Editing Joseph Fielding Smith (section)

==Early life==
Smith was born in Salt Lake City, [[Utah Territory]], on July 19, 1876, as the first son of [[Julina Lambson Smith]], the second wife and first plural wife of Joseph F. Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. By agreement between his parents, Smith was given his father's name, even though Joseph F. Smith's third and fourth wives had previously had sons.<ref>Gibbons (1992): 1.</ref> Growing up, Smith lived in his father's large family home at 333 West 100 North in [[Salt Lake City]].<ref name="gibbons3">Gibbons (1992): 3.</ref> The house was opposite the original campus of the University of Deseret (modern [[University of Utah]]),<ref name="gibbons3"/> on a site now occupied by [[Ensign College]]. He also often worked on the family farm in [[Taylorsville, Utah]], as a child.<ref>''[[Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith]]'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church, 2013) p. 3.</ref>

In January 1879, when Smith was two years old, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] in ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'' upheld the [[constitutionality]] of the [[Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act]] of 1862, which had criminalized the Mormon practice of [[plural marriage]].<ref>Gibbons (1992): 13.</ref> Due to aggressive federal enforcement of this ruling, as well as the [[Edmunds Act]] of 1882 and the [[Edmunds–Tucker Act]] of 1887, many LDS Church leaders, including Smith's father, were either imprisoned or forced into hiding and exile during most of the 1880s. Smith's father, as the keeper of the records of the [[Endowment House]], felt a special need to avoid capture since the records could allow the federal authorities to easily prove polygamy charges against certain Latter-day Saint men.<ref name="gibbons14">Gibbons (1992): 14.</ref> In January 1885, Smith's parents and his younger sister, Julina, left for the Sandwich Islands (modern Hawaii), where Smith's father had served a mission as a teenager in the 1850s.<ref name="gibbons14"/> In their absence, Smith continued to live in the family home with his brothers and sisters and his father's other wives, whom he "lovingly called 'aunties'".<ref>Gibbons (1992): 15.</ref> Smith's mother returned to Salt Lake City in 1887, followed later by his father.<ref name="gibbons14"/> Even after his return, Joseph F. Smith was unable to openly visit and care for his wives and children until receiving a [[Pardon#Federal law|presidential pardon]] from U.S. President [[Benjamin Harrison]] in September 1891.<ref>Gibbons (1992): 42.</ref>

Smith's mother worked as a [[midwife]] to help provide for the family, and delivered nearly 1,000 babies in her career without ever having a mother or infant die in childbirth.<ref>Gibbons (1992): 17.</ref> As a boy, Smith often drove his mother by wagon to the various [[Childbirth|deliveries]] that she attended in Salt Lake City. Smith's primary schooling took place in "ward schools", which in the 19th century were semi-formal schools run by members of each [[Ward (LDS Church)|ward]] which taught the traditional "[[The three Rs|three R's]]": reading, writing, and [[arithmetic]].<ref name="gibbons19">Gibbons (1992): 19.</ref> As a teenager Smith completed two years of study at the [[Latter-day Saint College]], an institution equivalent to the modern U.S. [[High school#United States|high school]], which provided courses in the basic areas of mathematics, geography, history, basic science, and [[penmanship]].<ref name="gibbons44">Gibbons (1992): 44.</ref> After leaving the college, Smith began working as a stock clerk doing manual labor at [[ZCMI]] to supplement the family's income.<ref name="gibbons44"/> Smith was present in the large assembly room of the [[Salt Lake Temple]] for its dedication on April 6, 1893, by church president [[Wilford Woodruff]].<ref>Gibbons (1992): 47.</ref>