Pioneer Day: Jane Manning James

[Suzie]

Yesterday was Pioneer day and over By Common Consent, Margaret Young wrote a very inspiring blog post on Jane Manning James. I love the story of this woman. I wrote a post about her last year here on lds.net and I thought in sharing it with you again:

Jane Elizabeth Manning James. She was an African-American LDS member born in Connecticut in the 1820's. She was born free (not slave) but worked as a servant in the farm of a very wealthy white family. She was a Presbyterian and when our missionaries traveled to the area (around 1841) where she lived and Jane listened to their message, she knew instantly that she has found what she has been looking for and decided to be baptized the following Sunday.

Around a year or two after her conversion, she led a group of relatives (8 of them) to Nauvoo along with the Saints of the area. The whole family prepared and traveled with the larger group of members of the Church. However, they were separated in New York after the steamboat captain refused Jane and family entry because they were African Americans. The captain also refused to give them their belongings that were already packed in the boat.

This unfortunate event that probably could make most people give up and lose hope didn't stop this wonderful and faithful sister. She was determined to be in Nauvoo, no matter what it would take.

Jane and her family decided to walk to Nauvoo (800 miles), experiencing harsh weather conditions, illnesses, almost ending in prison (authorities demanded that they present documents that would prove they weren't slaves and after a long interview, they were allowed to leave and were able to convince the authorities that they were free).

Jane said that they walked until their shoes were worn out and their feet were so sore that they cracked open and bled to the point of making bloody prints on the ground. However, they prayed together and asked Heavenly Father to heal their feet and He did and they were able to continue the journey.

When they reached Nauvoo the members of the Church after seeing them didn't greet them as she was expecting. However there was a very special person who greeted her and her relatives with love: The Prophet Joseph Smith.

She was able to find his house and when Joseph saw her, he took a chair and sat by Jane and said "You have been the head of this little band, haven't you?" (I close my eyes and I feel like I can almost imagine the voice of the Prophet saying this with a smile on his face). Jane, humbly answered "Yes, sir". He then said "God bless you". He also told her "You are now among friends and you will be protected".

A week passed and each relative of Jane was able to find a job and a place to live except Jane. Her family left for their new jobs in the morning and the Prophet saw Jane crying and asked her why she was so upset and she told him that all her relatives got themselves homes and she got none.

And it's very hard to write this now (without getting emotional) the Prophet told her that yes, she has a house, "right here if you want it", he comforted her and said she mustn't cry and left the room and brought Emma with him. Emma welcomed her with open arms and from that day, Jane became a servant in the Smith house helping Emma with chores such as washing and ironing. Emma became very close to Jane and even offered her "adoption", meaning being sealed to the Prophet and her as a child but she not understanding at that time what it meant, politely refused.

One of the first chores she did the next morning was the washing of clothes and saw the Prophet's temple garments and said:

I looked at them and wondered–[as] I had never seen any before–and I pondered over them and thought about them so earnestly that the spirit made manifest to me that they pertained to the new name that is given the saints that the world knows not of.

I had to pass through Mother Smith’s room to get to mine, [and] she would often stop me and talk to me. She told me all Brother Joseph’s troubles, and what he had suffered in publishing the Book of Mormon. One morning I met Brother Joseph coming out of his mother’s room. He said, “Good morning!” and shook hands with me. I went to his mother’s room. She said, “Good morning. Bring me that bundle from my bureau and sit down here.” I did as she told me. She placed the bundle [in] my hands and said, “Handle this and then put it in the top drawer of my bureau and lock it up.” After I had done it she said, “Sit down. Do you remember that I told you about the Urim and Thummim when I told you about the Book of Mormon? I answered yes ma’am. She then told me I had just handled it. “You are not permitted to see it, but you have been permitted to handle it. You will live long after I am dead and gone and you can tell the Latter-day Saints, that you was permitted to handle the Urim and Thummim.”

After Joseph Smith died, she lived in Brigham Young's house. There she met and married another member of the Church named Isaac James, they had 8 children and their third child was the first African American child born in Utah territory. Both of them worked very hard and were able to purchase a farm and accumulate horses, sheep, chickens and all sort of animals until the crickets came and destroyed most of their crops. Jane and her kids suffered harsh weather conditions, no money and hunger. She related how hard it was for her to listen her kids cry for bread and yet have none to give them. This was just the beginning of sorrows...

Her husband decided to leave her and the kids (he returned more than 20 years later, short before he died) and Jane had to be the breadwinner in her large family. Her income wasn't much but she did the best she could and worked in washing, sewing, soap making that allowed her at least to have some bread on the table for her and her kids. Even though her income was very low, she payed tithes and even donated to three temple funds and a mission. Her faith and determination were unstoppable.

This wonderful faithful woman walked for over 800 miles until her feet were cracking and bleeding, losing all her belongings, facing racism and prejudice, bringing along her relatives who joined the Church because of her, payed a faithful tithing and donated money to Church funds and programs even though she had a meager income.

After her husband left the family in 1869, Jane in several occasions asked the First Presidency to be endowed and to be sealed, along with her children, to Walker Lewis, an African American Mormon Elder (I think he is the second, after Elijah Abel). Jane of course assumed that he would be eligible for temple ordinances since Walker was an Elder. However, her petitions were refused several times.

After Isaac died in 1891 Jane decided to ask the First Presidency to be given the ordination of adoption so that she could be sealed to the Smiths as a child as Emma has offered in the past. Her request was once again refused. Instead, the First Presidency decided (after several requests) that she can be adopted into the family of Joseph Smith as a eternal servant and they did so. Jane was not allowed to be present in the ceremony. Joseph F. Smith acted as proxy for Joseph Smith, and Bathsheba W. Smith acted as proxy for Jane.

