Historical and Familial Evidence, which Supports Image Could be Joseph Smith Junior
CDV of a man who Could be Joseph Smith Junior, based on Forensic and Historical, Familial Evidences on an 1860s CDV Print, copied from a Daguerreotype that evidence points towards being Lucian Foster.
Verified 1860s CDV copied from an 1845 Daguerreotype of Emma Smith, Photography assumed to be Lucian Rose Foster.
Headstone for Joseph Slocum Bibbins; see he died in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, and was buried in the Millington Newark Cemetery.
Evidence of Authenticity; Gawain Weaver's Report
I bought my image in October, 2017, after reading and reading the 2009 Jared T post for the Juvenile Instructor, stating my CDV came from a Smith family Album with Smith ID photos in it. For at least four months, all I knew about Newark, Illinois and the Saints- was found on the Joseph Smith Paper's website, detailing Joseph Smith's Presidential Campaign in Newark and meeting with members of the Church, in May 1844, a location the early Saints had settled in the 1840s. J.S. Bibbins, the man who printed my CDV, was around 23 at the time, he could have photographed Joseph Smith from life, but as Gawain Weaver noted in his report authenticating my CDV- above, he thinks it was photographed by taking a daguerreotype and photographing that:
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"‘Newark, Kendall Co., Ill., May 18th. 1844.
‘Conference convened pursuant to notice. There were present, two of the quorum of the Twelve, one High Priest, two Seventies, nine Elders, one Priest, and one Teacher.
‘Conference called to order by Elder Woodruff. Elder Geo. A. Smith called to the chair. Conference opened by singing, and prayer by the
‘Representation of the several branches was called for, when the following branches were represented as follows:
‘Newark branch, 35 members, 1 elder, 1 teacher...
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"20th. We have appointed a political meeting in Newark, this evening, and one at Juliet tomorrow evening; where we expect to present to the citizens, General Smith’s views of the powers and policy of the government, and discuss the subject of politics.
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Above, we learn that there was a small branch of members in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, May 1844. This does not mean that Joseph Smith Jr. met with Bibbins back then, just that there was a presence. Likely these Saints, living roughly 200 miles away, did not choose to leave for Utah in Winter '46 because they were not experiencing much or any persecution, being so far away from Nauvoo (where homes were being burned, and lives threatened in 1846, before the mass exodus westward).
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Joseph Smith III 1860 Travels to "Georgetown", Newark, Kendall County, Illinois and Subsequent move to Plano, Kendall County Illinois (1866-1881)
Young Joseph Smith III, born in 1832 to Emma and Joseph Smith, their eldest son.
Eldest son of Joseph and Emma Smith, Joseph Smith III began leading the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints movement in 1860, called as their leader April of that year. October of 1860 is the first record of him coming to Kendall County, Illinois; Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III, on pages 80-82 states that October 1860 J.S. III was extremely close to Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, being just outside of Millington, Kendall County, Illinois, roughly 2 miles away from J.S. Bibbins:
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In the fall of 1860, a semi-annual conference was called, to be held October 6, on the premises of Brother Israel L. Rogers, four and a half miles south and a little east of Sandwich [Illinois]… [pg. 80 of "Memoirs..."]
“Brother Roger’s farm… was located on Fox River, a few miles from Millington, Georgetown [renamed as "Newark"], and that section of country known as Mission, in La Salle County, south and west of Ottawa. It was a region in which George A. Smith and William O. Clark had labored extensively in the early days of the church…” [pg. 82 of "Memoirs..." and page 527 of the Saints' Herald, April 23, 1935] ​
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Joseph Smith III eventually made a permanent move, with his family, from Nauvoo, to Plano, Kendall County, Illinois in 1866, as recorded in the "Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III", page 55.
J.S. Bibbins parents, brothers and sisters had lived in Kendall County since 1838, according to Kendall County records, placing him in close proximity to Joseph Smith III- for over 16 plus years. My CDV was made in the 1860s.
Joseph Smith III gets Lost and once he enters "Georgetown" Newark, he can Find His way in "Any part of the Country"
Joseph Smith III talked about driving through Newark, and being familiar with the land, but calling it Georgetown:
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“The next visit of the year… was one to Illinois (Plano)…I drove to over to Mission, in La Salle County. It has been a number of years since I had driven between these points and for several miles the country seemed very strange to me. My thoughts were busy with memories and scenes of the past, but for some reason I could not make the lay of the land appear correct or get any familiar bearings. It was quite a confusing experience. However, as I passed through the little village of Georgetown [Newark, Kendall County, Illinois] and approached the farm home of a family named Haverhill, all at once these mists over my memory cleared away like a vanishing cloud [Joseph Smith III was familiar with Newark, Illinois], and I could have found my way confidently to any part of the Country I had ever visited, for the entire locality seemed laid before my mental perception like an open and familiar map.” (See page 340 of the same “Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III”, LINK, in which Joseph Smith III talks very fondly of Newark, in 1887 (having left Plano, Kendall County, Illinois in 1881)
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La Salle, Illinois is about 41 miles distance from Plano, where Joseph Smith III specifies as being one of the “points”. The was a reason Joseph Smith III would have frequently traveled from Plano to La Salle, Illinois, his second wife Bertha Madison, who was married to him for 30 years, and was from La Salle, Ill.
From Family Search article about Bertha Madison it states:
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"From the book of the Ikdal Family History written by J. Hart Rosdahl, [LINK]; we obtain more information concerning Bertha Madison Smith. She was born on July 16, 1843, in LaSalle County, Illinois in Mission Township of parents Maas Maasson Ege (Mads Madison) and Maren Guttormson Meling, (Mary Thomason) granddaughter of Osmund and Bertha Meling.... her years of adolescence were spent on a farm, engrossed in the many duties of the home, acquiring all the skills needed later as the wife of Joseph Smith the prophet. She was living in their farm home in Mission Township where they had moved to be near grandfather Meling when she became interested in the Restored Gospel attending services in the Mission Church."
Google Maps shows today you would certainly drive through Newark, in order to travel on to La Salle; you might find that today there is another Georgetown, Illinois. but it is 159 miles away from Plano, so I find it conclusive he is talking about the newly named Newark "Georgetown" Illinois, as it is illogical to assume Joseph Smith III would go that far to only go the 40 miles to La Salle.
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Having researched the Haverhill family in ancestry indexes and I found a man named Clark Havenhill of Big Grove, the same township J.S. Bibbins was noted as living in all of the Census Records I have and will note in this chapter, various records specify his children as being from Newark, Ill. (which is encompassed by Big Grove Township).
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The date of Joseph Smith III's travels through "Georgetown"-Newark, and stopping there, of 1887, this is just two years after Joseph Smith III writes about finding his father's daguerreotype, he forgot was in existence. Note that Newspapers late as 1930s noted the locals STILL called "Newark, Ill."- "Georgetown".
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Copying daguerreotypes in the 1850s and 1860s:
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Page 220, of "The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith, 1832-1914", an elder Joseph recalls finding a daguerreotype of his father, he forgot about it,
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"...in visiting at my stepfather's I found a number of letters and other things left by my mother which the Major kindly gave into my keeping... they included a daguerreotype of my father which I had forgotten was in existence."
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An Iowa Newspaper noted having daguerreotypes of Joseph and Hyrum Smith"
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“William A. Smith’s 1852 advertisement of “Daguerrean Pictures of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the Nauvoo Temple,” on display in his Kanesville, Iowa gallery. (Kanesville Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel, May 13, 1852, as cited in Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary 1839 –1865 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), 558.)
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1875 “Our friend Mr. Christ Smith, of Sonora, called to see us on last Saturday, and presented us with a daguerreotype of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He stated that while on a visit in Iowa, he found the original likeness, and with permission of the owner had one copied therefrom. We saw one of Smith’s pictures several years since, and from our recollection
of it, pronounce this a very good likeness.” (Nauvoo Independent, September 24, 1875)​
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The above Ebay seller, quoted above, notes the previous owner found my Carte de Visite in family album with "Smith" names written on the front, and was printed in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, Ten miles away from the sons of Joseph and Emma, copied from an older daguerreotype, per Gawain Weaver- printed in the 1860s. Joseph Smith III in April 1860 was called by remnant Saints, living in and around Kendall County, Illinois to be their leader. 6 years of traveling to his parish from Nauvoo, Illinois to Kendall County, for just about 6 years, he moved with his family to Plano, Kendall County, Il. to run the "Saints Herald" paper as Editor, in January 1860, till about 1881, after which he lived in Iowa, then spent his last days living in Missouri, making the above statements of where the other paper CDVs were printed, being in Missouri- could make this a family album from any of the sons of Joseph and Emma Smith.
Alexander Hale Smith Grew to adulthood in Nauvoo, Illinois. It is noted that he traveled very extensively in the 1860s and most of his life, for the Reorganized Church, but he is placed in Plano, Il. in 1869, when his daughter Emma Belle was born. Prior to Emma's death, Alexander settled his family in Missouri.
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David Hyrum Smith was the youngest son of Joseph Smith (born in 1844). Letters detail David referencing living in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, and clearly stating his Mother Emma came to visit him in Plano, upon his urgent request, she likely would have had to travel through Newark, Illinois to get to Plano.
All three of the sons of Joseph and Emma lived ten miles away from the photographic artist, who printed my CDV, when he printed it, landing itself in a family album with Smith names in it, and believed by Doctors Teghan Lucas and Maciej Henneberg to likely be an image of Joseph, all of this information too supports this possibility, further supporting is that Emma had a negative she wanted copied, according to earlier 1860s letters, to Joseph Smith III, as she wrote about visiting Joseph Smith III in 1866. Click here, to read the page noting the historical evidence an image of Joseph Smith could have been copied onto a Paper Carte de Visite.
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon Writes about going to Kendall County, 1866
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon late in years
Emma Smith is a likely candidate who could have had the original daguerreotype copied into a paper CDV, and she traveled with David Hyrum (her youngest) from Nauvoo, to Plano, Illinois in 1869 ("From mission to madness", pg. 87 Valeen Tippetts Avery), when she went to the semi-annual conference for the RLDS Church; this places her ten miles away from Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, where my CDV was printed (in the 1860s), see my page detailing historical provenance.
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Emma Smith likely went to Plano, Kendall County, Illinois sooner than 1869. I went to the Church History Library and read through microfilm, some of Emma's letters to her Eldest son, Joseph Smith III (son of Joseph and Emma Smith), from Nauvoo, Ill. to him in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, where he'd lived since January 1866. J.S. III moved the Plano to be the editor of the paper, the "Saints Herald", same county where J.S. Bibbins was living at the time (remember, above records state Bibbins died in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois in 1891).
David H. Smith, son of Joseph and Emma Smith.
Emma Smith was Friends with Elisha Bibbins, of Newark, Illinois, Father of the Photographic Artist
Elisha Bibbins of Newark, Kendall County, Illinois
Photograph of Emma Smith later in Years.
More connections to residents of Kendall County include Emma Smith knew Joseph Slocum Bibbin's Father, Elisha Bibbins as a little girl, and seeing advertisements around the County, for his photography, she would have had many reasons to reach out to him and he to her.
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On pages 67-69 of “Isaac and Elizabeth Hale in Their Endless Mountain Home”, by Mark L. Staker:
“Elisha Bibbins…was a man of medium size with a prominent nose and “benignant eyes” who was so successful in his efforts to invite the interested to seek God in prayer… Isaac, often found himself in the woods hunting. One day, when Elisha Bibbins was the circuit rider, Isaac came across his daughter Emma in the woods while out hunting.
“Mr. Hale always claimed that he was converted from deism to faith in Christ as the Savior, by a secret prayer of Emma’s, when she was but seven or eight years old, which he accidentlally (sic) overheard when just entering into the woods to hunt. In the course of her prayer she besought the Lord in behalf of her father, and the force and efficacy of that prayer entered into his heart with such power as to lead him to faith in Christ the Lord.”
“Isaac’s commitment changed as he “listened to the wailings of her young heart in his behalf” while Emma prayed aloud in the woods as the preachers encouraged.
“… George Peck became the circuit rider coming through the Susquehanna Valley in 1816, he held his meetings in the home of “Brother Hale.” …When Peck preached a sermon in the parlor of the Hale home, he based it on Isaiah 12:6, “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitants of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” Emma’s influential prayer seems to not only have made a difference for her father, but her “missionary spirit”...”
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Methodist circuit rider George Peck wrote about his experiences in “The Life and Times of Rev. George Peck D.D. written by Himself” about knowing Elisha Bibbins (pg. 66) and the Hale Family (pg. 68), as they both taught in Harmony Pennsylvania. Where things solidly link these two families, the Hales and the Bibbins and is in the description of when and where Reverend Elisha Bibbins died. George Peck goes into detail of reuniting with Elisha Bibbins May 12, 1859, at the Wyoming Conference (pg. 361), and spending time with Elisha, hearing how his heart is failing him, and his subsequent death while at him home (pg. 363), while sitting in a chair, after a bad coughing fit. Peck details a funeral being held where he lived, in Scranton and then laid to rest in Orwell.
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Elisha Bibbin's Obituary notes the same details as George Peck noted, saying that he's from Illinois, and similar things such as him dying sitting in his chair, being at the Wyoming Conference, while staying in Scranton Pennsylvania (which is outside of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, where J.S. Bibbins was born:
“Rev. Elisha Bibbins, aged 65 years, of Illinois, and a member of the Wyoming Conference, died suddenly at the residence of Dr. Peck, in Scranton on the 6th inst. He died while sitting in his chair, having just written a letter to his wife, who was temporarily sojourning in Orwell. His remains were carried to the latter place, and his funeral attended on Saturday, Dr. PECK officiating. He was universally beloved and respected…” (Bradford Reporter, Towanda, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1859, pg. 2).
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Evidence of this obituary, mentioning a Dr. Peck, is the same preacher Staker references above, who preached in the Smith home, and knew Emma Smith’s Father, verified by two sources, the first is found in “North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000”:
“Alice, born in Lisbon…married, Sept. 20, 1814, Rev. Elisha Bibbins, a Methodist preacher, and is now living with her son, J.S. Bibbins, in Newark, Ill… Mr. Bibbins was born in Hamden, N.Y. July 16, 1790, after successfully laboring in the ministry for years, went into Illinois, in 1840, and was in 1843 sent to the State legislature. On a visit to Scranton, Pa., for the purpose of meeting his old friends and recruiting his health, died very suddenly while sitting in his chair. Their children are all members of the Methodist Church, and are as follows: Edward Paine Bibbins… is a farmer; Joseph Slocum Bibbins born Nov.1 1821…”[1] ( “A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in this Country, embracing the Descendants as far as known of … by the Rev. E. B. Huntington, A.M. Mrs. Julia M. Huntington, Ridgefield, Conn. 1884, Pg. 147)
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Methodism, although quickly popular, was new in the 1810s, minute books detail the successful and young circuit rider, Elisha Bibbin's whereabouts. I found many scanned 19th century books online, verifying this. Mark Staker notes in his full article, "Isaac and Elizabeth Hale in Their Endless Mountain Home", can be read on this website (run by descendants of Joseph Smith Jr.). Staker's article is well over 100 pages, and is extremely thorough. One of his sources shows evidence for Elisha Bibbins working the as a Circuit rider for the Tioga Circuit, on page 98 of this history book on Tioga County, this includes Susquehanna Valley (and the town of Harmony). In Mark's paper, it states Elisha Bibbins was in Harmony in 1812 (when he influenced Emma to pray in the woods, father hears her...). Elisha Bibbins, mentioned family blogs and census records, as the father of J.S. Bibbins, gots married around 1814, Mark notes a DIFFERENT circuit rider being in Harmony. Elisha's first child is born in 1815; that is when he is mentioned in minute books, as Methodist circuit rider, for Springville, Pennsylvania (south-west 14 miles from Susquehanna, 24 miles from Scranton, where Elisha was noted as dying- "visiting friends", who WAS the father of Joseph Slocum. Elisha Bibbins then living in Newark), so his absence in Harmony, in 1814, the Staker article, it all just lines up. Joseph Slocum Bibbins even names his son "Elisha" in records, seen on the 1860 Census record for Big Grove, Kendall County.
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Kendall County, in 1860, included the towns of Newark and Plano, where Joseph Smith III moved to in 1866 till 1881, to be the editor of the Saints Herald. My Carte de Visite was created sometime in the 1860s, no stamp on the back- so for sure not 1864-66 (Tax stamps ended August 1st, 1866, stamps were no longer required on the back of photographs) and Emma didn't even plan on visiting Plano, until after this tax had ended, so that too- lines up perfectly (see her letters above start in August, 1866, stating she was planning on visiting Joseph Smith III in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois (ten miles away from Newark, Kendall County, Illinois)).
J.S. III could have run into Joseph Slocum Bibbins in October 1860 (other than the 16 plus years they lived only ten mile apart), he mentions traveling as the new President of the Reorganize Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (today is the Community of Christ), just outside of Millington, which- itself is just 2 miles from Newark, this could be plausible instance, for a "run in" between the two men whose initials bore "J.S.".
Lucian Foster's Daguerreotype Style
Image of Emma Smith, above, from Julia Murdock Smith's photo album, which had the inscription, "Mrs. Joseph Smith and son Dave Born 3 months after his father was killed." It is much clearer than the later reprints.
