| Notes |
- From Wikipedia:
Martha McBride Knight Smith Kimball (March 17, 1805 – November 20, 1901) was a founding member of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which was organized on her birthday in 1842. She was married to early Latter Day Saint leader Vinson Knight, by whom she had seven children. In 1842 she was sealed as a plural wife to Joseph Smith, Jr. In January 1846, she was married polygamously to Heber C. Kimball, by whom she had one child, a son, who was born at Winter Quarters and died there as an infant. She later emigrated to Utah Territory, where she resided in various locations across the territory until her death at age 96. She was a witness to, and in some instances a key participant in, some of the pivotal events in early Latter Day Saint history.
Martha McBride Knight at the Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith site.
From the Ogden Standard Examiner, November 21, 1901:
Death Of Pioneer Woman -- Was The Wife Of The Prophet Joseph Smith -- She Was Well Known and Esteemed in Weber County -- Identified With The Early History Of The Church.
Kimball, of Hooper, died yesterday, received word that Mrs. Martha Smith Kimball, of Hooper, died yesterday morning at 5 o'clock, of old age. She was one of the most notable women in Utah, having taken a very active part in the early history of the Mormon Church.
She was born in Chester, Washington County, New York, March 17, 1805 and was married to Vinson Knight, July 26, 1826. Mr. Knight was for a time presiding bishop of the church and was one of two men chosen by the church to purchase the townsite of Nauvoo and in Hancock County.
They were baptized into the church in 1834, Mrs. Knight became a member of the Relief Society of the Church which was organized in Nauvoo.
Mr. Knight died July 31, 1842, at Nauvoo and in August 1942, she was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Nauvoo Temple.
She came to Utah in 1850, settling in Ogden, where she made her home for a number of years. She went to Hooper in 1869, where she has lived most of the time since, although visiting often with relatives in other parts of Utah.
After the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, she was married to Heber C. Kimball and by him had one child who died in infancy.
She was the mother of six other children by her first husband, Mr. Knight, and three of them survive her, all of them being between 70 and 80 years of age. They are Mrs. Almira Hanscom, who resides near Akron, Ohio; Mrs. Adeline Belnap, Living at Hooper, this county, and James Knight, who resides at Circleville, Piute County.
She had a great many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Pictures of the old lady grouped with four of her direct descendants are to be found in the homes of most of her Ogden relatives.
The physical strength and endurance of Mrs. Knight was well-nigh marvelous. For nearly twenty years she had not used spectacles. Her needlework was a model of fineness amongst all her acquaintances for the past fifty years. She was a great reader, particularly of the daily papers, reading every word of telegraphic news, and during the Spanish-American War she was regarded as one of the best posted persons in Weber County on the military operations of the contending forces.
Two or three years ago at a birthday reunion of the family held in her honor, Mrs. Knight was called on for a speech and prefaced one of considerable length with a recital of the tremendous changes which had taken place in her lifetime, mentioning the steam engine, the modern printing press and the telegraph. To illustrate this latter she described with what slowness news traveled when she was a young woman of 40, and wound up her recital of how on that very day the entire country was able to watch every detail of a little affair at Carson City when Corbett was knocked out by Fitzsimmons.
The Belnap family of Ogden are relatives. The funeral services will take place in the Hooper meeting house at 12 o'clock and the remains will be interred by the side of her mother, Mrs. Abigail McBride. The mother was sealed to Joseph Smith Sr., at Nauvoo.
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1805 - 1901 (96 years)
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Siblings