Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: George A. Smith, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
George A. Smith, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
George A. Smith
(1817–75)
George A. Smith, ca. 1867, photograph by Edward Martin, Church History Library, PH 5095.
George A. Smith, a cousin of Joseph Smith Jr. and a grandfather of Church President George Albert Smith, was born in Potsdam, New York, in 1817. In September 1832, he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Potsdam. The following year, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he labored on the Kirtland Temple. In 1834 he marched from Ohio to Missouri as part of the Camp of Israel expedition. In 1835 he was ordained a Seventy and accompanied Lyman Smith on a mission to the eastern United States. In 1838 he moved to Far West, Missouri, and soon thereafter to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, where he served on the high council. In 1839 Smith was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, after which he served a mission to England until 1841. That year he joined the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, and married Bathsheba W. Bigler. He was a member of the Council of Fifty. He also served as a trustee of the Nauvoo House Association. In January 1847, a revelation appointed him to help oversee the migration of Latter-day Saints to Utah Territory (Doctrine and Covenants 136:14). In Utah he was appointed church historian and recorder, and in 1868 he became First Counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency.
References in the Doctrine and Covenants