Dates

• Existence: 1832 - 1911

Biography

John Smith (1832-1911) was the son of Hyrum and Jerusha Barden Smith, a missionary to Denmark, and a Presiding Patriarch of the LDS Church.

John Smith, son of Hyrum and Jerusha Barden Smith, was born September 22, 1832, in Kirtland, Ohio. His mother died when he was five, while his father was in Missouri. Three months later, on 24 December 1837, his father married Mary Fielding. In June 1844, John's father, Hyrum Smith, was murdered. Nineteen months later, the exodus from Nauvoo began. In February 1847, John joined Heber C. Kimball's family on their westward journey. On the westward journey, near Council Bluffs, Iowa, John assisted Col. Thomas L. Kane, who was extremely ill. He helped his family travel to Winter Quarters after arriving there himself. He and his family remained there for the winter. On his sixteenth birthday, September 22, 1848, John Smith drove five wagons into the Salt Lake Valley. In 1853, his stepmother, Mary Fielding Smith, died, leaving John to support a family of eight. He was married on December 25, 1853, to Hellen Maria Fisher, and the couple had nine children. In 1855 he was sustained as the sixth Presiding Patriarch of the Church, replacing his deceased grand-uncle. In 1862, John was called to set aside his duties as Patriarch and go to Scandinavia as a missionary. He served there until 1864. John, was strongly supported in his position as Patriarch by his half brother, Joseph F. Smith. When Joseph F. Smith became President of the Church in 1901, he requested that "strictly in accordance with the pattern the Lord has established," John, as Patriarch, should do the ordaining. As Patriarch of the Church, John pronounced over 20,000 blessings. He died at his residence in Salt Lake on November 6, 1911.

Citation:

Biographical information for John Smith was taken from the collection itself; from articles found in Andrew Jenson, L.D.S. Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 volumes (Salt Lake City UT: Deseret News Press, 1901-39) [Vol. 1, pp. 52-3;183-6 and Vol. 3, p. 780]; and from Irene May Bates, "Transformation of charisma in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: a history of the office of Presiding Patriarch, 1833-1979," (Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1991), pp. 212-38.

Found in 5 Collections and/or Records: