The motherless babies whom he had helped Emma to nurse through their infancy had gone back to their father's care, but there was never a time when some poor child or destitute woman was not a member of his household.

On the other hand, many of the actions of his public life were questionable.

He had established a bank in Kirtland, of which he was the president.

Even Halsey admitted to Susannah that this was a great mistake, that the bank ought to have been under the control of some one who understood money matters; the prophet did not.

He had also set up a cloth mill, and undertaken to farm a large tract of land in the public interest.