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Smith Family Cemetery |
Smith Family Cemetery
Nauvoo, Illinois |
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Historical Background |
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Joseph Smith Sr. died September 14, 1840 and was buried in the family cemetery located on the Joseph Smith Homestead property. Several other Smith family members were buried here in the 1840s including Don Carlos (Prophet's brother) who died August 7, 1841 and Samuel Smith (Prophet's brother) who died July 30, 1844, a few weeks after the murder of his brothers Joseph and Hyrum. | |
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Joseph Smith's Family
Nauvoo, Illinois
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Joseph Smith's parents' graves
Nauvoo, Illinois
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Grave of Hyrum Smith, the Prophet's brother
Nauvoo, Illinois |
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The Prophet Joseph Smith's grave
Nauvoo, Illiinois
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The Story Behind the Graves |
After the murder of Joseph (Prophet) and his brother, Hyrum, their bodies were removed from the pine coffins in which the Mormons had viewed them during the funeral service in the Mansion House. Bags of sand replaced the bodies in the coffins, and were taken to the burial site at the Temple. That evening about midnight, Dimick Huntington and several other men, directed by Emma (the Prophet's wife) buried the bodies of the Prophet and patriarch in the dirt basement of the uncompleted Nauvoo House to protect the bodies from mutilation by their enemies.Emma knew that this could only be a temporary location, since work on the Nauvoo House might disturb the graves. The decision was made to remove the bodies once again under the cover of darkness. Sometime around midnight, Emma had Gilbert Goldsmith, Jonathan Holmes, city coroner Dimick Huntington, and city sexton William Huntington remove the bodies from the Nauvoo House across the street to the Homestead property. About 25 paces from the southeast corner of the Homestead stood the "spring house," a small shed. The men removed the shed and placed the bodies side-by-side in the new grave and then moved the shed back to its original spot. The exact location of the graves was lost when Emma Smith died in 1879. The leaders of the Reformed Later Day Saints church had the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum found, exhumed, and reburied on January 20, 1928. The graves of Joseph and Hyrum were marked for the first time. | | |
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| Ray Hollenbeck hollenbeck49@earthlink.net 521 North 5th Street Burlington Iowa 52601-5126 United States of America Phone: (319) 752-0106 |
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