees, Beck descended from Joseph Jr.’s other brother and early church leader Hyrum, whose own son Joseph F. Smith fathered 43 children. The two brothers died in 1844 at the hands of an anti-Mormon mob in Carthage, Ill. The murders helped spur the church’s migration west and eventual settlement in Utah under Brigham Young’s leadership.
Joseph Jr. had appointed his father the church’s presiding patriarch not long before his 1840 death in a log cabin built for him and Lucy in Nauvoo, Ill. Lucy did not join the westward exodus and remained in Nauvoo until her death in 1856. The cabin site is the subject of a new archaeological excavation, called IDigNauvoo. Researchers hope to learn more about the couple who played a key role in the birth of the LDS faith.
This year’s gathering of almost 900 is the biggest since the Smith reunions began in 1972.
“We’re hoping for a world record, but that would take 2,600. Eventually we’ll get there,†said Frances Orton, the reunion coordinator who lives in Provo. Setting the record is an easy possibility since the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association regularly communicates with 5,000 Smith descendants around the nation. The Smiths, who had 11 children, farmed in New York and Vermont during a period in American history marked by fervent religious revival.
Association officials believe there are 40,000 to 50,000 living descendants, and the association actively seeks them out.
“As we find them, our function is to help them understand what our family values are,†said Jared Glade, a volunteer from Syracuse who handles the organization’s websites. “They are intangible things, like caring about your family. One term they use is religiosity. It’s more than faith. Faith put into action.â€
Activities Saturday included “Joseph’s Miracle Run†to raise money to endow a medical scholarship at Dartmouth College. The 1K kids’ run commemorates the 200th anniversary of Joseph Jr.’s recovery from a serious infection, thanks to Nathan Smith, the doctor who founded Dartmouth’s medical school.
“It’s our way to give back to him and to honor his generosity and being ahead of his time,†Glade said. At age 7, Joseph contracted typhoid fever that attacked his leg, and Dr. Smith treated the infection by surgically exposing the bone. Nathan Smith was not related to Joseph Sr. but one of his descendants, a Colorado physician, did attend the reunion.
The biennial gathering has been held in odd-numbered years, but it switches to even-numbered years in 2014, when it will be held in Independence, Mo. The reason for the switch is to time the 2020 gathering in Palmyra, N.Y., with the bicentennial of Joseph Jr.’s visions that gave rise to the LDS movement, according to Orton.
bmaffly@sltrib.com
Race marks bicentennial of surgery that saved Joseph Smith’s leg
The “Joseph’s Miracle Run” 5K race, sponsored by the Smith Foundation, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the surgery to save Joseph Smith’s leg on Aug. 3, 1813
The race was held at This Is The Place Heritage Park as part of the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith reunion held Aug. 1-4. Of the roughly 500 participants in the 5K race and the children’s race immediately afterward, 300 were Smith descendants.
Francis Orton, a foundation member and race organizer, said the race was planned a year and a half in advance. When they realized that 2013 would be the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s boyhood surgery by renowned Dr. Nathan Smith, they saw an opportunity to “publish Joseph’s name for good,” she said.
The race proceeds and donations will go toward a $10,000 scholarship at Dartmouth Medical School, which was founded by Dr. Nathan Smith. The hope is for the race to be an annual event to create a perpetual scholarship.
“We’d like to make it an annual event for at least the next few years,” said Daniel Adams, a Hyrum Smith descendant and member of the foundation who helped organize the race. “It took [Joseph’s leg] three years to heal so he could walk well again.”
Adams views the surgery itself as miraculous because it was a cutting-edge operation that would not become an accepted medical practice until after World War One. The trial also developed the love and courage of the Smith family.
“Hyrum would squeeze his leg and massage it for hours every day just so that he could handle the pain,” Adams said, describing Joseph’s lengthy recovery process. “This is why Joseph and Hyrum are so close, and so Hyrum will never leave Joseph, even in Carthage Jail.”
One Hyrum descendant felt a special connection to the events. Ruth White’s son, Nathaniel, was born at the medical school at Yale, which Nathan Smith co-founded. Her son was born with many birth defects and now uses a wheelchair.
“As soon as I heard about [the race] I felt the connection right off,” she said.
