Hyrum G. Smith

Smith in 1920

Smith was born in South Jordan, Salt Lake County, Utah Territory, to Hyrum Fisher Smith and Annie Maria Gibbs. He married Martha Electa Gee (1883–1968). [1] While Smith was training in California to become a dentist, his grandfather John Smith, the Patriarch to the Church, died. The younger Smith was recalled to Utah to succeed him in the full-time position.[2] He was ordained a high priest and Patriarch to the Church on May 9, 1912, by LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith. John Smith was the son of Hyrum Smith, the elder brother of Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church. Joseph F. Smith was a younger brother of John Smith and thus the great-uncle of Hyrum G. Smith.

Smith died of pneumonia in Salt Lake City.[3] Days before his death, he called for his son, Eldred G. Smith, with the intention of ordaining him as his successor as Patriarch to the Church, but was dissuaded from doing so by his own wife, Martha, who optimistically convinced him he would live for many more years.[1] Notably, such an ordination would have been out of harmony with the policy of the current president of the church, but apparently would have been consistent with the precedent set when Joseph Smith Sr. ordained Hyrum Smith as his successor to the patriarchate. After his death a few days later, the office of Presiding Patriarch was left vacant for several years, but was eventually filled by Smith's second cousin Joseph Fielding Smith. In 1947, Hyrum G. Smith's son, Eldred G. Smith, became the Patriarch to the Church.

• Lineal succession (Latter Day Saints)
• Patriarch (Latter Day Saints)
• Patriarchal Priesthood
• Patriarchal blessing

• Jenson, Andrew (1920). Latter-day Saint biographical encyclopedia: A compilation of biographical sketches of prominent men and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 3. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Andrew Jenson History Company (Printed by Printed by The Arrow Press). pp. 778–779. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
• Jenson, Andrew (1936). Latter-day Saint biographical encyclopedia: A compilation of biographical sketches of prominent men and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 4. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Andrew Jenson History Company (Printed by The Deseret News Press). p. 686. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
• Bates, Irene M.; Smith, E. Gary (2003) [1996]. Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07115-7. OCLC 53077386. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
• 2004 Church Almanac, Deseret Morning News, page 72

• Hyrum Gibbs Smith papers, Vault MSS 804 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University