EMMA
SMITH
(March 1, 1838 – March 4, 1912)
Emma,
Wilford’s seventh wife, was the daughter to Samuel Smith and Martishia Smoot,
the oldest of their four children. Samuel and Martishia were married in January
1835 and taught the gospel by David W. Patten and Warrren Parrish. Samuel and Martishia were baptized March 22,
1835. Martishia’s brother, Abraham O.
Smoot, was also baptized in March and served as one of Wilford’s missionary
companions in 1836 when he was preaching in Kentucky and Tennessee.[1] Wilford writes about staying in the home of
Samuel and Martishia Smoot Smith while on him mission in April 1836.[2]
The
Smoot and Smith families left in February 1837 to migrate to Missouri. (See Abraham O. Smoot’s Journal, February
20-21, 1837.) They named their first
child Emma, after Joseph Smith’s wife.
Emma was born in Spring Hill, Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri on March 1,
1838. They lived in Davies County until
they were expelled by order of General Wilcox on November 1, 1838. They relocated to Caldwell County, but were
expelled from there a few months later, in February 1839, after Governor Boggs
issued his extermination order. The
Smiths moved first to Quincy, Illinois, for several months then Zarahemla, Iowa
until 1841. Emma’s sister Sarah Ann was
born on December 19, 1841.[3] The Smith family finally settled in Nauvoo, Illinois.
In
1843 Samuel Smith was asked to work in the mill in Wisconsin to help produce
enough lumber to finish the temple in Nauvoo.
The Smith family spent a year in Wisconsin. Emma’s younger brother Joseph Samuel, named
after the prophet Joseph Smith, was born there March 19, 1844, just three
months before Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered.[4] The Smiths returned to Nauvoo in July 1844.
After the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated, Samuel
and Martishia Smith received their endowments in the Temple on December 25,
1845. They then left Nauvoo with the
first wave of Saints that followed Brigham Young in the exodus in February
1846. However, their journey to Utah was
delayed four years. Why they left the
camps in Iowa is unclear, perhaps to earn additional money for the journey, but
they were in Missouri or Kentucky when Emma’s youngest brother, Abraham Owen,
was born on August 15, 1849.[5]
Emma’s family then began the trek across the
plains June 15, 1850, in the Wilford Woodruff Company. Over 400 Saints were part of the gathering
Wilford Woodruff accomplished between 1848-1850 when he was sent East from
Winter Quarters to bring more Saints to Utah.
When they joined Wilford Woodruff’s Company, Emma was 12 years old, her
sister Sarah was 8, her brother Joseph was 4 and Owen was only 10 months old.
When
the company reached Salt Creek, Nebraska on June 27, her father became ill with
cholera and died a few hours later.[6] He was only 43 years old.[7] Two weeks later, on July 12, 1850, Emma’s
mother gave birth to their fifth child, Martishia Rosalia. They continued their journey and Emma helped
her mother and younger siblings.[8] The company arrived in Salt Lake October 14,
1850.[9]
Two
and a half years later, when Emma was 15, she was sealed to Wilford Woodruff on
March 13, 1853. In his journal Wilford
recorded that he was sealed at 7:00 pm to both Emma Smith and Sarah Brown by
Brigham Young. Emma received her
endowments in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on March 17, 1854.
Initially
Emma lived with Phoebe and Sarah and their children in the Valley House. She may have been more like a daughter to
Phoebe, because Phoebe’s daughters Susan and Phoebe were 10 and 11. In the summer of 1857, when their Relief
Society made the 14th Ward quilt to auction off to raise money for
the Perpetual Emigration Fund, Emma and Phoebe Amelia used the same fabric to
create the flowers they included in their squares.[10] Later that year, on October 4, 1857, Emma
bore her first child, Hyrum Smith Woodruff.
He only lived for 14 months.
In
1866 Wilford built a second home on his farm and Emma lived there, perhaps with
Sarah, until Sarah moved north to Randolph, Utah in 1871. Emma bore another seven children between 1860
and 1879, and six of them lived to become adults: Emma Manella (1860-1906);
Asahel Hart (1863-1939);
Anna Thompson (1867-1867); Clara Martishia (1868-1927);
Abraham Owen (1872-1904);
Winifred Blanche (1876-1954);
and Mary Alice, (1879-1916).
Following
Phoebe Woodruff’s death in 1885, Wilford moved to Emma’s home on the farm. He built it in 1859-1860, and it was a log
home covered with adobe. Emma was his
"public" wife for the remainder of his life. Because of the laws against polygamy, Wilford
could not be seen in public with his other wives, Sarah and Delight. However they and their children were part of
private gatherings and celebrations held in Emma’s farmhouse and later the
Woodruff Villa after it was completed. (Wilford built the Villa in 1891 next
door to Emma’s farm house. They lived
together in the Villa from 1892 until his death in 1898.)
