Bicentennial of Joseph Smith surgery celebrated with 5K run

By Mike Carpenter

If you had told someone in 1813 that a surgery would be celebrated 200 years later, they probably wouldn’t have believed you. But on Aug. 3, that is precisely what runners will do as they run to celebrate the bicentennial of a surgery that may have saved the life of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association will host the run on Aug. 3 at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. The organization of the run started from a desire to express gratitude for the surgery and the great work of the surgeon, Dr. Nathan Smith. Many members of the association believe the surgery was a miracle.

“The surgery that saved 7-year-old Joseph’s leg, and possibly his life…might be considered the first miracle of the Restoration,” said Frances Orton, president of The Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association.

A board member of the association, Dan Adams, also believes that events surrounding the surgery were too ideal to be just good fortune.

“We commemorate the leg surgery on 7-year-old Joseph as (a miracle) because it was incredible,” said Adams. “It just so happened that the only surgeon in America who could save Joseph’s leg, Dr. Nathan Smith, was just a few miles away at the time and he had been developing an experimental surgery so advanced that it took another 100 years before it became accepted as standard practice.”

The race includes a 5K run, as well as a children’s run. Elder M Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will personally hand out medals after the children’s run.

Proceeds from the run will fund a scholarship in Joseph Smith’s name for an aspiring medical student at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, which was founded by Dr. Nathan Smith.

More information about the event is available at www.JosephsMiracleRun.com.

About the Author

Mike Carpenter is a senior studying public relations. He enjoys milkshakes and four-player fighting style video games that feature characters from multiple popular franchises.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865583381/Record-breaking-reunion-planned-for-Joseph-Smith-Sr-family.html

By Joseph Walker , Deseret News
Published: Friday, July 19 2013 6:13 p.m. MDT

In conjunction with the reunion, family representatives have organized Joseph’s Miracle Run, a 5K run that will also be held at This is the Place Heritage Park on Aug. 3. (From Joseph’s Miracle Run YouTube video) In conjunction with the reunion, family representatives have organized Joseph’s Miracle Run, a 5K run that will also be held at This is the Place Heritage Park on Aug. 3. (From Joseph’s Miracle Run YouTube video)
SALT LAKE CITY — A possible world-record-breaking gathering of the descendants of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith will celebrate what they are calling “the first miracle of the Restoration” during the Smith Family Reunion at This is the Place Heritage Park on Aug. 3.

Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith were the parents of Joseph Smith Jr., founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jared Glade, a Smith descendant and family genealogist, says there are more than 40,000 family members now, with many of them living in Utah.

“The trouble is,” Glade said, “we only have accurate information on about 10 percent of our family. That’s important because there are some huge family events that are happening that only come around once in a lifetime, and our family needs to know about them so they can participate.”

Included among those events is the upcoming reunion Aug. 3.

“We’ve had some big reunions in the past,” said Frances Orton, president of the Smith Family Association. “But this year the reunion is in Utah, and with so many Utah descendants, we think it could be huge.”

So huge that reunion organizers have applied to Guinness World Records officials for certification as the world’s largest family reunion.

“That’s another reason we’re so excited,” Orton said. “But we really need the family to know about it and respond.”

In conjunction with the reunion, family representatives have organized Joseph’s Miracle Run, a 5K run that will also be held at This is the Place Heritage Park on Aug. 3. The run is dedicated to the memory of what Smith descendant Dan Adams calls “the first miracle of the Restoration.”

“Although we don’t know a specific date, we assume it was right around this time that 7-year-old Joseph Smith Jr.’s leg — and, most likely, his life — was saved through a chain of circumstances and events that can only be seen as miraculous,” Adams said.

In a moving video on a website dedicated to Joseph’s Miracle Run, venerable LDS historian Dr. Richard L. Bushman explains that the incident occurred at a time when there was a typhoid epidemic in the eastern United States.

“The Smith family was hit very hard,” Bushman said. “They thought they were going to lose their daughter (Sophronia), but she was revived, Joseph (Jr.) became very ill. He also revived. But as happens with typhoid, you can have afterwards a salmonella organism which can infect in very serious ways.”

The salmonella infection settled in young Joseph’s left shin. Over time the salmonella infection became so severe that doctors recommended his left leg be amputated. Otherwise, they said, the infection will likely spread throughout the boy’s body and result in his death.

One of the nearby physicians who ministered to young Joseph was Dr. Nathan Smith, who Bushman said “was working on the foundation of the Dartmouth medical school and would later move to the Yale medical school.” Dr. Smith convinced the Smith family to allow him to perform a surgery that he was confident would save the boy’s leg.

