Career
He was a prominent politician in Utah and played an important role in the transition from Utah as a territory to a state of the United States. In 1874 and 1875, Smith served as a missionary in Europe. He spent most of this mission in England, particularly in and around the city of Birmingham.
From 1875 to 1880, Smith was the bishop of the Salt Lake 17th Ward. On October 27 of that year, he was ordained an apostle by Wilford Woodruff, who at that time was the quorum president. John Henry Smith served in this capacity until his death the next year.
Smith was a prominent Republican in Utah politics. Smith was unanimously elected by the 107 delegates to be the Chair of the Utah Constitutional Convention that was held between March 4 and May 8, 1895. The result of the Convention was a draft Constitution for the proposed State of Utah, which was accepted by the United States Congress in 1896 when Utah officially became a state of the United States.
Smith's second wife, Josephine Groesbeck, spent 1888 until 1896 in exile in Manassa, Colorado, to avoid being called as a witness in a criminal unlawful cohabitation trial against Smith died of a pulmonary hemorrhage in Salt Lake City and was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.