Emma smith bidamon biography for kids

Wife of Joseph Smith Jr. and Latter Day Saint leader (1804–1879)

For other people named Emma Smith, see Emma Smith (disambiguation).

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 – April 30, 1879) was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement and a prominent member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) as well as the first wife of Joseph Smith, the movement's founder. In 1842, when the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed as a women's service organization, she was elected by its members as the organization's first president.

After the killing of Joseph Smith, Emma remained in Nauvoo rather than following Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers to the Utah Territory. Emma was supportive of Smith's teachings throughout her life with the exception of plural marriage and remained loyal to her son, Joseph Smith III, in his leadership of the RLDS Church.

Early life and first marriage, 1804–1829

Early life

Emma Hale was born on July 10, 1804, in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, in her family's log cabin. She

In honor of the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, LDS Living is sharing a series of articles about early Church history and some of its key figures. The following article was originally published in December 2015.

Emma Smith, first Relief Society President and wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, had many incredible and difficult experiences in her life. Her mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, said of her: “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 ever done; for I know that which she has had to endure … she has breasted the storms of persecution, and buffeted the rage of men and devils, which would have borne down almost any other woman.” 

Find out a few things you may not have known about this prominent woman in Church history.

Emma's brothers and sisters were all named after family members, either on her mother's side or her father's. Emma, however, was the only sibling not to inherit a family name. At the time of her birth, her parents had a good relationship with a prominent local family, which may have affected her name selection.

Emma was the seventh of nine children. While her brothers and sisters attended only the traditional grammar school, Emma went on to do an extra year of schooling beyond that. She is known in Church history for being well educated and was able to act as a scribe for Joseph when he was translating the plates because of it. Her husband, on the other hand, had only a handful of years of formal education. 

Shortly after the doctrine of baptism for the dead was

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 – April 30, 1879) was an American homesteader, the first wife of Joseph Smith, and a prominent leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement, both during Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). In 1842, when the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed as a women's service organization, she was elected by its members as the organization's first president.

After the killing of Joseph Smith Emma remained in Nauvoo rather than following Brigham Young and the mormon pioneers to the Utah Territory. Emma was supportive of Smith's teachings throughout her life with the exception of plural marriage and remained loyal to her son Joseph Smith III in his leadership of the RLDS church.

Early life and first marriage, 1804–1829

Emma Hale was born on July 10, 1804, in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. She was descended of primarily English ancestors, including seven passengers on the Mayflower. Beginning at age eight, she was involved in the local Methodist Episcopal Church in Harmony, reading t

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 work on the Nauvoo Relief Society minutes. The women in Nauvoo spoke to me through Eliza R. Snow’s words on those pages and called me to the work.

After three years at the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at BYU, Jill and Carol pushed me off to grad school. I earned an MA in history, documentary editing, and archival management at New York University, then a PhD in American history from George Mason University, with a dissertation on memory, material culture and the Nauvoo Relief Society.

My first work project evolved into At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women. I knew we had to include something from Emma Smith, but unfortunately that meant cobbling together some of her words in the Nauvoo Relief Society minutes—words that in my mind had come to express her disdain for polygamy and