Episode 21: Oh Emma, Where Art Thou?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:29)
This was a discovery that would catch the attention of anyone interested in Mormon history.
In 1983, a woman came to Salt Lake City with news of an incredible treasure trove that had been passed down to her. She was the great, great, great, great granddaughter of Emma Hale, first wife of Joseph Smith. She had inherited a trunkful of Emma materials, including 11 journals which shed light on so many key events in Mormon history. Her journals recorded how Joseph had blessed her with the authority to baptize, how she did in fact push Eliza Arseneau down the stairs and so on. And in addition, there were previously unknown letters between her and Joseph. Even one where he described his first vision to her. Paintings by her son, David Hiram Smith, and seer stones, not just one, but two of them. This was easily one of the most exciting finds for Mormon historians in a very long time. One that shed light on Mormonism's first lady, who sadly had left almost no personal writings. Not surprisingly, this was of particular interest to Linda King Newell and Val Tippett Savery, who were nearly done with Emma's biography.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:57)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:59)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:26)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:31)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:39)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Thanks for watching! Now, this is where Ashton Kutcher pops out yelling, you've been punked, Elder. You may be thinking, wait a minute, how have I never heard of this story? One excellent reason. The whole thing was as bogus as aspartame studies.
First, this woman claimed that the trunk had been stolen while she was in the army. The diaries, which had been taken out of the trunk, had been mailed to her sister, but that all-important box with the diaries had not arrived. So, folks contacted people at the postal service to see what they could find out. Then when the feds got involved, the house of cards came tumbling down, which is appropriate, seeing as cards are the devil's currency anyway. Putting our serious hat back on. This story was noticeably painful for me when I read it the first time.
As her biography notes, Emma Hale Smith is in so many ways an enigma. These documents, journals from a woman, a woman at the center of everything in early Mormonism. They would have been so fascinating to read. No dice though.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:59)
Thankfully, the biography published a year after this episode would help everyone forget the pain. 105 years after her death, Emma Hale's life would finally receive the treatment it deserved.
Who was this intriguing woman, this Mormon enigma?
Emma Hale was born on July 1804 in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She was a seventh child, which to some people marked her as a special child. She was very intelligent, and Emma was likely homeschooled until a log school house was built in the community when she was nine. She excelled at everything and was even sent to a special girl school for a year. Seems clear that her mother was motivated to make sure Emma was better educated than she was, because Elizabeth Lewis struggled through a life of poverty and was not always able to go to school. It was a priority for her. When Emma returned from girl school, she then taught in Harmony, likely the same building where she attended school herself.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:06)
We don't have a lot of hard data on her childhood and teenage years, but we do have a few hints as to her character. Independent, quiet, but friendly, measured decision-making, hard worker.
All of these traits would be sorely needed for the next chapter of her life. In the early 1820s, treasure fever swept through the area. Stories of Spanish gold and pirates fired the imagination of many. Now, even if we silence our inner eight-year-old for a minute, it's not hard to see why people were sucked in by this. If your life consists of dawn to dusk work on a farm, scrapping and hoping that disease or accidents stay the hell away from you, and knowing that your kids then undoubtedly will repeat this existence, the alert of a big score just had to have been incredibly powerful.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:54)
So there's this posse that sort of grows through a distant relative of Emma's, and there's a guy named Josiah Stoll who lives across the river. The two of them, this posse and Josiah, dig around but decided they need reinforcements. Stoll knew a Smith family that had several sons who were strong, and one of them even had a reputation as a village seer, very convenient. So needing money, both Joseph Senior and Joseph Smith Junior came and boarded at the Hale House while working at the dig. This is where all the romance happens.