110 years ago today - Aug 29, 1904

Joseph Smith's youngest son, David Hyrum Smith dies in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, Illinois. Although David was born after his father's martyrdom Joseph had prophesied that his unborn son would be male and would be named "David" and would be "president and king of Israel. David did not go with Brigham Young to Utah. However as an apostle and later first presidency member in the Reorganized church he went on two missions to Utah to convert the "poor decieved souls." The Utah Mormons returned the favor by trying to convince him that polygamy was instituted by his father rather than by Brigham Young as his mother (and Joseph widow) Emma had claimed. He gradually accepted that his father practiced polygamy but considered it to be adulterous rather than of divine revelation. This realization was accompanied by a decent into severe mental illness. He spent the final 27 years of his life in the Asylum for the Insane.

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