Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Emma Hale Smith, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Emma Hale Smith, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Emma Hale Smith
(1804–79)
Emma Hale Smith, photograph, Church History Library, PH 1700 545.
Emma Hale Smith was born in 1804 in what would become Harmony, Pennsylvania. She married Joseph Smith in 1827. She served as a scribe in the translation of the Book of Mormon in 1828 and the new translation of the Bible in 1830. She was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Oliver Cowdery in June 1830 and confirmed later in the summer. She moved with her husband and the other Saints to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831. In 1835, she edited the first hymnbook of the Church, fulfilling a commandment given to her several years earlier (Doctrine and Covenants 25). She moved with the Saints to Missouri in 1838 and then fled the Missouri persecutions in 1839, eventually settling in Nauvoo, Illinois. She was appointed the first president of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, which supported work on the Nauvoo Temple, prepared women for temple ordinances, and provided opportunities for spiritual teaching and charitable giving, in March 1842.
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Emma remained in Nauvoo. She married Lewis C. Bidamon in December 1847 and later affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, led by her son Joseph Smith III.
References in the Doctrine and Covenants