Emma Smith
| Emma Hale Smith Bidamon | |
|---|---|
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon c. 1844
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| 1st President of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo | |
| March 17, 1842 – 1844 | |
| Called by | Joseph Smith |
| Successor | Eliza R. Snow |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Emma Hale July 10, 1804 Harmony Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | April 30, 1879 (aged 74) Nauvoo House, Nauvoo, Illinois, United States |
| Resting place |
Smith Family Cemetery, Nauvoo, Illinois 40°32′26″N 91°23′31″W / 40.5406°N 91.3920°W |
| Notable works |
A Collection of Sacred Hymns Latter Day Saints' Selection of Hymns |
| Spouse(s) |
Joseph Smith (1827–1844) Lewis C. Bidamon (1847–1879) |
| Children | 11 - Children of Emma Hale Smith |
| Parents | Isaac and Elizabeth L. Hale |
| Signature | |
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Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 – April 30, 1879) was the first wife of Joseph Smith and a leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement during Joseph's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). In 1842, she was named as the first president of the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo, a women's service organization.
Emma Hale was born in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. Emma first met her future husband, Joseph Smith, in 1825. Smith lived near Palmyra, New York, but boarded with the Hales in Harmony while he was employed in a company of men hoping to unearth buried treasure. Although the company found no treasure, Smith returned to Harmony several times to court Emma. Isaac Hale refused to allow the marriage because he considered Smith's occupation disreputable. On January 17, 1827, Smith and Emma eloped across the state line to South Bainbridge, New York, where they were married the following day. The couple moved to the home of Smith's parents on the edge of Manchester Township near Palmyra.
On September 22, 1827, Joseph and Emma took a horse and carriage belonging to Joseph Knight, Sr., and went to a hill now known as the Hill Cumorah where Joseph said he received a set of golden plates. This created a great deal of excitement in the area. In December 1827, the couple decided to move to Harmony, where they reconciled—to some extent—with Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. Emma's parents helped her and Joseph obtain a house and a small farm. Once they settled in, Joseph began work on the Book of Mormon with Emma acting as a scribe. She became a physical witness of the plates, reporting that she felt them through a cloth, traced the pages through the cloth with her fingers, heard the metallic sound they made as she moved them, and felt their weight. She later wrote in an interview with her son, Joseph Smith III: "In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us." In Harmony on June 15, 1828, Emma gave birth to her first child—a son named Alvin—who lived only a few hours.
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