Hyrum Smith. His name stands unique in the annals of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He was the second living son of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. He was born at the turn of a century, in 1800. He was to have three younger sisters and four younger brothers, and the first of his younger brothers was Joseph, born at the end of 1805, so that the brothers were almost six years apart, according to “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother” by Lucy Mack Smith.
What drew the older boy so inexorably toward this brother? It seemed, as their lives unfolded, that the power which drew them to one another had been with them before they were born.
When young Joseph was only 7 years old, he suffered an ordeal that could have undone a strong and determined grown man. When an epidemic of typhoid raged through their community of Lebanon, New Hampshire, all the Smith children contracted the disease. Sophronia, after three months of continual suffering and the doctors giving her up for dead, survived because of the faith of her mother, who would not let her die, according to “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother.”
When Joseph developed a large fever sore that shot down his side and entered the marrow of his leg, the excruciating pain became almost more than the small boy could bear. After Lucy became ill from caring for him, she recorded and is published in “The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother”: “Hyrum, who was always remarkable for his tenderness and sympathy, desired to take my place. ... We laid Joseph upon a low bed and Hyrum sat beside him, almost incessantly day and night, grasping the most painful part of the affected leg between his hands and, by pressing it closely, enabled the little sufferer the better to bear the pain which otherwise seemed almost ready to take his life.”
From this time on, the bond was woven, stronger than life.
When Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York to receive the plates the Angel Moroni had shown him, Hyrum, at Joseph’s request, prepared a proper box in which they might be kept and hidden, keeping it ready at his home, so that when the time came, Hyrum was ready and waiting. Not a word was spoken, but he “sprang up from the table, fetched up the chest, turned it upside down, and, leaving the contents on the floor, left the house in an instant with the chest on his shoulder,” according to “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother.”
Hyrum was selected as one of the Eight Witnesses who was allowed to see the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, handle them and touch the ancient engravings thereon. For this experience, Hyrum, younger brother Samuel and their father, Joseph Sr., led the group “to a grove where the family were in the habit of offering up their secret devotions to God. They went to this place, because it had been revealed to Joseph that the plates would be carried thither by one of the ancient Nephites,” according to “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother.”
When the manuscript was being printed, Hyrum was inspired of the Spirit to go to Grandin Press on the Sabbath, and thus discovered Abner Cole pilfering some of the pages, then publishing them in a series in his small newspaper, as is shared in “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother.”
In all things, under all trials, Hyrum not only stood beside the Prophet and supported him, but softened his trials as often as he could.
It was often Hyrum who encouraged his younger brother, experiencing the comfort of the Spirit, such as the time of terrible suffering from cholera suffered by Zion’s Camp during their march to Missouri.
In great pain and discouragement, the brothers determined to pray until the Lord relieved them, taking turns in prayer. After a time, Hyrum suddenly sprang to his feet. “Joseph, we shall return,” he cried, “for I have seen an open vision in which I saw Mother on her knees under an apple tree praying for us, and she is even now asking God, in tears, to spare our lives. The Spirit testifies to me that her prayers and ours shall be heard,” according to “The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother.”
In Far West, Missouri, Hyrum was forced into captivity by the mob, his life threatened, as well as his brother’s, and then suffered every atrocity at Joseph’s side, including the long months of confinement in the cold, inhuman conditions of Liberty Jail.
On the night of June 22, 1844, Orrin P. Rockwell rowed the brothers across the Mississippi, where they hoped to make preparations to depart for the West. However, when they were entreated by many of the brethren to return, Joseph resigned himself to the death which he knew was impending.
He had no intention of allowing Hyrum to come to Carthage with him. He wrote: “I advised my brother Hyrum to take his family on the next steamboat and go to Cincinnati. Hyrum replied, ‘Joseph, I can’t leave you.’” Joseph tried more than once to convince him. The day before his death, he told the brethren who were with him, “Could my brother, Hyrum, but be liberated, it would not matter so much about me” (see “History of the Church, Vol. 6,” pages 520 and 592).
In the upper room of the jail in Carthage, Illinois, on the afternoon of June 27, 1844, Hyrum was the first to fall, from a rain of bullets fired through the partly-open door. He staggered back saying, “I am a dead man.”
“Oh, my dear brother Hyrum!” Joseph cried. And these were the last words recorded that he spoke, save for his dying call: “Oh, Lord, my God!” (See “Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” by George Q. Cannon, page 463.)
Joseph understood the depth of goodness and testimony which his brother possessed. “I could pray in my heart,” he wrote, “that all my brethren were like unto my beloved brother Hyrum, who possesses the mildness of a lamb and the integrity of a Job, and in short the meekness and humility of Christ, and I love him with that love that is stronger than death.” (See “Journal, 1835–1836,” in The Joseph Smith Papers, page 76, josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/77.)
John Taylor, who was with the brothers in the jail when they died, wrote of Hyrum: “He was a great and good man, and my soul was cemented to his. If ever there was an exemplary, honest, and virtuous man, an embodiment of all that is noble in the human form, Hyrum Smith was its representative” (see “Witness to the Martyrdom,” by John Taylor, page 95).
Susan Evans McCloud is a freelance writer and is a student of Latter-day Saint and Utah history, Scottish history and literature.