Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Organization

By Craig R. Frogley
The family gathered in Nauvoo, IL this last summer for its regular reunion. Once again under the direction of The Family Reunion Organization rather than the Foundation, we met to enjoy each other as well as the reconstructed city. As I contemplated going back to Nauvoo (The Foundation had sponsored the Family gathering surrounding the dedication of the New Nauvoo temple just a year earlier.), it was without the usual excitement. Perhaps it was because I try to
avoid redundancy, or perhaps it was the twenty-eight hours in the car with the children that killed my enthusiasm in returning to the same place. Then, Gracia Jones remarked to me a most profound thought I have tried to reconstruct since:

“We do reunions, not to see the places, though they are deeply significant because of the ancestral prices paid, but because we are with family. Things will happen if you are there that would not otherwise happen that will affect both lives and relationships eternally.” I went with that in mind and found it deeply true. I noted that there was much that was better than it had ever been before: The speakers were profound, the gatherings were bonding, the food was great, etc. Then the most profound thing happened to me that emblazoned the reunion forever onto my memory and reconfirmed the purpose for which we do what we have been striving to do over the last nine years as a Family Foundation.

The Samuel organization decided to once again feed the family. We met in the grove just north and across the street from the Homestead and west of the Mansion House. As we feasted under the trees with the family sites surrounding us, I happened to shift my gaze from the smiling faces of those sitting and eating, or serving, to look upward; and there it was!!!

The spreading canopy of my dream arched over us. It had been a restless night preceding the public organization of the Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith
Foundation to which I had been newly appointed, particularly to find all the living descendants. The early morning hours finally found me drifting in to a deep
and much needed sleep. It was during this time that the following dream portended all that we would do during the ensuing years.

I saw in the morning dreams a large and beautiful tree with a very stout and long trunk. The canopy of branches was high overhead and extended in all directions but most especially to my left towards other trees of like configuration. The wind began to blow and the great tree moved majestically in the wind. The branches seemed to extend and began to mingle with those of the other trees. Then to my surprise the extending branches seemed to form a horse head sculpted in the leaves and branches. Then the head, moving also in the wind, visible intermittently with the waving, mingling more with the other tree branches, began to graze on the branches of the other trees with which it mingled but the branches were not consumed. I looked closer and marveled at what I was seeing-I looked intensely to verify. The grazing continued but instead of consuming the other trees they merged to form a larger canopy, an umbrella covering, until they were virtually one tree with many trunks.

The canopy of The Foundation has been spreading, joining and sometimes spawning other family organizations that carry the load of the work that binds us as a family. We continue to help, counsel, finance, and research, many projects and family organizations as you will note in the following paragraphs. We feel it a privilege to work with and help correlate with the following organizations: Joseph F. Smith Family Association; Hyrum Smith Organization; Joseph Smith,
Sr. Family Reunion Organization; Joseph Smith, Jr. Organization; Samuel Smith Family Organization; John Smith Family Organization; Martha Ann Smith Family Organization; Sarah Smith Family Organization; and The John Walker Family Organization; A Family Media Group and of course Internet Specialists.

Terri Ballstaedt (from Aunt Julina), President of the Joseph F. Smith Family Association, turned over the reins to Bonnie Sorenson (from Aunt Edna) for the year 2004, after a very successful Joseph F. Smith Reunion in November of 2003. Several wonderful items are available on the website at www.josephfsmith.org.

May we as a board express our deep appreciation to the family members for the support you have given to the Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Foundation.

In order to further the work of the foundation, we need your generous on-going support. Your donations provide funding to maintain the family cemetery in Nauvoo; do essential family history work; prepare and mail family newsletters; purchase basic supplies; and explore projects that teach and enhance our appreciation for our faithful forefathers.

We encourage all individual family members to do their part by sending a contribution to the address indicated on the last page of this newsletter. Let us join together in honoring our forefathers, especially Joseph Smith, Jr. whose 200th birthday will be December 23, 2005.

