HARTSHORN, Clara Charlotte

1851 - 1926  (75 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	HARTSHORN, Clara Charlotte
  Birth	18 May 1851	Beloit, Rock, Wisconsin, United States
  Gender	Female
  Burial	Aug 1926	Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Decatur, Iowa, United States
  Death	9 Aug 1926	Independence, Jackson, Missouri, United States
  WAC	25 Jan 1996	FRANK
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I1427	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family ID

  F880

  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	SMITH, David Hyrum ,   b. 17 Nov 1844, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United Statesd. 29 Aug 1904, Elgin, Kane, Illinois, United States (Age 59 years)
  Marriage	10 May 1870	Sandwich, DeKalb, Illinois
  Children	+ 1. SMITH, Elbert Aoriul ,   b. 8 Mar 1871, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United Statesd. 15 May 1959, Independence, Jackson, Missouri, United States (Age 88 years)
  Family ID	F872	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

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  Published- BIOGRAPHY (web): Clara Charlotte Hartshorn—Faithful widow of David Hyrum Smith[edit] Written By Gracia N. Jones Clara Charlotte Hartshorn, born 18 May, 1851, in Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin, married David Hyrum Smith, 10 May, 1871, in Sandwich, DeKalb, Illinois. Just short of six years after they married, David was hospitalized, 19 January 1877, with severe mental illness, leaving Clara on her own to raise their son and only child, Elbert Aoriul Smith. Many friends urged her to get a divorce but she refused. Faithfully, she waited over twenty-seven years, always hoping that he would recover and return to her. When he died in 1904 without recovering, or even improving enough for a reconciliation, she was broken-hearted; she remained single another twenty-two years, a widow indeed, until her own death in 1926. As tragic as her life may seem, Clara left a legacy of quiet dignified endurance in tribulation and an outstanding example of faith and courage. With this said, one could wish we could learn more of her family heritage; but our information regarding these folks is sketchy, gleaned primarily through their obituaries, and U.S. Census records. These sources reveal that William Harriman Hartshorn was born in New Hampshire, and his wife, Charlotte Eastman Greenwood Hartshorn, in Canada. They were married in Illinois. By noting the location of where their children were born, or where the Hartshorns lived during various census, we discover that they seem to have moved back and forth between Boone County, Illinois, Steele County, Minnesota Territory, and Rock County, Wisconsin numerous times in the decades between 1840 and 1860. This doesn’t mean they moved any great distance, because the map shows these counties are all in close proximity. According the Census record, William H. Hartshorn at one time owned a significant amount of real property, (farm land) and personal property. According to the Hartshorn family group sheet, Clara was the youngest of six children, perhaps including two sets of twins. However, careful study of the census records seems to reveal that there may have been only four children in the family. The eldest, Manley, was born 4 March 1844 in Boone Township, Boone county Illinois; the three youngest children were all born in Beloit, Rock County Wisconsin: Frederick, in March, 1846, Harvey, in 1849, and Clara, in 1851. This family would become important participants in a dramatic segment of the history of the Restoration movement, not only due to Clara’s marriage to David Hyrum Smith, but because William Hartshorn was an early associate with William Smith’s organization where he was ordained an elder in the church. He then fellowshipped, at Beloit, Wisconsin, with Jason W. Briggs, founder of what would become known as the Reorganization, later to become the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (RLDS). Prior to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844, Jason W. Briggs had been a vigorous missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Mormon Church] and was instrumental in establishing several branches of the church in Wisconsin. In 1846, when the Latter-day Saints left Illinois for the west, Briggs and his associates in Wisconsin rejected the leadership of Brigham Young. By 1850, after years of drifting from one after another of the groups who claimed to be the legitimate organization of the Restored Church, Briggs felt utterly disappointed. He came to a point where he desperately desired to know how the scattered Saints could be gathered and reorganized so as to further the restored gospel on the earth. After much prayer and fasting, in 1851, Briggs, at Beloit, Wisconsin, received a