In June 2023, then 95-year-old President M. Russell Ballard climbed the stairs of Carthage Jail, in Carthage, Illinois, and sat in the room where his great-great grandfather Hyrum Smith, and great-great-granduncle Joseph Smith, were martyred in 1844.
“This is a very tender place to be,” he said on that summer afternoon. “For me, and for all who have the privilege of coming and visiting this place where two of the greatest men that ever lived lost their lives. When you are in this room, in a lot of ways, I think we are on sacred ground.”
The meaningful visit to Carthage Jail was shown as part of a never-before-seen video presentation featuring the late President Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at RootsTech’s Family Discovery Day on Saturday, March 2. The film was recorded at various Church history sites, including Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois, prior to his death on Nov. 12, 2023.
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