Author: gator

As can be seen by the insert, another picture of some members of the Smith Family have again been offered to our family organization at a discount for members and as a small fund raiser for research projects. We will not handle any of the orders or moneys. David Lindley, the artist and student of D.J. Bawdin’s forensic findings will handle your orders directly, donating a percentage to the Foundation. Instructions and order-form are enclosed with this newsletter.

It isn’t enough to teach the children. You must teach the children to teach the children. Imparting life and family values inter-generationally is a constant challenge for parents and grandparents. As an umbrella organization The Foundation works to facilitate this process. We would like to publish a Smith Family Quote book on their life and family values that could then be used by parents and grandparents to communicate the values of the early Smiths. Please send, by either US mail to the return address on this newsletter or email at: c.frogley@m.cc.utah.edu, any Smith family documented quotes (sound bites) that communicate both practical and eternal values.

The Family Organization Coordinating Committee meets each month to review status, progress, and research on each of the lines from the Children of Joseph Sr. and Lucy.

Representatives include:
HYRUM- LIVING
-Lovina: Roger Anderson 435-846-3301 4,484
-John Wilburta Moore 801-595-8131 ukwn
-Joseph F. Mary Donoho 801-546-4707 20,000
-Jerusha Ben Donoho 801-546-4707
-Martha Ann Carole King 435-876-3273 1,000
-Sarah LaRene Gaunt 801-572-0169
JOSEPH Jr- Michael Kennedy801-756-1091 800
SAMUEL Robert Smith 801-489-7589 450
WILLIAM Michael Nebeker 801-942-5053 ukwn
CATHERINE Marge Porter 801-876-3265 ukwn
LUCY ukwn

Since this is continual work in progress we will update this data frequently with the invitation to please help by registering all known family members with your own family organization or through one of the committee.

Gracia and Ivor Jones-Liaison Committee to the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Foundation September 21, 1999 report on trip to Montana-A DESCENDANT SEARCH…

When Ivor retired August 1, we were at last free to begin our journey to find and get acquainted with our relatives who are scattered all over the United States,
Canada, Mexico, and the world. Traveling with Dean and Jaynann Payne in their beautiful 32 foot motor home, we left Provo, Utah, on August 25th. In 27 days we have covered 2500 miles. We took I-15, north from Utah into Montana, visiting family from Butte to Kalispell, then skirted Glacier National Park on Highway 2, went to Cardston and Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. We visited families in the great wheat country in Eastern Montana, we stopped briefly in Great Falls to see the C.M. Russell museum, visited the Bighorn Battlefield. We visited friends on a cattle ranch, and old friends in Billings, Montana.

We have visited in the homes of 24 families, all descendants of of Alexander Hale Smith, 2 families of Hyrums descendants. At meetings and firesides, we met 8 more descendants of Hyrum, and 3 families who are descendants of Samuel. We regret that due to timing and circumstances beyond our control we missed 5 families,
within the area we traveled. We hope to visit them at a later date. Wherever we went we found the families warm and welcoming, eager to share their homes and lives with us. They fed us too well! We brought our Dutch-ovens with us, and at several homes were able to treat our hosts and relatives to a real Dixie feast. (Gracia and Ivor are from Utah’s Dixie – ed. Note)

We have found that there is a very real need for strengthening the bonds and ties of the family. We have encouraged developing grandfather organizations
and holding family get-togethers. This has struck a chord everywhere we went. Plans have already begun for such events to be held in the coming year. We can
add several new names and addresses to the Foundation database.

We received the unexpected bonus of being given copies of precious old pictures to add to the collection we already have. We also obtained copies of some personal
writings of family members who have passed on; we gathered some taped stories and took a lot of photos everywhere we went. We were able to present one dear young cousin with a photo of her grandfather as a young man–one she had never seen before. We were also able to bring several cousins together who had not met each
other before, and united others who had met years ago, but had not seen each other in many years. They had not known, until we arrived, that they lived within twenty miles of each other.

This first trip has confirmed our feelings that this is a worthwhile endeavor. Our plans include a return trip to Montana in early October, then we will head for
Washington, Oregon, and California. Winter will find us in Arizona, and Utah. We have word that Bill Wright, a cousin from Australia, is coming at New Years. Later in the Spring we expect to visit Australia. In future trips we plan to go to Texas, New Mexico, then to the mid-west, etc. There are family members in nearly every state of the Union, and Mexico. In due time we hope to visit as many
of the family as we can find.

Our hope is to hold some get-togethers in various locations where clusters of the extended family reside. Anyone interested in helping host or just participating in
such events, please let us know. Write to: Gracia and Ivor Jones, 557 E. 400 S. St. George, UT 84770, or e-mail us at ivorandgracia@gmail.com.

It was not just another Smith Family reunion! Nauvoo was again the site as it had
been for the first reunion twenty years ago for this special anniversary reunion.
Though the Foundation hasn’t sponsored a family reunion as yet we have supported
Buddy’s persevering efforts to organize the family reunions.

