[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon attended the high council by invitation and filled in as councilors in an appeals case. (1)
-- 1838 May 2
Joseph Smith writes Joseph Smith History. (2)
-- May 5, 1838
[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith learned from Brother Bailey that 200 families and wagons would arrive in three weeks from Canada. (1)
-- 7 May 1838
[Lucy Mack Smith] Lucy, Joseph Sr., and their family leave for Missouri with sixteen-year-old Lucy and accompanied by three of their married children: (1) twenty-two-year-old Don Carlos, his twenty-nine-year-old wife Agnes, and their two daughters: Agnes Charlotte, who would turn two in August, and threeweek-old Sophronia; (2) thirty-five-year-old Sophronia, her six-year-old daughter Maria by Calvin Stoddard, and her second husband, forty-four-year-old William McCleary; and (3) twenty-four-year-old Katharine, who is eight months pregnant, her twenty-eight-year-old husband, Wilkins Jenkins Salisbury, and their three children: six-year-old Elizabeth, three-year-old Lucy, and two-year-old Solomon Jenkins. Joseph Jr., Hyrum, and Samuel are already in Missouri. William and Caroline apparently did not travel with the family but had apparently reached Missouri by the time they got there. (3)
-- May 9, 1838
[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith preached at the funeral of James G. Marsh, son of Thomas B. Marsh. (1)
-- 1838 May 11
Apostle William E. McLellin is excommunicated. He joins forces with some of the anti-Mormon groups to persecute the Mormons. (2)
-- May 11, 1838
[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith attended the trial of William E. McLellin and Dr. McCord before the bishops court. Both were excommunicated. (1)
-- 11 May 1838
[Lucy Mack Smith] William E. McLellin is tried at Far West; no verdict is recorded, but he is considered excommunicated from this time. (3)
-- May 11, 1838
[Quorum of the Twelve] William E. M'Lellin excommunicated. (4)
-- May 12, 1838
[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were suffering financially and did not have enough money to provide for their families. (1)
-- May 14, 1838
[Joseph Smith] Far West, Missouri. Joseph Smith plowed his garden. (1)
-- 1838 May 18
[Joseph Smith] Departed Far West on journey to Daviess County, Missouri, to select sites for new Mormon settlements. (5)
-- 18 May 1838
[Lucy Mack Smith] Joseph Jr. and his party choose the site of Adam-ondi-Ahman on the Grand River. (3)
Footnotes:
1 - BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith
2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century_(Mormonism)
3 - Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, Edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson, 2001, Signature Books
4 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_Quorum_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_(LDS_Church)
5 - Joseph Smith Papers: Chronology for the Years 1832-1839
Clair Barrus
