Arizona republican., 1914-12-11
JOSEPH SMITH PASSES AWAY AT
 INDEPENDENCE
President of Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints Succumbs to At tack of Heart Disease at Age of S2 Years
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPArcHl

INDEPENDENCE Mo, Dec. To- Joseph Smith, president of the Re organized Church of Latter Day Saints died at his home here today At his bedside was Frederick NJ Smith, his son, who succeeds him and other members of the family.
 President smith had been in ill health for several months. He re- ago was stricken with heart disease.
 revelation announced by Joseph Smith eight years ago designating his eldest son as his successor, re- iieved the church from the burden of choosing a new head The general conference ratified the selection shortly after the revelation. The son has since fulfilled many of the duties of the leadership and now auto matically assumes charge. He is thirty-seven years old. The wife. six sons and two daughters were at his bedside when the leader died. The funeral will be held from the old bSOIt NihltAi 'ii A1hlihh9 iAAti AAbpii and the body will lie in state in the church in the forenoon The burial will be in Mound Grove cemetery outside of Independence. the official burying grounds of the Reorganized church.
 A history of Joseph smith, who was a son of Joseph Smith. a pro- ;.- a history of the Re-organized Church of the Latter Day Saints. IL was he who brought together the little bands Of Mormons in Illinois. Iowa and Missouri, left behind when the main body emigrated to Utah. He became the first president of the re-organ ized church, and held that office more than a half-century, until his death. He was cousin of Joseph Fielding Smith, in recent years presi- dent of the Latter Day Saints in Utah.
 The greater part of President Jos eph Smiths life was struggle, as had been the life of his father to place Mormonism upon a sound foot HIS. ltul HE tIit last Ntelo ol 1lH ilit he was blind.
 He was born November 6. 1892. at Kirtland, O., where his father had gone two years earlier with a few followers. from Manchester. x. r.. Soon afterward the colony moved to Missouri. There at Independence the prophet, as he was known, establish aI ba iar11 of church. obeying. he said, d revelation. Enmity of other settlers, however, resulted in the Mormons being driven out. Prophet Joseph smith was ar rested and placed in jail at Liberty, Missouri
 In the jaii where the younger Jos eph. then five years old, spent the first night with his father, the pro- phet bent over the child as he sob bed himself to sleep, and to him commended the hopes and aspira tons of the church.
 My mother accompanied my fath- CT to Liberty" Joseph Smith told | in later years. but fearing for her life my father induced her to SC with members of the church to Hi nois.
 T tramped across the almost un- inhabited prairies of Missouri to
 Nauvoo Illinois, where my father
 when he was released. joined us
 Then in 1S44 when l was F years
 old one day his dead body was
 brought to us He had been shot by
 a. mob in Carthage. Illinois"
 After the death of the prophet
 most of the members of the churct
 emigrated to Utah under the leader
 ship of Brigham Young. Young Jos eph Smith, remaining behind, worked 1 lCnntinued on Page Threel