Alexander Hale Smith, the third living son of the prophet Joseph Smith and Emma Hale, was born 2 June 1838 at Far West Missouri. At the time of his birth there was a hail storm in progress, so Emma remarked they decided to name him Hale. His first name was given him in honor of Alexander Doniphan, who was a great help to the Saints in Missouri. His second name, Hale, was his mother’s maiden name.

            It is inferred that Alexander resembled the Hale side of the family more than the Smith. However, that emphasis was diminished in later years when many old timers, who had known his father, seemed to feel that he resembled Joseph, in manner and character, as well as appearance.

            His daughter, Vida, described Alexander:

            “He was strong limbed swift and free of action, merry hearted and chivalrous.”

            When he was a young man of 19, he made an aborted attempt to go on a gold hunting trip to Pike’s Peak. For unstated reasons the party turned back from western Kansas, greatly disappointed. Whether it was lack of supplies, fear of Indians, or breakdown in the group, Alexander’s first attempt to cross the prairies would not be his last.

            In 1863, Charles Derry visited Nauvoo and later wrote of Alexander:

            “Alexander Smith is not so tall as David, nor so heavy as Joseph. [He] is of light complexion, free and sociable and intelligent. . .” Derry also commented that “. . .his wife is a pretty, neat little body.”

            Alexander married Elizabeth Agnes Kendall on June 23, 1861 at Nauvoo. He was 22 and she was 18. They farmed for a time at Nauvoo. 

            When Joseph III decided to unite with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was much consternation in the family. Alex, as everyone called him, was not particularly inclined to religion and for some time he resisted the efforts of David and Joseph to enlist him in the cause. Their brother Frederick also resisted.

            Frederick’s death, in April 1863, caused Alexander deep perplexity. He began to read and study the scriptures. As he turned his thoughts toward religion, he realized with great sorrow that his much loved brother, Frederick, had died without baptism. As Alexander understood the scriptures, he worried that his brother’s soul was lost forever.

            The anxiety brought Alexander to his knees in fervent prayers. Quoting from his daughter Vida’s history, we come to understand Alexander’s experience.

            “. . .the separation of death still held the bitterness of nameless fear added to it for my father. That his beloved brother was lost was a horror such as has filled many hearts; but to his came a balm, the testimony of the spirit, the first communion direct from the comforter saying, “Grieve not,. Frederick’s condition is pleasant; and the time shall come when baptism can be secured to him.”  This still small voice of the Spirit admonished him to do his duty and all would be well. Satisfied as to the necessity of baptism for the living and comforted by the evidence of its possibility for the dead, on May 25, 1863, his brother Joseph baptized him in the grand old Mississippi.” (Vida Smith, History of Alexander Hale Smith)

            As he matured, Alexander was tall, straight and lighth. [limber] At twenty four his brown hair had turned black. A struggling young husband and father, he turned his hand to many occupations to make a living—photography, carpentry, and farming.

            He was a noted marksman with a gun. It is said of him that he could place a dime in the back of a tree and from 50 paces hit it dead center. He knew every foot of the river and the terrain along it. He was as at home in the water as on the land. He loved nature. In his later years, he was sitting gazing out the window in his home in Iowa. His daughter thought he looked peculiar and asked if something was ailing him. He replied, “It is the river-lust in me daughter; the river-lust; why, I can see the white caps riding in, and the fret line on the shore, and I’m hungry for it; sick for the sound of the river, I want to go to Nauvoo.”

            As a youth of 17, one day while ice skating on the river he skated beyond firm ice. His leg fell into a hole. Struggling to free himself from a frosty death, he managed to work his way back to solid ice by the use of a long pole which river men always carry when crossing the frozen Mississippi. This incident reminds us of his first crossing of that frozen river as an infant of nine months. Carried on his mother’s arm, with Frederick on the other arm and with young Joseph and Julia holding onto their mother’s skirts, Alexander made his first trip across that frozen river in February, 1839.

            Thus, the babe Alexander, whose birth in Missouri was soon followed by mobbing and expulsion for the state, arrived in Illinois, a refugee. He grew to manhood in an hostile and suspicious society. He went to school, roved the meadows and grew to adulthood amongst the children of some of the very men who had killed his father.

            From these beginnings, there was instilled in him a defensive attitude that ruled him passionately, in his younger years, mellowed with age, but never was completely extinguished.

            Oh how his voice could ring and his fists smash the face of anyone who sought to denigrate the good name of his father. In fact, all the boys were quick to declare “My father was a GOOD man.”

            In 1866, he went west in 1866, hoping to rescue the people in Utah from what he believed to be gross error.

            Several aspects of his journey stand out as landmarks in discerning his character. When he and a companion departed on a mission for the Reorganized Church, they were solemnly devoted to the Lord’s errand and were very anxious to be completely obedient to every detail. Having determined that they must go without purse or script, Alexander discovered a 50 cent piece in an inner coat pocket. Anxious lest this violate the law of God, he quickly gave it away. Next they determined that they were only to take one coat, so each cheerfully sent their extra coats home. Thus, they set out on a journey with not a penny and the clothes on their back – leaving Nauvoo on May 20, 1866. His faithful little wife, Lizzie, was pregnant and had two children, Frederick Alexander, 4, and Vida Elizabeth, who was 18 months old. Ina Inez was born that fall, in November 27^th.

            As we consider this leave taking, we may rightfully wonder who was the most courageous of them all, the intrepid missionary or his little family. For in those days “without purse or script” was not applicable to the Missionary only, but it was understood that his wife would just have to manage the best she could. And it was hard.

            By their wits, brawn, and sheer brash spirit, the young men reached Council Bluff. There they joined a Mormon Immigrant train which was going west to Salt Lake City. Fearing what they would do to him if they discovered his identity, Alexander assumed an alias, Alex Hale. He kept his identity and purpose of his trip secret, even after he realized that someone had recognized him, and nearly everyone on the train knew who he was. He was deeply touched by several incidents of kindness shown him which he recognized as being given out of reverence in which the name of his father had been held. He found he need not have feared ill treatment from anyone on that train.

            He loved the vastness of the country and one day, when he was riding ahead of the train, he had stopped on a raise of ground and just he sat on his horse meditating on the beauty of nature and the wonder of God’s handiwork.

            “There came upon me a feeling of awe and reverence for the nobility and magnitude of the works of God; while this feeling was upon me I became conscious of the sound of sweet musical vibrations in the air around me—and I unconsciously look upward to solve the mystery. Gradually the music seemed to draw near and tune and words came out full and distinct in singing. It was human voice, the immigrants as they passed around the base of the mountain. . .they were singing “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet.” This incident went into his very soul.

            Other adventures he had include swimming the Platte River which at that place was 1 ¼ mile wide. He climbed up on Independence Rock where the names of many people were scratched on the rock. Having no paint and nothing to use to scratch, he wrote his name in dampened gun powder. In this incident we learn of Alexander’s philosophical nature, for he remarked in his history:

            “. . .we succeeded in fixing our names much like writing them in sand, for the first heavy rain would obliterate all evidence o four being there. However, much I might feel to moralize upon this grand sentinel left in a weary land, it was an interesting lesson to me; but I will not weary you, but pass on as we did, to the west.”

            This first trip was dangerous beyond description; slow, and tedious, with hostile Indians threatening. Alexander would make this journey across the center of the continent seven times.  Four times by horse or wagon, and three by locomotive. With each succeeding crossing he would always reflect back upon the first weary journey into the unknown. The completion of the railroad made the journey almost laughably easy to those souls who had made it first by handcart and horseback.

            In Salt Lake City Alexander’s first contact was with his cousins, John Smith, oldest son of Hyrum and Jerusha Smith, Samuel Harrison, Son his Uncle Samuel, and Joseph F. Smith, son of Hyrum and Mary Fielding. He also met another cousin, Levira, daughter of Samuel.  Alexander and Joseph F. Smith shared a common birth place and year, but that was about all they had in common. This meeting of the cousins was a memorable visit for Alexander, and must have spurred him to an effort in 1906, to attempt to bring about a family organization where the family of Joseph Smith the Martyr would meet each year.

            On this visit in 1866, however, Alexander was brash enough to preach furiously against Brigham Young and the doctrine of plural marriage, in Salt Lake City. Following this sermon Alexander met Joseph F. Smith who informed him he had hurt his feelings considerably.  Not waiting to talk it out, Alexander actually became afraid he was in danger of being killed, and he hastily took his leave of the city. Keeping a sharp lookout for “avenging angels” whom he believe Brigham Young would send to take his life, he fled south into Indian territory, in the midst of the hostility with Indians which was occurring in Southern Utah.

            Although his hasty trip to California was begun in depression, as he was bitterly disappointed in his lack of success in Utah, he made up for that loss in California. He set up branches of the RLDS church from one end of California to the other. He did not return via Utah, but went home through Mexico. Traveling by river, lake and overland to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi by riverboat to Nauvoo, he returned to his family after nearly two years absence. He was home only a short time however before we was sent back to California in 1869. 

            On his second visit he requested that he and his brother David should use the Tabernacle to preach. When they were refused, they were deeply wounded in their feelings. This was a wound that never healed and even as late as 1909, the year he died, Alexander referred to this refusal with something akin to puzzled anger. He simply never understood how Brigham Young could refuse Joseph Smith’s sons the privilege, if he ever really believe Joseph was a prophet.

            When in Utah, Alexander and David met in person with Brigham Young and others, including George Q. Cannon, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Daniel H. Wells, all of whom had known his father, as well as their cousins, John Smith, Jessie N. Smith and Samuel H. B. and George A. Smith.  From Alexander’s point of view these men were full of wrath, while he and David maintained a calm forebearance, for which they felt the need later to apologize to their mother.

            From Brigham Young’s viewpoint, the sons of the prophet had no hold on reality. He blamed Emma and said so to them. His harsh words against Emma, spoken in hot emotion would never be recalled, and certainly never forgiven, by Emma’s sons, whose love for their mother was near to worship.

