Brother Joseph: No Fighting Among Saints

As the mayor of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith was keen on ensuring that the city represented the best of Mormonism as the religion was (and is) intended to pave the way for Christ's reign on earth. Answering an inquiry as to how Joseph Smith had managed to get the city so well regulated and prosperous he once commented, "I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves" (In "The Organization of the Church," Millennial Star, 15 Nov 1851, p. 339).

One instance of note in my research comes in the form of an entry in Joseph Smith's 1843 journal, which was kept by his secretary, Willard Richards. On the 20th of February of that year, Joseph was overseeing the proceedings of a court case involving two teenage boys who were accused of stealing some books (they would later plead guilty and be sentenced to 6 months prison at Carthage jail). Joseph Smith's mind was doubtless caught up with the challenges of the upbringing of the youth of the city as the two young men sat in judgement. It was during this train of thought that the following incident occurred:

"While the court was in session, two boys were seen fighting in the street by Mill's tavern. The mayor saw it and ran over immediately and caught one of the boys (who had began to fight with clubs) and stopped him and then the other. [He] gave the bystanders a lecture for not interfering in such cases—and returned to Court​.

"'​No body is allowed to fight in this city but me,' said the mayor" (“President Joseph Smith’s Journal,” Journal, Book 1, 20 Feb 1843, p. 200, spelling and grammar modernized).

To recap: during the trial of the two teenagers, Joseph Smith saw two young boys fighting and went to great lengths to personally put an end to it so that he could correct the course of their lives and keep them from becoming as the teenage thieves. But did Joseph succeed in this? Did the boys turn aside from an unruly path to go on and become Saints? That question, as it turns out, can be answered.

Some six decades or so later, a man named T. Edgar Lyon attended a fast and testimony meeting in the Salt Lake City 20th ward and related the following story told by an old saint at the pulpit, prefacing his transcription of the stories told there with a warning that the history was only orally preserved (which, in this case, may be safely ignored given the transcript cited above!):

"There appeared to be an unwritten law in the Twentieth Ward that if you had not lived at Nauvoo and known Joseph Smith, you could not bear your testimony until all the Old Nauvooers had borne theirs.... I was impressed by the love and respect these people had for Joseph Smith, based on an intimate relationship with him and a closeness to him. Although these people had known Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, and Joseph F. Smith, who was then president, these leaders were referred to as 'president of the Church,' while the Old Nauvooers referred to Joseph Smith with two more endearing names: 'The Prophet,' or 'Brother Joseph.' What impressed my young mind about Joseph Smith from their talks was his concern for people and their problems, and the personal contacts they had experienced with him.

"What follows is oral history, and is hence suspect as all oral history must be. As it has a subjectivity to it, it may not always be reliable. Nevertheless, it records significant personal impressions, both of those who experienced the events and the present writer who heard the original people repeat their personal reactions to Joseph Smith.

"One man related that one day at Nauvoo he and another boy were having a fistfight in front of the Mills City Hotel on Main Street, which still stands a block north of the Mansion House, the Prophet's second home at Nauvoo. The City Council was in session on the second floor of Joseph Smith's store, which was a block west of the Mansion House. Joseph, then mayor, was presiding at the meeting. Looking through the window toward the northeast, he saw the two boys fighting. Turning the meeting over to one of the aldermen to conduct, he ran down the stairs, crossed the street, vaulted over a fence, and ran diagonally northeast toward and arrived just as the two antagonists had pulled pickets from a fence and were about to continue their quarrel with the pickets. The speaker said Joseph grabbed them each by their shirt collars, ordered them to throw down their weapons, then releasing his grip on them asked, "Don't you know that no one in this town is allowed to fight except me?"

"Sheepishly they admitted they did not know it, and then, perhaps with a twinkle in his eye, the mayor of the town said, 'Next time you feel like fighting come to my home and ask for a fight and I'll fight you, and it will be legal.'

"The narrator then continued, 'That ended our fighting. We certainly didn't want to fight Brother Joseph!'" (T. Edgar Lyon, "Recollections of 'Old Nauvooers' Memories from Oral History", BYU Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, grammar modernized).