“So far as we can tell,” Bushman said, “(Dr. Smith) invented (the surgery) because it was not even known until the end of the century and not used commonly until World War I. Until that time, bone infection led almost inevitably to amputation, or an infection that would kill you.”

So the surgery, miraculously cutting-edge for its time, was performed.

“This little boy lay there in his father’s arms — his mother had been sent out into the field,” Bushman said. “With no anesthesia his leg was opened up, his bone was exposed, three pairs of holes were bored into his little shin bone … and they pulled off that exterior bone to show the infection underneath and to clean that out, and then sew him back up.”

Afterwards, Bushman continued, “there were 14 pieces of bone scraps that came working their way to the surface … It was a horrible experience for the young man.”

Horrible though it may have been, including three years of painful recovery, many Smith family members, including Elder M. Russell Ballard of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, are convinced that it was nonetheless miraculous.

“This surgery was truly miraculous,” said Elder Ballard, a direct descendant of young Joseph’s elder brother, Hyrum, in a letter inviting Smith family members to participate in the 5K. “The surgery on young Joseph’s leg saved his life and gave him the fortitude to endure the unbelievably difficult trials and challenges of the Restoration. That work would have been insurmountable had Joseph lost his leg.”

Elder Ballard will be present at Joseph’s Miracle Run to give medals to all who participate. Proceeds from the run will go to provide a “gift of gratitude” to assist an aspiring medical student at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine in Joseph Smith’s name and in memory of Dr. Smith.

For more information on the race please go to www.JosephsMiracleRun.com. For more information on the reunion please go to www.josephsmithsr.org.

Email: jwalker@desnews.com

http://ldsmag.com/article/1/12965

By Meridian Magazine

On August 3, the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association will celebrate the 1st miracle of the restoration with Joseph’s Miracle Run; a 5K run at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. The public is invited to run or donate. Proceeds will fund a scholarship in Joseph’s name to Dartmouth Medical School, founded by Dr. Nathan Smith. For more info visit: www.JosephsMiracleRun.com

Are you a long-lost Smith, or do you know any descendants of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith? The Smith family has grown to over 40,000 descendants and family members with most living in Utah, so there’s a good chance you may be related or know someone who is.

“The trouble is,” says Jared Glade, family data steward, “We only have accurate information on about 10% of our family. That’s important, because there are some huge family events are happening that only come around once in a life-time, and our family needs to know about them so they can participate.”

For instance, this is the 200th anniversary of the miraculous surgery that saved 7-year-old Joseph’s Smith’s leg, and quite possibly his life. In that era, Joseph could not have done what he did otherwise. To commemorate this great event, The Joseph Smith Sr. Family is hosting the Joseph’s Miracle Run, a 5K family run at This is The Place Heritage Park on August 3.

“We really need to get the word out to our family,” agrees Frances Orton, president of the Smith Family Association. “It would be such a tragedy if our own family didn’t know about it, because it is a great opportunity reach out to our extended family and remember the great work our family has done over the years.”

The proceeds from the run will establish a scholarship in Joseph’s name to honor Dr. Nathan Smith, founder of Dartmouth Medical School, and the surgeon who performed the surgery. This scholarship will be granted to a deserving surgical student at Dartmouth, and will be a reminder of the great good that charitable contributions like Dr. Smith’s can be in the community.

Joseph’s Miracle Run is also coinciding with the Smith Family Reunion at This is the Place Heritage Park on August 3 2013. “That’s another reason we’re so excited,” says Frances. “We’ve applied for a World Record for the largest family reunion. We’ve had some big reunions in the past, but this year the reunion is in Utah. With this many local descendants, we could easily hit that goal, but we really need the family to know about it and respond.”

So if you’re a Smith, make sure you don’t miss out on a truly once in a lifetime opportunity. If you know any Smiths, let them know what is happening. And if you’re not a Smith, but would love to join in the Joseph Smith Miracle Run, we would love to have you participate. For more information, call Frances Orton at 801.226.6054 or visit us at:

For race information: www.JosephsMiracleRun.com

For reunion information: www.josephsmithsr.org

August 1-4, 2013 will be our next Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Reunion. The goal is to have the largest family reunion possible. Our family can do it. This reunion will be held in Salt Lake City with the highlight being our opportunity to give back and participate through a fun family experience to honor the work Dr. Nathan Smith. Dr. Smith’s work not only blessed Joseph Smith Jr. but his entire family and the world. For more information about the reunion please click here. To register for the reunion click here.

