The lilac bush has always been a special plant to the Smith Family. Lucy Mack Smith, Emma Hale Smith, Jerusha Barden Smith and Mary Fielding Smith, among others, planted lilacs. For generations, Smith Family descendants have nurtured lilac bushes grown from the cuttings of Kirtland, Ohio, the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois, and Utah.

Hyrum Smith and his first wife Jerusha planted lilacs at their home in Kirtland. After Jerusha’s death, Hyrum married Mary Fielding who also nurtured and cared for the lilacs.

In 1838, their home was purchased by Charles Dixon, who had been converted to the Church in Canada and moved to Kirtland in 1837. Shortly after the purchase, he left for Missouri. Most of his family lived in the house until 1862. The Dixon family left for the Salt Lake Valley in the spring of that year.

On his journey west Christopher Dixon, son of Charles Dixon, brought with him a starting root from the Persian Lilac Tree at Hyrum Smith’s home. One of his daughters recalled that it was her job to water and care for the lilac root every day as she crossed the plains. Christopher Dixon planted the lilac root at his little home in Payson, Utah. The lilac planted in front of Mary Fielding Smith’s cottage at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, comes from this bush.

In Nauvoo, Emma Smith planted a lilac bush as a marker over the graves of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum.The journal of Samuel H. Smith’s daughter Mary Bailey Norman gives an account of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith being buried at the larger Nauvoo lilac bush. It was also mentioned that Samuel and his wife, Mary Bailey Smith, were buried at the two smaller plants. Samuel’s daughter Mary Bailey Norman wrote, “Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel put the lilac bush that Father Smith loved so well at the head of his grave.”

During the Father Smith, Mother Smith reunion in Kirtland in 2011, descendants determined to plant lilac bushes in the various places the Smith families had lived which they termed a lilac reuniting.

Don and Laura Blanchard, Frances and Steve Orton, Joy Ercanbrack, and Debbie and Kimberly Nelson (descendants of Hyrum Smith) cut starts from the lilac bush in front of Mary Fielding Smith’s cottage at This the Place Heritage Park. On the way to Kirtland, one of these starts was planted at Winter Quarters Visitors Center — Mary Fielding Smith and her family lived there for two years waiting to go west.

Dan and Rosemarie Larsen along with Amanda and Troy Oney (descendants of Joseph Smith), went to the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo to get lilac starts. The lilac starts from Salt Lake City and Nauvoo were planted side by side at the Pioneer Girls Camp in Hiram, Ohio, by the John Johnson Farm on August 6, 2011.

This was a wonderful opportunity to bring two plants together to honor Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith’s family. After the lilacs were planted, family members were gratified to see Joseph and Hyrum’s lilacs standing by each other–our roots again joined together.

Gilda and David Sundeen (descendant of William Smith) brought a Bloomerang Purple Lilac which blooms twice a year from Michigan. They planted it in the Kirtland Cemetery by the marker for Mary Duty Smith, Jerusha Barden Smith, Hyrum and Jerusha’s little daughter Mary, and the infant twins of Joseph and Emma Smith, Thaddeus and Louisa.

In the spring of 2022, Hyrum and Jerusha Barden descendants, Debbie and Courtney Nelson, traveled far and wide collecting lilacs from many Smith Family cousins as well as gathering blossoms from Nauvoo plants and the Mary Fielding Smith cottage in Salt Lake City.

They have worked together to dry and press them, and craft them into the heir-bloom necklaces. The necklaces are beloved in the family and with many who are not family members.

Suzanne Jones wrote,”The necklaces are so very beautiful and have helped me feel a connection to our wonderful grandmothers that I’ve not sensed before and for that I am immensely grateful.”

For further information on HeirBloom Necklaces contact Debbie Nelson at:

[email protected]
or Courtney Nelson at:
[email protected].

We hope you feel the “Love of the Lilacs” impressed upon your hearts.