244

Joseph F. Smith and the first presidency.

Letter refusing to seal a widow to her wayward late husband.

Salt Lake City, UT, 23 May 1902
Typed Letter signed in carbon by Joseph F. Smith as President and John Rex Winder and Anthon Lund as Counselors, to James Steele, president of Idaho Falls Stake. 2 pages, 10¾ x 8¼ inches, on 2 sheets, one on First Presidency letterhead; folds, minimal wear. 


This letter was written in response to the story of Sarah Storer, who sought to have her late husband sealed to her: "Her husband was baptized when eight years of age, and re-baptized when he was twenty eight, but fell away from the Church, although he was loyal in his support to it; that he was addicted to drink, and while in a troubled state of mind and under the influence of drink, he shot a man and committed suicide the same day." 

The First Presidency ruled: "While we have naught but feelings of charity towards all of the unfortunate of our Father's family, it at the same time becomes us to preserve the sanctity and sacredness of His temple from anything and everything that savors of unworthiness. . . . We neither condemn nor justify him. He has made his record, and in common with everybody else, must meet it. . . . We advise that Sister Storer be sealed to a good man of her choice, and have her children adopted to him. . . . By doing this she and her children will be protected, and at the same time her husband lose nothing by her taking this course." 

The deceased was John George Storer (1850-1898), who killed a man "in a fit of desperation, excited by drink" according to the Blackfoot News of 8 October 1898. His widow Sarah Jackson Storer (1850-1930) did not remarry.

Provenance: collection of Larry Faria.

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