Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Organization

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.

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

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

Your $25 donation helps
• Maintain the Nauvoo family cemetery
• Maintain and update our family database (www.josephsmithsr.org)
• Encourage and publicize grandfather reunions and other news
• Explore projects that teach about our ancestors.

Please send address corrections and donations to:

Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy
Mack Smith Foundation
c/o Craig Frogley
10763 S 2000 E
Sandy, UT 84092

By Lachlan McKay

Work started last fall to prepare the Smith Family Cemetery for the coming season.

Located in Nauvoo, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, the cemetery is the final resting place for four generations of family members.

Among those buried here are Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Emma Hale Smith, Hyrum Smith, Don Carlos Smith and Samuel Smith.

As many as 100,000 people a year visit the cemetery. This traffic, in combination with the challenging Nauvoo weather conditions, had caused the gravel parking area in front of the cemetery to deteriorate through the years.

Thanks to your generous donations, the Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Foundation was able to partner with the Joseph Smith Historic Site to fund the paving of the parking spaces. In order to harmonize the parking area with the historic setting of the cemetery, a tar and chip surface was installed. The result
is a much needed and very attractive improvement to greet visitors to the cemetery.

In addition to funding improvements like the new parking area, your contributions
help purchase flowers for planting in mid-May and cover various expenses related to lawn care, such as fertilizer, mulch, and mowing.

Whenever possible, volunteer labor is used to keep expenses to a minimum. In August, family members will have an opportunity to contribute their time and talent to re-stain the cemetery fence as part of a service project during the upcoming family reunion.

During this time of economic are more important than ever. Please consider making a donation to the foundation to help in our continuing efforts to honor those who have gone before.