--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Larson, Louis W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 1 published: 1911-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Larson, Louis W., "In Memoriam: John Henry Smith," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 1 (November 1911): 60.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1501unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1501unse start_page: 60 end_page: 60 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1501unse publication_year: 1911 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Memoriam: John Henry Smith 60 IMPROVEMENT ERA Man, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. On his return he labored incessantly among the stakesof Zion, organizing and instructing the Saints. In March, 1895, he was chosen president of the Constitutional Con- vention which formed the constitution under which Utah was admitted as a state to the Union, January, 1896. In 1899 he made a tour of the Southern States Mission. For several sessions he attended as a delegate the Irrigation and Trans-Mississippi Congresses; in 1900, visiting Houston, Texas, and later making a trip to Mexico. He was sustained April 6, and set apart as second counsellor in the First Presidency, April 7, 1910. In the course of his ministry he visited every stake of Zion, and many of them several times over. He died October 13, 1911. "He was beloved, beloved by all." Funeral services were held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, October 17, 1911, and he lies buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. On October 16, 1911, Ex-governor Alvah Adams of Colorado paid a splendid tribute to John Henry Smith and Brigham Young in the session of the Dry Farming Congress, at Colorado Springs. In Memoriam, John Henry Smith. (For the Improvement Era.) Another son hath joined the caravan, Gone by the threshold with a noiseless tread; His crown of years is settled on his head; The heaven's gain, we lose a noble man. Those eyes, that through an outer dross could see The spark of good that hidden lies within, Are closed upon a world of toil and sin, To see the light of immortality. His voice, that gripped the heart unto his own, E'en by the power of its subtle thrill, To nameless sorrowing souls is hushed and still, To awake an echo in that better home. A beacon light is gone out, in the earth; Though happily this brief span is not the end ; We know we'll meet our genial, loyal friend There in the sphere of our primeval birth. Louis W. Larson, Lewiston, Utah.