White got an especially loud cheer as she crossed the 5K finish line, pushing her 10-year-old in a jogging stroller.
“He was the only one who volunteered to train with me,” White said with a laugh. “Having him with me just made it more meaningful.
Also helping at the race were 35 missionaries who arrived at 5 a.m. Saturday morning to set up and then guide the runners. Two senior missionaries were stationed at the finish line, and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve awarded each finisher a medal after the race.
Emily Birningham, 83, and Marilyn Critchlow, both Smith descendants, walked the end of the race course to make sure all the grandkids finished the race successfully. Critchlow travelled from Romania for the event, and she spoke enthusiastically about the good turn-out and the excitement of getting the family together.
“This is such a great activity,” Critchlow said. “It was worth it [to travel from Romania] just to hear the opening prayer at a race and the bagpipes.”
“And to have my 25 children and grandchildren in the race,” added Birningham as they neared the finish line.
Lucy Schouten is an Arizona native studying journalism and Middle Eastern studies at Brigham Young University. Contact her at lucy@deseretnews.com.
Descendants of Joseph Smith Sr. to hold ‘miracle run’
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865583922/Descendants-of-Joseph-Smith-Sr-to-hold-miracle-run.html
By Carole Mikita , Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, July 31 2013 6:15 p.m. MDT
SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands of people, mostly members of the Joseph Smith Sr. family, are preparing to gather for a special family reunion Saturday.
During the reunion, they will hold a 5K race to honor the work of a doctor who saved Joseph Smith Jr.’s life 200 years ago.
In 1813, at age 7, Joseph Smith Jr. suffered intense pain from typhus. The deadly infection spread first to his chest and then his leg. The infection, known today as osteomyelitis, was spreading. At the time, to save his life, amputation was considered.
“Young Joseph Smith was about to die,†said Daniel Adams, with the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association. “Nathan Smith intervenes. He only lives a couple of miles away. He is the only man in America who even understands what’s going on and has the competency to do the surgery. That surgery that he performed was accepted as common practice more than 100 years later it was so advanced.â€
Nathan Smith is the founder of Dartmouth Medical School. He pioneered the surgery to cut open the inner bone and leave it exposed while it gradually healed.
Members of the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association have held reunions since 1972. During the past several reunions, they did service projects.
This year, on the 200th anniversary of the experimental surgery that saved Joseph Smith Jr.’s life, the family is holding the Joseph’s Miracle Run at This Is the Place Heritage Park, 2601 E. Sunnyside Ave.
The 5K begins at 7 a.m. Saturday, with registration from 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. The children’s run is scheduled for 8:15 a.m., with registration between 6 and 7:45 a.m.
“This is a chance for us to give back and do a gift of gratitude for all that was done for our ancestor 200 years ago,†said Frances Orton, president of the family organization.
This year, they will create a scholarship to Dartmouth Medical School in honor of Nathan Smith.
“Through the process of this reunion, we’ve been able to come in contact with some of Dr. Nathan Smith’s family, and we have invited them to this reunion, so they will be there,†Orton said.
The Joseph Smith Sr. family has grown to more than 40,000 descendants. Ruth White and her 10-year-old son, Nathaniel, are among the thousands of descendants who live in Utah. White said she will participate in the Joseph’s Miracle Run.
“It struck a chord with me because the doctor that had operated on Joseph Smith and saved his leg, and possibly his life, had also co-founded Yale Medical School, where Nathaniel was born and where his life was saved,†she said.
Nathaniel was born with a rare condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, which causes joint contractures and muscle atrophy. He needed a ventilator, then a trach tube when he was born. Surgery to lower his jaw followed. Doctors used a new technique to save his life.
“Nathan Smith, he saved my life,” Nathaniel said. “Joseph Smith’s injury was his leg, and my injury was my jaw.”
“I wanted to overcome my personal weakness and be able to run in the race as a way to give back to Dr. Smith, whose works lived on in my son,†Ruth White said.
The race is open to people of all faiths to raise money for the scholarship. The descendants are also hoping to find more family members.
For more information on the race, go to www.JosephsMiracleRun.com. For more information on the reunion, go to www.josephsmithsr.org.
Email: cmikita@deseretnews.com