History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CHURCH CONFERENCE. 679
patriarch of the church, 6 the presidents of the seventies,
and other church dignitaries, concluding with the
lesser priesthood. The votes were cast first by the
twelve, then by the patriarchs, presidents of stakes,
and high councils, after whom followed the high
priests, the seventies, the elders, the bishops, with
their councillors, the priests, deacons, and teachers,
war of 1812, while his mother, nee Catherine Chapin, was the daughter of a
revolutionary soldier who fought under Washington. In the spring of 1834,
being then in his twentieth year, he settled at Commerce (Nauvoo), and purchased
a tract of SO acres, a portion of which he afterward donated to the
Mormons as a site for their temple. He was among the foremost to aid and
welcome the saints after their expulsion from Nauvoo, and indignation at
their maletreatment, rather than sympathy with their sect, caused him to join
the church a few weeks before the commencement of the exodus. Arriving
in the valley of Great Salt Lake in September 1S48, he was appointed superintendent
of public works, and was chosen a member of the legislative council
of the provisional state of Deseret. In 1857 he was elected second
councillor to Brigham Young. In 1S64-5 he was in charge of the European
missions, and was afterward mayor of Salt Lake City for several terms. The
part that he played in the history of Utah as lieut-gen. of the Nauvoo legion
is mentioned elsewhere in these pages. Wells' Narr., MS., 1-8; Tullidge's Life
of Brig. Young, suppl. 13-17; The Mormons at Home, 114-15; Beadle's
Western Wilds, 93.
John Smith, son of Hyrum Smith, was a native of Kirtland, where he
was born in 1S32. Nearly two years after the assassination of his father in
Carthage jail the boy set forth from Nauvoo in company with Heber C.
Kimball's family. Reaching the encampment on the Little Papillon, he became
acquainted with Col Thos L. Kane, whom he nursed through a dangerous
sickness, probably saving his life. In April 1848 he started for Great Salt
Lake in company with his brothers and sisters, and though only 15 years of
age, performed a man's work, or rather the work of several men, driving a team
composed of wild steers, cows, and oxen, with two wagons tied together,
standing guard sometimes day and night, bringing in wood and water, herding
cows, or assisting other teams as occasion needed. In the spring of
1S50 he was enrolled in the battalion of life-guards, and for several years
thereafter was frequently called on at dead of night to set forth in pursuit of
marauding Indians. In 1852 occurred the decease of his step-mother, whereby
he was left alone to provide for a family of eight persons, three of them being
aged and infirm. In 1855 he was ordained patriarch, this being the only
office in the church which is handed down from father to son in direct lineage.
Ten years later he was sent ou a mission to Scandinavia, and arriving in Liverpool
with a single guinea in his pocket, about sufficient to procure him a meal
and pay his railroad fare to London, borrowed the money for the remainder
of his passage. After two years of missionary labor he returned to Salt Lake
City, taking charge of a company of 300 emigrants on board the ship Monarch
of the Sea. During his journey across the plains he had under his care a
large party of Scandinavian emigrants, and was frequently urged by the
officers at government posts which he passed en route to remain with them
for a season, as the Indians were at that time extremely troublesome. His
answer was: 'I am used to Indian warfare, and have only provisions enough
to take us home if we keep moving. We had better run the risk of fighting
Indians than starve on the plains.' After his return the patriarch was engaged
in the duties of his calling and in attending to his business interests.
A utobiog. of John Smith, MS.