Ep 212 – Emma Smith, Linda Newell, and Valeen Avery

06/19/20 • 94 min

On this episode, Joseph and Hyrum Smith are locked up in Carthage Jail and they aren’t going anywhere. We take a little time to catch up with other prominent figures in Nauvoo history; this week begins with Emma Hale Smith. We discuss her role in the Relief Society, unwillingly policing polygamy rumors, running land speculation and deals while her husband is occupied, and fighting with her sister wives. Then we focus on her role in the two week period of June 12-25 1844 and her actions which have been construed by the SLC leadership to lead to Jo’s death. Is she responsible? Or, are those myths fabricated by the SLC propaganda machine which have been debunked by historians? This episode interweaves Emma’s story with the story of her seminal biographers, Valeen Tippets Avery and Linda King Newell on their journey writing Emma’s biography through the 1970s-80s.

Links:

Check out Writing Mormon History; Historians and their Books http://www.signaturebooks.com/product/writing-mormon-history/

Also pick up a copy of Mormon Enigma; Emma Hale Smith https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mormon-enigma-emma-hale-smith_linda-king-newell/302792/#isbn=0252062914&idiq=9621239

Relief Society Minutes https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/nauvoo-relief-society-minute-book/1#full-transcript

Emma Biography JSP https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/emma-hale-smith

SUNSTONE!!! https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/2020symposium/

Show links:

Website http://nakedmormonismpodcast.com Twitter @NakedMormonism Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naked-Mormonism/370003839816311 Patreon http://patreon.com/nakedmormonism Music by Jason Comeau http://aloststateofmind.com/ Show Artwork http://weirdmormonshit.com/ Legal Counsel http://patorrez.com/

Links:

Check out Writing Mormon History; Historians and their Books http://www.signaturebooks.com/product/writing-mormon-history/

Also pick up a copy of Mormon Enigma; Emma Hale Smith https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mormon-enigma-emma-hale-smith_linda-king-newell/302792/#isbn=0252062914&idiq=9621239

Relief Society Minutes https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/nauvoo-relief-society-minute-book/1#full-transcript

Emma Biography JSP https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/emma-hale-smith

SUNSTONE!!! https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/2020symposium/

Show links:

Previous Episode

Ep 211 – “I Think You Are Perfectly Safe”

On this episode, Joseph and Hyrum Smith wake up in Carthage jail to a bustling town filled with anti-Mormon militiamen, surrounded by their closest acolytes. Various meeting take place, Jo sends messengers to Nauvoo calling for documents and witnesses in the upcoming trial for treason. Governor Ford finally has a sit-down with the prophet and they discuss everything which led up to Jo and Hyrum being in Carthage jail. Then a hearing is held to determine whether or not to keep the prisoners locked in the jail and to schedule a date for the criminal hearing. Ford decides to disband the militias in Carthage and Warsaw as they were no longer needed. He then resolves to make his way to Nauvoo to talk with the citizens and give a speech to the Mormons there on June 27th, however, he won’t be taking the prisoners with him during the journey as he’d previously stated. Uncle John Smith visits the prisoners and carries a message to Almon Babbit in Macedonia on behalf of the prophet. The prisoners lay down for the evening while Willard Richards scratches away in his journal. A gunshot is heard outside.

Links:

Willard Richards journal extract June 23-27 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-3-willard-richards-journal-excerpt-23-27-june-1844/1#full-transcript

History of Illinois by Governor Ford https://archive.org/details/ahistoryillinoi00shiegoog/page/n336/mode/2up/search/treason

Show links:

Next Episode

Ep 213 – With Useful Studies Store Your Mind

On this episode, we catch up with a bunch of figures in Nauvoo to see what they’ve been up to as events led to the prophet in Carthage Jail. We start off with discussing Eliza R. Snow, reading excerpts from her Nauvoo journal, conflicts with Emma and the Relief Society at large, who took over her role as scribe for the Relief Society, and tap into a bit of her poetry to convey feelings a journal can’t. The Quorum of Apostles and members of the Council of Fifty have also been very busy. Hingepin Sidney Rigdon was named as VP for Jo’s presidential run while frequently preaching about the Mormon theocracy being the last government the world will ever need. He and 350+ other members of leadership bodies in the church scatter throughout the United States to electioneer for the prophet’s POTUS campaign. Brigham Young even drops by Kirtland and preaches in the Temple to a crowd of apostates! Then we see how Lucy Mack Smith has been lately. She’s battled sickness, survived multiple children, buried her husband, and even hurt her knee dismounting a carriage which caused arthritis to settle in. She tells a candid, yet insulated, version of events leading to Carthage. Then wrap up by reading a portion of the Nauvoo Expositor to talk about Sarah and Maria Lawrence as well as their stolen inheritance.

Links:

Eliza R. Snow Nauvoo Journal https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/eliza-r-snows-nauvoo-journal

Snow biography https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/eliza-roxcy-snow

Snow poem repository https://erslexicon.wordpress.com/poems-25-30/

Council of Fifty Minutes https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/council-of-fifty-minutes-march-1844-january-1846-volume-1-10-march-1844-1-march-1845/98#full-transcript

Manuscript History of Brigham Young http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/MSHBY.html

Nauvoo Relief Society minute book https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/nauvoo-relief-society-minute-book/1#full-transcript

Lucy Mack Smith’s Biographical Sketches https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/52#full-transcript

Show links: