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Video Transcript:
Hey guys! A couple of years after the murder of Joseph Smith, most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled west. Some people might be surprised to hear that Joseph’s first wife, Emma, stayed behind — a decision that caused some drama over the years. So, why didn’t she go west? Let’s talk about it.
Among the myriad of reasons why Emma stayed in Nauvoo, there are a few that rise to the top of the list. In no particular order, she stayed behind because (1) traveling west would have been a huge sacrifice she wasn’t prepared to make. (2) She got married to a non-member. (3) She didn’t get along with Brigham Young. And (4) She emphatically disagreed with the Church’s practice of polygamy. Let’s run through these.
By mid-1844, at only 40 years old, “Emma had lost her husband, her mother and father, her father-in-law, three brothers-in-law and five children.” Making the journey west as a widow, with little money, and with her 5 surviving children would have been a formidable and potentially dangerous task. In an 1856 discussion with Edmund Briggs, she explained, “I have always avoided talking to my children about having anything to do in the church, for I have suffered so much I have dreaded to have them take any part in it.” In Nauvoo, she was established. She had a home, and she had relatives nearby. She told some visiting Latter-day Saints, “You may think I was not a very good Saint not to go West, but I had a home here and did not go because I did not know what I should have there.”
Another obstacle for Emma was her marriage in December of 1847 to Lewis Bidamon. At the time he married Emma, he called himself a deist—he had never been a member of the Church. Emma’s biographers suggest that Lewis believed Joseph was an honest man who may have been deceived. “Emma’s union with Lewis Bidamon ended speculation that she might someday accept the Twelve’s offer of assistance to go west, and although her name was never removed from the membership records, in their eyes, it affirmed her separation from the Church.”
But Emma also had problems with church leadership — particularly with Joseph’s successor, Brigham Young. Joseph did not leave behind a will, and after his death, there was a lot of confusion about what belonged to the Church and what now belonged to Emma. “Most of the assets were in Joseph’s name as trustee-in-trust for the church; the liabilities were in Joseph’s name as a private citizen, and Emma was now accountable.” Emma, now responsible for Joseph’s unpaid debts, was in an incredibly stressful financial situation. She felt that Brigham didn’t treat her or her family fairly. Emma was trying to do what was best for her family, and Brigham was trying to do what was best for the Church.
One biographer noted that “Whenever he and Emma Smith met, they disagreed; apparently, the two could never reconcile. This was most exasperating for Young; that such a powerful figure as Emma Smith should remain at odds with the Church was a figurative slap in the face.”
In 1869, she wrote that “there is not the least particle of friendship existing between him and myself.” While visiting Emma in 1876, Joseph Edward Taylor “discovered her intense dislike for Pres. Brigham Young, whom she accused of entirely ignoring Joseph’s family. She claimed that the family had a right to not only recognition but to representation.’”
Perhaps the most influential factor in Emma’s decision to stay behind in Nauvoo was the issue of polygamy or plural marriage. Her acceptance of the practice waffled back and forth while Joseph was alive, but after his death, she unwaveringly opposed it. At the same time, she knew that Brigham Young supported plural marriage and would implement it among the Saints in the West. This was at least partially why she wanted Nauvoo Stake President William Marks to lead the Church after Joseph’s death — like Emma, Marks did not support polygamy.
When a Latter-day Saint visitor later invited her and her family out to the Salt Lake Valley, she reportedly replied that “she could not live with the ‘false doctrines’ preached there.”
Emma went so far as to teach her children that Joseph had never even taught plural marriage. Brigham knew that that wasn’t true, as did many others. In 1860, Emma’s son, Joseph III, finally accepted an invitation to head up a new church called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which we’ve talked about before. Not surprisingly, in some of his first remarks to the RLDS church, he firmly denounced polygamy and (in agreement with Emma) denied that his father had ever taught it. Even William Marks, who served as Joseph III’s counselor, knew that wasn’t true. He said as much in 1865 during a meeting of the RLDS First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, but despite testimony from Marks and others, Joseph III continued to deny his father’s involvement.
Clearly frustrated, in 1872, Brigham Young remarked that Emma’s kids were endeavoring “to obliterate every particle of [Joseph Smith’s] doctrine … These boys are not following Joseph Smith, but Emma Bidamon.”
As Latter-day Saints or “Brighamites,” as Emma might have called us, it can sometimes be easy to focus on what we view as Emma’s mistakes and shortcomings. But I think it’s important to extend her some grace and focus on the positive. For example, the Church’s website notes that “Although Emma remained estranged from Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saints in Utah, she maintained her belief in Joseph Smith’s prophetic role and in the divine truth of the Book of Mormon … Her name and character have been both revered and misunderstood in Latter-day Saint memory, but her actions and influence cannot be erased.”
In addition to Emma, many of Joseph Smith’s own siblings also did not travel west. For more info on why they stayed behind, go watch this episode, and have a great day.