In Provo, Reed built a handsome home as the residence of himself and wife and their steadily increasing family. They had six children, and their married life was a happy one.

Reed Smoot was not a polygamist, as was his father. He was married first to Alpha M. Eldredge, on September 17, 1884. Their six children included: Harold Reed Smoot; Chloe Smoot; Harlow Eldredge Smoot; Annie K. Smoot; Zella Esther Smoot; and Ernest Winder Smoot. His first wife died in 1928, and on July 2, 1930, he married Mrs. Alice Taylor Sheets.

After his return from England, he launched out in business more extensively than ever, and his spiritual development, which his mission had awakened, likewise continued. He was the main promoter of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, and was its first president.

He also engaged considerably in mining, and was made vice president of the famous Grand Central Mining Company; also of the Victoria Mining Company. He erected a number of business blocks, and became a director in the Clark-Eldredge Company of Salt Lake City, as well as in various other important concerns.

In politics Mr. Smoot was a Republican. He was honored with numerous important official positions.

From March 15, 1894, until the advent of Statehood, he served as a director of the Territorial Insane Asylum, by appointment of Governor Caleb W. West, and after Utah entered the Union, he was appointed by Governor Heber M. Wells as a member of the Semi-Centennial Commission, which in 1897 conducted the great Pioneer Jubilee.

Elder Smoot's ecclesiastical record is as follows: He was baptized at eight years of age in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, and was ordained a Deacon July 15, 1877. In 1879 he was made a Priest, and in April, 1880, an Elder. Four years later he was ordained a Seventy by Elder Abraham H. Cannon, and in April, 1895, was ordained a High Priest under the hands of Pres. Joseph F. Smith. At the same time he was appointed second counselor to Pres. Edward Partridge, who had succeeded Pres. Abraham O. Smoot, deceased, as the presiding authority of the Utah Stake of Zion.

Elder Smoot continued to serve as one of the presidency of that Stake until called to the Apostleship April 8, 1900. The same day he was sustained in that position by the voice of the general conference, and was ordained an Apostle by Pres. Lorenzo Snow the day following.

While a member of the Utah Stake presidency he was appointed to raise means to pay off the debt hanging over the unfinished Stake Tabernacle, and to complete that structure. That duty he performed with his usual promptitude and success, the debt being cancelled and the building completed.

Reed Smoot acted for years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Brigham Young Academy, and continued as a member of its executive committee. He solicited subscriptions for and was the main instrument in the erection of the new College Hall, a new building at the Academy.

Many knew of the valuable aid Reed Smoot rendered from time to time in a financial and executive way to this or that struggling institution, but few were aware of his private acts of beneficence.

It has been said that ostentatious charity insults the misery it would relieve. Reed Smoot's charity was not of that kind. He would not ask a friend in trouble, "What can I do for you?" or say, "If there is anything you want, let me know;" thus throwing upon the troubled man an additional burden and subjecting him to unnecessary humiliation.

He shrewdly saw the need and tactfully supplied it, without speaking or awaiting a word.

In person, Apostle Smoot was tall and well built, though his unusual height made him appear almost slender in frame.

He moved with the rapid, energetic stride characteristic of the active business man. He was punctual in keeping his appointments, and, as he said, owed his greatest losses in time to the failure of other men to promptly keep theirs.

He possessed a fearless candor, saying exactly what he thought, and yet was courteous, considerate and kind-hearted. While neither a preacher nor a writer, he expressed himself with intelligence, earnestness and humility, both by tongue and pen.

In 1902 Reed Smoot was elected to the United States Senate from the State of Utah. Before seating the senator-elect, the U.S. Senate conducted lengthy hearings into his alleged involvement in plural marriage and into the policy and government of the Church. Few events have had greater impact on the Church and its public image than the highly publicized Smoot Hearings of 1903-1907.

The 1890s had seen the Church pass through some of its most challenging times, including the tumultuous political fight for Utah statehood following the manifesto of 1890 (officially curtailing new plural marriages) and presidential amnesty for Church officers who had practiced polygamy, initiating the process of accommodation and acculturation to mainstream America. Euphoria, however, was short-lived.

The election to the U.S. Senate of Reed Smoot, a highly visible Church leader, unleashed intense anti-Mormon sentiment, which had subsided after statehood. Within a year of his election, more than 3,100 petitions arrived in Washington, D.C., protesting his seating and creating a furor that forced the Senate to examine the case.

The prosecution focused on two issues: Smoot's alleged polygamy and his expected allegiance to the Church and its ruling hierarchy, which, it was claimed, would make it impossible for him to execute his oath as a United States senator. Although the proceedings focused on senator-elect Smoot, it soon became apparent that it was the Church that was on trial.

The case opened with Church leaders subpoenaed to testify as to the power the Church exerted over its members in general and over General Authorities in particular. Investigators probed into past and present polygamous relationships of leaders and lay members alike. They raised questions on points of doctrine that affected how Church members and their leaders interacted with American society at large.

Some of the testimony revealed situations and circumstances that put the Church in an unfavorable light. President Joseph F. Smith received especially harsh treatment in cross-examination. Some members of the Quorum of the Twelve refused to testify, which increased the hostility of senators already concerned about the Church's motives and conduct.

Faced with intense pressure, Church leaders accepted the resignations of apostles Matthias Cowley and John W. Taylor, who were rumored to have performed plural marriages after the Manifesto.

To further evidence good faith, in the annual April conference of 1904 President Smith issued a "Second Manifesto" that added ecclesiastical teeth to the Manifesto of 1890. Excommunication would now follow for those who refused to relinquish the practice of plural marriage.

Despite some damaging testimony, Senator Smoot gradually won support for three reasons: First, his character was found to be above reproach, and charges against him and the Church proved groundless. Second, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was sympathetic to Smoot's position; his motivation was partly personal but also political, as Senator Smoot and a Republican Utah were important to him. Third, the defense convinced a majority of senators that Smoot's apostleship would not impair his ability to put the oath of the senator first in executing his responsibilities.

The victory for Elder-Senator Smoot was a victory for the Church, providing the political legitimacy it had been seeking since 1850. It also launched a thirty-year career in the Senate that saw Senator Smoot reach a pinnacle of political success as one of the two or three most powerful senators in America during the 1920s.

Perhaps more than any other individual, Reed Smoot molded and shaped the positive national image the Church was to enjoy throughout the twentieth century.

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1908, 1914, 1920, and 1926, and served from 4 March 1903 to 3 March 1933.

Because of the Senate seniority system, Smoot served as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee from 1923 to 1933, as well as on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Smoot was recognized as an expert on government finance and public land issues.

He was known for his discipline, hard work, integrity, and thorough preparation. His politics were conservative and pro-business. He is perhaps best known as the joint author of the famous if often criticized Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Reed Smoot was active and prominent in the national Republican party. He served as a delegate to the Republican national conventions in 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, and 1924, and was chairman of the Resolutions Committee at the 1928 Republican National Convention. He also served as chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

He became an accepted member of the inner club of the national Republican establishment and was an advisor to a number of Republican presidents. Smoot was acknowledged as the de facto leader of the Utah Republican party and had considerable influence over Utah state politics and politicians.

Senator Smoot was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1932. He moved back to Salt Lake City in 1933 and retired from active business and political pursuits to devote his full-time efforts to his apostolic calling until his death in 1941.

At the time of his death, he was next in line to succeed the president of the Quorum of the Twelve and third in line to succeed the president of the LDS Church.

Reed Smoot died on February 9, 1941 in Saint Petersburg, Florida, at the home of his step-son, Dr. W. T. Sheets, at the age of 79. He was buried in Provo, Utah.