Samuel Harrison Smith (13 March 1808 – 30 July 1844) was a younger brother of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Samuel was a leader in his own right and a successful missionary. Smith is commonly regarded as the first Latter Day Saint missionary following the organization of the Church of Christ by his brother, Joseph. One of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates, Samuel Smith remained devoted to his church throughout his life.
Early life
Born in Tunbridge, Vermont, to Joseph Smith Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith, Samuel moved with his family to western New York by the 1820s. When Smith's father missed a mortgage payment on the family farm on the outskirts of Manchester Township, near Palmyra, a local Quaker named Lemuel Durfee purchased the land and allowed the Smiths to continue to live there in exchange for Samuel's labor at Durfee's store.
Book of Mormon witness and church establishment
On May 25, 1829, Smith became the third person baptized as a Latter Day Saint. Smith was baptized by Oliver Cowdery, who had become the first baptized Latter Day Saint on May 15, 1829 (Joseph Smith had been baptized immediately after Cowdery).
At the end of June 1829, Samuel, along with his brother Hyrum, his father, and several men of the Peter Whitmer Sr. family, signed a joint statement declaring their testimony of the golden plates that Joseph Smith said he translated into the Book of Mormon. The witnesses stated that "we did handle [the golden plates] with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon". This "Testimony of the Eight Witnesses" was printed as the final page of the Book of Mormon and is still included in the preface of most current editions.
Smith became one of the first six members of the Church of Christ when it was formally organized on April 6, 1830.
Latter Day Saint missionary
thumb|upright|Book of Mormon given by Samuel H. Smith that ended up with Brigham Young
At the next church conference, Smith was ordained one of the church's earliest elders. Smith was a successful missionary and served a number of missions. His first mission involved going to Mendon, New York, where he gave John P. Greene a copy of the Book of Mormon, which not only led to Greene joining the church, but also Greene's brother-in-law, Brigham Young.
In December 1830, Smith went on a mission to Kirtland, Ohio, to follow up on the success Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt had teaching there. Smith later went on a mission with Reynolds Cahoon in which they traveled to Missouri in 1831. During this mission they taught and baptized William E. McLellin.
In June 1832, Smith and Orson Hyde were the first Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach in Connecticut. During the same month, Smith and Hyde went to Boston. As a result of their efforts, branches were established in both Boston and New Rowley, Massachusetts. In July 1832, Smith and Hyde went to Providence, Rhode Island; they baptized two people, but in response to threats of violence left the state after being there only twelve days. In September 1832, Smith and Hyde were the first Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach in Maine. On this 1832 mission, Smith and Hyde also baptized people in Spafford, New York. After evading the mobbers, he traveled to the jail (said to have been the first Latter-day Saint after the mobbers left), and retrieved his brothers' bodies. Some church members assumed that Samuel would succeed Joseph as the president of the Latter Day Saint church (see lineal succession (Latter Day Saints)). However, Samuel fell ill shortly after their deaths and died just one month later.
Smith's official cause of death was "bilious fever", Smith's brother, William, later stated that he had good reason to believe that Smith was poisoned by Hosea Stout on orders from Brigham Young and Willard Richards. In a meeting on July 10, 1844, Smith had been in a meeting with Richards in which Smith reminded the group that he was Joseph's designee as president if both Joseph and Hyrum had died.