Board of Trustees

Some of you are reading this for the first time and so don’t know who we are. We are descendants of Joseph and Lucy Smith like most of you. We are organized to assist grandfather organizations and other noted ancestor organizations between Father and Mother Smith and all of us. We have a board of trustees consisting of descendants from many parts of the country, officers, and an advisory committee of past trustees. We meet once to twice a year and publish this Newsletter at about the same frequency. We invite you to donate annually to make all that we do as a family possible. This newsletter will give you some idea of what we have been up to over the last year. We were originally organized to upgrade and maintain the Nauvoo Family Cemetery which is owned by the Community of Christ. Our mission and functionality has increased over the years as we have seen need and responded, as you can see by visiting our web site at www.josephsmithsr.org.

In the environment of the failing family we feel it our stewardship to help. Meeting this many dimensioned need requires many hands, minds, inspiration and finances. As you will read, we want to provide you with tools with which to reach your children and grandchildren across the generational gulf to impart the values of our successful ancestors. We have many such tools now and many more that are on hold requiring family financial participation. Currently only ten percent of the family pays the annual $15.00 dues. Some with greater personal resource and a desire to “do good” have added many dollars to projects that have blessed family members. We have an on-going need for such family loyalty. We now have a media group that have both talent and facilities to produce media tools from books for children to videos that impart history and values. Please visit and read on the websites the list of resources and the excerpt from Dr. Kyle Walker’s PhD thesis on the Smith family values. One of those essential values is highlighted.

We need your participation. Please read the following letter penned by Elder M. Russell Ballard in behalf of the Board of Trustees, which includes, M. Russell Ballard, Wallace Smith, Eldred Smith, Dan Larsen, Lachlan MacKay, and Craig Frogley.

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

Tracing our Smith genealogy has been difficult due to a lack of source data on some of our Mayflower ancestors. A couple of scientists are willing to help us through some recent discoveries in genetics. DNA samples are now taken with a simple mouth wash.

“Dr. Scott R. Woodward, professor of Molecular biology at Brigham Young University, and his research assistant Ugo A. Perego, MS have been working on a Smith Family DNA Study for the past three years. The main goal of this project is to collect and correlate genetic and genealogical data from living descendants of the Asael Smith family, through his son Joseph Smith, Sr. and through some of his other children.

This information will then be used to reconstruct and extend the genealogical data available about this particular family group. A presentation about the current status of this work will be given at the upcoming Joseph Smith, Sr. reunion in Nauvoo, IL. Those interested in becoming a participant in this study or that would like to obtain more information can contact Ugo Perego at ugo@smgf.org or at 801-461-9775. Participation is free, voluntary and confidential.”

The Foundation’s Correlation committee is working on an Educational Outreach program to promote understanding of the role the Smith family has played in the Restoration. They are currently working on a KBYU/BYU-TV series called Joseph Smith: The Last Years. The cost of these productions must come from private donations since it will be aired on public television. At present, an experienced television crew has agreed to donate much of their time to the project.

The series will consist of short segments that will be valuable to the family and potentially millions who would view the taping over satellite TV. They will help us communicate the family values so well modeled by the Smiths across the generation gap by sharing stories, many yet hardly known. We need help getting this work started.

Tax deductible donations may be made to:
c/o Spence Nilson
The Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Foundation
180 E 2100 S 202
Salt Lake City UT 84115

If you have questions about donating, please call: James T. Summerhays; Administrator/Instructional Design BYU Independent Study 801-378-2524 or 801-361-3982.

“He carried a knapsack with him that he filled with as many copies of this book as he could carry. He probably even carried one in his hand,” wrote Elder Worthlin without knowledge that members of the Samuel Smith family had just met to approve the design of sculpture, Dee Jay Bawden for the Monument of Samuel Smith. Family members are pleased to announce that fund with pledges having already been accepted. Miniature statues are now available for purchase with the proceeds going to the actual monument.

