Lucy Mack Smith (1775–1856) was the mother of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and nine other children, and she was a strong voice in the early church. Her son William Smith remembered, “My mother, who was a very pious woman and much interested in the welfare of her children, both here and hereafter, made use of every means which her parental love could suggest, to get us engaged in seeking for our souls’ salvation, or (as the term then was) ‘in getting religion.’”¹ In her own search for religion, Smith studied the Bible, prayed, discussed dreams and visions, and attended religious meetings and revivals sponsored by various denominations.² She was baptized a Latter-day Saint soon after her son Joseph organized the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830.³

In early May 1831, Smith was part of a company of approximately eighty church members from the Fayette, New York, area who were traveling to join the larger group of Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio. They hoped that the warm spring weather would allow them to travel along the waterways from New York to Ohio, rather than overland.⁴ According to her later account of the journey, both Solomon Humphrey, the oldest member of the church at the time, and Hiram Page, one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, refused leadership of the group, instead deferring to Smith. Her later history records that the entire congregation agreed: “‘Yes,’ responded they all together, ‘just as Mother Smith says, so we will do.’” Smith recalled that before leaving, “I called them all round me. ‘Now,’ said I, ‘brothers and sisters, we have set out just as Father Lehi did to travel by the commandment of the Lord to a land that the Lord will show unto us if we are faithful, and I want you all to be solemn and lift your hearts to God in prayer continually that we may be prospered.” While traveling along the Cayuga-Seneca Canal and the Erie Canal, as she remembered it, Smith led the company in song and prayer and took charge of some of the finances, the food, and the lodging.⁵

The journey proved less than ideal: adverse weather, suspicion on the part of local townspeople, and unprepared travelers with few supplies and unruly children created tension within the group. Five days after departure, the Fayette group arrived at Buffalo, where they met another group of Saints from Colesville, New York, who had been waiting for a week for the ice to break in Buffalo Harbor and allow boats to get through.⁶ According to Smith, the Colesville party encouraged the Fayette company to wait quietly for the weather to change without admitting their religious identity to the local population, which might incite prejudice that would prevent them from securing local lodging and transportation. Instead, Smith stood on the deck of the steamboat where her company was gathered and boldly proclaimed her Mormon beliefs to gathered townspeople.

After testifying to local spectators, Smith observed what she considered inappropriate behavior among the Saints on the boat, including debating, complaining, and flirting. Smith worried that the sight of unruly behavior would undermine her earlier public witness, and she turned to speak to the Saints as recorded in the discourse featured here. Just as she finished speaking, she recounted, “a noise was heard like bursting thunder, and the captain cried out, ‘Every man to his post!’ and the ice parted, leaving barely a pathway for the boat.”⁷ They crossed safely and quickly to Fairport Harbor in Ohio, about twelve miles northeast of Kirtland, and arrived around May 11, 1831.⁸ This exhortation was recorded by Lucy Mack Smith in her own words about thirteen years later and demonstrates the authority she exercised as “Mother Smith,” a respected matriarch of the church.