            The brothers went on to California to minister to the branches set up earlier. He left behind him, in Salt Lake City, a group of men who had sincerely wanted these boys’ friendship, more than anyone on earth. Today we can set the journals of all these parties side by side and discover the gulf of misunderstanding that separated them then. We hope now for a new era of understanding.

            In his official office as the first president of the RLDS Western States Mission, Alexander had the responsibility to build up the RLDS church organization in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and California. He took on that particular mission when he was just 31 years old. He had no experience, no idea how to accomplish the task, and yet, he had an un-conquerable faith that God was with him and he saw in daily incidents the evidence of constant care by unseen powers. This had to have been the case, for from his penniless beginning, he obtained a wagon, team of mules, a set of colts (guns) and sufficient provisions to make the journey.

            Alexander’s intention in 1869, was to build a mission home in California and take Lizzie and the children west with him. Lizzie, however, refused to go until the house would be completed. He bought her a little house in Plano, Illinois, near the RLDS church, and left her there. Once again she would give birth to a baby with her husband away. Emma Belle was born 17 March 1869, while Alexander was in California.

            It turned out Lizzie had been wise in her determination, for money was not raised to build the mission home. And at the conference of the Church in April 1869, Alexander was called to be an apostle. Reluctantly he turned his labors in California over to others. He was not reluctant to go home. His family’s need weighed heavily on him. In ten years of marriage he had spent less than four years at home.

            Upon his return the little house in Plano was sold and the family moved back to the Mansion House in Nauvoo. Alexander bought out his brother’s shares and owned the old building. It was drafty, dilapidated and some parts of it were dangerous as the floors were unsafe. He set about with all his energy repairing what could be salvaged and tearing down the part that was unsafe. He wrote his daughter Vida, “Old #9 is gone the way of all the earth and we cannot help but mourne the passing of the room in which you were born.”

            Don Alvin was born 17 May 1871 and Eva Grace in 1874. Lizzie held her family together while Alexander traveled as an apostle. He would visit Australia, New Zealand, Wales, England and Canada, as well as nearly every state of the Union.

            The years moved by and the family moved again. The headquarters of the church were moved from Amboy to Lamoni, Iowa. The feeling was that Nauvoo was a dead field; the fertile soil the west promised new hope and new blood for the reorganization.

            For a time the family lived in the Nauvoo, while Alexander went ahead of his family. Emma Belle tells a poignant account of the day they took leave of Nauvoo by riverboat.  The boarded at the landing, and as they passed downriver they had a view Grandmother Emma, standing at the window of the Riverside Mansion, waving a tablecloth. She continued waving as long as she could see the boat. Lizzie said to her children, “Look children it is the last time we will see Grandmother,” and she wept bitterly.

            Eventually, Alexander was called to serve as the first president of the Lamoni branch. The family lived on a farm just inside the Missouri state line, at Andover.          In 1877, Alexander was appointed postmaster of the Andover post office. When he became president of Graceland College, and served as Presiding patriarch of the RLDS Church the family moved to Lamoni.

            In February of 1879, Alexander visited Far West. Of this visit he wrote:

            “ . . .Near the place of my nativity I met the saints, among whom I met Uncle William—it was with peculiar feelings that I joined in the business of the conference . . .these feelings were intensified when I was called upon to speak in this place from whence forty years ago my father and mother were driven by mob violence. . .I could not help thinking that God in his own time and way was preparing for the return from evil of those who are faithful to their land of promise and my heart was soft, my trust strengthened in the Lord.”

            In April 1879, Alexander happened to be near Nauvoo. He had a strong urge to return to his old home. Upon arriving, he was surprised at not finding his mother in her usual place in the kitchen. Finding that she was ill, he went in to see her, and was immediately convinced that she was dying. He sent for his brother, Joseph, and went out to the back yard to pray.

            Pleading with the lord, he asked that his mother might be spared a little longer. But the spirit comforted him and he knew that it was best to let her go. She passed away on 30 April 1879, in the upstairs room of the brick home built for her by her second husband, Louis C. Bidamon. (The Riverside Mansion).

            Alexander Hale Smith would die in that same house, 8 August 1909, but before he died he accomplished other important tasks. He was a traveling missionary and strong defender of his father’s good name. He served as a counselor to his brother Joseph III in the presidency of the RLDS church, later he served as its Patriarch. In his own mind, Alexander saw himself as a peacemaker.

            He was a great friend of children, and he was a faithful student of the scriptures. He had spent his entire adult life as a minister of the gospel. He served as a counselor in the first presidency of the RLDS Church. He became the presiding patriarch. He spent the last years of his life giving patriarchal blessings which reflect in large measure not only his great intelligence and wisdom, but his deep faith in God and his dedicated commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            Alexander Hale Smith died 12 August 1909, in the city he loved, Nauvoo. His wife died 6 June 1919. They are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, at Lamoni, Iowa.

            Alexander Hale and Elizabeth Agnes Kendall, (Lizzie) were the parents of nine children: Frederick A., Vida Elizabeth, Ina Inez, Emma Belle, Don Alvin, Eva Grace, Joseph George, Arthur Marion, and Coral Cecil Rebecca.