For information contact Bob Smith at Bob_Smith@byu.edu or call him at 801-489-7589 or Susan or Cary Smith at cary@wtp.net. We already have raised half of the money necessary to start the large Sculpture. A “mix the Clay party” at the sculpture studio is planned. If your family would like to participate mixing the clay and placing it on the metal frame for the full size sculpture, please contact us so we can let you know when that will happen.

By Gracia and Ivor Jones

When we set out, in November 2001, to find the grave and William Smith, we first had to find the tiny northeastern Iowa town of Osterdock in Clayton County. We discovered that pinpointing Osterdock on a map was far easier than finding our way through the maze of country roads to the actual location.

Once we arrived, we found it consisted of a small community of scattered homes and one bar/grill type café. We could not see a cemetery anywhere in the area so we went into the café to ask if anyone could give us directions.

Nobody there had ever heard of William Smith. However, one person remembered that there was an old cemetery at Bethel Church, about three miles south of town. Somewhat skeptically, we drove across a small bridge and took the road that wound through the hilly countryside. Fall colors were rampant on the trees which grew in thick clumps along the gullies which cut into the rather steep hillsides. When we felt almost sure we were heading nowhere, suddenly the ground leveled off, and we found ourselves approaching a picturesque little white church surrounded with gravestones.

There was not a soul around. After wandering among the graveyard for some time, we almost gave up finding William Smith’s stone. A bit nervous that we were trespassing, we tried the church door and found it was unlocked. Inside, on one wall there was a large map of the graveyard. We searched through the layout. At last we found not only the name of William Smith, but also other names we recognized as belonging to members of his family. It was easy, once we located the spot on the map, to go outside and find William’s gravestone.

To those who may wonder about the initial “B” in Williams’s name: We find that when William joined the military during the Civil War, there were so many William Smiths, he added the initial to distinguish him from the others.

The stone is fairly new, having been placed there several years ago by Buddy Youngreen and some other members of the Smith family. It is a pretty stone of red and gray granite. It is engraved with this inscription:

WILLIAM B. SMITH
Brother of the
Prophet Joseph Smith
Born at Royalton, NY
MARCH 13, 1811
DIED AT OSTERDOCK ON
NOVEMBER 13, 1893

We went from Bethel Church on over more winding, hilly roads to Elkader, where we met Vernon Shaw, a great-great grandson of William and Eliza Sanborn Smith. Vernon made us welcome. We stayed with him for two nights at his farm house near Volga, Iowa. He took us all around Clayton County showing us the location of many family graves.

William has a large posterity, and they are scattered far and wide across the country. Finding William’s grave site was an achievement for us. But even more satisfying was meeting his living descendant and learning more about this branch of the family who have been out of the touch for too long. We hope to see more of this family at future Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family gatherings.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

We would very much like to receive contact from those living descendants of William. If you know of any please send us their contact information, or you can pass this newsletter to any of them.

On Saturday, 28 September 2002, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the LDS Council of the Twelve, and member of the Foundation Board, dedicated a monument in the Salt Lake City Cemetery to Elijah Abel, Black pioneer and missionary. Elijah was a skilled carpenter, and worked on the Kirtland, Nauvoo, and Salt Lake Temples. The History of the Church lists Elijah as being among those who attempted to recue Joseph Smith from his enemies in the Nauvoo persecutions. Elijah attests to the fact that he was at Father Smith’s death bed, and prepared the body for burial. Elijah had a great love for the Smith family. Father Smith gave him a Patriarchal Blessing in which Elijah was told that he would be “made equal to [his] brethren.”

The new monument replaced the deteriorating gravestones, and added the names of their children, along with a listing of Elijah’s accomplishments. Elder Ballard expressed appreciation for the faithful service of this good man, and to the Genesis Group and the Missouri Frontier Foundation who sponsored the Monument and dedication.