--Introduction: This Time Joseph Smith Conjurs up Visions of Poisoning

Joseph Smith’s inventively lustful claim that God commanded him to practice polygamy ended up causing him all kinds of grief (including contributing to his death at Carthage, Illinois, after he had ordered a newspaper press destroyed for having exposed his polygamous affairs).

Before he was actually murdered, however, Jumpy Joe suspected that even his wife was out to kill him over his polygamous philanderings.
_____


--Attempted Coffee Killing: Joseph's Hallucinatory Hang-Ups Over a Murder-Minded Emma

In their book, "Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith,” LDS authors Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery write of Smith’s polygamy-produced paranoia:

"Although Emma's attempt to accept plural marriage brought temporary peace to the Smith household, neither Emma's resolve nor the peace lasted long. Emily Partridge commented that Joseph 'would walk the floor back and forth, with his hands clasped behind him (a way he had of placing his hands when his mind was deeply troubled), his countenance showing that he was weighed down with some terrible burden.'

"The strain in his private life, coupled with threats from marauders and dissension within the church and community, began to affect Joseph's health. On Sunday, November 5, Joseph became suddenly sick and vomited so hard that he dislocated his jaw and 'raised fresh blood.'

"His self-diagnosis was that he had every symptom of poisoning. But he was well enough in the evening to attend an Endowment Council meeting in the room over the red brick store.

"According to current medical literature, no poison available in 1844 was caustic enough to pool blood in the stomach so rapidly after ingestion as Joseph's symptoms indicate and still be so ineffective as to allow the victim to pursue normal activities within a few hours . . . .

"Twenty-two years later Brigham Young described a 'secret council,' . . . at which he said Joseph accused Emma of the poisoning and 'called upon her to deny it if she could . . . . He told her that she was a child of hell, and literally the most wicked woman on this earth, that there was not one more wicked than she. He told her where she got the poison, and how she put it in a cup of coffee; said he, 'You got that poison so and so, and I drank it, but you could not kill me.' When it entered his stomach he went to the door and threw it off. He spoke to her in that council in a very severe manner, and she never said one word in reply. I have witnesses all around, who can testify that I am now telling the truth. Twice she undertook to kill him.' [Young] did not elaborate on the alleged second occurrence, but in 1866 Brigham's rhetoric could well have been stronger that Joseph's actual words, for it came at a time when Brigham was particularly hostile toward Emma.

"Evidence suggests that Joseph indeed accused Emma of poisoning his coffee. His diary records that he and Emma did not participate in the Prayer Circle at that meeting . . . . This is particularly significant because members were asked not to join the Prayer Circle if they had feelings of antagonism toward anyone else in the group. Only unusual circumstances would have restrained them. Apparently Joseph believed at the time that Emma poisoned him, but strong evidence suggests that his self-diagnosis was mistaken and, therefore, so was his accusation of Emma.

"Five weeks later Joseph again experienced sudden nausea and vomiting. 'I awoke this morning in good health but was soon suddenly seized with a great dryness of the mouth and throat, and sickness of the stomach, and vomited freely . . . . I was never prostrated so low, in so short a time, before, but by evening was considerably revived.'

"He mentioned being 'somewhat out of health' on January 21, 'somewhat unwell' on April 2, and 'suddenly taken sick,' on April 28 . . . .

"Acute indigestion, food poisoning, ulcers, gallstones, and other diseases cause a reaction similar to Joseph's. Certainly Joseph's life was filled with the emotional tension and conflict that traditionally accompany ulcers. When he had his second attack of vomiting early in December, his diary states: 'My wife waited on me, assisted by my scribe, Willard Richards, and his brother Levi, who administered some hers and mild drinks.' . . . In this instance Joseph portrayed Emma as a helper and nurse instead of the instigator of the attack .

"He apparently failed to correct the conclusions held by Brigham Young and John Taylor, for Emma remained forever suspect in their minds.

"Stories of poisoning drew in another suspect: Samuel Smith's daughter Mary later wrote to her cousin Ina Coolbrith that Eliza R. Snow poisoned Joseph. She said that while Eliza resided in her Uncle Joseph's house Emma fixed Joseph a cup of coffee and Eliza poured something in it, then Joseph drank and vomited. Eliza had not lived in the house for nearly a year.

"Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer, a plural married to Joseph by Brigham Young in July, wrote an autobiography in 1868 and related a bizarre dream that may have been prompted by rumors of Emma poisoning Joseph. She stated: 'In the rise of polygamy [Emma] Smith was going to poison me. I told [the dream] to brother Joseph. He told me it was true. She would do it if she could.'

"The talk of poisoning may have prompted Emily Partridge to say of this period: 'There were times, one in particular that I was really afraid of my life.' . . . She was far more likely to fear retribution from Emma than Emma was to administer it. But circulation of poisoning stories gave rise to apprehension and suspicion directed toward Emma." (pp. 163-65)
_____


--Brigham Young Also Asserted That An Evil Emma Was Out to do In Joseph But Was Thwarted by Faith

A suspicious Brigham Young with his own paranoia over Emma claimed in an 1863 sermon that she tried to kick Young and his pals out of the Church, as well as attempted to murder her righteously roaming-eye husband Joseph:

"In Joseph's da[y] she [Emma] tried to throw me, Br. Heber, Br. Willard Richards and the Twelve Apostles out of the Church, and tried to destroy the whole church and I know it.

"Joseph himself testified before high Heaven more than once that she had administered poison to him. There are men and women present today who can bear witness that more hell was never wrapped up in any human being than there is in her. She gave him too heavy a dose and he vomited it up and was saved by faith." ("BYA," vol. 4 Gen. Conf. 7 Oct. 1863)
_____


--Another Mormon Teaswtified That Emma Was Toxic to the Prophet But That God Provided the Antidote

In his journal, Charles Lowell Walker wrote:

"Br Snow . . . also related that when Emma, Joseph's first wife, heard of the Revelation [on polygamy] she sought the life of Joseph and tired to poison him, but he was delivered by the Power of God. ("Diary of Charles Lowell Walker ,” vol. 1, p. 438, 17 December 1876)
_____


--Still, There Are Those Like Sandra Tanner Who Think That Emma
Really Did Try to Pickle Her Polygamous Prophet-Partner with Poison

"The simple fact is that Mormon historians have already shown the Emma Smith/Joseph Smith/Polygamy story to be very different than the LDS would like to have it. I mean, come on, you have to ask yourself why Brigham Young once (in public!) claimed Emma Smith tried to poison Joseph, but now Mormons only talk about what a great marriage the Smiths had.

"Read 'Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith' or 'In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith' or 'Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling' - three books written by Mormons." ("Interview with Sandra Tanner on the Life of Emma Smith--Wife of Mormon Founder”)
_____


--Conclusion: You Wonder How a Philandering Joe Could Sleep at Night

Indeed, wouldn’t you be a bit of an insomniac too if you were convinced that your wife was conspiring to fatally spike your Kool Aid?

**********


For the possible poisoning death of Brigham Young, see: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1051678

For the possible poisoning death of Samuel H. Smith (Joseph Smith's brother), see: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1051659



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2013 12:27PM by steve benson.

She poisoned his coffee of all things, ha!

It's stories like these that have to make you think about what TSCC *isn't* telling you in Sunday School.

Joseph Smith thought Ema tried to poison him. Someone did poison his brother, possibly at Brigham Young's orders. Brigham Young was probably poisoned, possibly by one of his own wives. That's a lot of poisoning in a very small circle.

My guess is that if poison attempts were made on all three, then the actual poisoner was probably the same culprit, the women falsely getting the blame and suspicion from the male patriarchy. Or at least the same culprit put up Joe's and Brigham's wives to make their attempts, and that temptor being of more earthly origins then Satan.

This is just wild speculation, but what if a power hungry apostle was behind all three poisonings? Or maybe Brigham Young was responsible for the first two, and one of his wives found his private stock of kill them powder.

Hold everthing! The man was drinking COFFEE? Coffee? That wasn't very 'wise'.

Now I understand the origin of the prohibition of coffee.

I wonder if the prohibition of masturbation has a similar story. Wanking by the wood pile; Emma's so hot when she's splitting logs. The axe slips out of her hands and misses Little Joe by a hair.

No the prohibition on masturbation came from Smith and Young hating the idea of not having their dicks stuck into a hole, at every suitably possible moment.

The vomiting and sickness episodes always reminded me of an alcoholic episode . Vomiting blood is common with ruptured capillaries in the stomach due to abuse of hard liquor. Along with the morning sickness , it sounds more like a bad hangover of an alcoholic .

I thought coffee was banned by the word of wisdom???

Now we know why!

Poison seemed to be the tonic of choice by early LDS when wanting to do away with a certain someone.

My great grandpa, Civil War veteran, married into the church and converted for his wife and her family. He was a mensch who wasn't swayed easily, and was highly respected by those who knew him.

I'm fairly certain after learning about how he died, he was poisoned by someone from his ward where they lived in a Mormon pioneer community in 1889.

He'd broken up a fight at a choir practice the night before on a Saturday, a practice he himself had organized. And smoothed things over between the warring parties, only to return the following day Sabbath when his choir sang for the congregation.

He was well before going to church that morning. But fell suddenly and violently ill on his way home later that same day.

I believe someone at church, following services (maybe before,) during a food service whether it was brunch, lunch, or light snacks, poisoned him out of revenge.

As to motive, there were at least two in his ward that had motive. One was a woman who he had spurned her advances to make her his second and polygamous wife. She'd been courting him until his feisty wife, my great grandmother, put her foot down and told him she'd have nothing to do with it.

The other party who had motive was a town lawyer who coveted his land claim where they lived so much so, that upon his death swindled my great grandmother out of her home and property, leaving her not only bereft, but penniless as well, to raise her three fatherless children.

Sacrificial "love" in Mormonism meant an entirely different meaning than it did/does in Christianity, apparently.

Joseph had it coming. That much I get. Not my great grandpa. He survived four years of the Civil War where he infiltrated the Deep South as a chief scout (spy for Allen Pinkerton, and was a personal messenger go-between for Generals Sherman and Ulysses Grant.) Following that war he came with Gen Sherman to Wyoming to help settle Indian land claims, that included surviving Indian skirmishes, including one where his father had been murdered which Ggrandpa sought to avenge. Years later he was called up to help to bury the fallen soldiers at Custer's Last Stand.

He himself had been practiced in the healing arts as taught to him by his physician father. Upon joining the church for great grandma after they married he helped many Mormons in their Mormon town by stitching them up when they had cuts and wounds, and setting broken bones, etc.

He was a trooper, a hero to many, and a mensch to some. He was faithful to his wife and a devoted husband and father to his children. He was active in church activities where that became his downfall. For he could not survive the dastardly Mormons who did him in.

He fell violently ill on his way home from church that fateful Sabbath. And died by the following Friday, suffering what could've been nothing other than a lingering and painful death at the hands of his executioner. Whether it was the spurned woman, or the greedy lawyer, it doesn't matter to me. At least one of them done my great grandpa in from poison.

That much I've deduced.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2017 05:30PM by Amyjo.

I am a child of Hell
And Joe has set me off
I served curare Folgers and
I watched him choke and cough

Kill him, fry him, crucify him
Help me find a way
Teach me all I that I must know
To murder Joe someday

donbagley - this is fabulous!

If Emma was as smart as I think she was, she did poison JS. You go girl!!

This only makes me like Emma that much more. Imagine what a wonderful world this would be if she had succeeded. Would have made my life that much more pleasant. Thanks, Emma, for trying. She's a hero, that one.

LIAR!!!!

All the Church-manual lessons, Ensign-New-Era-Friend articles,
pictures, and Church videos PROVE that Joseph and Emma had an
ideal, loving relationship 24/7

Sounds like a hangover to me.

He was violently sick in the morning, but better by late afternoon and evening. Alcohol does that to you, and Joseph had a bar in his home....

If Brigham Young said this about Joseph Smith to Emma then of course it has to be doctrinal truth. Remember that http://classic.scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/1/38#38 says that "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same". So that's the glorious doctrine for these types of things :)

"He told her that she was a child of hell, and literally the most wicked woman on this earth"

I do believe there were many wicked women on the earth in the 1840(s). Back then the Church was still pretty small so the people of the world were suffering in severe darkness & wickedness without any knowledge of the glorious Restoration. But I suppose that a revelation from God that the most wicked of them all happened to be the president of the Relief Society is certainly an important revelation to know.

Now of course I could lie and pretend that the beloved Brigham Young, i.e. God's official representative teaching God's official word, didn't teach this. But then 2 Ne 9:34 means that all my toilet scrubbing and other glorious services I've performed along with all my financial sacrifices would all be in vain as I'm thrust to hell for all eternity. So I suppose I should just be honest and humbly declare what the Lord (i.e. through Brigham Young) taught us all.

Poisoning problematic, high profile leaders in the kingdom of absurdity/lies for various reasons appears to be the method of choice used by early mormons to eliminate those who were causing great stress to some affected in the kingdom! emma smith according to brigham young tried to poison profit jo smith jr. twice by putting poison in his coffee! We have the story of jo/hyrum plotting to poison William Law! Law also mentioned the brutal death of smith's scribe James Mullholland apparently at the hands of the smiths! And yes, based on the available narrative that described his eventual physical demise, I have always believed that brigham young was a potential victim! Many years ago I heard the rumors but information gathering was very difficult, if not impossible!

The clue master, Samuel W. Taylor in the brigham young case is intriguing! Of course you must believe the narrative/it must check out! Even then there is an important pitfall to face! If one follows the trail of clues there are obstacles to overcome! Remember, mormons with something to hide never play fair! The clue master must check out in three major areas! We must be able to verify the 12 year association, a 17 year old daughter in 1877/find someone who had intimate access to young! These are all imperative elements that must be satisfied to come to any competent conclusion based on the clues provided!

When it's all said/done/a hurdle is overcome there appears to be a Mrs. X candidate among brigham young's wives! She was never charged/died a faithful mormon according to information I was able to gather! She also faced some apparent difficulties after young's death that I was unable to verify but circumstances reveal as much! If she is the guilty one, I understand her motivation so I'm going to let her rest in peace as others have apparently done! Ironically, it does not appear that she was able to prevent what she feared most! How terribly depressing! As Always, tnurg (GRUNT)

Non of my elderly relatives ever had a kind word to say about Emma.

I don't recall Emma ever being mentioned in church or seminary except in passing.

But as we were recently reminded. Emma held a great and grand secret as a sword of Damocles over Joseph.

Mother Smith said Emma was with Joseph the night he obtained the plates. B H Roberts included this in the church history he wrote.

Only Emma and Joseph knew what if anything actually happened that night. Emma was silent about it her whole life as far as I know.

If true, sounds like Emma was in a desperate situation. It sounds like she was in fear for her life. She was ( supposedly) his first wife, Unless he had one hidden, living somewhere else.
Then Joe changed and you know the rest. She couldn’t of been ok with sharing him with all of those other women.She probably knew things that she had to hide and got tired of lying and pretending for him later.

She could of tried to get rid of him , before he got rid of her first.

Just when I thought I had heard it all. OMG we’ve got a game of Mormon clue going on and I pick Colonal Mustard in the library with a bottle of poison. I mean really. All my life Joseph Smith took Precedent over jesus. At Christmas it was always his birthday We heard about. Every single Easter it was either Stake or General conference so we could hear everything we were doing wrong over and over again and there was always a multi stake basketball tournament to honor Good Friday.

. . . and warned her that he (meaning the angel) would destroy her if she did not poison his coffee.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2018 08:33AM by steve benson.

Thanks for the chuckle!

Hi Steve,

I enjoy reading your posts. I don't think that Emma did try to poison Joseph, but I believe that he thought she did. Having studied Emma's life for many years now, I think I can help everyone understand why Joseph would have thought so.

Way back in the Spring of '43 Joseph was taking Spiritual Wives right and left and he also had his best friend and buddy William Clayton doing so also. Clayton "married" Margaret Moon on April 27, and promptly got her pregnant. Joseph had suggested that Clayon "marry" Margaret, but there was a problem as she was engaged to a young man named Aaron Farr. The men then prodded Margaret to inform Farr that they were no longer engaged. This caused no end of problems with the new "marriage" and her being pregnant didn't help either.

A few days after Joseph performed the ceremony for Clayton and his new Spiritual Wife, Joseph had Clayton marry him to Lucy Walker, who was living with him at the Smith "Homestead" along with two of her brothers and perhaps a sister (Catherine). Lucy's brother William was married to a sister of Aaron Farr named Olive. Lucy's other brother Lorin was one of Joseph's bodyguards and was close to him while William and Olive were close to Emma. So Emma was on very friendly terms with the Farr family.

It didn't take long for it to get out that Clayton was "married" to Margaret Moon and that she was pregnant. This, and the situation with Aaron irked Emma to no end. Joseph was telling her that nope, there is no Spiritual Wifeism being practiced or authorized by me, but it was obvious that Clayton had a Spiritual Wife and Joseph knew all about it. In July, just before Joseph penned the "revelation" on plural marriage, he gave a sermon which Emma took offense to, as she was convinced that Joseph had snidely said some things about her in it. William Thompson, who was visiting the Smith home said that Emma confronted Joseph about it during dinner, and that Joseph got angry and pointed at Emma and said she was his "greatest enemy" while Hyrum was his best friend. (He had just accepted his brother's Spiritual Wife System on May 26th.

Joseph had convinced Hyrum about the benefits of having Spiritual Wives by telling him that he could be "sealed" to his first (dead) wife, and have her for eternity and also be "sealed" to his living wife (Mary Fielding) and have her for eternity also. This made a big impression on Hyrum and he went for the whole Spiritual Wife package, having earthly Spiritual Wives as well as Heavenly ones. Joseph had to explain about the earthly Spiritual Wifeism, but there was kind of a problem as Joseph hadn't had himself "sealed" to his first wife Emma. I'm sure this distressed Hyrum and so two days after Hyrum came on board, Joseph had himself "sealed" to Emma, even though she wanted nothing to do with Jo's Spiritual Wifeism.

Because of the mess with Clayton, Emma now knew for sure that this Spiritual Wife System was being practiced ON EARTH by Joseph and some of his close associates. It made her very angry and she began to look at all the women around Joseph with suspicion. She wanted to put an end to all this nonsense, and so told Joseph that if he could "indulge" himself, she should be able to also, and said she wanted a "Spiritual Husband", and it seems that she chose William Law. To placate her, Joseph agreed and told her that she could have her "Spiritual Husband" if Joseph could live with his Spiritual Wives in peace. Emma already suspected that two of them were the Partridge girls who were living with them and Joseph confirmed that this was true. So a bargain was made.

But Law and his wife were adamantly opposed to this Spiritual Wifeism, and when Joseph tried his trick of approaching the wife and claiming that he was a "prophet" and that she should be "sealed" to him, it backfired. Jane wanted nothing to do with Joseph and told her husband what Joseph had done. This created a rift between them. Jo could not get the Laws on board and so the Spiritual Husband deal was off.

It appears that Law didn't know anything about this deal that Joseph and Emma made (until some time later) and Joseph may have told Law that the thing with his wife was only some kind of "test". Law cooled off for a time, as Joseph tried to persuade him as he did Hyrum, by way of "eternal marriage". Law later claimed that he almost went along with it, but Joseph penned his "revelation" which was shown to the High Council and Law then knew that this thing wasn't just "spiritual".

Meanwhile, Joseph decided to have the "revelation" written down, and did so in early July. In the "revelation" Joseph reneges on his bargain with Emma and claims that he was only "testing" her. Emma then turned her wrath on the Partridge girls, and made their life miserable.

Hyrum, thinking he could persuade Emma as Joseph had persuaded him, took the "revelation" to Emma who told Hyrum she didn't believe a word of it. There was now a "revelation", Spiritual Wives living in her house, and the practice seemed to have gotten a foothold in the church for one of the Spirituals was pregnant. Emma goes out of town for a while to get away from it all. When she returns, she is adamant. They'll be no more of this Spiritual Wife business.

She continues to harp on Joseph about it, and he, at his wits end tells Clayton that he had to use some "harsh measures" on Emma to get her to shut up. For a time, they have a little peace when Joseph deeds 160 parcels of property to Emma and half interest in the Maid of Iowa. Clayton writes that he hopes Emma will come to accept and abide by Joseph's "holy law", but that doesn't happen. It only gets worse.

Emma finds some letters written by Eliza Snow in Joseph's pockets. She suspects Clayton is some kind of go between. He denies it, but Emma has her heart set on taking him down. She knows he complicit, and is very angry over the Margaret Moon incident, which continues to plague Clayton. Joseph tells him not to worry that if he has to, he'll excommunicate him and then turn around and reinstate him. "You have a right to get all you can," says Joseph.

Mid August Joseph tells Clayton that since Emma returned from her trip she had "resisted the Priesthood in toto", and made him promise to give up all his Spiritual Wives. Joseph gripes to Clayton that he had to promise her, and that even though she had once agreed to let him have the Partridge girls, he knew that if he "took them" she would divorce him. But he tells Clayton that he isn't going to give up anything.

Did Emma read the letters from Eliza Snow? If so, what was in them? Did she find out about Flora Woodworth that way? IT seems that a few days after the letter incident that Emma and Joseph take a trip to the Temple where Joseph had some business. While Joseph is there, Emma takes a side trip to the home of Flora Woodworth who had a gold watch that Joseph had given her. Emma confronted the poor girl and took the watch and stomped it into the ground, and told her to stay away from her husband. Flora is terrified and the next day elopes with Carlos Gove, a defender of Nancy Rigdon who was a member of the Nauvoo Legion and worked for the US Indian Agency.

Emma continues to put the pressure on the Partridge girls, not letting them out of her sight or allowing them to be around her husband. Years later, Emily was coerced to tell a story that Emma actually participated in a second "mock" sealing and gave the girls to Joseph. Emily claims that this mock sealing took place on May 11, 1843, and was performed by Judge James Adams, but he wasn't in Nauvoo on that date. Her sister Eliza also signed an affidavit with the same bogus date two months after Emily did. (But I have evidence that before Emily signed the 1869 affidavit she was telling a different story, that Emma found out about her ONLY "sealing" to Joseph (which happened in March) and got angry and would not allow them near him.) This is what the contemporary evidence shows.

Emma is now on the warpath and is determined that these Spiritual Wives will not continue to live in her new Mansion House. As soon as they are settled in, she confronts Joseph and the Partridge girls and tells them they have to go. Joseph, knowing that a divorce over his practice of Spiritual Wifeism will probably land him in jail, agrees to end the "marriages" to the girls and shakes their hands and they leave the Mansion for good. Joseph has nothing to do with them after this.

Lucy Walker also leaves the mansion and goes to live with her brother William. But while Emma is evicting anyone she suspects of being involve with her husband, Joseph secretly "marries" another young lady, Malissa Lott, who was living in the Mansion and working for the Smiths. (mid Sept. 1843).

Emma never finds out about this marriage and Malissa later says she knew nothing about it and never spoke to Emma while she lived in the Mansion. After Joseph died, Malissa moved out for a time, and Emma being the kind person she was, allowed her to move back in with her for a time, never knowing that she was one of Joseph's secret Spiritual Wives.

With all the potential threats gone, Emma then turns to the women that she is helping teach the endowment to and tells them that their husbands are going to take more wives and that they have to put their foot down and not allow it. About this time Margaret Moon is ready to have a baby, and Emma, being the kind person that she was, agreed to help with the baby and gave advice on how to explain it. She would later raise a bastard child of Lewis Bidamon's, showing that Emma really did care about the children no matter what the parents did.

Joseph again tries to calm Emma down and on Sept. 28 has Emma anointed his Queen (Second Anointing Ceremony). A week later, Joseph makes a show of going up and down the street in front of the Mansion and proclaiming that there will be no plurality of wives in the church that he forbids it.

I'm sure that Emma was watching her husband closely after this. But Joseph, thinking that he got away with "marrying" Malissa Lott, is "sealed" to Fanny Young on November 2, 1843. Joseph is probably paranoid about what Emma knew and if he was safe from her wrath.

Three days later, Joseph is violently ill at the table. He is drinking his coffee and gets deathly ill. He starts vomiting and thinks that he has been poisoned. Did Emma find out about Fanny Young? It must have been her. This is what Joseph believed and told Brigham Young and others. Joseph's own paranoia made him believe that Emma had tried to kill him.


Joseph learns his lesson from this, and does not have another woman "sealed" to him. None of his Spiritual Wives report having any interaction with Joseph during this period of time (From the winter of '43 until his death in June '44).

Emily Partridge goes to live with Sylvia and Windsor Lyon and helps take care of their newborn babe Josephine, who Sylvia believes is Joseph's daughter. Eliza Partridge goes to live with the widow of Don Carlos Smith, (Agnes Coolbrith) who is also a secret Spiritual Wife of Joseph's. Emily never speaks to Joseph again, except for a few words to him as he is leaving for Carthage. All she had was a brief "handshake marriage" to comfort her. She "marries" Brigham Young after Joseph dies, and bears him children. She is treated like dirt by Young who has her leave his home, and she has to depend on the charity of others to get by, or take the scraps that Young doles out to her after she complains and complains to him.

Eliza "marries" Amasa Lyman after Joseph is murdered, And bears him children. Eliza claimed later that Lyman neglected her, and divorced him in 1870 after he was excommunicated for apostasy after having fooled Young and his Quorum for years into thinking that he believed the doctrines taught by Brigham Young and the Church.

After the incident in November, Joseph fell ill a few months later with the same sickness, and Emma cared for him. There were no accusations that Emma had poisoned him a second time.

This is the timeline as I have researched it, and since this is all off the top of my head, please give me a little latitude if I have gotten any details or dates wrong. I don't believe that I have though.

Historians continue to claim that Emma gave Joseph four "wives" and taught them about polygamy. This is simply a made up story, concocted in Utah years later from journal entries. Emma never did accept Jo's Spiritual Wife System, and even went so far as to deny that he ever practiced it. She chose to cling to Joseph's lies and denials, and reject the secret things that Joseph was doing behind her back.

As for the gold watch business and why it might have irked Emma like it did there is this, from the Palmyra Reflector from 1831:

"We also learn from the State of Ohio, that the work moves on apace. Jo Smith with his better half, had arrived in that country, -- the prophet well clad, while the female exhibited a gold watch -- a profusion of rings, &c. -- demonstrating the fact, that even even Mormonism is a "living business."

Did Jo give Flora Woodworth Emma's old gold watch? Could he have been that dumb?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2018 08:32PM by grindael.

He was paranoid, plus he didn’t have a pair.

Emma was no pushover. Hell, she reportedly pushed a pregnant Eliza R. Snow down the stairs, causing her to miscarry her Joe-sired baby. He was familiar with Emma’s enrageabje side and when it manifested itself, he rightly feared her. (When all else fails to temper her temper, invoke an angel with a flaming sword).

If she hadn’t poisoned his coffee, she would’ve poisoned his caffeine-free Postum. If Postum wasn’t around then (and it wasn’t, having not hit the shelves until 1895) and if Emma was sufficiently p-o’ed, she would’ve tried something else to make him postmortem.

Again, per the Mormon General Conference of October 1866, Brigham Young didn’t pull any punches when it came to pinning it on Emma by pointing to her as the pernicious poisoner of the Prophet:

“. . . To my certain knowledge, Emma Smith is one of the damnedest liars I know of on this earth; yet, there is no good thing I would refuse to do for her, if she would only be a righteous woman; but she will continue in her wickedness.

“Not six months before the death of Joseph, he called his wife Emma into a secret council, and there he told her the truth, and called upon her to deny it if she could. He told her that the judgments of God would come upon her forthwith if she did not repent.

“He told her of the time she undertook to poison him, and he told her that she was a child of hell, and literally the most wicked woman on this earth, that there was not one more wicked than she. He told here where she got the poison, and how she put it in a cup of coffee; said he 'You got that poison from so and so, and I drank it, but you could not kill me.' When it entered his stomach, he went to the door and threw it off. he spoke to her in that council in a very severe manner, and she never said one word in reply.

“I have witnesses of this scene all around, who can testify that I am now telling the truth. Twice she undertook to kill him.”

(Brigham Young, 36th LDS Church Semi-Annual General Conference, Bowery, Salt Lake City, Utah, October 6-8, 1866, published in “Deseret News Weekly,” vol. 15, p. 364, October 10, 1866, pp. 4-5; ibid., vol. 15, p. 372, October 17, 1866, po. 4-5; and MS, vol. 28, pp. 764) 774)
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Fill it to the rim—and no, Joseph dear, that ain’t gin.



Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2018 04:38AM by steve benson.