Emma Hale was born on July 10, 1804. She lived on a farm with her father and mother and her eight brothers and sisters. Some of her aunts, uncles, and cousins lived nearby.
The Hale farm was in Harmony, Pennsylvania, in a beautiful valley along the bank of the Susquehanna River. Emma could pick apples from the orchard. She could watch baby lambs play, and she could help gather vegetables from the big garden. When the snow started to melt, she could watch her father collect maple sap in big buckets. She could help her mother boil the sap until it finally turned into maple sugar.
One day when Emma was about eight years old, she went to pray in the woods. She was worried about her father because he did not have a strong faith in Jesus Christ. While Emma was praying, her father came into the woods to go hunting. When he overheard his young daughter praying for him, he was very touched. His faith in the Lord was strengthened.
Emma grew to be a tall, intelligent girl. She was an excellent reader and writer. When she was 21, a hardworking and intelligent young man named Joseph Smith came to live at the Hale home. Emma Hale had a good character and a quick wit. She was a virtuous young woman. No wonder she and Joseph chose each other as husband and wife!
Emma Grown Up
Find the pictures that match some of the important things Emma did when she grew up. Write the number of each description on the matching illustration.
When Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah to get the gold plates from Moroni, Emma went with him and waited by the wagon.
When Joseph translated the gold plates, Emma was the first scribe. Joseph would tell her what to write down as he translated the words.
Emma collected hymns for the Church’s first hymnbook.
She was the first president of the Relief Society in Nauvoo.
She helped people who were sick and let poor people stay in her home.
When Church members were forced to leave their homes in Missouri, she and her children walked across the frozen Mississippi River to escape. In two cloth bags tied around her waist, she carried papers with Joseph’s translations of the Bible.
She was a loving mother of 11 children, including 2 who were adopted. Only 5 of them lived to be adults.
Emma loved her husband, Joseph, all his life and did many things to support him in his important work of restoring the Lord’s Church.
Right: All Things Dear, by Julie Rogers; Time to Laugh, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Joseph and Emma at the Hill Cumorah, by Robert T. Barrett © 1987; Emma’s Hymns, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Thou Shalt Be Comforted, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Emma Smith, the Elect Lady, by Theodore Gorka © 1996 IRI; Organization of the Relief Society, by Dale Kilbourn © IRI; photograph by Jed A. Clark; Of One Heart, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied
Left: illustrations by Julie Rogers