Joseph Smith, Sr.

Joseph Smith, Sr. (1771–1840) 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 Joseph Jr. from the Golden Plates. In addition, Joseph Sr. was the first Presiding Patriarch of the Latter Day Saint church, a member of the First Presidency of the church, and a Master Freemason of the Ontario Lodge No. 23 of Canandaigua, New York.

Early life

Joseph Smith, Sr. was born on July 12, 1771 in Topsfield, Massachusetts, USA to Asael Smith and Mary Duty. He married Lucy Mack in Tunbridge, Vermont on January 26, 1795, and had eleven children with her.

Smith tried his hands at several professions, including farmer, teacher, shop-keeper, none of which proved very successful. 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 Freemason on May 7, 1818 in Ontario Lodge No. 23 of Canandaigua, New York. 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. Lemuel Durfee purchased it as a favor to the family and allowed the Smiths to continue there as renters through 1830.

In 1824, rumors began circulating that the body of Smith's son Alvin had been exhumed from his grave and dissected. To dispel the rumors, from September to November 1824, he published a notice in a local newspaper that he and his neighbors had themselves exhumed the grave, and found Alvin's body undisturbed. ("Wayne Sentinel", September 25, 1824).

Smith showed little interest in religion and 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." (Smith, 56)

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

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, which Joseph Sr. testified he felt and lifted while wrapped in cloth. In the following years, Joseph Jr. claimed to translate the plates into English through the use of the Urim and Thummim, a sacred device given to him by an angel of God. 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 " [http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/eghtwtns 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.

Joseph Smith Sr. was baptised as one of six founding members, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints was first known) was 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!" (Bushman, 110).

Presiding Patriarch

In January 1831, Joseph Smith, Sr. 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.

Likening his father to Adam, Joseph Smith, Jr. said, "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" (quoted in Bates and Smith, page 34).

As part of his new role, Joseph Smith Sr. presided in council meetings, ordained other patriarchs and administered patriarchal blessings.

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

Deathbed blessings

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.

Through the exquisite, 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" (Smith, chap. 52). He blessed and ordained his eldest surviving son, Hyrum to succeed to the office of Presiding Patriarch by right of lineage.

Joseph Smith, Sr. died on September 14, 1840.

Descendants

References

#cite book
last = Bates
first = Irene M.
authorlink =
coauthors = E. Gary Smith
title = Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch
publisher =
date = 1996
location = Urbana, Illinois
url =
doi =
id =
#cite book
last = Smith
first = Lucy
authorlink =
coauthors = Lavina Fielding Anderson and Irene M. Bates
title = Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir
publisher = Signature Books
date = 2001
location =
url = http://www.signaturebooks.com/lucy.htm
doi =
id = ISBN 1-56085-137-6
#cite book |last = Bushman|first = Richard Lyman|authorlink = Richard Bushman|title = |publisher = Vintage Books|date = 2007|location = New York|pages = 110|isbn=978-1-4000-7753-3

External links

* [http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/w/o/wol3/smithj1.htm Grandpa Bill's General Authority Pages] Joseph Smith, Sr.
* [http://www.josephsmithsr.com/home/index.html Joseph Smith Sr] The Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy Mack Foundation
*cite news
last = Proctor
first = Scot
coauthors = Maurine Proctor
title = Joseph Smith Sr.'s Remarkable Vision of the Tree of Life
work = Meridian Magazine
pages =
publisher =
date = January 7, 2000
url = http://www.meridianmagazine.com/articles/000107jstreelife.html
accessdate = 2006-08-01