Scott G. Kenney collection

Collection

Identifier: MS 0587

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Scott G. Kenney collection (1820-1984) reflects the research interests of Scott G. Kenney during the 1970s and early 1980s for a projected biography of Joseph F. Smith (1838-1901). The collection consists of typescripts made by Kenney, as well as photocopies of diaries and letters. Kenney's original organization of the material has been preserved. There is a wealth of information contained in the collection about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter abbreviated to the LDS Church, the Mormon Church, or simply the Church). This is the case because Joseph F. Smith was a nephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was ordained an LDS apostle in 1866, and became president of the Mormon Church in 1901. In order to give the reader a flavor of some of the topics selected quotations from letters or journal extracts are included in the inventory. However, such quotations are only a very small fraction of the information in the collection.

Section I contains Kenney's name files, arranged alphabetically by last name. It consists of boxes 1-7, and included in this section is material on the following individuals who had contact with Joseph F. Smith: former LDS presidents (John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff); members of the First Presidency (Charles W. Penrose, Anthony W. Ivins, Anthon H. Lund, John R. Winder); secretaries to the First Presidency (L. John Nuttall, George Reynolds); fellow apostles (Abraham H. Cannon, George Q. Cannon, Albert Carrington, Heber J. Grant, Franklin D. Richards, George F. Richards, John Henry Smith, George A. Smith, Reed Smoot, Moses Thatcher, Abraham O. Woodruff, Brigham Young, Jr., and John W. Young); other LDS general authorities (B. H. Roberts); his wives (Julina Lambson Smith; Levira Annette Smith); as well as numerous others. Also included are extensive quotations from correspondence of the LDS First Presidency (alphabetized under "F").

Section II, consisting of only box 8, contains an assortment of dated items from 1820 to 1918, the year of Joseph F. Smith's death. The chronology is divided into early LDS history (from Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1820 until 1837) and then ten major time periods covering the life of Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918).

Section III, boxes 9-12, contains Kenney's subject files. These are arranged alphabetically and contain information on the following topics: Adoption; Anti-Mormon Literature; The Argus; Arts; Banks and Insurance; Big Hom Basin; Blacks; Book of Mormon; Brigham Young Estate; Brigham Young University Controversy; Bullion-Beek Mine; Canada; Correlation Committee; Davis County Cooperative; Doctrine and Covenants; Doctrines and Ordinances; Edmunds-Tucker Act; Education; Escheatment; Expedition to South America; Finances, Church; First Vision; Fundamentalism; Government Officials; Idaho Politics; Immigration; The Improvement Era; Indians; Iosepa Colony; Japan; Journal History; Mexico; Missions; Nauvoo; One-Volume History; Photo History; Phrenology; Polygamy; Post-Manifesto Polygamy; Publications; Railroads; Recreation; Relics; Relief Society; Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; Republican Party; Saltair; School of the Prophets; Second Anointings; Seventies; Sex; Smoot Case; Social Statistics; Statehood, Utah; Sterling Mine; Sugar Industry; Sunday School; Temporal Authority; Underground; Unions and Secret Societies; Utah Politics; Women; Word of Wisdom; and the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA).

Kenney donated his collection to the University of Utah in order to insure that there would be no restrictions placed on access to his research; also, a complete photocopy of the collection has been placed at Brigham Young University. Scattered through the Scott G. Kenney Collection located in the Marriott Library at the University of Utah are photocopies of many documents from the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City. These items, all donated by Kenney, may be read by patrons at the University of Utah, but no copies will be made of pages that have the stamp of the LDS Archives.

Dates

1820-1984

Creator

Kenney, Scott G., 1946- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

No material from the LDS Church Archives (identified by stamp) may be reproduced.

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Scott G. Kenney (1946-) was born and raised in Salt Lake City, and attended the University of Utah, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in musicology in 1970 and a Master of Music in 1972. From there he moved to Berkeley, California, where he attended the Graduate Theological Union, majoring in American historical theology (Ph.D. comprehensive exams 1976, M.A. 1981). During his years at the University of Utah and after returning to Salt Lake City after Berkeley, Kenney was a violinist with the Utah Symphony (1964-1965, 1968-1972, 1976-1980). Between 1965-1967 he served in the New England Mission for the LDS Church.