communication which he believed came from God. He was encouraged by this inspiration, to organize with a few believers who felt as he did. In his revelation, he was told to be patient and the time would come when the Prophet Joseph Smith’s son would come and lead them. He wrote this revelation down and shared it with others who, after prayer and much discussion, concluded they should assist in this effort[8]. They sent out letters to all the people they knew-of who had once been associated with the church. This Reorganization movement grew in confidence and numbers. In 1853, they sent forth a resolution calling for a conference to be held at Argyle, [later Zarahemla, now Blanchardville, Wisconsin], not far from Beloit, Wisconsin. During this conference the group founded the Zarahemla Stake, which would be the first stake of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS). William H. Hartshorn was ordained to the office of High Priest and appointed to the High Council in the Zarahemla Stake, 6 April, 1853. David Meets Clara Sometime after 1860, the Hartshorn family moved to Illinois and settled in the town of Sandwich, DeKalb County, about four miles from Plano, Kendall County, Illinois. Plano became the headquarters for the Reorganization. Charlotte was about sixteen when she was baptized into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (RLDS), at Sandwich, by President Joseph Smith III, in 1867. Apparently, David Hyrum met Clara in the course of his ministry with his brothers, Joseph Smith III, and Alexander Hale Smith, in various RLDS church meetings in the area around DeKalb and Kendall Counties in Iowa. He was very interested in her and determined that he wanted to pursue a serious relationship with her. However, David’s courtship had to be carried on by letters. In April 1869, David, at twenty-four, was assigned to accompany his brother Alexander, thirty-one, on a mission to the west: an area they designated “the Western Slope.” Their primary destination on this journey was Salt Lake City but would take them to California, as well. The brothers left Nauvoo in early May with a team and wagon, headed for Council Bluffs, Iowa. The timing of their trip coincided with the historic joining, on 10 May 1869, of the Central Pacific Railroad with the first Union Pacific railroad not far from present day Corrine, Utah. This made it possible for them to take the train all the way from Council Bluffs to the town of Corrine, a few miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. David wrote to his mother from Council Bluffs, June 21, 1869, informing her of his intention to marry Clara Hartshorn. “You must love Clara Hartshorn, for your boy does, and she is worthy . . . . she shall be my wife some day if all goes well . . . . Don’t think but what my heart is big enough to love you still the same.” Clara, along with the other members of the RLDS Church must have eagerly read the accounts in the Saints’ Herald of Alexander and David’s experiences. They reported that they arrived in Salt Lake City in July 1869, and that their interview with the leaders of the “Mormon” Church was not satisfactory; they were not given access to preach in the Tabernacle or Bowery. After a little over a month spent preaching in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Heber City, and Bountiful, they left for Malad, Idaho; then, in September, October and November they were back in Salt Lake City. Their relationship with cousins, Joseph F. Smith, George A. Smith, and others, was strained by their energetic antipathy against the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Aside from these disappointments, and David suffering some debilitating illness, they felt quite satisfied with their efforts, and finally, on 5 December they took the train and headed for California, arriving in Sacramento on the 8th. Although David was suffering off and on with a peculiar illness, they had preached whenever they could and visited Smith cousins (the family of the widow of their deceased uncle Don Carlos Smith, Agnes Coolbrith Smith Pickett and her daughters), in San Francisco and Oakland and reported amicable relations. In January 1871, while in San Francisco, David became extremely ill. He had bouts of physical pain and mental depression. In spite of his condition they continued to try to do the mission but his health was such that Alexander had great concern for him, also he received word that his own wife was very sick at Amboy. These factors caused Alexander to decide that he and David should take the train back toward Illinois. When Alexander, and a very sick David, arrived at Amboy, Emma was already there as she had been attending to Elizabeth. After a week, she took David home to Nauvoo. Once back home in peaceful and familiar surroundings he gradually seemed to recover his health and good spirits. As soon as he felt fit enough, he went to Sandwich to claim his bride. David and Clara were married, 10 May, 1870, in her parents’ home in Sandwich. The ceremony was solemnized by Brother Elijah Banta. They moved immediately to Nauvoo where they took up residence in a room in the hotel wing of the Mansion House. After settling Clara in his mother’s house, David left her there while he went preaching throughout the Mid-west, Missouri, Iowa, and Michigan. Alexander had also brought his wife and family of four children, to stay in the Mansion House while he too traveled on preaching assignments throughout the winter of 1871. Elizabeth gave birth to her fifth child, 17 May 1871. The house was crowded, with three women in the kitchen, Emma, Elizabeth, and Clara. Clara was nineteen, pregnant, and apparently felt somewhat intimidated at times. David worriedly wrote to his mother urging her to “be patient with Clara, and try to keep things peaceful in the home”. Riverside Mansion David was absent from Nauvoo for weeks, and even months at a time during most of the summer and fall, of 1871, returning briefly, then leaving again. Clara must have felt rather abandoned when he did not return even for their first Christmas and New Year’s. Clara endured, and there is no record of her complaining, as she awaited the time for her baby to put in his appearance. Even to her old age, Clara would never forget Emma’s kindness to her. The friendship forged between Clara, Emma, and Elizabeth, through many years of unremitted difficulties, would last the lifetime of all three women. David & Clara have a son, Elbert It was in the Nauvoo Mansion House, on 8 March, 1871, in room #10, Clara gave birth to a son. A couple of days later, March 10th, 1871, David wrote a jaunty birth announcement to his brother Joseph, “Give us a room that we may dwell, Zion’s children cry aloud . . . Very weak and tired, walked all the way from heaven, got here the night of the 8th, about 7 o’clock, a little (very large) boy. . . .hair light brown, skin light brown, too, for that matter. We feel very happy, very glad. . . more one than ever. . .it is our first, you can guess our state of mind. . .Clara lies like a lily newly bloomed, beautiful with motherhood. She seems fuller of health, more willowy, and livelier than I gave her credit for being . . . We have named him Elbert . . .may he be the Lord’s.” In his biographical account, Elbert did not include his middle name, which he deeply detested, so we have to look elsewhere to learn that the initial “A” for his middle name stands for Aoriul. Not long thereafter Clara and David moved to a house of their own in Plano. A dream, come true! David took up work on the editorial staff of the Saints’ Herald. Alexander had previously moved to Plano with his family. All three Smith brothers were together, working in the ministry, and their wives lent strong support in whatever ways they could. Clara even went to work in the Herald newspaper folding and mailing room. Elbert spent many hours of his early years amidst the world of freshly printed paper, the smell of printers’ ink and the excitement of watching the hand press. Joseph III’s older children also worked at small jobs, sometimes earning a little money. Everyone was quite poor, but they had sufficient food, a nice little house of their own, and great joy in the ministry to which they gave their entire energy. David wrote many beautiful hymns; occasionally Clara joined him in singing at local meetings. During the fall of 1872, David went back to the west. They gave up their home in Plano, and Clara went back and forth between her parents’ home in Sandwich, staying in Nauvoo with Emma. Little could Clara have realized that when her husband was called to return to Utah on a second mission in 1872, it would mark the end of their happy married life. While in Utah, David suffered an attack of what was diagnosed as Brain Fever. From that time on Clara and Emma shared a nightmare of highs and lows with David’s illness dominating every aspect of their lives. We now know that Clara was torn between anguished care of her mentally ill husband in Nauvoo and her invalid mother in Sandwich. The Saints Herald, March 1, 1874 carried this sad notice: “Brother David Smith is again ill. The abiding faith and prayers of the Saints are requested in his behalf. He has been so constantly engaged since he first began his ministry that he is missed very much, and almost constant inquiry is made about him.” Elbert recalled that after years of writing lyrical prose, soul stirring poetry, creating and singing faith promoting hymns through his great musical gift, as well as reasoned teaching and preaching, his father’s once brilliant mind became clouded. Joseph Smith III, Clara, and Emma came to the sad conclusion they could no longer care for him at home. On 