Per Rick Grunder's website, that back states: "R. F. Adam's . . . St. Louis, Mo." - although the copy was printed in Missouri, the original is believed to be Nauvoo (as David is a baby and she didn't leave Nauvoo until he was over 2 years old. Julie Murdock Smith, lived in Missouri, so likely she had possession of the daguerreotype, at that time, and had it duplicated onto a paper CDV.
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Height is an interesting thing to analyze, Emma was said to be 5'9', and Joseph- well over 6 feet (some said 6'2" others 6'4"), with Wilford (pictured below) being quite a bit shorter at 5'7". Emma Smith's picture she looks downtrodden, slouched, likely making her spine appear shorter than it naturally is, and with Wilford sitting up very straight and tall- the mere two inch height differenc eand their different postures have them lining up a similar distance from the top of the shorter background, whereas the image we think could be Joseph Smith shows a man with the same type of background, same slant and he is so tall that he overlaps the end of the short background, being a man of over six year- this would be expected.
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Joseph Smith III has claimed, many times that his Father, Joseph Smith's daguerreotype was taken by Lucian Rose Foster, well before his death (see page 29 of the Article by William B. McCarl).
On April 29, 1844, Lucian Foster moves to Nauvoo Illinois, from New York, where he worked and trained in art of Photography, doing Daguerreotypes; he appears in Joseph Smith’s personal journal entry for this date:
“Monday April 29— 1844— At home received a visit from Lucian R. Foster of N. York who gave me a gold pencil case sent me by Bro Theodore Curtis.— now in N. York & the first—— I wrote with it was “God bless the man””.
In 1844, Lucian Foster is listed as being on Joseph Smith Jr.’s Presidential Campaign as the central correspondence committee in Spring of 1844.
Wilford and Phoebe Woodruff's Daguerreotype Taken by Lucian Foster
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Wilford Woodruff recorded he and Phoebe getting their daguerreotypes taken, August 23, 1844: catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets?id=09e6d1b1-cd59-41d4-bc46-e3d74899ceac&crate=0&index=323
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The Church Catalog dates the images below between 1840-1866. I think this is a good contender for the image Lucian Foster took and could not find any earlier daguerreotypes in the catalogue, and assume these fit the best description and time frame to be the images Foster took of Wilford and Phoebe Woodruff. I see very similar details, that I see in Emma's 1845 daguerreotype/CDV such as hard- side lighting, which is CLEARLY happening because, as you see in Phoebe's image, part of a gas lamp, on a table is visible (this explains why in my image of Joseph, especially you see light coming from below). Phoebe's image shows what today is termed a 3/4 shot, if you've ever worked in portrait photography (I have), in Foster's work, the women were placed farther away, to show more of their body/dress/figure, same with Emma's image, but the men are photographed much closer, mid-chest- up.
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1840s daguerreotype of Wilford Woodruff
1840s Daguerreotype of Phoebe Woodruff
Below are two different photographs of Wilford (bottom left is the same as left image above, just a better quality closer up copy), bottom right- is a much more BLURRY image, recently found- that they credit to Lucian Foster, but the case seems to match the more stylized case used by Marsena Cannon (example- link); they look like they were taken at the same studio, same hair, just the blurry one shows more of a hairline on his left, but in the non-blurry image of him his hair is more smooth, so I wonder if they were both by Foster (aside from the cases being quite different, but possible Foster got cases from different locations?), plus- backgrounds and lighting, and pose are about the same. The blurry image, below right, it is clear that Wilford moved his head, and he didn't like it much and Foster retook it (after putting more pomade in his hair), that is my theory.
Marsena Cannon's Daguerreotype Style​
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Marsena Cannon is the only other daguerreotypist that scholars credit for taking daguerreotypes of the early 1840s Saints, however he was not in Nauvoo before Joseph Smith died. Wilford Woodruff writes in detail about meeting with Marsena, in Boston Massachusetts, May 16th, 1849. Below are some images done by Cannon, in Boston. Wilford writes about getting a group family picture and a pin made (where he looks much older than all the other images, not sure how this happened in one year, but in his Feb. 18th. 1850 journal entry he speaks of getting a pin and a small "case" (assume a normal daguerreotype case) made of him- by Marsena, unsure of how his frame changed so much, he is gaunt looking in the pin, but the 1849 picture he has much more weight; after he went to Utah, he stays pretty skinny and thin, for some time... times were hard... very sad to see); Link to the journal entries:
