Joseph Fielding Smith - Early Life

Early Life

Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., was the first son born to Julina Lambson Smith, the second wife and first plural wife of Joseph F. Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. By agreement between Joseph F. Smith and Julina, Smith was given his father's name, even though Joseph F. Smith's third and fourth wives had previously had sons. Growing up, Smith lived in Joseph F. Smith's large family home at 333 West 100 North. The home stood directly opposite of the University of Deseret (name changed in 1892 to University of Utah).

In January 1879, when Smith was two years old, the U.S. Supreme Court in Reynolds v. United States upheld the constitutionality of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862, which had criminalized the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. Due to the aggressive federal enforcement of this ruling, as well as the Edmunds Act of 1882 and the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, many LDS Church leaders, including Smith's father Joseph F. Smith, were either imprisoned or forced into hiding and exile during most of the 1880s. In January 1885, Smith's parents and his younger sister Julina left for the Sandwich Islands (modern Hawaii), where Joseph F. Smith had served a mission as a teenager in the 1850s. In their absence, Smith continued to live in the family home with his brothers and sisters and his father's other wives, whom he lovingly referred to as "aunties". Smith's mother returned to Salt Lake City in 1887, followed later by his father. Even after his return, Joseph F. Smith was unable to openly visit and care for his wives and children until receiving a presidential pardon from U.S. President Benjamin Harrison in September 1891.

Smith's mother Julina worked as a midwife to help provide for the family; she delivered nearly 1,000 babies in her career without ever having a mother or infant die in childbirth. As a boy he often drove his mother by wagon to the various deliveries that she attended in Salt Lake City. Smith's primary schooling took place in "ward schools", which were semi-formal schools run by members of each ward in the 19th century and taught the traditional "three R's": reading, writing, and arithmetic. As a teenager, he completed two years of study at the Latter-day Saint College, an institution equivalent to the modern U.S. high school, which provided courses in the basic areas of mathematics, geography, history, basic science, and penmanship. After leaving the college, Smith began working as a stock clerk doing manual labor at ZCMI to supplement the family's income. Smith was present in the large assembly room of the Salt Lake Temple for its dedication on 6 April 1893 by Church President Wilford Woodruff.