Emma Smith: Character and Interests
Both Joseph and Emma liked being outdoors. Since childhood, Emma had enjoyed riding horses and canoeing in the river near her home. Joseph was not a skilled horseman, but he excelled in wrestling and ball games. He was at ease around others and quick to smile, often telling jokes or humorous stories. Emma was more reserved, but she loved a good joke and could talk with anyone. She also liked to read and sing.
Emma Smith: Courtship and Marriage
Joseph had been drawn to Emma as soon as he met her. Like Alvin, she was someone who could help him become the man the Lord needed to carry out His work. But there was more to Emma than that. Joseph loved her and wanted to marry her.
In December, Joseph turned twenty-one years old. In the past, he had let himself be pulled this way and that by the expectations of those who wanted to take advantage of his gift. But after his last visit to the hill, he knew he had to do more to prepare himself to receive the plates.
Before returning to Harmony, Joseph spoke with his parents. “I have concluded to get married,” he told them, “and, if you have no objections, Miss Emma Hale would be my choice.” His parents were pleased with his decision, and Lucy urged him to come live with them after they married.
Joseph spent as much time as he could with Emma that winter, sometimes borrowing the Knights’ sleigh when snow made it hard to travel to the Hales’ house. But her parents still did not like him, and his efforts to win over the family failed.
In January 1827, Emma visited the Stowells’ home, where she and Joseph could spend time together without her family’s disapproving looks. Joseph proposed to Emma there, and at first, Emma seemed surprised. She knew her parents would oppose the marriage. But Joseph urged her to think about it. They could elope right away.
Emma considered the proposal. Marrying Joseph would disappoint her parents, but it was her choice, and she loved him.
A short time later, on January 18, 1827, Joseph and Emma were married in the home of the local justice of the peace. They then went to Manchester and began life together in the new home of Joseph’s parents. The house was comfortable, but Joseph Sr. and Lucy had overspent on it, fallen behind on their payments, and lost the property. They were now renting it from the new owners.
Emma Smith: Influence on Joseph when he was in danger
When Joseph and Erastus landed their [small boat] on the island, Emma, Hyrum, and some of Joseph’s close friends greeted them. Taking Emma’s hand, Joseph listened as the group sat in the boat and spoke quietly about the situation in Nauvoo.
The danger was greater than Joseph had expected. His friends had heard that the governor of Iowa had issued an arrest warrant for him and Porter as well, meaning it was no longer safe for Joseph to hide at his uncle’s house. They now expected sheriffs on both sides of the river to be searching for him.
Still, Joseph’s friends believed the arrest attempts were illegal, a shameless scheme by his enemies in Missouri to capture the prophet. For now, the best thing for Joseph to do was to hide out at a friend’s farm back on the Illinois side of the river and wait until things calmed down.
As Joseph left the island, his heart overflowed with gratitude. Others had abandoned and betrayed him time and time again in the face of adversity. But these friends had come to help him in the dark of night, choosing to stand beside him and the truths he cherished.
“They are my brethren,” he thought, “and I shall live.”
Yet he felt the most gratitude for Emma. “Again she is here,” he thought, “even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate Emma!”
Emma Smith: On trusting the Lord
Shortly after Joseph’s sudden disappearance, Emma received a letter from him, assuring her he was safe. He and Sidney had fled Kirtland, putting distance between themselves and those who wished to harm them. Their location was secret, but Newel Whitney and Hyrum knew how to contact them and were advising them from afar.
Emma understood the dangers Joseph faced. When his letter arrived, some men—probably friends of Grandison Newell—examined its postmark, trying to learn where he was. Others were spying on his struggling store.
Although she remained optimistic, Emma worried about the children. Their one-year-old son, Frederick, was too young to understand what was happening, but six-year-old Julia and four-year-old Joseph became anxious when they learned their father would not be coming home soon.
Emma knew she had to trust in the Lord, especially now that so many people in Kirtland were turning to doubt and disbelief. “If I had no more confidence in God than some I could name, I should be a sad case indeed,” Emma wrote Joseph at the end of April. “But I still believe that if we humble ourselves and are as faithful as we can be, we shall be delivered from every snare that may be laid at our feet.”
Even so, she worried that Joseph’s creditors would take advantage of his absence and seize whatever property or money they could. “It is impossible for me to do anything,” she lamented, “as long as everybody has so much better right to all that is called yours than I have.”
Emma was ready for him to come home. There were few people she trusted now, and she was reluctant to give anyone anything that did not help to pay off Joseph’s debts. And to make matters worse, she feared their children had been exposed to measles.
“I wish it could be possible for you to be at home when they are sick,” she wrote. “You must remember them, for they all remember you.”
