Lucy Smith Millikin

Lucy Smith Millikin (July 18, 1821 – December 9, 1882) was an American woman who was an early participant in the Latter Day Saint movement and a sister of Joseph Smith. She was the youngest child of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. Millikin joined the Church of Christ when it was organized in 1830, and then moved to Kirtland, Ohio with her family in 1831, where she assisted in the effort to build the Kirtland Temple. After fleeing persecution in Far West, Missouri, she settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. When baptism for the dead was first introduced into the church, Millikin was one of the first Latter Day Saints to participate in the practice. She then joined the Relief Society and served a mission with her husband, Arthur Millikin, in Maine. Millikin chose not to follow Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers west to Utah Territory, and was instead received into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (RLDS) in 1873, though she never became very involved in the church. She died in Colchester, Illinois in 1882, at the age of 61.

Early life Lucy Smith was born on July 18, 1821, the youngest child of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. She was named after her mother. She had eight older siblings: Alvin, Hyrum, Sophronia, Joseph Jr., Samuel, William, Katharine, and Don Carlos. At the time Smith was born, the family was residing in a small log cabin outside of Palmyra, New York, and her brother Joseph Smith was just beginning the Latter Day Saint movement. Young Lucy Smith's life was "inextricably connected with Restoration events"; for example, as a young child, she gathered with her family to listen to Joseph Jr. preach about God and the Book of Mormon. She is mentioned as the youngest of Joseph's sisters in verse 4 of Joseph Smith–History.

When Lucy Smith was two years old, her brother Alvin died. His death impacted her deeply. when the church was established. In October of that year, her father, Joseph Smith Sr., was put in jail due to an unpaid debt, leaving Lucy, Katharine, and their mother Lucy Mack Smith alone in the family's Palmyra home. While he was gone, a mob came in search of Hyrum Smith and began to ransack the house until Lucy's brother William forced the men to leave. After experiencing persecution in Missouri, the Smiths relocated to Illinois in 1839. Harsh weather and lack of food made the journey difficult. Lucy Smith became ill during the trip Then, when her father, Joseph Smith Sr., grew sick and began to die, she worked as his "primary nurse" until he died. who had died in 1794.

At the age of eighteen, she married Arthur Millikin, who had been wounded in the Battle of Crooked River. and moved with Mack Smith to Webster, Illinois in 1849. Lucy Millikin was "received" into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints on April 8, 1873, after contracting a respiratory disease while caring for a sick daughter-in-law.