Without Disclosing My True Identity
Joseph’s support of his shy brother (in between some occasional chidings)
contributed to Hyrum’s decision to marry Jerusha on November 2, 1826.^12 Hyrum waited
almost three years after the death of his dear brother, and Jerusha’s first love, before he
found the courage to ask her hand in marriage. The engagement never would have
happened without Joseph’s constant support and encouragement.
Emma Hale
During the years of 1824 through 1826, Joseph, Hyrum, and their father stayed
wherever their employers provided food and lodging. Many families in the area
supplemented their income by renting out their homes as a place where employers could
care for their hires. While working near Harmony, Pennsylvania, the Isaac Hale home was
one of the places contracted by Josiah Stowell to care for the Smiths.^13
Isaac’s first impressions of Joseph Jr. were biased from a father’s instinct that his
beautiful daughter was partial to a simple laborer who often missed work and rebuked his
father for drinking too much. No matter how hard a father tries, however, he generally
cannot stop a daughter from choosing the object of her affection without his consent. Had
Isaac not wanted the money provided him for having the Smiths stay and eat at his home,
he would have turned the Smiths out the moment he sensed that his daughter Emma^14 had
become infatuated with the handsome, but “careless young man [who was] not very well
educated, and [was] very saucy and insolent to[wards] his father.”^15
Although he tried to win over Isaac Hale, Joseph never succeeded; and the rumors
started by his own mother didn’t help his cause. The more Emma’s father heard the
circulating rumors and stories about the object of his daughter’s affection, the stronger he
attempted to dissuade her from caring for Joseph. But again, the stronger a father tries, the
more he pushes his daughter away from him and into the arms of her chosen beau.
By the end of 1826, Isaac Hale wanted nothing further to do with Joseph. The income
had ended because the Smith’s labor wasn’t needed near his home any longer, but Joseph’s
and Emma’s desire for each other never abated. Isaac Hale lost his beautiful daughter to a
man whom he despised. Joseph and Emma eloped back to New York, where they were
married on January 17, 1827,^16 because of the animosity between Joseph and Isaac.
Of course, Emma heard all the rumors and stories about Joseph; and, of course,
her father used whatever means he could, true or false, to dissuade his daughter from
falling for such a character. But Emma had come to know the real Joseph; and each
rumor she was told was often dispelled by Joseph’s sweet smile and hearty laugh. Emma
Smith was not stupid. Neither were Josiah Stowell, his son, and many other men who
employed Joseph Smith, Jr. at that time. Had Joseph shown any inappropriateness in his
behavior, had he personally made any outrageous claims of “specialness” or having
been “called of God” to form a new religion, those close to him would have known this
and questioned him.
Josiah Stowell, Jr. knew Joseph well during this time period and also remained
unattached from Joseph emotionally because of religious belief. Josiah Jr. gave the correct
facts (stated above) of how Joseph presented himself during the time he received the
visitation from Moroni on September 22, 1823 and the time he took possession of the
plates and the Urim and Thummim four years later, saying, “at that time [Joseph] did not
profess religion.”^17