JOSEPH SMITH SR. FAMILY REUNION

Dear Family,

The Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family group held its reunion in Salt Lake City this year.  This has been an active group trying to find and identify descendants of Joseph Smith Jr. and the other children of his parents.  There is a large LDS contingent through the Hyrum Smith line and there are descendants of Joseph Smith Jr. some of whom, are active in the RLDS church.  Our friend, Karl Anderson, has worked with this group for several years.

2103 marked the 200th anniversary of the surgery Joseph Smith went through when he was 7 years old.  The family organized a 5K  run to commemorate this as Joseph Smith liked to run as a young man.  The funds raised are going to a scholarship for a medical student at Dartmouth Medical School in appreciation for the role Dartmouth  played in the life of Joseph Smith.

Doug's family participated in the run. Here is something you do not see every day.  Kristina is there with Tommy, Izzy, Catherine and Rebecca with little Ellen .  Ellen and Izzy ran in the half mile race and here is Ellen with her number.  Elder Ballard was there greeting the kids.  He started the race by drawing a line in the dirt.  Mom said that Izzy and Ellen were really booking at the end.

I was asked to speak in the afternoon on this surgical event in the Prophet's life.  Here is Doug helping me get set up[ (notice how Svelte he looks after running and getting in shape for a marathon.)  The setup was complicated but we finally got the projector working on a huge screen.

The room was full, I think about 500 or so were there.  Here is the front row and the fellow in the yellow is Karl Anderson.  He has been a friend since the Swiss Austrian Mission days many years ago.  He lives in the Cleveland area and has spent must of his time studying, promoting and documenting the Kirkland period of  Church history.  His recent book, "The Savior in Kirtland"  is a most read.  He has been a good friend and we used to visit him when we were in Michigan; our families went to Cedar Point and had a ball.  He visited me and gave  me a blessing when I went to the Cleveland Clinic for open heart surgery.  It was good to see him again.

Flanking him is Don Larsen and his wife.  Don is a direct descendant of Joseph Smith through Joseph Smith III.  It was interesting to talk to him.

There was a descendant of Nathan Smith there as well.  This is Dr. Longcope, I believe a seventh generation grandson of Nathan Smith.  He practices in Denver.  And that was a great moment to meet a descendant of that great physician.  (picture from Meridian).

Well I finally got to present my PowerPoint talk.  I placed a seven year old descendant on a table on the podium so all could get a feeling of scale.  I talked about Nathan Smith who had successfully developed  a procedure and after care saving the limbs of many young people in that New England Area.  When he was called on to operate on young Joseph, he brought with him a 17 year experience of successfully treating chronic osteomeyelitis.  If there was a miracle, it was that the Smith family happened to live close to Hannover.  Had they lived in Boston, NewYork or Philadelphia, Joseph would have lost his leg. It was a miracle that Nathan Smith had developed this procedure and was the only one certainly in America (or anywhere) who performed it at all.  I pointed out that Joseph had four surgeries but only one definitive by Nathan Smith.  I gave them the long version of the story and hope I did not kill them with facts. I was tickled that Cheryl brought two of her daughters to the talk.  So it was a big day and a thrill to meet this family group.

Love to all,  Dad