Don Carlos Smith
Don Carlos Smith was one of the children born to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. He was born on March 25, 1816, in Norwich, Windsor County, Vermont.
Baptized on June 9, 1830, the year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, he remained a faithful member throughout his life. He accompanied his father on a mission to the Asael Smith family in St. Lawrence County, New York, in August 1830. At the age of fourteen, he was the youngest missionary for the Church. He was nineteen when he served in the Eastern States mission (1836). He served his last mission at age twenty-two in the Southern States mission, from September 26, 1838 until December 25, 1838.
He came to Kirtland, Ohio, with his mother and other members of the Church in May 1831. By the fall of 1833, he was employed by the Kirtland printing shop under Oliver Cowdery.
Don Carlos married Agnes Moulton Coolbrith on July 30, 1835, at Kirtland. On January 15, 1836, he was ordained a high priest and appointed president of the Kirtland high priests quorum. He continued his work with the Kirtland printing shop and also became involved with the publication of the Elders’ Journal. In Nauvoo, he was editor and publisher with Ebenezer Robinson of the Times and Seasons from 1839 to 1841.
While in Nauvoo, he was appointed a regent of the University of Nauvoo and elected brigadier general in the Nauvoo Legion. He was also elected a member of the Nauvoo City Council. He represented the high priests of the Church of Jesus Christ when the cornerstones were laid for the Nauvoo Temple in early 1841.
He died in Nauvoo on August 7, 1841, from malarial fever. He was 25 years old, the same age as his brother Alvin at his passing.
Smith and his wife had three daughters. After his death, she became one of Joseph Smith’s plural wives, and upon his death, she left the faith and moved to Missouri and remarried. In 1851, she moved to California. The family did not speak of their connection to Joseph Smith or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Don Carlos’s daughter, Josephina “Ina” Donna Coolbrith, who was born in March 1841—five months before hedied—eventually became a writer and first poet laureate of California. She corresponded throughout her life with her cousin Joseph F. Smith.