He was a founder, publisher, and editor of the magazine Sunstone (1974-1978) and co-founder and publisher of Signature Books (1980-1984). Among the works he edited for Signature Books are the nine-volume Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898 and Memories and Reflections: The Autobiography of E. E. Ericksen. He has published articles, essays, book reviews, and editorials in Sunstone, Dialogue, The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, BYU Studies, BYU Today, and is the author of Purposeful Purposelessness: Musical Style in the Literary Works of John Cage (M.M. thesis, 1972), The Mutual Improvement Associations: 1900-1950, Task Paper Number 6 for the Historical Department of the LDS Church in 1976, "Joseph F. Smith," in The Presidents of the Church, ed. Leonard J. Arrington (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986).

From 1978 to 1980 part-time and 1980-1981 full-time, Kenney was a historical researcher and writer for the LDS Church Translation Department, preparing a guide for translators of Mormon scripture. From 1985 to 1993 he was business manager for Utah sculptor Dennis Smith. Kenney has been a technical writer at the WordPerfect Corporation from 1993 to 1996. He is also editor of the Mormon History Association Newsletter.

JOSEPH F. SMITH--Joseph Fielding Smith was born 13 November 1838, at Far West, Missouri, to Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding. He crossed the plains with the Mormons under Brigham Young, grew up in the LDS Church, was ordained an apostle, and became the first LDS Church president in the twentieth century.

Joseph F. Smith married Levira Annette Clark Smith in April 1859, and later Julina Lambson, niece of George A. Smith (1866); Sarah Ellen Richards, daughter of Willard Richards (1868); Edna Lambson (1871); Alice Ann Kimball, daughter of Heber C. Kimball (1883); and Mary Taylor Schwartz, niece of John Taylor (1884). He had forty-eight children, including five adopted children.

On 27 June 1844 when Joseph F. was five years old, he heard a man knock on his mother's window and announce that his father had been killed. Memories of his grieving mother's moans remained with him throughout his life. In 1848 when he was nine, Joseph F. drove a team of oxen from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake City Valley, arriving in September. From 1846 to 1854 he was a "teamster, herd boy, plowboy, irrigator, harvester, with 'scythe or cradle,' operator of a fanning mill, logger, and 'general roustabout' and always penniless."

In 1854 Joseph F. Smith was sent on a mission to the Sandwich Isles (Hawaii) at fifteen years of age. Smith, who remained in Hawaii for four years, learned the language in three months. Receiving no support from home, he lived in poverty with the natives. For weeks the missionaries had little to eat, and for a while Smith and his companion had only one suit of clothes between them; one stayed home while the other wore the suit to meetings.

Returning from Hawaii in 1858, Joseph F. Smith served briefly in the militia called out to oppose the federal Expeditionary Force. He courted his sixteen-year-old cousin, Levira Annette Clark Smith, daughter of Samuel Smith. "I am aware that our acquaintance has been short," he wrote. "To you, I do not know how pleasant. But allow me to say that since I saw you first, the admiration and respect I first conceived for you have daily grown, till they have changed to something stronger and more fervent." They were married 5 April 1859. He served briefly on the Salt Lake Stake High Council, then left on a mission to England in April 1860.

Joseph F. was absent on missions nearly five of their first six years of married life. He wrote often, sometimes buoyantly: "Wake up snakes! and come to Judgement! for Mormonism is destined to rule the warts!" Sometimes good naturedly: "What would you think of me for a rational sensible 'Lord' and husband if my every sentence was 'Sugar, Honey, Cherub, Duckey, Darling, Precious, and Bewildering Beauty.' Bah! Soft-soap, vinegar, crabapple, and sauerkraut." But his letters failed to console his depressed, childless, impoverished wife. The news that he had adopted a four-year-old boy without consulting her did little to improve their relationship. By the time he returned in the fall of 1863, she was suffering from a nervous breakdown. Joseph F. remained with her constantly for six weeks, occasionally restraining her physically. In January, 1864, he left on another mission to Hawaii. Levira sought medical treatment in San Francisco, where relatives cared for her. When Joseph returned in November, they argued often.