About one hundred and seventy family members representing Hyrum, Joseph, Samuel, and Catherine participated and enjoyed:

1. A new City of Joseph Pageant with special family seating,
2. A musical enactment of Father Smith, Hyrum, and Joseph singing to William and
then to the family as a whole, about the need to love and unite, (more below)
3. A historical review of the Smith family from Buddy
4. History of Father Smith by Scott Fullmer, a descendant of one of Joseph’s body guards.
5. Update on the Samuel family from youthful descendants
6. A wonderful dinner at the Nauvoo Hotel,
7. A moving account of the Carthage martyrdom by Ted Gibbons, two survivors of the jail attack. The family sat by the well where Joseph died. (Our imaginations and emotions were deeply affected.)
8. A moving song by Chris Frogley who played Hyrum in the recently released docudrama video of Nauvoo. The family sat at the Carthage well listening as He sang in the role of Hyrum professing loyalty to Joseph just before leaving to Carthage. Lorena H. Normandeau, a Joseph Jr. descendant, originally composed this song as well as the others mentioned above.
9. A beautiful portrayal of Lucy telling her story by Jayne Ann Payne.
10. Tours of the Nauvoo historical sites
11. The dedication by Patriarch Eldred G. Smith of a new memorial to the Joseph Sr. and Lucy family located southeast of the temple site (some distance from the homestead family cemetery).

The camaraderie, warm family feelings, renewing of family bonds and enlarging the memory of family stories made this reunion a life-impacting event. One family member who has not been to any past reunions and currently serves as mayor of Boise, H. Brent Coles, commented that the feeling for the family and resultant commitment to the family vision of imparting family
values across generations will involve him from now and forever.

The words to the song sung by Father Smith at the reunion invite all of us in the family to unite in love. William had become agitated at Joseph during one of the Kirtland administrative meetings. The disagreement led to family division. Later when Hyrum’s and Samuel’s families went west and the other siblings stayed in the Midwest there was division again. Lorena used this bit of history and sought inspiration to empathize with Father and Mother Smith. The words to this moving song are listed here as a plea to once again set aside our differences and work together towards a family unity wherein the deep Smith family values can flow through us to our children and our children’s children. Deep, lasting and working values are growing scarce in a world of growing turmoil. Let us preserve those of this powerful family.

Are my final days upon the earth to be
shadowed by the darkness of your animosity?
Why are you acting so?
Knowing the things you know?
Why be a harrier of one who is the carrier
of truth from the fountains flow?
From this moment let all malice and contention cease.
Strike hands with your brother, sisters.
Come and make your peace.
Let there be harmony now in this family.
The purpose in living is found in forgiving.
And Love is the Master Key.
Turn with love to one another. Let your hearts be one.
Act upon the teachings of the Father and the Son.
So may we ever be steadfast in loyalty.
The purpose of living is found in forgiving
and Love is the Master Key.

When taken together these two searches signal a great need in the family. What else is in our attics? With a little sleuthing could we discover more clues that would enable us to find and appropriately memorialize Father and Mother’s graves@f0

Please notify the Foundation of any and all of your Smith family treasures. Please consider donating to the Foundation any memorabilia including documents for preservation, storage, and continued access by the greater Smith family. Those not donated will be cataloged according to your own specifications. With our joint efforts we want to fully respond to one of Emma’s last requests: the marking of Father and Mother Smith graves.

By Carole Call King

It was almost midnight on Easter Sunday as I wearily put the vacuum in the closet at the close of a wonderful, busy day of church meetings, Easter egg hunts, and a big family dinner with all my children and grandchildren at home. I happened to look up on the closet shelf to see a box I hadn’t really looked at in a long time. On the side, many years ago, my mother had written, “Letters to Grandma Harris.” It was one of several boxes from my parents’ home after their deaths. This one had somehow become separated from the other boxes of family history,
genealogy, and pictures because of its awkward size. I really had never looked into it and it had been forgotten after I found a place to stash it.

This night I was irresistibly drawn to it. I pulled the box down from the shelf and opened it up. On the top were some dark chiffon dresses. Underneath the dresses were three long slender boxes on which Mother had written in red magic marker “Joseph F. Smith’s letters to Grandma Harris,” “Letters to Grandma, etc.” ‘ Also tucked into the big box was a bulky manila envelope on which was written, ‘Grandma & Grandpa Harris’ letters to each other–Aunt Mercy’s letters.’ I was astounded! My mother had never mentioned these letters to me!

I was absolutely ecstatic at the thought of learning more about those I had researched! I opened the boxes to see many, many letters of all sizes–ink faded, paper fragile. Some had envelopes, many did not. Some were just fragments of letters carefully saved by my great grandmother, Martha Ann; her youngest daughter, my dear grandmother, Sarah Harris Passey; and my own sweet mother, Verna Passey Call, all who have been gone for many years. With awe I carefully opened and read many letters until it was almost 4:00 a.m.