Emma
and her daughter Mary Alice accompanied Wilford St. George during the winter of
1886 and 1887. Her mother Martishia died
November 3, 1886. There Mary Alice was
baptized in the St. George Temple on January 4, 1887, two days after her 8th
birthday.[17]
Emma
also accompanied Wilford and several others on a vacation to Northern
California in the spring of 1889 and British Columbia that fall. Their last trip together was along the West
Coast from Portland, Oregon to San Diego, California in August and September, 1896. They were accompanied by George Q. and
Caroline Cannon, among others. In San
Diego they stayed at the Hotel del Coronado for three days and spent time
fishing from the pier.[18] They also spent a day deep-sea fishing off
the coast and caught about 600 pounds of fish.[19]
Wilford
took a final trip to San Francisco in the fall of 1898. It was while on this trip that he died
unexpectedly on September 2, of complications from a surgical procedure. His body was returned to Salt Lake City,
where he was buried on September 8, 1898.
Emma’s
life was then filled with her continued service as an ordinance worker in the
Salt Lake Temple and the care of her children and grandchildren. After the death of her daughter-in-law Helen
and then her son Abraham Owen in 1904 from small pox, Emma helped raise their
four children: Wilford Owen, June, Rhoda, and Helen.[20] Her eldest daughter and namesake, Emma, died
in November 1906. Her granddaughter Rhoda died at the age of three in 1907. Emma Smith Woodruff died of anemia
and nephritis on March 4, 1912. She was
81 years old.
On
June 5, 1905, Emma wrote her testimony.
She included her participation as a charter member of the first Relief
Society organized in Salt Lake City, her service as president of the Farmer's
Ward Relief Society, member of the General Relief Society Board, and Relief
Society President of the Granite Stake.
She also spoke of her memory as a child sitting on the Prophet Joseph
Smith’s knee and said she had never forgotten how he looked. She concluded by stating, “I am a firm
believer in every principle of the gospel and bear my humble testimony that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.”[21]
Carol Holindrake Nielson, The Salt Lake City 14th Ward Album Quilt, 1857: Stories of the Relief Society Women and Their Quilt, 50.
References to Emma [Smoot] Smith in Wilford Woodruff’s
Journals, 1:209, 4:199, 211 (sealed to Wilford Woodruff in Council House), 305,
366, 373, 407, 5:28 (sealed to Wilford Woodruff in Endowment House), 105-106,
180, 242, 244, 373, 471, 573, 6:44, 95, 100, 158, 186, 210, 228, 326 (receives
second anointing), 335-36, 347, 416-17, 436, 504, 510, 521, 528, 575, 582-84,
7:93, 122, 194-97, 203, 217, 246-47, 271 277, 293-94, 320, 357, 395, 404, 416,
426, 429-30, 447-48, 451, 456, 475, 478, 486, 494-95, 569, 611, 8:31, 88 140,
173, 184, 211, 213-15, 232, 237, 277, 289, 300-301, 305, 308, 310-13, 316-17,
320, 323, 343-45, 347-48, 373, 375, 377-78, 380, 382-83, 385-86, 387, 390, 394,
397, 400-402, 404-407, 408, 410-14, 419-23, 425-30, 432-34, 446, 449-51,
454-55, 457, 464-66, 469, 471, 474, 484-87, 493, 497, 502, 509, 511-12, 521,
527, 530-31, 9:3, 5-6, 10, 15, 17-18 (leaves for trip to San Francisco, 23, 31,
40-42, 47-48, 50, 60 (leaves for trip to Pacific Northwest), 66, 69, 71-72, 80,
85, 99, 102, 104, 106, 110-12, 120, 126, 128, 133, 139-40, 147, 151, 155, 157,
164, 166, 171, 175, 177, 181-82, 186, 188, 190-91, 195, 198-99, 200, 203, 205,
208, 210, 214, 218, 223, 229, 241-42, 249-50, 252, 254, 257, 259 (leaves for
trip to Chicago, Illinois), 263, 272, 286, 288-89, 291, 293-95, 297-98, 300,
306, 311, 313, 315, 317, 322, 324, 326, 328-29, 335-36, 338-39, 341-42, 344,
346, 348, 350-53, 355, 357-58, 364, 366, 369-70, 376, 388, 391-92, 395,
399-401, 403-404, 406, 412-13, 415, 417-18, 421-23, 425-26, 430, 432, 449, 453-54,
456, 458, 460-61, 472, 474, 476-82, 484, 486-87, 493-94, 496-97, 499-500, 503,
506-507, 511-12, 515-17, 520, 531-34, 536-38, 545, 549, 552-53, 556. 558-60.