American religious leader, poet, painter, singer, philosopher, and naturalist. The youngest son of Joseph Smith, Jr. and Emma Hale Smith, he was an influential missionary and leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was born approximately five months after the murder of his father. Beginning in December 1847, he was raised by his mother and her second husband, Lewis C. Bidamon.
Smith was a highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). From 1865 to 1873, he conducted missionary trips throughout the Midwest, Utah Territory, and California, debating preachers of different theologies, including representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From 1873 to 1885, Smith was a counselor to his brother Joseph Smith III in the First Presidency of the RLDS Church. He was also the father of Elbert A. Smith, who was a member of the First Presidency and a Presiding Patriarch in the RLDS Church.
Smith was called the Sweet Singer of Israel because many who knew him, who heard him sing, and joined him in song, stated that he was the most inspiring singer of God they had encountered. The Joseph Smith Historic Site, maintained by the Community of Christ, houses Smith’s original paintings of Nauvoo, Illinois.
Smith’s mental deterioration started with a probable breakdown early in 1870 and ending with his death on August 29, 1904 in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, Illinois. Smith was confined in the institution for twenty-seven years.
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