This is why we’re celebrating that miracle with the Joseph’s Miracle Run; to remember Joseph and the great legacy he began. Joseph’s Miracle Run is a 5K race that will be held August 3, 2013, 7:00 am at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We invite you to join us in supporting this remarkable event. Come run, volunteer, or lend your financial support. If you believe in miracles, if you have been changed because of this young boy, show your appreciation by supporting Joseph’s Miracle Run.

The fundraising will be used to establish an endowment at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, which was founded by Nathan Smith. This “Gift of Gratitude” will be made in the name of Joseph Smith, Jr.

If you are interested in volunteering, donating, or want more information , please go to: http://josephsmiraclerun.com.

Our ancestor gave so much for all of us, give so we can help each other!

We have family members coming from all over the country who will need a place to stay. Our reunion is at the same time at the Utah Outdoor Retailer Show and hotels will be harder to book. If you can help house family members from out of town please let us know by sending an email to ortonfrances@gmail.com or phoning 801-226-6054.
Donate Online Now!

Or contribute by Mail:
Mail Checks or Money Orders to:
Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association
c/o Frances Orton
381 W 3700 N
Provo, UT 84604

The Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association will also accepts donations of race volunteer thank you’s, prizes for families attending our 5K fun run, office supplies, technology, and of course, we always welcome volunteers.

Joseph Smith’s Boyhood Surgery: Mercy during a “Desperate Siege”

Joseph’s childhood surgery helped make it possible for him to physically participate in the Restoration of the gospel. While we often think of the work of the Restoration as a spiritual work, it also required strenuous physical effort from the Prophet Joseph Smith. He walked, marched, ran, and rode on horseback in order to lead the work. He hefted and hid the plates, eluded enemies, and led a growing Church from New York to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He led Zion’s Camp, endured imprisonment, drained swamps, constructed temples, and built cities.

Read the full article in this month’s Ensign written by Vivian Adams, Education Outreach Chair for the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association about Joseph’s Surgery here.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/06/joseph-smiths-boyhood-surgery-mercy-during-a-desperate-siege?lang=eng

BY VIVIAN M. ADAMS
Education outreach chair for the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association

How did faith, courage, and the unique skills of Dr. Nathan Smith save seven-year-old Joseph Smith’s leg and his life 200 years ago?

When the 1812–13 typhoid epidemic swept through New England, the Joseph Smith Sr. family, then living in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was seriously affected. The disease, which took some 6,000 lives, struck each of their seven children. The fever left young Joseph with osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone in his left leg between the knee and ankle—a condition that threatened his life.¹ According to the medical practice of the time, amputation was the only recourse. However, the faith and determination of Joseph’s parents, the skill of Dr. Nathan Smith, and the courage and faith of the boy Joseph combined to not only save his leg but also preserve his physical ability to fulfill his appointed mission.

A Year of Pain

What Joseph later called “Typhus Fever”² afflicted many in Lebanon in 1813. Joseph’s mother, Lucy, reported that the epidemic caused her family “one whole year of affliction … disease, pain, and trouble,” and she was grateful for attention given to young Joseph by his brother Hyrum.³ Joseph later recalled that during this year of affliction “my father dispaired [sic] of my life.”⁴ Doctors were able to reduce the fever but not the pain that settled in Joseph’s shoulder. Hoping to alleviate his pain, Joseph’s parents sent for Dr. Parker, a Lebanon physician, who insisted that the distress was caused by a sprain and administered a bone liniment, which proved ineffective.

When Dr. Parker called again, he discovered “a very large fever … sore between Joseph’s breast and shoulder.” When the sore was lanced, “a full quart of matter” was discharged. The pain in Joseph’s shoulder “shot like lightning (as he said) down his side into the marrow of his leg bone on the same side.”⁵ It is assumed that bacteria from the shoulder abscess spread through his bloodstream into the tibia of his left leg. Joseph cried out in anguish, “Oh, Father, the pain is so severe! How can I bear it?”⁶

The infected leg began to swell. After three weeks of excruciating pain, Joseph was attended by Dr. Stone, a surgeon from Hanover, who made an eight-inch incision between Joseph’s knee and ankle, hoping to alleviate the boy’s distress. As the incision healed, Joseph’s mother reported, “the pain became as violent as ever.” A second and longer incision was made, and again “as the healing progressed, the swelling continued to rise.”⁷

A Grim Recommendation

A “council of surgeons”⁸ now came from Dartmouth Medical College (a few miles from the Smith home), including doctors later identified as Smith, Perkins, and Stone.⁹ Upon examining young Joseph, these surgeons concluded that the diseased bone now encased within new bone growth would likely spread internal infection and cause Joseph’s death. Their recommendation was the standard procedure for such a case—amputation.

