JOSEPH SMITH, son of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, is to-day the spiritual and temporal leader of 20,000 people who accept the Bible and the Book of Mormon as their guides in all matters of religion, who repudiate Brigham Young and his successors in the Utah branch, have established and yet maintain missions in the Salt Lake Valley for the purpose of warning the Brighamites from the crime and folly of polygamy, and who have been declared by an Ohio court to be the legal successors to the original Mormon Church of Palmyra, Kirtland and Nauvoo.

When, in 1880, this so-called Iowa. branch of Mormonism was making a legal fight for the old temple at Kirtland upon which the elder Joseph had staked so much, and in which he had claimed to hold converse with Moses, Elias, and the Most High, it

was officially declared by Judge L. S. Sherman, of Lake county, "that the plaintiff, the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the true and lawful continuation of and successor to the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled in law to all its rights and property."

When the younger Joseph and his followers, half a dozen years ago, made a pilgrimage back to Kirtland, to hold an annual conference in the old temple they had purchased and refitted, a spasm of horror ran through staid Ohio over the prospect of a few hundred Mormons, with a dozen wives each, descending upon Lake county to preach and practice. their peculiar doctrines, and the lack of knowledge there as to the existtence, teachings and moral conduct. of this most exemplary branch of the

Mormon church is general throughout the land to-day, where seven men out of ten know absolutely nothing of this son of the Prophet Joseph, and the results that have come from his teachings and work.

The statistical report of the reorganized church gives, for 1888, a total membership of 20,678, and for 1889, 22,163; a gain of 1,485. This report was made at the April session of 1889, and the leaders of the church now state that from the reports already received from their various fields of labor this figure will, by April, 1890, touch close on 25,000. These figures cover actual enrolled communicants over eight years of age, and do not include many, possibly hundreds, who affiliate with the church, but are not enrolled. In commenting upon these figures, when furnishing them, President Smith said to the writer: "Were all these incorporated I would feel safe in saying that we would number over thirty thousand, and put in our children and the number would be still larger. We added by baptism 1,743, the other additions were upon certificates of standing or membership, mainly before my father's death in 1844."

The term "reorganized," as here. used, signifies that the church is a reorganization of the elements of which the parent church was composed at the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, upon the basis of faith, church government, and doctrine then embodied in the published

and authentic documents. of the church. The original church was crganized in 1830, and was at first called "The Church of Christ," but as there was already existing a denomination under that

name, the words "Jesus" and "Latter Day Saints" were introduced by resolution and vote to secure recognition and protection under the law of the land. By 1844, when the founder of the church and his brother were murdered in Carthage Jail, the humble membership of six had been swelled. to a figure somewhere between 150,Ooo and 200,000, as estimated by Smith and others. This number had been converted and baptized into the new faith under the missionary efforts of the elders upon a confession of belief in which there was no plural wife system of any sort, and no hint of disloyalty to the United States. There were, according to the best. information that can now be obtained at Nauvoo and in Hancock county, Ill., in the zenith of the Prophet's power, some 25,000 of the church membership.

When Smith had fallen a victim to the wrath of his enemies, and the claims of Rigdon, Strang, Bishop, and others to the prophetic successorship had been pushed aside by the strong and ruthless hand of Brigham Young, the great hegira to the wilderness of Salt Lake occurred. It is usually supposed that the mass of believers in Mormonism, as that faith then prevailed, went with Brigham to the

West. This is a mistake. The statistics of Utah show that in 1850, the first census year after the settlement of the Mormons there, there was a population of a little over 11,380; in 1860, 40,273; in 1870, 86,786; and in 1880, 143,963. From statistics furnished by the Mormons in Utah to the public last year there, were 9 apostles, 75 patriarchs, 3,719 high priests, 11,805 elders, 2,065 priests, 2,282 teachers, 11,610 deacons, and in families other than officers 81,889, equal to a total of 113,754.

These figures are given to emphasize the fact that the missionary work of the church during the prophet's lifetime, without polygamy, resulted in an addition to the church of from 150,000 to 200,000, in the space of fourteen years, or from April 6th, 1830, to June 27, 1844; and that after forty-five years from Smith's death, or from June 27, 1844 to 1889, there are not 150,000 in the Utah church, notwithstanding the additions of plural marriage, proselyting, and natural increase.

The fact is that there were many hundreds, and perhaps thousands, who would not and did not accept the rule of Young and the dogma of polygamy. The prophet's surviving brother, William Smith; his sisters, Sophronia McClary, Catherine Salisbury and Lucy Millikin, with their families; his wife, Emma, and her family, were all among those who refused credence to Young. The greater number of those who were at

Nauvoo, in other sections of Illinois, and in other States of the Union, became as shepherdless sheep when their leader was killed, and scattered away from the settlements they had made and erected new homes where they could, many taking part in the associations and church divisions above referred to, but many more quietly settling down to take care of themselves and await the development of events. One by one the various associations failed; William Smith at Covington, Ky., and Palestine, Ill.; Sidney Rigdon at Pittsburg, Penn., and the Cumberland Valley; Lyman Wight in Texas; Alpheus Cutter in Iowa; James J. Strang at Voree, Wis., and on the Beaver Islands in Lake Michigan. The thousands who had followed them were left headless and scattered, as at first. In 1851 a few who were settled in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, all of them members of the church, on the death of Smith, set themselves lovingly and resolutely to the task of gathering these separated fragments together, basing their appeal upon the right of membership and the laws given to the church through the administration of Joseph Smith, which were to be found in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

These faithful few succeeded in arousing a great interest among their brethren of the early days, and in June, 1852, a conference was held at

Beloit, Wis. An organization was determined upon, committees of conference and missionaries were appointed, and a determined effort set on foot to find and enroll the many scattered members, isolated or in groups, all over the Northwest. This effort was quite successful, and in April, 1860, a conference was held at Amboy, Lee county, Ill., at which about three hundred members were represented. The Prophet's wife, Emma, and his son Joseph united with the movement at this conference upon the baptism they had received in the original church, young Joseph having been baptized at his father's own hands some time before his death. From this humble start has the Reorganized church grown, steadily and surely, until now it numbers its 25,000 scattered all over the globe, with its headquarters in Iowa. From the conference minutes of 1888 it is learned that in England it has a membership of 608; in Scotland, 15; in Wales, 173; in Canada, 880; in Nova Scotia, 26; in the Society Islands, 725, and in Australia, 188.

Joseph Smith, the Presiding Elder in name and the spiritual and the temporal leader in fact, has had an eventful life in some respects, in which compensation has followed close upon trial in many ways. He has never been self-seeking, and his present labor has been laid upon him at the hands of the church and not because of his own ambition. Men generally give him credit for sincerity, and he

certainly holds the confidence and affection of his church.

He was born at Kirtland, Ohio, in November, 1832, at a time when the church was in its youth and just learning what germs of expansion and growth had been planted within it. He has a dim recollection of the exciting scenes amid which his boyhood was passed, and can relate many incidents that made a lasting impression upon his mind. He remembers a visit, in company with his mother, to the Missouri jail, into which his father had been cast, "the removal to Illinois," to quote his own language, "the crossing on the ice, the return of my father from captivity, and the subsequent arrival at Commerce. With the sickly season that ensued upon the settlement made at Commerce,subsequently Nauvoo, my active life began. At my mother's. direction, and under her active ministration, I aided to care for those whom the malaria of the swamp, incident to the new country, struck down with the fever. Once, with a house full of fever-stricken patients, a tent in the yard furnished shelter to mother and children, while with tender and sleepless solicitude she cared for those placed in her charge; father absent, and others with their hands full caring for their own, left no help to her save that of her little boys, the oldest only able to carry water from the spring to cool the parched tongue and quench the fevered thirst." In the fall of 1843, or the

spring of 1844, he does not remember which, he was baptized by his father. at the foot of Main street, Nauvoo. "During the latter year," he adds, "and before the death of my father and Uncle Hyrum, I was blessed by the first in the presence of quite a number of the prominent elders in the church, this blessing being confirmed just prior to the tragedy at Carthage."

There is little doubt that Joseph intended the successorship to fall upon his son, and that he was mur dered by the mob before he could make the claim of the son secure. Bishop John D. Lee, in that remarkable confession and life record written just before his execution for the Mountain Meadows massacre, in writing of the final days at Nauvoo, makes use of these words:

"It was then understood among the saints that young Joseph was to succeed his father, and that right justly belonged to him. Joseph, the Prophet, had bestowed that right upon him by ordination, but he was too young at that time to fill the office and discharge its solemn duties. Some one must fill the place until he had grown to more mature age. heard Mother Smith, the mother of Joseph the Prophet, plead with Brigham Young, with tears, not to rob young Joseph of his birthright, which his father, the Prophet, bestowed upon him previous to his death. That Young Joseph was to succeed his father as the leader of the church,

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and it was his right in the line of the priesthood. 'I know it,' replied Brigham; 'don't worry or take any trouble, Mother Smith: by so doing you are only laying the knife to the throat of the child. If it is known that he is the rightful successor of his father, the enemy of the priesthood will seek his life. He is too young to lead this people now, but when he arrives at mature age, he shall have his place; no one shall rob him of it.' When the time came, according to his own words, for Joseph to receive his own, Joseph came, but Brigham received him not. He said, as an excuse, that Joseph had not the true spirit; that his mother had married a Gentile lawyer, and had infused the Gentile spirit into him; that Joseph denied the doctrine of his father's celestial marriage. Brigham closed the door and barred him from preaching in the Tabernacle, and raised a storm of persecution against him.”

The son Joseph and his widowed mother remained in Nauvoo until 1847, when the last named became the wife of Major L. C. Bidamon, the "Gentile lawyer" above referred to. Joseph spent some time as clerk in a store, and then ventured into a small mercantile business of his own on a few hundred dollars advanced by his mother, but it did not prove a success. He spent some time upon a farm, became a railroad sub-contractor upon the Warsaw & Rockford road, in which he sunk a season's work and