John SMITH

                   Places of Residence: Smith, John (Male)
Kirtland, Geauga, OH, USA; 1833
Comments: Smith, John (Male) John was a member of the Kirtland HighCouncil in
1834. He worked on the Kirtland Temple in 1835.  He began to serve aspresident
of the Nauvoo stake October 7, 1844.  He was made president of the
Adam-ondi-Ahman Stake June 28, 1838.  He was the president of the churchin Lee
county, Iowa in 1839.  He presided over a branch of the church at Ramus.He
was made a member of the Council of Fifty May 3, 1844.  He was presidentof the
Salt Lake Stake from 1847-48.   He was made presiding patriarch of theChurch
January 1, 1849.
Comments: #21. John was appointed president of the Nauvoo, Illinois stakein
October 1844.
Comments: #31. John came to Utah in 1847 with the Brigham Young company.
Comments: #41. John was a member of the high council.
Comments: #51. John Smith labored in Ohio and Michigan.  John was abrother of
Joseph Smith, Sr., and made a missionary trip to the East as a companionto his
brother Joseph.
Comments: #61. John moved to Vermont.  He kept a mission diary.Considerable
interest and opposition.  ("The hirelings flocked in from every quarterwith
their bitter cry for fear of loosing their wages and turned the peopleagainst
the truth and also against me so much so that it is difficult for me tohave
any private conversation with but few persons upon these importantthings.")
Spontanteous utterances to God.  Many individual conversations.  Visitswith
relatives.  Preparations "to flee from Babylon to go to Zion," 1833.Visited
other Saints.  Heard speaking in tongues for the first time.   Reached
Kirtland.  Heard Sidney Rigdon preach.  Gap: 1834-35.
Mission in New York and New Hampshire, 1836.  In company with hisbrother,
Joseph Smith, Sr.  Administered to sick.  ("A Universalist Preacher cameup and
demanded of us to heal his leg that was wethered and conducted sowickedly we
told him to repent or the curse of God shold follow."  EncounteredAlexander
Campbell.  ("We told him to repent an washed our feet against him.")Visited
relatives, including Macks.  Lists of members in some branches.
Departure from Ohio for Missouri, 1838.  Slow, tedious journey.Settled in
Daviess County.  ("We are like the ancients wandering from place to placein
the wilderness, moved our tent today.") Built house.  Danite meetings.Built
mill.  Mob persecution.  ("We having been hemed in by the wicked mob.  Wehave
had but little bread save what we obtained by rubing corn on grate as toget
meal.")  Military measures for defense.  Account stops abruptly on 24October.
("Our troubles were so numerous that I could not or did not write any more
until we were driven out of the state.")
Settled in Illinois, 1839.  Sickness.  Move into Commerce.Departure of son
George for England.  Gradual improvement of health, 1840.  Course oflectures
by Joseph Smith.  Political meeting in Montrose.  Baptisms for dead.Attended
council meetings.   Establishment of lyceum.  Election to determinelocation of
county seat, 1841.  ("The brethren much divided in opinion.")  Gap:  45.
Journal starts February 8, 1846 with author among Mormons seekingrefuge in
Iowa.  Looking after family.  Close to inner governing group.  ("Thetwelve
have gone over the River I was going with them But on account of SicknessI
concluded to Stay at Home and attend on them and also to oversee affairsin Our
Camp in Georges Absence.") Reports from Nauvoo and New York.  Encounterswith
Indians.  Will, dated January 9, 1847 at Winter Quarters.  Frequent poor
health.  By June 1847 company was moving west.  Day by day account ofoverland
journey.  (Had some Buffalo meat for Breakfast the first we ever tastedand
thought it excellent.")  Arrival at Salt Lake City, 25 September 1847.
Account of 1847-49 seems retrospective.  Quite detailed attimes.Ordination of
author as patriarch.  Gap: 1849-53.  1853 blessing on son George A which
includes concept of the Smiths as chosen family.   1854 activities aretold in
third person.  ("Father Blest four Persons it did not appear to Tire him
much.")  Porter Rockwell visit.  Phrenological chart.
Journal ends in 1854.  Other interesting and important materialincludesother
blessings, genealogy, and vital statistics, newspaper clippings, afour-page
biography written by one of the author's children, 1870 letter to G.A.Smith
from D. H. Gould.  also there is a copy of a journal kept by George A.Smith
from 1832-39.
Comments: #71. John was the fifth presiding Patriarch of the Church.  Hewas an
uncle to the prophet Joseph.  The subject of Joseph Smith's mission was
introduced to John Smith by his brother Joseph, the Prophet's father,which
resulted in his baptism which was at a time of sickness near to death,and when
the ice had to be cut to reach the water; but from that time he gainedhealth
and strength, although he had been given up by the doctors to die of
consumption.  In 1833 he moved to Kirtland, Ohio.  In 1838 to Far West,
Caldwell county, Missouri, and thence to Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Daviesscounty,
where he presided over that branch of the Church until expelled by themob in
1839, and arrived in Illinois on the 28th of February of that year.   He
located at Green Plains, six miles from Warsaw, where he put in a crop ofcorn,
split rails, and performed much hard labor unsuited to his health andyears,
but obliged to be done for the support of his family.  In June he moved to
Commerce (since Nauvoo), and on October 5th was appointed to preside overthe
Saints in Iowa.  On the 12th he moved to Lee county to fulfill thatmission.
In October 1843, he moved to Macedonia, Hancock county, Illinois, havingbeen
appointed to preside over the Saints in that place.  In November of 1844,he
was driven by mobbers from Macedonia to Nauvoo, where he continued to
administer patriarchal blessings to the joy of thousands, until February9,
1846, when he was compelled by the mob violence of the free and sovereignState
of Illinois to again leave his home and cross the Mississippi river, withhis
family, in search of a peaceful location, far off amid savages anddeserts, in
the valley of the mountains.  After passing a dreary winter on the rightbank
of the Missouri, at Winter Quarters, he again took up the weary oxtrainmarch
on the 9th of June, 1847, and reached Great Salt Lake valley September23rd,
where he presided over the Church in the mountains until October, 1848.
January 1, 1849, he was ordained presiding Patriarch over the Churchunder the
hands of President Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.  He moved out ofthe
Fort on to his city lot in February, 1849, and this was the only spot onwhich
he had been privileged to cultivate a garden two years in sucessionduring the
last twenty-three years of his life.  In addition to a vast amount ofvaried
and efficient aid to thousands in the way of salvation, during his longand
faithful ministry, he administered 5,560 patriarchal blessings, which were
recorded in seven large and closely written books, which are now at theChurch
Historian's office.  "He closed the arduous duties of a well occupied
probation," writes the editor of the "Deseret News," "and passed to aposition
of rest, where his works will nobly follow and honor him and where he will
continue his able counsels for the prosperity and welfare of Zion."