Young Joseph refused amputation.¹⁰ Mother Smith also implored Dr. Nathan Smith, the principal surgeon, not to amputate. As a young practitioner in 1798, Dr. Smith had developed an experimental surgery—cutting through new bone growth in order to extract the infected bone from the interior cavity.¹¹ Dr. Smith agreed to try to save Joseph’s leg by performing this surgery.¹²

Joseph assured his parents and his physicians that he could endure this experimental surgery without the suggested cords to bind him and without alcohol as a sedative. He asked that his father hold him during the surgery and requested that his mother leave the room. He declared, “I will do whatever is necessary to be done in order to have the bone taken out. … The Lord will help me. I shall get through.”¹³

Experimental Surgery

During the surgery, Dr. Smith cut into Joseph’s leg and removed “nine large pieces”¹⁴ of bone from the abscessed cavity. Following surgery, another 14 pieces worked their way to the surface and were removed from the wound.¹⁵

Circumstances surrounding Joseph’s operation were nothing short of remarkable. To remove fragments of diseased bone rather than rely on amputation was virtually unheard of in America or England in 1813.¹⁶ Dr. Nathan Smith of Hanover, New Hampshire, who lived five miles from his patient’s home, was the only surgeon in the United States with the knowledge and skill to successfully perform this unique procedure.¹⁷ When he stepped into the Smith home, he had 15 years of experience performing this particular surgery.¹⁸ Even then, he advised the Smiths of conventional measures before introducing the possibility of an experimental surgery—a surgery that would not be addressed in medical literature until 1827 by Dr. Nathan Smith himself.¹⁹ It was not until after World War I that his methods were adopted as standardized medical procedure.²⁰

Though the Smiths may not have known the full extent of Dr. Smith’s accomplishments, there is little question that the medical community held him in high regard. At the time of Joseph’s surgery, Dr. Smith had founded Dartmouth Medical College, had taught as its first professor, was president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and had been appointed a professor at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut. During his career, Dr. Smith cofounded medical schools at Yale, Bowdoin College in Maine, and the University of Vermont. He was also a compassionate country physician whose own children had been afflicted with fever in the 1813 epidemic.²¹

Acknowledging the Hand of the Lord

Joseph’s childhood surgery helped make it possible for him to physically participate in the Restoration of the gospel. While we often think of the work of the Restoration as a spiritual work, it also required strenuous physical effort from the Prophet Joseph Smith. He walked, marched, ran, and rode on horseback in order to lead the work. He hefted and hid the plates, eluded enemies, and led a growing Church from New York to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He led Zion’s Camp, endured imprisonment, drained swamps, constructed temples, and built cities.

In looking back on her family’s experiences in the typhoid epidemic of 1813, Mother Smith recalled, “We realized the blessing … [and] felt more to acknowledge the hand of God” through a “desperate siege.”²² Through the faith of Joseph Sr., Lucy, and young Joseph, that siege aligned the Smith family with one of the greatest physicians of early America²³ and enabled Joseph to fully pursue his work. During the bicentennial of Joseph’s surgery, it is fitting to reflect on the Lord’s mercies toward the boy who would become the prophet of the Restoration.

Notes

1. See LeRoy S. Wirthlin, “Joseph Smith’s Surgeon,” Ensign, Mar. 1978, 59.
2. Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, p. 131, The Joseph Smith Papers, http://josephsmithpapers.org.
3. See Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, ed. Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor (1996), 76, 73.
4. Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, p. 131, http://josephsmithpapers.org.
5. Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 72–73.
6. In Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 73.
7. Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 73.
8. Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 73.
9. See Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, p. 131, http://josephsmithpapers.org.
10. See Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, p. 131, http://josephsmithpapers.org.
11. See Wirthlin, “Joseph Smith’s Surgeon,” 59, 60.
12. See Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 73–74.
13. See Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 74–75; see also Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 2.
14. Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 75.
15. See Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, p. 131, http://josephsmithpapers.org; LeRoy S. Wirthlin, “Joseph Smith’s Boyhood Operation: An 1813 Surgical Success,” BYU Studies, vol. 21, no. 2 (Spring 1981), 153.
16. See LeRoy S. Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith (1762–1828): Surgical Consultant to Joseph Smith,” BYU Studies, vol. 17, no. 3 (Spring 1977), 329.
17. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 321, 337.
18. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 329.
19. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 330, 334, and footnotes.
20. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 319.
21. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 321, 324, 326, 334.
22. Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 76.
23. See Wirthlin, “Nathan Smith,” 337.

Smith Family Newsletter – June 2013