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Hyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith was his brother's steadiest ally, a practical, loyal man who shared every stage of the early Church's rise and trouble. Remembered by Latter-day Saints for his integrity, he died beside Joseph at Carthage and became the ancestor of two later Church presidents.
Personality
Hyrum was known less as a visionary than as a dependable, hands-on supporter. He was baptised in 1829 and was among the six men listed when the Church was organised in 1830, the oldest of them at thirty. In Kirtland he served as foreman of the quarry supplying stone for the temple, and he undertook missions, recruited for Zion's Camp and sat on councils. His loyalty to his younger brother was steady and personal; he acted as Joseph's confidant from the translation of the Book of Mormon onward, and a modern biography of him is titled A Life of Integrity.
Under pressure
Hyrum shared the Church's hardships directly. In 1838 and 1839 he spent months in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, with Joseph and other leaders while awaiting trial, and his family relocated repeatedly as the Church moved west. In June 1844, when Joseph urged him to take his family to safety in Cincinnati, Hyrum refused and went with him to Carthage, Illinois, where both were held on charges of riot and treason. On 27 June 1844 a mob attacked the jail and Hyrum was shot and killed while trying to hold the door shut.
The arc
Born in Tunbridge, Vermont, in 1800, the second son of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum briefly attended Moor's Charity School at Dartmouth while the family lived in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He married Jerusha Barden in 1826 and, after her death, Mary Fielding in 1837. He became a counselor in the First Presidency in 1837, succeeded his father as Church patriarch around 1840, and in 1841 was appointed Assistant President, designated to act for Joseph and to succeed him. He also served on the Nauvoo city council before his death at forty-four.
Legacy
As one of the Eight Witnesses, Hyrum is part of the testimony Latter-day Saints cite for the Book of Mormon, and as a martyr at Carthage he is honoured alongside Joseph. His line shaped Church leadership for more than a century: his son Joseph F. Smith and grandson Joseph Fielding Smith became Church presidents, and his descendants held the office of Presiding Patriarch until it was effectively discontinued in 1979. His descendants were estimated at over 31,000 living people in 2000.
Birth data confidence · Date high · Time unknown · Place high · Biography