Joseph Smith

Founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (1805–1844)

This article is about the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. For other persons, see Joseph Smith (disambiguation).

Joseph Smith

Portrait, c. 1842

1st President of the Church of Christ[a]
April 6, 1830 (1830-04-06) - June 27, 1844 (1844-06-27)
Successor| Disputed[b]
End reason| Death
2nd Mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois
In office
May 19, 1842 (1842-05-19)[4] - June 27, 1844 (1844-06-27)
Predecessor| John C. Bennett
Successor| Chancy Robison[5]
Political party| Independent
Personal details
Born| (1805-12-23)December 23, 1805
Sharon, Vermont, U.S.
Died| June 27, 1844(1844-06-27) (aged 38)
Carthage, Illinois, U.S.
Cause of death| Gunshot wounds
Resting place| Smith Family Cemetery,
Nauvoo, Illinois, U.S.
40°32′26″N 91°23′33″W﻿ / ﻿40.54052°N 91.39244°W﻿ / 40.54052; -91.39244﻿ (Smith Family Cemetery)
Known For| Founding Mormonism
Spouse(s)|

Emma Smith

(m. 1827)​

and 30–40 others (See List of Joseph Smith's wives)[c]
Children|

* Julia
* Joseph III
* Alexander
* David
* others

Parents|

* Joseph Smith Sr. (father)
* Lucy Mack Smith (mother)

Relatives|

* Alvin Smith (brother)
* Hyrum Smith (brother)
* