It is common for anti-Mormons to claim that Joseph Smith prophesied that the Second Coming (the Parousia) would take place in 1890/91. For a solid refutation of this, see Malin L. Jacobs, The Alleged 56-Year Second Coming Prophecy of Joseph Smith (also see his email exchange with Lane Thuet).
That early Latter-day Saints who knew Joseph Smith personally did not believe the Second Coming would happen in 1890/91 include the members of the First Presidency in 1851. For instance, in the July 12, 1851 issue of the Welsh LDS periodical, Zion’s Trumpet, we read the following from the Fifth General Epistle of the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Of the day and the hour of the coming of Christ no man knoweth. It is not yet, neither is it far off; there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled before that event takes place; therefore, let no man deceive the Saints with vain philosophy and false prophecy; for false prophets will arise, and deceive the wicked, and, if possible, the good; but while the wicked fear and tremble at surrounding judgments, the Saints will watch and pray; and, waiting the final event in patience, will look calmly on the passing scenery of a corrupted world, and view transpiring events as confirmation of their faith in the holy gospel which they profess and rejoice more and more, as multiplied signs shall confirm the approach of the millennial day. (Zion’s Trumpet: 1851 Welsh Mormon Periodical [trans. Ronald D. Dennis; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012], 216)
Also during1851, Dan Jones, a Welsh Latter-day Saint and close personal friend of Joseph Smith, printed a series of articles in Zion’s Trumpet on the Second Coming entitled “Coming of the Son of Man,” and, as with the presidency of the Church, stated that no one knew when the Second Coming would be; in light of his friendship and close association with Joseph Smith, if Joseph believed Christ would return to heard in the Parousia in 1890/91, he (and the members of the First Presidency, alongside many others) would have asserted such (ibid., 309, 310-20, 325-28, 341-46, 357-62, 373-76).
