The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith

(See “Joseph Smith Sr.,” Church History Topics.) Lucy Mack Smith (1775–1856) Most remaining family members chose not to move to the Great Basin after Joseph Smith’s death. and four of his sons (Don Carlos, Hyrum, Joseph, and Samuel) died from illness or assassination. Tragically, within a four-year span between 18, Joseph Sr. and Lucy lived with their adult children for the rest of their lives. The Smith family followed the Church to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831 to Missouri in 1838 and to Nauvoo, Illinois, in the early 1840s. experienced his earliest visions, translated and published the Book of Mormon, and organized the Church of Christ. In this area, over the next decade and a half, Joseph Jr. In 1816, the Smith family moved to Palmyra, New York, and they soon settled on a farm in nearby Manchester. They moved several times between villages in Vermont and New Hampshire before finding more favorable prospects in the Finger Lakes region of New York. and Lucy’s marriage, the family experienced failed harvests and economic hardship. “Words and language,” he wrote, are “inadequate to express the gratitude that I owe to God for having given me so honorable a parentage.” 2įrom the beginning of Joseph Sr. 1 Late in life, Joseph wrote poignantly of his desire that the names and deeds of his parents and siblings always be remembered. When Joseph reported visions of angels, the news delighted family members who, like Joseph’s father and mother, had already enjoyed profound spiritual experiences of their own. His attention to prayer and Bible study owed much to his parents’ religious commitments. The home life and nurture provided by Joseph Smith’s parents and siblings shaped much of Joseph’s early prophetic work.

The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith