Katharine Smith Salisbury

KatharineSmith Salisbury (July 8, 1813 – February 1, 1900) was a sister to Joseph Smith and an early convert in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Katharine Smith was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, as the seventh surviving child of Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack. Later in her life, she recollected that when her brother Joseph brought the golden plates to the family home in Manchester, New York in September 1827, he "entered the house running", with the plates "clasped to his side with his left hand and arm, … his right hand … badly bruised from knocking down at least three men who had leaped at him from behind bushes or fences as he ran." Several times she was permitted to lift the plates, which were always covered with a cloth when she did so. She also provided a detailed recollection of the visits of the Angel Moroni to her brother.

Katharine attended the first meetings of the Church of Christ in 1830, and was baptized as a member in June 1830 by David Whitmer. In 1831, she moved with the Smith family to Kirtland, Ohio, to join the main gathering of Latter Day Saints. On June 8, 1831, she married Wilkins Jenkins Salisbury, a fellow convert to Mormonism, in Kirtland. He was one of the first seventies of the church, but he was excommunicated by the Kirtland high council in 1836 for "talebearing and drinking strong liquor". The Salisburys settled in Chardon, Ohio, and later followed the Latter Day Saint movements to Missouri and Illinois. In Illinois, they settled in Plymouth, which was forty miles from church headquarters in Nauvoo.

After Katharine's brothers Joseph and Hyrum were killed, the Salisburys moved to Nauvoo to be with the other members of the Smith family. Like the other members of the Smith family, they did not endorse the leadership of Brigham Young and refused to follow him to the Salt Lake Valley; this was based largely on her strong belief that the church should be led by a member of the Smith family.

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