JOSEPH SMITH, SENIOR, AND HIS BROTHER JOHN, GO ON A MISSION TO THE
EAST--THE DEATH OF JERUSHA SMITH.
In the year 1836, my husband and his brother John were sent on a short
mission to New Portage. While there, they administered patriarchal
blessings, and baptized sixteen persons.
Soon after they left for New Portage, their aged mother arrived in
Kirtland from New York, after traveling the distance of five hundred
miles. We sent immediately for my husband and his brother, who returned
as speedily as possible, and found the old lady in good health and
excellent spirits. She rejoiced to meet so many of her children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, whom she expected never to see.
In two days after her sons John and Joseph arrived, she was taken sick,
and survived but one week; at the end of which she died, firm in the
faith of the gospel, although she had never yielded obedience to any of
its ordinances. Her age was ninety-three years.
In a short time after her death, my husband and his brother John took a
journey to visit branches of the Church in the East, and the following
is a sketch from the journal of John Smith, of this tour:
We traveled through New Hampshire, and on our way we visited Daniel
Mack, who was Joseph's brother-in-law. He treated us very kindly,
but was unwilling to hear the gospel. We traveled thence up the
Connecticut river to Grafton. Here we found our sister Mary, whom
we had not seen for twenty years. The prejudice of her husband
had become so strong against Mormonism, that she was unwilling to
treat us even decently. From this place we went to Vermont, through
Windsor and Orange counties, and found many of our relatives,
who treated us kindly, but would not receive the gospel. We next
crossed the Green Mountains to Middlebury. Here we found our oldest
sister Precilla, who was very much pleased to see us, and received
our testimony. We stayed with her over night, and the next day set
out for St. Lawrence county, New York, where we had one brother
and a sister. Having arrived at this brother's (who was Jesse
Smith), we spent one day with him. He treated us very ill. Leaving
him, we went to see our sister Susan. I had business about ten
miles on one side, and during my absence, Jesse pursued Joseph to
Potsdam, with a warrant, on a pretended debt of twelve dollars,
and took him back to Stockholm. Not satisfied with this, he abused
him most shamefully, in the presence of strangers; and he exacted
fifty dollars of him, which Joseph borrowed of brother Silas, who
happened to be there just at that time from Kirtland, and paid
Jesse this sum, in order to save further trouble.
The meekness manifested by brother Joseph upon this occasion,
won upon the feelings of many, who said that Jesse had disgraced
himself so much, that he would never be able to redeem his
character.
From Potsdam we went to Ogdensburg, when to our joy we found Heber
C. Kimball, who had raised up a small branch in that place. These
were the first Latter-day Saints we had seen in traveling three
hundred miles. On the tenth of October, we returned home.
About one year after ray husband returned from this mission, a calamity
happened to our family that wrung our hearts with more than common
grief. Jemsha, Hyrum's wife, was taken sick, and, after an illness of,
perhaps, two weeks, died, while her husband was absent on a mission to
Missouri. She was a woman whom everybody loved that was acquainted with
her, for she was every way worthy. The family were so warmly attached
to her, that, had she been our own sister, they could not have been
more afflicted by her death.