Since that night I have not been able to leave the letters alone. It has touched
my heart to read the words in the letters tell about their daily struggles with illness and accidents, births of babies, lack of food and fuel, poverty, constant hard work to survive, and so many deaths. But it has been inspiring in spite of all the problems to also read of their utmost devotion to the Savior, the gospel, and their undying dedication to our Heavenly Father. For me, the highlight of all the writing is the love and loyalty of family and extended family that each person had. LOVE is the real message that comes shining through these precious letters. The early Smith family was certainly bound by love and concern for each other.

As I read the letters written to my great grandmother–so many in return for letters from her—I ache to read the countless letters she wrote. Where are they??? I hope that somewhere in our scattered extended family, somebody knows about more letters or journals and will share them. I’m sure that many of my cousins, descendants of people whose letters I have, would love to read them. I am
working hard to make copies and transcriptions of these prized letters before I turn them over to the Church Archives so they may be preserved for posterity, and any interested Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith Sr. descendants desiring to read and be inspired by them, as I have been.

Please search through your closets, attics, and basements to see if you have any treasures of family history to share. Every little piece of information helps us
know our ancestors better and will bring all the Smith cousins closer together.

The Family needs your help. Do you have hidden somewhere in your family storage, documents that might give detail on the location of the graves of Father and Mother Smith? We have met as a greater Smith family for 20 years to honor the memory of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. We have shared their stories, grief, triumphs and hopes for a future posterity. We have memorialized their lives and children in a beautiful cemetery without knowing exactly where Father and Mother Smith laid their mortal remains. The search extends back to the years of Joseph F. Smith, their grandson. Audentia, Joseph the prophet’s granddaughter, also inquired after the location. During those years, the remains of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum were relocated and a fitting marker established that has even been updated. All the while, our best effort towards Father and Mother Smith, was to place a general plaque indicating that somewhere in the vicinity, our namesakes were buried. Then one snowy afternoon last year Buddy Youngreen presented two documents that when read together seemed to indicate the location of the lost graves and the search was again a reality. Over the intervening months, other contradictory documents surfaced calling into question the location. Coincident with the search another discovery was taking place!

Aggregating families into multi-generational organizations may not seem very exciting to some but a closer look will ignite the interest of most. A walk down any high school hall will convince even the hardened skeptic that today’s youth face many challenges that must be added to the list of difficulties parents and grandparents faced in past decades. Yet those problems still fit into the same three categories as the old problems and challenges: No control problems, direct control problems, and indirect control problems. Each is solvable and experience and understanding simplify the process and turn them into opportunities for growth and strength. Here is where multi-generational experience can help support the challenged family.

Wisdom comes with age. Though age does not guarantee wisdom, you cannot get wisdom without it. Most of us, however, and especially youth do not want to be told what to do even if the teller is loaded with wisdom. One scholar reminded well meaning advice givers that wisdom is caught not taught. He expressed that we teach by contagion not by compulsion. In other words we catch wisdom when it is modeled by those we care about, who have it. We can create opportunities where wisdom can be imparted by first building relationships of trust and affection between grandparents, parents, and youth engaged in pleasant, mutually beneficial work or fun activities. Then opportunities to teach will come naturally where wisdom will flow through the love built over time and togetherness.

Grandfather Organizations

Few have the time and energy to organize activities that will attract participation and enjoyment across generational lines. If grandparents and parents, armed with desire and understanding could be given pre-planned and tested reunion agendas, grandfather level reunions would become regular and powerful tools in strengthening the family and allowing the sharing of trans-generational values. Especially if they were held frequently and in locations that lent themselves naturally to participation and variety such as vacation spots, (beach, canyon, park, etc)

Key Ancestor Organizations

These desiring mentors could catch and receive the ideas and plans by grouping together in key ancestor reunions held less frequently-perhaps every 2-3 years- where families would be attracted by meeting to honor a key ancestor in a setting that allowed for the @f0feeling of place@f1 history as well as enjoyment, sharing, etc.

Umbrella Organization

These key ancestor organizations might then profit by their common link to an umbrella organization. They would represent an older, significant or even famous ancestor who embodied strong high leverage values that could then be imparted in a reunion setting where the @f2feeling of place@f3-history was especially strong. It would lend itself to @f4catching the vision@f5 as well as learning the skills needed for running functionally meaningful key-ancestor as well as grandfather family organizations.

As an umbrella organization, we, in the Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Foundation, would love to nurture this kind of sharing through our newsletters, reunions, and key ancestor coordination committee. Currently the family reunion is under the direction and control of the Joseph Smith Sr. Reunion Association directed by Buddy Youngreen. The Foundation staff is working to contribute ideas and person-power so Buddy can produce the best reunion possible. We therefore encourage all to support the current Joseph Smith Sr. family reunions as well as the many key ancestor organizations. We hope that all will be in Nauvoo this August as the reunion gathers once again.

“Our ultimate intent is to get the spirit of our ancestors in to the hearts of our current generation. We need to know our ancestors, who they were and what they did, so we can accentuate their virtues and imitate them–live as they lived. That’s an important part of figuring out our own identity.” So says new Foundation Historian Mark McConkie. To assist in this goal, Mark is compiling a two-page biography on each of the children of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. When members of the Foundation pay their annual $10 dues, they will receive this packet, which Mark now estimates should be ready by summer.