Alvin Smith died in Palmyra, New York, on 19 November 1823 at the age of twenty-five. (Morgan, Cemetery Records, Palmyra, Wayne, New York, 2; Joseph Smith Sr., “To the Public,” Wayne Sentinel [Palmyra, NY], 29 Sept. 1824, [3].)

Morgan, Sara, comp. Cemetery Records, Palmyra, Wayne, New York. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society, 1945. Copy at FHL.

Wayne Sentinel. Palmyra, NY. 1823–1852, 1860–1861.

Don Carlos Smith died in Nauvoo, Illinois, on 7 August 1841 at the age of twenty-five. (“Death of General Don Carlos Smith,” Times and Seasons, 16 Aug. 1841, 2:503.)

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

See Psalm 46:10; and Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:16].

In a sermon delivered to the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo three weeks later, JS again candidly expressed sentiments about his own mortality. On a few prior occasions, JS suggested that his life was preserved so that he could accomplish the Lord’s work on earth. In November 1835, for example, JS told the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “I supposed I had established this church on a permanent foundation when I went to the Missourie and indeed I did so, for if I had been taken away it would have been enough, but I yet live, and therefore God requires more at my hands.” (Discourse, 28 Apr. 1842; JS, Journal, 12 Nov. 1835.)