Joseph Smith Sr.

Joseph Smith Sr. (July 12, 1771 – September 14, 1840) was the father of Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated by Smith Jr. from golden plates. In 1833, Smith Sr. was named the first patriarch of the Church of Christ (which was renamed to the Church of the Latter Day Saints[1] in 1834 and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints[2][3] in 1838). Joseph Sr. was also a member of the First Presidency of the church and a Freemason in Ontario Lodge No. 23 of Canandaigua, New York.

Joseph Smith Sr.
1st Presiding Patriarch
December 18, 1833 – September 14, 1840
Called by	Joseph Smith Jr.
Assistant Counselor in the First Presidency
September 3, 1837 – September 14, 1840
Called by	Joseph Smith Jr.
Personal details
Born	July 12, 1771 Topsfield, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Died	September 14, 1840 (aged 69) Nauvoo, Illinois, United States
Resting place	Smith Family Cemetery 40°32′25.98″N 91°23′31.06″W
Spouse(s)	Lucy Mack
Children	11, including: Alvin Smith Hyrum Smith Joseph Smith Jr. Samuel H. Smith William Smith Katharine Smith Don Carlos Smith

Early life

Smith was born on July 12, 1771, in Topsfield, Massachusetts, to Asael Smith and Mary Duty. He married Lucy Mack in Tunbridge, Vermont, on January 26, 1796, and had 11 children with her.[4]

Smith tried his hands at several professions, including farmer, teacher,[5] and shop-keeper, none of which proved very successful.[4] He moved his family to Palmyra, New York, in 1816 and began to make payments on a farm located on the edge of neighboring Manchester Township. He was raised to the degree of Master Mason on May 7, 1818, in Ontario Lodge No. 23 of Canandaigua, New York. In the Palmyra–Manchester area, Smith and his sons were involved in a number of treasure digging excavations in the 1820s.[6]

Work on a frame house at the farm was halted by the unexpected death of Smith's eldest son, Alvin, in 1823. Smith subsequently failed to make payments on the farm.[4] Lemuel Durfee purchased it as a favor to the family and allowed the Smiths to continue there as renters through 1830.

Though a spiritual man, Smith showed little interest in organized religion prior to his son Joseph reporting his visions to the family. He was content to allow his wife control over the religious upbringing of their children. This indifference bothered Lucy very much. After much prayer, she said she had received a divine witness that her husband would some day accept "the pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God."[7]

Smith professed that he had visionary dreams with highly symbolic content, perhaps related to his ambivalence about religious faith and sometimes presaging events to come. These dreams continued after the family's move to Palmyra until he had had seven in all; Lucy remembered five well enough to quote in detail.[8]

Book of Mormon

In the late 1820s, Smith's son, Joseph Jr., began to tell the family about golden plates, which he said contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. In September 1827, Joseph Jr. said he obtained the plates. In the following years, Joseph Jr. said he translated the plates into English through the use of a seer stone, which he found previously during a treasure digging expedition, as well as the Urim and Thummim, a device given to him by the angel Moroni. When the work was near completion, at the end of June 1829, Joseph Sr. and seven other men signed a joint statement, testifying that they had both lifted the plates and seen the engravings on the plates. Known as the "Testimony of the Eight Witnesses", this statement was published with the first edition of the Book of Mormon and has been a part of nearly all subsequent editions.[9]

Smith was baptised when the Church of Christ was formally organized on April 6, 1830. When Joseph Jr. saw Joseph Sr. come up out of the water, he is reported to have cried, "Oh! My God I have lived to see my own father baptized into the true church of Jesus Christ!"[10]

Presiding Patriarch

In January 1831, Smith and his family moved to the church's new headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio. He was ordained to be the church's first Presiding Patriarch on December 18, 1833.

In reference to his father's role as patriarch of the church, Joseph Jr. likened his father to Adam, the first biblical patriarch: "So shall it be with my father; he shall be called a prince over his posterity, holding the keys of the patriarchal priesthood over the kingdom of God on earth, even the Church of the Latter Day Saints".[11]

As part of his new role, Smith presided in council meetings and administered patriarchal blessings.

On September 3, 1837, Smith was also made an Assistant Counselor to his son in the First Presidency of the church.

Deathbed blessings

Grave of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith

Smith moved with his family to Far West, Missouri, in 1838 and from there to the church's new headquarters at Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839. Old age and illnesses had taken their toll and by the end of summer 1840, Smith realized he was dying. He called his family around him to administer patriarchal blessings.

He blessed his wife: "Mother, do you not know that you are the mother of as great a family as ever lived upon the earth. ... They are raised up to do the Lord's work".[12] He blessed and ordained his eldest surviving son, Hyrum to succeed to the office of Presiding Patriarch by right of lineage.

Smith died in Nauvoo on September 14, 1840.

Descendants

Notes

1. "Minutes of a Conference", Evening and Morning Star, vol. 2, no. 20, p. 160.
2. Manuscript History of the Church, LDS Church Archives, book A-1, p. 37; reproduced in Dean C. Jessee (comp.) (1989). The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) 1:302–03.
3. H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 160. ISBN 1-56085-108-2
4. Anderson, A. Gary (1992). Encyclopedia of Mormonism: Smith, Joseph Sr (1 ed.). Macmillan Publishing Company; 1st edition (1992). ISBN 978-0028796055. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
5. ,
6. Dan Vogel, "The Location of Joseph Smith's Early Treasure Quests", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27(3) (1994): 197–231.
7. Smith, 56.
8. Smith
9. See the Testimony of Eight Witnesses
10. Bushman, 110.
11. Bates and Smith, p. 34.
12. Smith, chap. 52

References

• Bates, Irene M.; Smith, E. Gary (2003) [1996]. Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07115-7. OCLC 53077386. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
• Bushman, Richard Lyman (2007). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Vintage Books. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4000-7753-3.
• Skinner, Earnest M. (2002) [1958]. Joseph Smith, Sr, First Patriarch of the LDS Church. Mesa, Arizona: Palmyra Publishing Company. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2020. ASIN B000M7VGQ8
• Smith, Lucy Mack (2001). Anderson, Lavina Fielding (ed.). Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir. Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-137-6. Archived from the original on October 21, 2006.

External links

• Biography of Joseph Smith Sr., The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed December 21, 2011)
• Joseph Smith, Sr., Grandpa Bill's General Authority Pages
• Joseph Smith Sr, The Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy Mack Foundation
• Scot and Maurine Proctor (January 7, 2000). "Joseph Smith Sr.'s Remarkable Vision of the Tree of Life". Meridian Magazine. Archived from the original on September 7, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2006.