alternatehistory.com
Philadelphia Visit
April 29, 1845, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Emma Hale Smith tried her best to keep the socialites busy. This whole thing had started as a trip to show her children Harmony where she grew up, all of them had been born after they had left the area, but now that she was First Lady things could never be that simple. With a war on now public appearances to drum up support for her husband was one of the few things she could do to support him.
So, they'd taken a detour to the great city of Philadelphia, and the elites had made certain to do everything they could to impress. She'd grown up a rural farm girl, so Emma might have been impressed by the splendor of it all if she hadn't been in the throes of morning sickness. Still things weren't all bad. She could see that her oldest Julia, her and Joseph's adopted daughter was hitting it off with a boy around her age. She quickly excused herself from the gaggle of hangers-on so that she could investigate this further.
“Julia, perhaps you would like to introduce me to your friend,” Emma said kindly.
“My name is Theodore, ma'am, Theodore Roosevelt,” the boy said, “My brother Silas and I just happened to be visiting. Our father Cornelius is a wealthy businessman in New York. I must say you have a most enchanting daughter.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you Theodore, I'm sorry to have interrupted,” Emma said.
The meeting of Julia Murdock Smith and Theodore “Thee” Roosevelt [1] was one of pure happenstance, the two just happening to be visiting Philadelphia at the time. Theodore accompanying his older brother Silas on a business trip and Julia and her adoptive mother and sibling being on a sightseeing tour. The Smiths wanting to get out of the White House for a bit because of the mounting pressure of the war. By all accounts the pair were immediately smitten.
After the initial meeting the two would exchange letters and with the help of their families arrange times to meet, and Theodore was a great comfort to Julia after Emma died in childbirth in 1848. Theodore's father, Cornelius, was less than enthused about the relationship because of Joseph Smith's reputation and disowned his some when he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and married Julia in 1850.
The pair would settle in Nauvoo and have five children together. Their son Henry, would become a celebrated general and their family line would produce a future President of the United States.
Taken from Lineage of Light: A History of the Smith Fily, Sara Peterson, 1970
[1] For anyone confused this would be Theodore Roosevelt Sr., the father of Teddy OTL. Of course Teddy doesn't exist TTL. I will get back to the war next update, just had this idea and wanted to show some butterfly effect in play in action.
Emma Hale Smith tried her best to keep the socialites busy. This whole thing had started as a trip to show her children Harmony where she grew up, all of them had been born after they had left the area, but now that she was First Lady things could never be that simple. With a war on now public appearances to drum up support for her husband was one of the few things she could do to support him.
So, they'd taken a detour to the great city of Philadelphia, and the elites had made certain to do everything they could to impress. She'd grown up a rural farm girl, so Emma might have been impressed by the splendor of it all if she hadn't been in the throes of morning sickness. Still things weren't all bad. She could see that her oldest Julia, her and Joseph's adopted daughter was hitting it off with a boy around her age. She quickly excused herself from the gaggle of hangers-on so that she could investigate this further.
“Julia, perhaps you would like to introduce me to your friend,” Emma said kindly.
“My name is Theodore, ma'am, Theodore Roosevelt,” the boy said, “My brother Silas and I just happened to be visiting. Our father Cornelius is a wealthy businessman in New York. I must say you have a most enchanting daughter.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you Theodore, I'm sorry to have interrupted,” Emma said.
The meeting of Julia Murdock Smith and Theodore “Thee” Roosevelt [1] was one of pure happenstance, the two just happening to be visiting Philadelphia at the time. Theodore accompanying his older brother Silas on a business trip and Julia and her adoptive mother and sibling being on a sightseeing tour. The Smiths wanting to get out of the White House for a bit because of the mounting pressure of the war. By all accounts the pair were immediately smitten.
After the initial meeting the two would exchange letters and with the help of their families arrange times to meet, and Theodore was a great comfort to Julia after Emma died in childbirth in 1848. Theodore's father, Cornelius, was less than enthused about the relationship because of Joseph Smith's reputation and disowned his some when he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and married Julia in 1850.
The pair would settle in Nauvoo and have five children together. Their son Henry, would become a celebrated general and their family line would produce a future President of the United States.
Taken from Lineage of Light: A History of the Smith Fily, Sara Peterson, 1970
[1] For anyone confused this would be Theodore Roosevelt Sr., the father of Teddy OTL. Of course Teddy doesn't exist TTL. I will get back to the war next update, just had this idea and wanted to show some butterfly effect in play in action.
- Neshomancer
- Word Count: 490