In January of 1827, Joseph Smith was getting ready to ask Emma Hale to become his wife.
In the previous years, he had been visited by the Angel Moroni and had knelt at the spot where the promised plates were deposited. He had watched his beloved elder brother Alvin die suddenly and painfully in 1823 and was keeping Alvin's last loving counsel: “Do everything that lies in your power to obtain the record. Be faithful in receiving instruction and in keeping every commandment that is given you” (see “The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother”).
But, as with all men in mortality, the realities of life had to be dealt with. As Joseph expressed it: “As my father’s worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day’s work and otherwise …" (see "History of the Church: Period 1, Vol. 1").
Joseph was working in southern Chenango County, New York, near the Susquehanna River, for an interesting older man, Josiah Stowell, who put a group of men he had hired to work digging to locate an old Spanish silver mine that was rumored to be in the area of Harmony, Pennsylvania, which was some 30 miles from the Stowell's home in South Bainbridge, now Afton, New York. (see "Joseph Smith's Susquehanna Years" by Larry C. Porter, Ensign, February 2001). It was actually Joseph who “prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it,” as recorded in "History of the Church". But the stigma of being a money-digger stuck to the young prophet, adding to the sense of mystery and the many prejudices against him.
While in the Harmony area, Stowell's workers, including Joseph, boarded at the country inn of Isaac Hale and his family (see "My Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith," by Gracia N. Jones, Ensign, August 1992). Among their nine children, the Hales had a young daughter named Emma. She was a lovely and striking girl of 22, 17 months older than Joseph. Emma had rich dark hair, luminous hazel eyes and a graceful, quiet manner. She had a good singing voice and a quick, intelligent mind, but was also conscientious about those things considered as womanly duties, being a careful housekeeper and an excellent cook (see “The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother” and "Joseph and Emma: Moments in Their Lives," Ensign, July 2012).
Emma’s parents were much displeased at the attraction growing between their daughter and this rather unusual young man, who talked of seeing a vision and having a heavenly work to do (see "Joseph Smith's Susquehanna Years"). But Joseph had a pleasant and robust personality, and Emma was interested and intrigued by him.
Thus, on one quiet winter afternoon in 1827, Joseph climbed the stairs in the Stowell home, as passed down in the local history. He was dressed carefully in his best shirt and suit and went down to ask Emma Hale for her hand in marriage. Something about his gentle, respectful manner must have engendered trust and a desire to be united with him in purpose.
Many years later, Emma told her eldest son as quoted in “The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother”: “I had no intention of marrying when I left home, but your father visited me there. My folks were bitterly opposed to him; and being importuned by your father, aided by Mr. Stowell, who urged me to marry him, and preferring him to any other man I knew, I consented.”
The two traveled the short distance to the house of Squire Zachariah Tarbill in South Bainbridge and were united as man and wife. They returned and spent their first night in one of the upstairs rooms of Stowell’s home. Emma was to spend much of her young life staying in homes that did not belong to her. But for this night, she was a new bride, united to the man to whom she had given her heart.
Joseph records, as published in "History of the Church: Period 1, Vol. 1,": “Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal’s (sic) and went to my father’s, and farmed with him that season.”
But Stowell and Joseph Knight, another friend of Joseph's, arrived at the Smith home on Sept. 20, 1827, and it was the Knight horse and wagon that Joseph Smith drove in the darkness up the slope of the Hill Cumorah when he went to receive the plates that were later translated and published as the Book of Mormon. They trusted the young prophet and showed their willingness to stand by him and assist him.
Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph’s mother, came very quickly to love and admire her new daughter-in-law. In the fall of 1830 when Emma was pregnant with twins, Lucy said of her: “Emma’s health at the time was quite delicate, yet she did not favor herself on this account, but whatever her hands found to do she did with her might … and, although her strength was exhausted, still her spirits were the same, which, in fact, was always the case with her, even under the most trying of circumstances. I have never seen a woman in my life who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship … from year to year with that unflinching courage, zeal and patience which she has ever done” (see “The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother”).
Thus it ever was. The two, husband and wife, passed through the almost unendurable time after time after time, and what did not destroy them enhanced their strength and bound them more closely in faith and love together.
One quiet little couple was in a house in upstate New York, nearly 200 years ago, but the impact of their lives, of their suffering and triumphs, of their many acts of goodness and service, live on in countless grateful hearts that have felt the enrichment and power of their example.
Sometime after his marriage, Joseph confided to his parents, “She would be my choice in preference to any other woman I have ever seen” (see “Joseph Smith, a Photobiography”).
Additional sources: "A Comprehensive History of the Church," Vol. 1, by B.H. Roberts, Brigham Young University Press, 1965.
Susan Evans McCloud is author of more than 40 books and has published screenplays, a book of poetry and lyrics, including two songs in the LDS hymnbook. She has six children. She blogs at susanevansmccloud.blogspot.com. Email: susasays@broadweave.net