Author: gator

Joseph and Emma Smith’s posterity will gather August 5-7 from all parts of the globe in Salt Lake City, UT to commemorate Joseph Smith’s 200th birthday.
Michael Kennedy, a 3rd great-grandson of Joseph Smith, through Alexander Hale Smith, and president of the Joseph Smith Jr. Family Organization, has sent nearly 600 invitations to Smith relatives.

Born in the lowest ranks of poverty,” continues Quincy, “he had, without book learning, made himself at the age of 39 a power upon the earth. If the reader does not know what to make of Joseph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty since I myself stand helpless before the puzzle.”
“Today,” Mike explains, “200 years from Joseph Smith’s birth, we, Joseph’s descendants, gather to celebrate his contribution to American History and to our lives.”

Why the celebration? Mike Kennedy quotes Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts in 1844. “It is by no means improbable that some future textbook …will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer” to that question will be: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.

The celebration will include entertainment, gifts, and family bonding. Descendants can learn more or register at the web site for the Prophet Joseph Smith’s family organization:

www.josephsmithjr.com

(note the “jr” in the address differentiates it from the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family site)

Smiths share on the web

Lucy’s teapot and Joseph Jr.’s sleigh bell are two fun items family members can see and read about on the Foundation web site.

“Online sharing is a great way to celebrate Joseph Smith Jr.’s 200th birthday,” says Mary Summerhays, Foundation committee member. Mary has also added other photos, including one of Alvin’s wooden box that held the Gold Plates.

“Smith Share” on the Foundation web site is a virtual gathering place for family members to upload pictures of artifacts and publish stories from the lives of our ancestors.

“Children and adults alike will find this web site a fascinating place to learn about the lives and values of their ancestors,” says Craig Frogley, Foundation committee chair.

To share pictures of ancestors or artifacts, genealogical, historical, or fun information, submit them to our family web page at www.josephsmithsr.org.

The Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Foundation Newsletter
http://www.josephsmithsr.org

Great Grandfather John was born into a wonderfully well-off family in England where he had just everything a child could want. As soon as he was tall enough, he was sent to Oxford University to study with other well-bred young men and to eat at the head table where the food was the best. Good for John, he was very smart. He became the favorite of Dr. John King who was the Bishop of London, who ran Oxford, and who was very powerful and very rich.

One day, John’s brother Tom came to visit him at Oxford. Tom said that Oxford was a nice place and all that but it was stuck like a cart in a rut. The new ideas were at Cambridge. Tom said “So come,” and John did.

At Cambridge there was a lot going on, especially in religious studies- you know, church stuff-and that took John’s fancy.

This is an excerpt and picture from the full color children’s book by Vivian McConkie Adams; Sometimes you just have to move Across the Ocean: the story of John Lathrop.

HYRUM- LIVING
-Lovina DonnaLee Frogley 435-757-7554 1,691
-John Sam Isom 801-771-6911 863
-Joseph F. Mary Donoho 801-546-4707 4,593
-Jerusha Ben Donoho 801-546-4707 593
-Martha Ann Carole King 435 673-4303 3,095
-Sarah LaRene Gaunt 801-572-0169
Debbie Nelson 801-302-8855 1,218
JOSEPH Jr- Michael Kennedy 801-756-1091 894
SAMUEL Robert Smith 801-489-7589 497
WILLIAM Gracia Jones 435-673-2165 93
CATHERINE Marge Porter 801-876-3265 468
LUCY Wilburta Moore 801-595-8131 68

This is just a last note to invite all to please send an annual contribution. Our newsletter outreach in search of all our family members depends on you. If you aren’t certain when you last paid the suggested $15.00, please note your mailing label for the due date.

Please help us save cost by using your own envelope and cut-out form section.

Send to:
% Spence Nilson
Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Foundation
180 E 2100 S 202
Salt Lake City UT 84115

(Please do not send dues to the newsletter return address)

If you know of living Smith descendants who don’t receive the newsletter, please send their addresses by copying the form from this section of the newsletter and sending them to the return address on the newsletter or emailing to crfrogley@josephsmithsr.org , or , soon you may go to the web page and enter information in yourself: www.josephsmithsr.com.

Thank you.

Some Conclusions:

1. The Foundation has assets thanks to the donations of many who love the Smith Family. We guard these as sacred
funds that provide interest income over the years with which we can manage our family stewardship.

2. Those who manage the investments have done well, providing $3,565.00 of interest income this past year.

3. Bonds mature and must be sold and replaced. The cost of doing so through brokerage fees and increased face value
account for the difference in the $10,221 liquidated and the $12,471 purchased and the $175 fee.

4. Maintaining the cemetery for visitors to learn about and enjoy our family’s heritage is both a sacred family
stewardship and expensive. During most years the interest from the investments pays for the cemetery maintenance.

5. Family newsletter addresses total to around 5,000. If dues were paid only by those addresses the total cash fund
available could be $75,000.00 annually. We could either lower dues or use the fund to do more good for our own
family as indicated in the first article. Many projects stand only as dreams due to insufficient resources since less
than ten percent of the family contribute to through dues. This report only shows $110.00 for the last quarter of
2003. If annualized it would only come to $440.00 for all of 2003.

6. All of us on the Board and on the correlation committee spend our own additional moneys to purchase software, send
correspondence, and make phone calls, etc in the search for family members. Some have spent thousands to publish
books with no hope for return on investment. Theirs is a labor tied to the vision that the Smith Family Values can
serve as a powerful solution to the growing problems that vex our world and especially our families.

Jerusha Barden Smith, first wife of Patriarch Hyrum Smith was born on February 15, 1805. She passed into almost total anonymity when she died in Kirtland, Ohio on Oct. 13 1837, following the birth of her sixth child, Sarah. Many of the grandchildren of Jerusha have expressed an intense desire to put in place a fitting memorial for.

The famous sculptor, Dee Jay Bawden has been commissioned by her grandchildren to sculpt a likeness of this devoted and valiant woman who was the first love of Hyrum Smith to be placed alongside his bust that is already in Kirtland. Though small donations of any amount will be helpful in this effort, a smaller version of Jerusha can be purchased, as well as a companion likeness of Hyrum for $100 each. A purchase of one of the small busts will be counted toward the donation to the fund for the large bust memorial. Mail your contribution or request for a small likeness to: Eldred G. Smith, Hyrum Smith Family Association at 2942 Devonshire Circle, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84108.