This son of the prophet and Emma received his name in honor of several of his father’s very good friends. He was born in Kirtland, Ohio, June 20, 1836.  The temple had just been dedicated in March, and the financial crisis was beginning to be serious upon the Saints.  Before the child turned 2 years old, his family had to flee from Kirtland. They went by wagon, across a vast wintery country, crossing the Mississippi River at Quincy, in February 1838 on their way to Far West Missouri.

            Emma, was pregnant at the time of this trip. She must have been hard pressed to take care of a small child, and Julia,6, and Joseph, 5, in the wagon. The wagon was divided into two parts. The front was where the family had their beds, and personal necessities. In the back a space was divided off by a blanket. Here Joseph often held meetings with various people. 

            During the year the family spent in Missouri, Frederick’s mother gave birth to a younger brother, Alexander, and his father was arrested and taken to Liberty, Missouri, where he languished for many months in a filthy prison.

            Emma made three trips to Liberty from Far West in order to visit with Joseph in prison. Mention is made of Joseph III, of Alexander, accompanying her. There is no mention of whether Julia or Frederick went too. It is very likely these children remained at Far West in the care of relatives. 

            Frederick was carried in his mother’s arms, along with his brother Alexander, when she crossed the frozen Mississippi River, in February 1839. As a young child not yet 3 years old, was old enough to understand that they were fleeing in great fear of what the Missourians would do to them. It must have been a great relief to all of them once they were safely out of Missouri.

            One amusing story is recorded in Church History regarding Frederick. He must have been only about 3 or 4 at the time spoken of.  Joseph recorded in his journal that one morning Frederick delighted them all by announcing at breakfast that he had a dream that the Missourians “all got their heads knocked off.”

            Although Frederick grew up in the midst of the turmoil, he seems to have caused  little or no disturbance. Very little is recorded of him.  Frederick had just turned eight a week before the violent death of his father and uncle. An account is told by a stranger who observed the scene when the family first viewed the remains of Joseph and Hyrum. He said the moment he walked into the room where the children were, he saw, “Julia and Joseph . . .on the floor with Alexander and Frederick, leaning over them, mingling their grief in one wild scream of childish despair.” (Reed Murdock, p. 63) 

            There Uncle Samuel died within a few weeks.  Add to that several small cousins passed away. Grief was everywhere. The family mourned. The Church mourned. In the turmoil that hovered over the entire city, Frederick never did get baptized. 

            When a young man, he was apparently amiable, full of fun, and a hard worker.  He helped his brothers at the farm in the typical tasks of planting, cutting and hauling hay.  They worked hard. However, they played hard too. One reflection of the Smith’s home called it “a merry household.”  This tends to cause people to adjust their idea of the family. While they mourned deeply and never really got over the loss of their father, they became healthy, productive people. They met their circumstances with great courage, through the example of their mother, Emma.  And their step-father, Major Louis Bidamon, while somewhat rough hewn, was kind, almost indulgent with them, and certainly provided a stabilizing influence at a time when the boys needed it badly.

            Joseph III, in a letter written to a friend in 1855 describes Frederick within the context of describing himself and his brothers:

            “I am now 22 and am about 5 feet 8 ½ inches tall, weigh 178 pounds and ma as ugly as folks to get to be in this country. Fred is nearly six feet tall, nineteen years old and very good looking at least the girls all think him handsome. Alex is as tall as I am and looks about the same as he ever did. He is seventeen in his eighteenth year. But David is the boy of all boys, the pet of the family and the very personification of gentleness and goodness. Mother has grown old though she bears up well. She is just the same kind mother that she always was. Our step father is as good as step fathers can be. He loves us all as well as he does his own children. (Reed Murdock, p. 96)

            After Julia got married and left home, she frequently wrote to Joseph III and Emma. She always mentioned her brother Frederick with tender good wishes and loving messages, as she did to David Hyrum as well.

            Frederick married Annie Maria Jones 13 September 1857. He was nineteen years old at the time. The couple lived at the farm outside of Nauvoo. They had one child, a daughter, Alice Fredericka, born 27 November 1858.

             His health was not good, and some have suggested he may have suffered from tuberculosis. (Reed Murdock, p. 124) In any case, his wife could not endure the difficulties of living at the farm with her sick husband. One day she took her baby and went to her mothe’s.  It was some time before Joseph III went to the farm to check on the couple, there he found his brother alone in the house, sick, with no firewood or food. Joseph took Frederick to the Mansion House where their mother could nurse him.

            Always loving toward Frederick, Julia wanted to go home to help nurse him, but she was in St. Louis and could not get back home.  Early in April she wrote a cheery letter,  remarking “Spring is here at last, with Its soft Balmy Breeze the glad warm sunshine Babbling brooks Springing grass  Budding flowers and singing birds.”  She said she hoped these things would give Frederick new energy and that it would bring “health and healing on its wings.” Julia expressed concern for her “little” brother and then wrote, “I do hope when I hear from you again that you will be much improved by the warm genial airs of Sweet Smiling Spring.” (Murdock, p. 125).

            Frederick died April 13^th. It is possible he never saw the sweet words his sister Julia had written to him. 

            Frederick’s daughter Fredericka grew up and became a nurse in Chicago. She later moved to Independence. She never married. He has no posterity living today.