Chapter
19
Alvin Smith’s illness and
death. He speaks to each of his brothers and sisters and
to his parents, encourages them, and bids them farewell.
Cause of his death is determined. His funeral. Alvin’s great
zeal for the work of the Lord.
November 15, 1823 to
end of November 1823
On the fifteenth of November,
1823, about ten o’clock in the morning, Alvin was taken
very sick with the bilious colic. He came to the house in
great distress and requested his father to go immediately
for a physician, which he accordingly did. But the doctor
who generally attended upon our family being absent, Mr.
Smith was compelled to go further than he expected. However,
he found in the next village one Dr. Greenwood, who, when
he came, immediately administered a heavy dose of calomel
to the patient, although he objected much against it.
This calomel lodged in his
stomach, and all the powerful medicine which was afterwards
prescribed by skillful physicians could not remove it.
On the third day of his sickness,
[1] Dr. McIntyre, the favorite of the family
and a man of great skill and experience, was brought and
with him four other professors of medicine. But all their
exertions were of no avail, just as Alvin had declared would
be the case. He said, “The calomel is still lodged in the
same place and you cannot move it. Consequently, it must
take my life.”
He then called Hyrum [2]
to him and said, “Hyrum, I must die, and now I want to say
a few things to you that you must remember. I have done
all that I could do to make our dear parents comfortable.
I now want you to go on and finish the house and take care
of them in their old age [3] and
do not let them work hard anymore.”
He then called Sophronia [4]
to him and said, “Sophronia, you must be a good girl and
do all that lies in your power for Father and Mother. Never
forsake them. They have worked hard, and they are now getting
old. Be kind to them and remember what they have done for
us.”
In the latter part of the fourth
night he called for all the children and again exhorted
them separately to the same effect as before. But to Joseph [5] he said, “Joseph, I am going to die
now. The distress which I suffer and the sensations that
I have tell me my time is very short. I want you to be a
good boy and do everything that lies in your power to obtain
the record. Be faithful in receiving instruction and in
keeping every commandment that is given you. Your brother
Alvin must now leave you, but remember the example which
he has set for you, and set a good example for the children
that are younger than you. Always be kind to Father and
Mother.”
He then asked me to take his
little sister Lucy [6] up and bring her to him, for he wished
to see her. This child was the youngest of the family, and
he was extremely fond of her and was in the habit of taking
her up and caressing her, which naturally attached her to
him. She could not then talk plainly, and always called
her brother “Amby.” I went to her and said, “Lucy, Amby
wants to see you.” At this she started out of her sleep
and screamed out, “Oh, Amby, Amby.” We took her to him,
and she sprang from my arms and caught him round the neck
and cried out, “Oh, my Amby,” and kissed him again and again.
To Lucy he said, “You must
be the best girl in the world and take care of Mother. You
can’t have your Amby anymore. Amby is going away; he must
leave little Lucy.” He then kissed her and said, “Take her
away. I think my breath offends her.” We took hold of the
child, but she clenched hold of him with such a desperate
grasp that it was very difficult to disengage her hands.
As I turned with the child,
Alvin said, “Father, Mother, brothers, sisters, farewell!
I can now breathe out my life as calmly as a clock,” and
immediately closed his eyes in death. [7]
The child still cried to go
back to Alvin. One present said to her, “Alvin is gone.
An angel has taken his spirit to heaven.” When the babe
heard this, she renewed her cries, and as I bent over his
corpse with her in my arms, she again threw her arms around
him and kissed him repeatedly, screaming as before. And
until the body was taken from the house, she continued constantly
crying and showing such manifestation of affection mingled
with terror at the scene before her as is seldom witnessed
in a child. [8]
This harrowed up our feelings
almost to distraction, for Alvin was a youth of singular
goodness of disposition — kind and amiable manners, so much
so that lamentation and mourning filled the whole neighborhood
where we lived, and, of course, more than usual grief filled
the hearts of those from whose immediate circle he was taken,
those who felt and saw the effects of his nobleness and
generosity every hour of his existence. [9]
It was the wish of the principal
physician that Alvin’s body should be cut open to ascertain,
if possible, the cause of his disease and death. When this
was done, they found the calomel still lodged in the upper
bowels, untouched by anything which he had taken to carry
it off. It was as near in its natural state as it could
be, surrounded as it was with gangrene.
Dr. McIntyre and Dr. Robinson
performed the operation. The last named doctor was seventy
years of age. He spoke long and earnestly to the younger
physicians upon the danger of administering powerful medicine
without the thorough knowledge of the practice of physic.
“Here,” he said “is one of the loveliest youth that ever
trod the streets of Palmyra destroyed, murdered as it were,
by him at whose hand relief was expected, cast off from
the face of the earth by a careless quack who even dared
to trifle with the life of a fellow mortal.”
When the time for interment
arrived, the inhabitants of the surrounding country gathered
together, and during the funeral obsequies they gave the
most affectionate manifestations of their sympathy; but
there was one that felt our grief more deeply than the rest
— a lovely young woman who was engaged to be married to
my son. The disconsolate girl was rendered most desolate
by his unexpected death, and as long as we knew her, she
never recovered her wonted animation and good spirits.
Thus was our happiness blasted
in a moment. When we least expected the blow, it came upon
us. The poisoned shaft entered our very hearts’ core and
diffused to deadly effect throughout our veins. We were
for a time almost swallowed up in grief, so much so that
it seemed impossible for us to interest ourselves at all
about the concerns of life. The feeling of every heart was
to make speedy preparation to follow him who had been too
much the idol of our hearts. And then if it pleased God
to take us also, we would receive the call as a favor at
his hands from whom it came.
Alvin had ever manifested a
greater zeal and anxiety, if it were possible, than any
of the rest with regard to the record which had been shown
to Joseph, and he always showed the most intense interest
concerning the matter. With this before our minds, we could
not endure to hear or say one word upon that subject, for
the moment that Joseph spoke of the record it would immediately
bring Alvin to our minds with all his kindness, his affection,
his zeal, and piety. And when we looked to his place and
realized that he was gone from it, to return no more in
this life, we all wept with one accord over our irretrievable
loss, and we could “not be comforted, because he was not.”
[10]
Notes