It just breaks my heart to imagine the pain that this faithful Saint went through and her faith and desire to be sealed in the Temple just like anyone else to her loved ones. It also touches me to know how wonderful the Prophet Joseph was to her and her family .

After that ordination of becoming a servant for eternity, Jane didn't seem satisfied (who can blame her?). She petitioned once again (1895) to the First Presidency to be sealed to the Smiths as a child but once again, was denied.

She died in 1908 at age of 86. She was almost completely blind yet her faith and love for this Gospel are amazing examples in LDS history. I never met this sister, I am not African American yet I feel my heart so close to her and the struggles she went through. The work in the Temple has been done for her right after the lifting of the ban in 1978.

Toward the end of her earthly journey she said:

My faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is as strong today, nay, it is if possible stronger than it was the day I was first baptized. I pay my tithes and offerings, keep the word of wisdom, I go to bed early and rise early, I try in my feeble way to set a good example to all.

[Just_A_Guy]

Suzie, I hope you'll forgive the threadjack; but this is interesting in that I'd always been under the impression that the Urim and Thummim were given back to Moroni, and that the seer stone Joseph used in translating the Book of Mormon was given to Oliver Cowdery sometime prior to 1838. But here we have Jane saying that Joseph (well, his mother, anyways) possessed the interpreters right up through the Nauvoo period.

Have you seen anything more on this?

[Suzie]

JAG, the discrepancy seems to come from the term "Urim and Thummim". Early Church members, including Apostles and Prophets used the term a little different as we are used to. They used it to describe both seer stones (Joseph Smith used several) and the Nephites "interpreters".

Jane Manning James wasn't the only one referring to the Urim and Thummim in that manner after 1830. We have Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Orson and Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball between others. I could provide several examples of this in Church history using these early members as well as Joseph and Emma if you would like me to.

[Just_A_Guy]

Thanks, Suzie. I understand that Smith had several seer stones (and that the Church has at least two or three of them), but IIRC Whitmer was very specific that the one Smith gave to Cowdery--which ultimately came back to the First Presidency via Phineas Young--was the one that had been used to translate the Book of Mormon.

Cowdery apparently had that stone no later than 1838, and possibly as early as 1830. So, I see one of three possibilities here:

1) There were two seer stones - each of which was separate and distinct from the Nephite interpreters buried with the plates - that Smith used in translating the Book of Mormon. Joseph gave one to Cowdery shortly after completing the translation work, as Whitmer claims. Joseph kept the other at least through the early Nauvoo period.

2) There was one seer stone (separate and distinct from the Nephite interpreters) used in translation. Joseph retained it through the early Nauvoo period. Whitmer's account is wrong, and the stone Young retrieved from Cowdery's widow is not the one that Smith used in translating the Book of Mormon.

3) There was one seer stone (separate and distinct from the Nephite interpreters) used in translation. Whitmer's recollection is correct. What Jane Manning James handled was the actual Nephite interpreters, which at some point were entrusted (again!) to Joseph's safekeeping at least through the early Nauvoo period.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Just_A_Guy

[Suzie]

Thanks, Suzie. I understand that Smith had several seer stones (and that the Church has at least two or three of them), but IIRC Whitmer was very specific that the one Smith gave to Cowdery--which ultimately came back to the First Presidency via Phineas Young--was the one that had been used to translate the Book of Mormon.

...And he was correct. That's because after the 116 pages were lost, Smith didn't get back the Urim and Thummim (according to Whitmer) who said the Prophet was presented with a seer stone instead to complete the translation.

[Just_A_Guy]

...And he was correct. That's because after the 116 pages were lost, Smith didn't get back the Urim and Thummim (according to Whitmer) who said the Prophet was presented with a seer stone instead to complete the translation.

So how can one seer stone be in two places? Whitmer says Cowdery had it by the late 1830s, but here's Jane Manning James saying that Joseph Smith still had it in 1841.

[Suzie]

So how can one seer stone be in two places? Whitmer says Cowdery had it by the late 1830s, but here's Jane Manning James saying that Joseph Smith still had it in 1841.

Personally, I think we are talking about different seer stones, more than two perhaps three. I believe the one Smith gave Cowdery was a different one than the one Jane allegedly held. President Joseph Fielding Smith gave his opinion on the matter:

"We have been taught since the days of the Prophet that the Urim and Thummim were returned with the plates to the angel. We have no record of the Prophet having the Urim and Thummim after the organization of the Church.

Statements of translations by the Urim and Thummim after that date are evidently errors. The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated. The Urim and Thummim so spoken of, however, was the seer stone which was in the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith in early days. This seer stone is now in the possession of the Church.

While the statement has been made by some writers that the Prophet Joseph Smith used a seer stone part of the time in his translating of the record, and information points to the fact that he did have in his possession such a stone, yet there is no authentic statement in the history of the Church which states that the use of such a stone was made in that translation.

The information is all hearsay, and personally, I do not believe that this stone was used for this purpose. The reason I give for this conclusion is found in the statement of the Lord to the Brother of Jared as recorded in Ether 3:22-24.

These stones, the Urim and Thummim which were given to the Brother of Jared, were preserved for this very purpose of translating the record, both of the Jaredites and the Nephites.

Then again the Prophet was impressed by Moroni with the fact that these stones were given for that very purpose. It hardly seems reasonable to suppose that the Prophet would substitute something evidently inferior under these circumstances. It may have been so, but it is so easy for a story of this kind to be circulated due to the fact that the Prophet did possess a seer stone, which he may have used for some other purposes. (Doctrines of Salvation, v. 3, p. 226)