19 January 1877, David Hyrum Smith finally was committed to the hospital for the mentally insane, at Elgin, Illinois. In his autobiographical reminiscence, Elbert noted, “I was too young to apprehend this tragedy at the time—later it threatened to sadden my life, until I made an adjustment. And so, my mother’s little happy home crumbled in sorrow and tears—never to be re-established.” He continued, “There followed long years of waiting and hope for father’s recovery and return to his family and to his church work. My mother was a woman of great faith and courage; only occasionally did she permit me to see the depth of her loneliness and sorrow.” Impact of David's Health and Institutionalizing Of the first six years of their marriage, due to David’s travels as a missionary for The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the alarming mental illness which had plagued him off and on since 1872, Clara and David had less than three years of actual living together, and that, measured in scattered weeks and months, never a full year at once. When her husband was hospitalized and unable to provide even the meager income as a minister of the gospel, Clara went to live with her parents in Sandwich. Within a few months the entire Hartshorns clan, including her father, mother, and two older brothers, Manley, and Frederick, ventured westward, to set up a homestead in the remote area in northwestern Iowa, taking Clara and Elbert with them. Their house was made of wood and was without much insulation. Elbert recalled that his first job was to twist straw into kindling for his mother to use to start the fire in the cook stove which also provided heat in the bitterly cold winters. Living as a widow, and as housekeeper in her father’s house, Clara cared for her invalid mother for six years—until her mother’s death in 1883[19]. Clara did her best for her son’s education and taught him from the three books she considered sacred, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. They also subscribed to the RLDS church newspaper, Saints’ Herald, and Zions’ Hope, which was published for children. Then when Elbert was old enough to take on the work, she and Elbert took up farm land of their own. They worked very hard, earning a meager living from their farm to meet the payments on the mortgage they had obtained to get established. From this Elbert developed a healthy dislike for ever going into debt and passionately avoided it all the rest of his life. Alexander Hale Smith, while on a missionary trip visited them at Poland, Buena Vista County, Iowa. He found his teenaged nephew to be a bright intelligent young man, eager to learn about the gospel. The Reorganized Church had moved its headquarters to Lamoni, Decatur County Iowa, after Joseph Smith III had moved there, in 1881. Alexander had been living in the area since about 1875. He encouraged Clara and Elbert to consider moving to Lamoni when the time was right. Clara’s father died 26 November 1891; Clara and Elbert moved to Lamoni the following year. Sale of their Iowa property provided enough funds to finance a house which Elbert had built at 125 North Mulberry Street, in Lamoni. Elbert worked in the Church’s Bindery business. Alexander Hale Smith and his wife Elizabeth were also living in Lamoni. Alexander, presiding patriarch in the Church, was often out on missions, and Clara and Elizabeth were a great comfort for one another over many years. When Elbert found someone he wanted to marry, Clara accepted a daughter-in-law with good grace; ironically her son found another Clara. Elbert became acquainted with Clara Cochran, soon after he went to work in the Herald Publishing House office. She was the daughter of Asa Cochran, bookkeeper at the Herald office, and she was his assistant. They were married in Lamoni, 4 September 1895. They had three children, Lawrence David, who died in infancy; Ronald Gibson and Lynn Elbert who grew to manhood. Clara continued to live happily with Elbert and Clara and their family. Her income from working in the Saints Home, (a rest home for elderly Saints in Lamoni), helped supplement Elbert’s meager income as an editor at the Saints’ Herald. In 1906, President Joseph Smith III moved his family to Independence, Jackson Co., Missouri. The headquarters of the RLDS Church was moved there, as well, but the Herald office and the printing press and bindery were to remain in Lamoni for more than a decade. Elbert was appointed Associate Editor of the Herald, assuming direct editorial management and was also called to the First Presidency, as counselor to President Joseph Smith. Then in August, 1909, great sadness struck the family when Alexander Hale Smith died. The son of Joseph Smith III, Frederik Madison Smith, became the RLDS Church president. Elbert continued as counselor which required travel back and forth to