Joseph Smith's Family Tragedy

Guest post by Bernhard

Joseph Firth Smith was one of the seven original directors, when the Watch Tower Society was incorporated in 1884. The details are in an earlier article on this blog, The Magnificent Seven. Joseph was the son of Henry Smith.

 In 1876 Joseph married Kate Richards. With his wife he lived in the Seventh Ward in Pittsburgh and later on Elgin Avenue, and St. Claire Street.

On January 4, 1881 his only son Henry Firth was born.

We don’t know exactly when Joseph joined the Watch Tower movement, but we know this was by April 1883 at the latest. On December 15, 1884 he became a director of the Watch Tower Society and resigned as director on December 3, 1891. However, the resignation was not actioned by Russell until April 11, 1892. This meant that Henry Firth was 11 years old when his father left Russell.

(from a contemporary account)

Henry Firth Smith, 25 years old, was shot and almost instantly killed at 4 o’clock morning in November 11, 1906, in a desperate battle with a burglar whom he discovered in the home where he lived with his parents at Elgin and St. Clair streets, East End. 8 shots were fired during the fight and the entire neighborhood was aroused, but the murderer, leaving his revolver behind, managed to escape unseen. His parents had slept in this time. Having been awakened by the shots the father and mother ran down the stairs. On the kitchen floor they found their son. Joseph tried to arouse the victim but it was to late.

At this time the Smiths were members of the First Presbyterian Church and the funeral was also held by a Pastor from this church.

(from contemporary accounts)

After following clues for nearly three months that led them into nearly every quarter of the United States, the county detectives have found in Atlanta, Ga., the murderer of Henry F. Smith. It was the negro Jim Johnson.

(Editorial note: this report was wildly optimisitc. The newspapers were still naming other possible suspects, involved in other crimes, two years later. To my knowledge, no-one was ever brought to trial for Smith‘s murder.)

Henry Firth was employed at the plant of the Pittsburgh Label Company, 4017 Liberty avenue, of which his father was treasurer.

More information on Joseph Firth Smith can be found in Separate Identity volume 2, by Bruce Schulz and Rachael de Vienne. See chapter Organizing and Financing the Work (both main text pp. 176-177 and footnote). Extract reproduced below with permission and with thanks,

The 1880 Census indicates a birth date of about 1852. This is incorrect. The correct birth date (October 28, 1849) comes from his passport application dated May 10, 1870. Smith married Kate Richards. No children are listed in the 1880 Census. We could not locate a photo of Smith. (Editorial note: as shown above, we do have photographs of his father and his son, the murder victim.) His passport application says (Joseph) was fair-skinned and fair-haired, five feet eight in height with a straight nose, high forehead and small chin. J. F. Smith died December 7, 1924.

As did Russell, Joseph attended the Grant School, and though Smith was older, their attendance overlapped. We do not know if they knew each other as children. He attended Oberlin College and Duff’s Mercantile College. Duff’s offered night classes in accounting and shorthand, and among its alumni was Andrew Carnegie. We do not know if Smith graduated from either institution. Joseph is listed as a “clerk” in the 1866 edition of Thurston’s Directory. In the next edition he is listed as a “salesman,” living in a boarding house at 84 Wylie Avenue, Pittsburgh. By 1869 he moved a few doors down on Wylie Street and was again working as a clerk in his father’s store. Obviously Smith’s original connection to Russell was a business one. The Smiths were social peers of both Russell and Conley. The Pittsburgh Dispatch of May 11, 1889, notes that Mrs. Joseph F. Smith was on the board of directors of the Christian Home for Women. The Smiths had other business interests that in time included lithography and real estate.

His name first appears in the April 1883 Zion’s Watch Tower. The Smiths came out of the Episcopal Church. During his association with Zion’s Watch Tower he was an active evangelist. Russell reported in the February 15, 1892, Watch Tower that Smith was “making a thorough canvass of Pittsburgh and vicinity. He is letting the light shine and attracting the attention of some of the children of the light. In the portion of the city already gone over, he has circulated over 2000 copies of Dawn, which, sooner or later, will bring results.”  Smith and W. I. Mann were dropped as directors on April 11, 1892. It is probably safe to say that the same issues that prompted Mann to resign also mattered to Smith.