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Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. (November 13, 1838
– November 19, 1918), usually known as
Joseph F. Smith to distinguish him from his son of
the same name, was the sixth President of the
Church (Mormonism)|President of Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints|The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints.   He was the last
President of the Church to have personally known
the founder of the Mormon faith, the Prophet
Joseph Smith, Jr.  

Smith was son of Patriarch (Mormonism)|Patriarch
Hyrum Smith and his wife Mary Fielding Smith|Mary
Fielding, a Canadian convert to the Church who
married Hyrum after the death of Jerusha Barden
Smith.  In addition to her two children, Mary
Fielding Smith raised Hyrum and Jerusha's five
children.  

Smith was born in Far West, Missouri in November
1838, while his father was in custody in Liberty
Jail, Missouri.  Joseph Fielding was named after
his uncle, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his mother's
brother Joseph Fielding.  His mother and maternal
aunt Mercy Fielding Thompson fled with their
children to Quincy, Illinois early in 1839.  After
his uncle and father were murdered in Carthage,
Illinois in 1844, the seven year old Smith and his
family, along with many other Mormons, fled the
Midwest|American Midwest.  They briefly settled in
the Church encampment at Winter Quarters, Nebraska
until the spring of 1848 when Smith drove his
mother's wagon across the plains to Utah.  

While in Utah, Mary Fielding Smith worked with her
sister to raise the two widow's families, as well
as continuing to care for Hyrum and Jerusha's
younger children.  Mary Fielding Smith died in
1852, apparently of malnutrition.  Smith reported
that he was devastated by his mother's death, and
relied upon the emotional support and help of
Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball among others. 
Smith, then thirteen, became primarily responsible
for his young sister, Martha Ann, and subsequently
left school in 1854.     

Returning from his first LDS mission, Smith found
Utah in the midst of serious conflict with the
federal government (see Utah War).  Smith joined
the territory's militia, named the "Nauvoo Legion"
after a similar unit in Illinois, and spent the
several months patrolling the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains. After tensions between the church
and the federal government abated, Smith assisted
his relatives in their return to northern Utah
from areas in southern Utah, where they had taken
their families for safety.

Smith served seven terms in the Utah territorial
House of Representatives, as well as terms on the
Salt Lake City Council and in the territorial
Senate; he also served in the presidency of a
state constitutional convention in 1882.  Smith
also served as a Church representative on boards
of many Utah businesses.
 
In 1859, Smith married his sixteen year-old cousin
Levira, daughter of Samuel Harrison Smith. With
Levira's permission, Smith also took Julina
Lambson as a Plural marriage|plural wife. Later,
he also married Sarah Ellen Richards, Edna
Lambson, Alice Ann Kimball, and Mary Taylor
Schwartz. To evade federal anti-polygamy
prosecution, Smith was on the "underground,"
mostly in Hawaii, from 1883 to 1887.

Smith was the father of forty-three children,
thirteen of whom preceded him in death.  His
first-born son Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., son of
Julina Lambson, later served as the President of
the Church. His eldest son by Edna Lambson, Hyrum
Mack Smith served as an Apostle from 1901 to 1918.
 One of Smith's granddaughters married Bruce R.
McConkie, a later member of the Quorum of the
Twelve.

== Church Service ==
At the age of fifteen, Smith was called on a LDS
Church mission to serve in the Sandwich Islands
(designated the Hawaii|Hawaiian Islands after
acquisition as a territory of the United States)
under the direction of Apostle Parley P. Pratt. 
He successfully learned the language of the
Hawaiian people and reported great success in four
years of missionary work on the islands. Smith
served in the Salt Lake Stake High Council in
1859, and in 1864 began working in the Church
Historian's Office as a "recorder" for the
Endowment House, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,
and the First Presidency.  By the time he was
called to the apostleship in 1866 his late
twenties, he had served three separate missions
for the church.

*Mission to Sandwich Islands (1854-57) 
*Mission to Great Britain (1860-63) 
*Mission to Hawaii (1864)

On July 1, 1866, Smith was ordained an Apostle by
Brigham Young and sustained as a Counselor to the
First Presidency, where he served until Young's
death. However, he was not sustained as a member
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until the
Church's  October conference of 1867.  He served
as President of the European Mission from 1874 to
1875, and again in 1877.  

After Young's death, Smith was named Second
Counselor to President John Taylor
(1808-1887)|John Taylor serving from 1880 to 1887.
He later served as Second Counselor to President
Wilford Woodruff (1889-1898), and as Second
Counselor to President Lorenzo Snow (1898-1901). 
Smith was sustained as first counselor to
President Snow on the death of First Counselor
George Q. Cannon, but, as President Snow himself
died only four days later, never served in this
position.

Smith felt it was important for Utah to become a
state, and thereby eliminate the ongoing federal
supervision of the Utah Territory. Following the
official discontinuance of new 1890
Manifesto|plural marriages by Wilford Woodruff in
1890, and the dissolution of the Mormon People's
Party in 1891,  Smith championed the anti-polygamy
Republican party in Utah.

== Church President ==
Smith was sustained by the church membership as
President of the Church on October 17, 1901.  One
of the first issues he faced was the ongoing
difficulties for the Church due to the practice of
plural marriage.  As Church President, Smith
supported Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot's candidacy
for the U.S. Senate. But Smoot's election was
contested on the grounds that he was an officer in
the Church.  The Smoot Hearings|Senate
investigation again focused national attention on
Mormon marriages and political influence.
Following his appearance before a Senate panel in
1904, Smith terminated all surreptitious
continuation of church plural marriages.  On April
6, 1904, Smith issued the "second manifesto."  He
also declared that any church officer who
performed a plural marriage, as well as the
offending couple, would be excommunicated. He
clarified that the policy applied world-wide, and
not just in North America. Two members of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, John W. Taylor and
Matthias F. Cowley, resigned in 1905 following the
second manifesto. 

Smith's seventeen year administration made efforts
toward improving the Church's damaged
relationships with the federal government and
related issues dealing with the Church's financial
situation.  The administration acquired historic
sites, constructed numerous meetinghouses, and
expanded the church system of educational
academies and universities. He also oversaw a
continued growth in Church membership. 

Smith is often remembered as Church President for
the construction and dedication of the Seagull
Monument at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah
on October 1, 1913.  During much of his
presidential tenure, Smith oversaw the planning
and construction of the Laie Hawaii Temple in
Laie, Hawaii, one of his part-time residences. 
Smith died on November 19, 1918, a year before his
beloved Laie Hawaii Temple—the fifth temple
since the restoration—was to be dedicated.
He left a body of religious writings often used in
discussing church doctrine and religious conduct.

== Doctrinal Contributions ==
During his administration as President of the
Church, President Smith issued two significant
additions to Latter-day Saint doctrine: 
 
:"The Father and the Son":  On June 20, 1916, the
First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles issued a statement examining the LDS use
of the term "Father" in scripture, clarifying
times when the word referred to God the Father and
when the word referred to Jesus Christ.  The
statement identified four different uses of the
word "Father."  God the Father is the literal
parent of the spirits of mankind and the earthly
father of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is referred
to as "the Father" when discussing his role as
creator of the earth, when he acts as "the Father"
of those who abide in his gospel, and when he acts
with the authority of his Heavenly Father while on
earth.  After 1921, to lessen confusion on the
nature of the Godhead, portions of Joseph Smith,
Jr.'s "Lectures on Faith' dealing with the Holy
Ghost were removed from the Doctrine and
Covenants, a modern LDS scripture.  
 
:"Vision of the Redemption of the Dead":  On
October 3, 1918, President Smith received a
revelation on the nature of the spirit world and
on Jesus Christ's role in ensuring that the gospel
is taught to all men, living and dead.  A written
account of the revelation was submitted to the
General Authorities on the October 31, 1918 and
was unanimously accepted.  The revelation was
initially published in December 1918, and was
added to the Pearl of Great Price, an LDS
scripture, in April 1976.  This revelation
complemented a 1894 statement on the eternal
nature of the family and appropriate work for the
dead issued by President Wilford Woodruff. 
Geneology work by members of the LDS Church
increased after both of these statements.

== References ==

* Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M.  The Story
of the Latter-day Saints.  Deseret Book Co., Salt
Lake City, UT, 1976.  ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
* Ludlow, Daniel H., Editor.  Church History,
Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. 
Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, UT, 1992. 
ISBN 0-87579-924-8.


start box
succession box |
  title= President of the Church
(Mormonism)|President of the LDS Church |
  years= 17 October, 1901–November 19, 1918
|
  before= Lorenzo Snow |
  after= Heber J. Grant

succession box |
  title= President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles|President of the 
Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles |
  years= April 21, 1901–17 October, 1901 |
  before= George Q. Cannon |
  after= Brigham Young, Jr.

series box |
 title= Quorum of the Twelve Apostles |
 years= July 1, 1866–17 October, 1901 |
 before= George Q. Cannon |
 after= Brigham Young, Jr. 

end box