It would take years for the estate to be fully settled, but in the short term, enough of the estate had to be settled to allow for the support of Emma Smith and her family.

Emma's financial livelihood and the care of her children really depended upon her husband's estate. Because Joseph didn't have a will, all of the assets, that is the personal property and the real estate was supposed to be sold to satisfy the debts. According to Illinois law, Emma could take a portion of her dowry's rights from the personal property before it was sold at auction. These personal items, personal effects, included household furniture, farming equipment, livestock, just miscellaneous things. And from that personal property, Emma did take a portion of her dowry's rights. She decided to get the parlor furniture, some miscellaneous personal property, and according to Joseph Smith's third, she received Joseph Smith's two horses, Charlie and Joe Duncan. But the financial upkeep of her children in the coming years would draw upon the finances of the estate. And Joseph Smith's personal property wasn't sufficient to cover the expenses for the children.

The church was also dependent on the settlement of the estate to maintain its financial liquidity. And this was complicated by some bad legal advice previously given to Joseph Smith. According to Illinois law, the trusty and trust of a church could hold up to 45 acres of land. Perhaps because that law was designed for the individual church congregations, more than it was for a large church whose thousands of members at that time tended to move to a central location. Unknown advisors convinced Joseph that the church threw him as its trusty and trust, could hold more property than the specified 45 acres. The church held thousands of acres. So some of the land in Joseph's name was clearly part of his individual holdings. Most of it was clearly part of the church's holdings.

So you get this sense of this lack of clear distinction in his personal debts and assets and those of the church and some land he held as an individual landowner, some was held specifically as trustee for the church. It's not clear the lawyers that Emma is consulting in the aftermath of Joseph's death. Note that this is going outside the boundaries of what is accepted for a trustee and basically urge her to try and get that land because she has claimed as the widow to that land far more than say the church which is extending this small role of trustee to now hold thousands and thousands of acres of land. And so it's in this land controversy that

you really see Emma pitted against the church. So the way Joseph's missus state was settled would directly affect the financial well-being of Joseph's widow and children and the financial state of the church Joseph had organized and led as a prophet. Brigham Young wanted to make sure that Emma Smith and her children were cared for. But he also wanted to make sure that all of the property that rightfully belonged to the church remained available to the church. Emma cared about the church and her fellow saints but also was earnest in her efforts to make sure that she and her children were taken care of. Historian Jenny Reeder reflected on the resulting tension that arose between Brigham Young

and Emma Smith.