Remembering Joseph: Personal Recollections of Those Who Know the Prophet Joseph Smith by Mark L. McConkie

Author:Mark L. McConkie [McConkie, Mark L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2011-01-06T07:00:00+00:00

Miller, Sara Jane Rich

(March 4, 1839-August 8, 1926)

When five years old she saw Joseph pass on the way to Carthage; he picked her up and kissed her.

Sister Miller used to relate that as the Prophet Joseph Smith was on his way to Carthage and martyrdom, he passed the place where she as a little child of five years, was playing and taking her in his arms he kissed her. The Prophet had been closely associated with her parents.

"Sara Jane Rich Miller," Mormon Biography File, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

As a child, saw the Prophet on the way to Carthage; he kissed her and her brother, shook hands with her mother.

The enclosed came this morning. I did not claim that "officers" were taking the Prophet to Carthage. I do claim that he and other men, among them Hyrum Smith, were passing our house on the way to Carthage I supposed, and that myself and little brother were playing in the yard, and that we called after them, "Uncle Joseph;" that he reigned up his horse and motioned for us to come to him; that he drew me up on his foot in the stirrup and kissed me and told me to be a good girl. I then lifted up my little brother for him to be kissed, and that my mother shook hands with him and that he sent a message to Desdemona Fulmer living in one end of the house. I claim to have driven the oxen attached to a cannon called "The Long Tom," part of the way from the Elk Horn River to the Rocky Mountains. My Father, Brigadier General of the Nauvoo Legion, was in charge of the Nauvoo Legion at the time of Joseph's death, owing to the suspension of Major General Wilson Law. After the Saints left Nauvoo, according to order of Lieutenant General Brigham Young, he returned to Nauvoo, gathered up all the cannon, amunition [sic] and supplies that he could get, and that three cannon that came from Nauvoo were brought to the valley; whether they were used in the battle or not I do not know. I marked these papers, "some mistakes," when I sent them out, as I supposed they were mistakes of the editor and unintentional. I have no wish for notoriety nor to injure anyone.

"Ben E. Rich to Heman C. Smith," 20 November 1906, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Note: Sara J. Miller is the daughter of Charles C. Rich and the sister of Ben E. Rich. The above story comes in a letter exchange between Ben E. Rich and Heman C. Smith of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She had been misquoted in the Nauvoo Rustler, a publication of the RLDS Church, and the above paragraph is a clarification of that misquote.

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