Why did emma smith leave the church
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Emma Hale Smith
Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, played a prominent role in the restoration of the Church. Her mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, praised Emma’s character: “I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship, from month to month, and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, which she has always done. ... She has been tossed upon the ocean of uncertainty; ... She has breasted the storms of persecution, and buffeted the rage of men and devils, ... which have borne down almost any other woman.”1
Born on July 10, 1804, in Willingsborough (later Harmony), Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children of Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. The wealthy family lived on a 90-acre farm in the Susquehanna River Valley, where Isaac shipped meat and other merchandise downriver to Philadelphia and Baltimore.
As a child, Emma developed a deep sense of religious conviction and devotion to God. Methodism became popular in the Susquehanna region in the early 1800s, and Emma began attending with her
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Emma Hale Smith is sometimes viewed only as “Joseph Smith’s wife, Emma.” Stories are told of her wrestles with polygamy or her decision to remain in Nauvoo. There’s even a new argument that she may have possessed a Joseph Smith daguerreotype. But Emma is more than a story. In this interview, Jenny Reeder shares insights from her Emma Smith biography, First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith.
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How did Jenny Reeder become interested in Emma Hale Smith?
I am the nineteenth-century women’s history specialist at the Church History Department for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I came to history in a roundabout way: I thought I wanted to be a high school English teacher. Student teaching changed those plans.
After following a kind bishop’s suggestion to study communication and an MA at Arizona State in human communication, I got a temporary job as a research assistant for Carol Cornwall Madsen in her work on Emmeline B. Wells. Soon I was also working for Jill Mulvay Derr in her work on Eliza R. Snow, and their combined wo
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Why did Emma Smith stay in Nauvoo?
Editor's note: This article was originally published on LDSLiving.com in May 2022. Some of the questions and answers below have been edited for clarity.
Few people in the Church today have studied and understand Emma Hale Smith as well as Jenny Reeder. Reeder is the nineteenth-century women’s history specialist at the Church History Department for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and her book, First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith, recounts Emma’s role, teachings, leadership, and pioneering faith in the early days of the Church.
In an interview on FromTheDesk.org, Jenny Reeder paints a beautiful picture of the indelible legacy of Emma Smith and the incredible and powerful impact her actions had on the Church—both in its early days and as it exists today. Here are a few of her most poignant answers.
What details about Emma’s life are you most excited to share with others?
So many things! I think I was most excited to really examine how involved Emma was in the Restoration—to give her credit for her contributions, whe
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