Sophronia Smith Stoddard — Ninety-Day Near-Death Siege and Miraculous Recovery

Sophronia Smith (1803–1876) was the eldest daughter of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, and the older sister of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Her miraculous healing as a child was one of the earliest divine interventions that shaped the faith of the entire Smith family.

In 1813, a devastating typhoid fever epidemic swept through Lebanon, New Hampshire, striking every member of the Smith household. Sophronia's case was the most severe. She remained bedridden for eighty-nine days, her condition worsening week after week despite all efforts.

On the ninetieth day, the attending physician declared that she had gone so far beyond recovery that medicine was completely useless, and he discontinued his care and left. That night, Lucy Mack Smith described the scene:

'She lay utterly motionless, with her eyes wide open with that peculiar set which most strikingly exhibits the hue of death. I gazed upon my child as a mother looks on the last shade of life in a darling child. In the distraction of the moment, my husband and I clasped our hands together and fell upon our knees by the bedside and poured our grief and supplications into his ears who hath numbered the hair upon our heads.'

Then something changed. Lucy felt assured God would answer. She seized a blanket, wrapped Sophronia in it, gathered her in her arms, and began pacing the floor. Those present told her she was 'certainly crazy' — that her child was dead. She refused to relinquish hope.

Then: 'At last, she sobbed. I still pressed her to my breast and walked the floor. She sobbed again and then looked up into my face with an appearance of natural life, breathing freely.'

Sophronia recovered completely. The miracle was witnessed by the entire Smith family and recorded by Lucy Mack Smith in her manuscript history. It was one of the experiences that deepened the family's faith that God could hear and answer prayer — faith that would undergird every subsequent miracle of the Restoration. Sophronia later married Calvin Stoddard, joined the restored Church, and remained faithful through the trials of Missouri and Nauvoo.