On 5 May 1866 after a brief acquaintance, Joseph F. Smith married seventeen-year-old Julina Lambson, who had been living with her uncle George A. Smith while Joseph F. worked for him in the Church Historian's office. Levira and Julina apparently got along well personally, but Levira ultimately could not accept plural marriage. After a separation of eight months she obtained permission from Brigham Young on 10 June 1867 to have their marriage dissolved. Levira asked Joseph F.'s permission to keep one letter and picture of him: "They will awaken saddest, sweetest, memories of the past, though the life history of one of earth's poor daughters had been burned to ashes. And Why? Because one of earth's brave and noble sons could not appreciate or stoop to musings of a gentle girlish heart."

In 1866 Levira obtained a divorce in California, charging that her husband had "been guilty of the crime of Adultery with several different women." Joseph F. Smith became president of the LDS Church in 1901, and after his time there has never been a president of the Church who was a divorced man. In 1868 he married Sarah Ellen Richards, and three years later married Edna Lambson. In 1883 Joseph F. Smith married Alice Ann Kimball and the next year he married his sixth and last wife, Mary Taylor Schwartz.

In 1866 Brigham Young ordained him an apostle and made him a counselor in the First Presidency. Through an apostle, Joseph F. Smith was not admitted to the Quorum of the Twelve until 1867, replacing Amasa Lyman. Joseph F. Smith served in the First Presidency for thirty-eight years, longer than any other man. He was counselor to Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow.

Between 1884 and 1891 Joseph F. Smith spent five years in exile to escape arrest for polygamy. Most of the time was spent in Hawaii. To his wife Sarah he wrote, "I cannot see the use of mothers with whole flocks of little helpless children being driven about the country for fear of a mob of deputy marshals. If they call on you, my darling, to go before the Grand inquisition or court--I want you, and I mean it too, to tell the God damned fiends that you are my wife now and forever, and they may help themselves."

On 17 October 1901 Joseph F. Smith was set apart as president of the LDS Church, with John R. Winder and Anthon H. Lund as counselors. Joseph F. Smith was the first president born in the Church and the only president to have a son [Joseph Fielding Smith] who also became president. In addition to serving as Church president, he also became general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, a position he held until his death. Under his leadership auxiliary organizations in the Church established the following magazines: the Improvement Era, the Children's Friend, and the Relief Society Magazine.

Thanks largely to the efforts of his predecessor, Lorenzo Snow, the heavy financial debts of the Church were paid by 1906. The new solvency paved the way for an expanded church building program including construction of the Church Administration Building and the temples in Hawaii and Alberta, Canada. Historic sites were purchased, including Joseph Smith's birthplace in Vermont, the Smith home and Sacred Grove near Palmyra, New York, the Carthage Jail in Illinois, and twenty-five acres near the temple site in Independence, Missouri.

In March 1904 President Smith became the first Church president to appear before the U.S. Senate when he was subpoenaed to testify at the Reed Smoot hearings. Although he has apparently sanctioned and even performed plural marriages after the 1890 Manifesto, Joseph F. Smith accepted responsibility only for his personal violations of Church and legal decrees against polygamous cohabitation after 1890. He denied authorizing, performing, or even knowing about any plural marriages contracted after that date. On 6 April 1904 President Smith issued an edict commonly called the "Second Manifesto," which reaffirmed the Wilford Woodruff Manifesto of 1890. Excommunication proceedings were initiated several years later, under the auspices of the Quorum of the Twelve, against Latter-day Saints who had entered polygamy after 1904, but Joseph F. Smith firmly resisted Senator Reed Smoot's persistent urgings to prosecute those who had entered the system prior to 1904.

In October 1918, Joseph F. Smith experienced a "vision on salvation of the dead and visit of the Savior to the Spirit World," which was added to the Pearl of Great Price in 1976 and became section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1981. Joseph F. Smith died of bronchpneumonia in Salt Lake City, 19 November 1918 at the age of eighty. No public funeral was held because of a nationwide influenza epidemic.

(This biographical sketch is based upon Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 296-302.)