Patriarch and Assistant President
Hyrum Smith
1800–1844
2 topics · 8 dated events
Their part in each topic
Violence and the Mormon Conflict
Patriarch, city councilor
Hyrum was in the First Presidency during the Missouri conflict and, according to Avard, present when the Danite band was blessed. In the Nauvoo council debate of 10 June 1844 he argued that the best course was "to smash the press and pi the type." He was shot first at Carthage seventeen days later.
The Succession Crisis of 1844
Patriarch and Assistant President
The January 1841 revelation now printed as Doctrine and Covenants 124 gave Hyrum the office of Patriarch by right of birth and the keys, priesthood and gifts once held by Oliver Cowdery, and appointed him 'a prophet, and a seer, and a revelator unto my church, as well as my servant Joseph.' On paper he was the clearest successor Joseph ever named. He died in the same room at Carthage, which removed that answer at the moment the question arose.
In the timeline
8 events across 2 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Far West surrenders; Doniphan refuses to execute the prisoners
Colonel George M. Hinkle brought Joseph Smith and other leaders into the militia camp, where they were taken prisoner. A militia court-martial sentenced them to be shot the next morning; General Doniphan refused to carry out the order, calling the proceeding illegal. Far West surrendered its arms and the inhabitants signed away property to cover the cost of the campaign.
The Richmond court of inquiry; Avard testifies
Judge Austin A. King heard evidence for more than two weeks against some sixty defendants. Sampson Avard, captured and threatened with prosecution, was the state's chief witness; he called Joseph Smith "the prime mover and organizer of this Danite band" and produced a Danite constitution. King found probable cause against thirty-four men. Smith, his brother Hyrum, Rigdon, Wight, McRae and Baldwin were held for treason.
Liberty Jail
Six prisoners were confined in a two-level limestone jail measuring about fourteen feet square, mostly in the cold lower room lit by two grated openings. They petitioned unsuccessfully for habeas corpus; only Rigdon was released. Meanwhile the body of the church left Missouri for Illinois through the winter.
Hyrum Smith given Oliver Cowdery's place
A revelation directed that Hyrum Smith take 'the office of priesthood and patriarch, which was appointed unto him by his father, by blessing and also by right,' and appointed him 'a prophet, and a seer, and a revelator unto my church, as well as my servant Joseph,' crowned with the priesthood and gifts once put upon Oliver Cowdery.
The city council declares the Expositor a nuisance and the press is destroyedhinge
The council sat for hours across two days. Joseph Smith said that if he had a council who felt as he did the establishment would be a nuisance before night, and called it a greater nuisance than a dead carcass; Hyrum Smith said the best way was to smash the press and pi the type. The council passed a libel ordinance and ordered the nuisance abated. About eight o'clock the marshal reported that he had removed the press, type and printed papers into the street and burned them.
Surrender at Carthage and the treason charge
Joseph and Hyrum Smith and fifteen others surrendered on Governor Ford's guarantee of safety and were arraigned before justice of the peace Robert F. Smith, who was also captain of the Carthage Greys. The riot case was continued and bail posted; Joseph and Hyrum were then served with writs charging treason, a non-bailable offence, and taken to Carthage Jail without a hearing on that charge.
Joseph and Hyrum Smith are killed at Carthage Jailhinge
Ford discharged the Warsaw militia that morning, left two companies of the Carthage Greys guarding the jail and rode to Nauvoo. In the late afternoon the discharged Warsaw men returned and stormed the jail. Willard Richards's journal records the cry to surrender, three or four shots, and a hundred armed men around the door. Hyrum was shot first; Joseph was hit at the window. John Taylor was severely wounded and Richards unhurt.
Joseph and Hyrum Smith are killed at Carthagehinge
A mob drawn largely from the disbanded Warsaw militia stormed Carthage Jail in the late afternoon. Hyrum was shot first; Joseph was killed at the window. John Taylor was badly wounded and Willard Richards was unhurt. They were the only two apostles in Illinois — the rest were in the eastern states campaigning for Joseph's presidential run.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with Hyrum Smith.
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