Independence. Wife, Clara and Mother Clara were company for one another with the children. Clara and David Hyrum are buried side by side in Rose Hill Cemetery in Lamoni, Iowa. At one point, Elbert and wife Clara were called to serve an extended mission for the Church in California. They took Mother Clara and their two boys, Ronald and Lynn, with them on that venture. After they returned to Lamoni late in 1817, having worked too hard with too much stress, Elbert suffered a physical collapse. He was advised by his physician to take a vacation. So, he and his wife and Lynn went back to California for a fine rest while Mother Clara stayed in Lamoni with young Ronald Gibson, who attended school, and she continued to work at the Saints’ Home providing needed income. When Elbert and his wife returned to Lamoni they began making plans to move to Independence, which they did in June of 1918[21]. Mother Clara would go with them, but It must have been hard for her to leave Lamoni and her friend Elizabeth, Alexander’s widow, who had been her friend since they lived together in the Mansion House. [see pictures at the end of this article: She is seated beside Elizabeth in the family picture taken in 1915, Lamoni, Iowa. Elbert, his wife Clara, along with their children are also in this picture at the end of this article.] Elbert purchased a comfortable home at 1513 West Walnut Street. Mother Clara was with them as they settled in that home which became a place of security and tranquility for this beleaguered family. She lived out her remaining years with them until her death 9 August 1926. For twenty-seven years, Clara had refused the advice of many who urged her to divorce David and make a new life. She faithfully waited, always hoping her husband might recover and return to her. At David’s death in 1904, her hopes were dashed; now she was a widow indeed. She lived another twenty-two years, working hard to make her own living, always giving devoted service to her family. She died in her seventy-sixth year. She lived to see her son ordained as a counselor in the first presidency of the Reorganized Church, and her two grandsons, Ronald Gibson, and Lynn Elbert, ordained to the priesthood in their church. (Lynn eventually succeeds Alexander as Patriarch to the Reorganized Church). Elbert wrote of her last days: “My Mother Passes to Her Reward . . .I had not really known that it would be so hard to give her up -- The last meeting that she attended was during her illness when our little group on West Walnut Street met for midweek prayer meeting in our home. She was able to sit up and even stood for a few minutes and bore her last oral testimony to the divinity of the work. At this meeting she was happy to witness the ordination of her grandson, Ronald, to the office of priest. . . . Thus, one of the fifth generation of my line of the family received ordination and entered the ministry. Subsequently Ronald was ordained an elder, as also was his younger brother, Lynn. “My mother left a written testimony in which she said: I was born and raised in the church. I was baptized by President Joseph Smith when about sixteen years of age, so as I am now seventy-five, I have been a member many years and have never had any desire to leave the church thinking to find something better, as I know there is nothing better. I have seen a number far above me step down and out but it never tried my faith or gave me the desire to follow them . . . I look back with pleasure to the time spent in the home with Mother Bidamon (Emma Smith Bidamon) in the old Nauvoo Mansion. Her steadfast faith was an inspiring example. I have not one doubt of the ultimate triumph of the church or of the divine call of our leaders. If we are any of us left behind in the onward march of the church it will be the fault of ourselves, not of the gospel, which is true, May the Father help us to be loyal and true.” It is fitting that we end this little biography of Clara Charlotte Hartshorn, with these words Elbert wrote in his autobiography: “My Mother’s Example” “Perhaps more than anything else that held me to the faith of my fathers was my mother’s teachings; amid all adversities and privations, she remained as true to the faith as the magnet to the pole. If her life had ever been one of sacrifice, I never learned it from her lips. She was proud and glad to have been the wife of David H. Smith, missionary for the Restored Gospel.” Anderson, Mary Audentia Smith. ANCESTRY AND POSTERITY OF JOSEPH SMITH AND EMMA HALE. Independence, Missouri: Herald Publishing House, 1929, 1958. [FHL SPECIAL 929.273 Sm51am] Database compiled by Michael Kennedy of Alpine, UT., Pres. Joseph Smith, Jr. Family Organization. International Genealogical Index Submission Forms. Salt Lake: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978-1995. Anderson, Mary Audentia Smith.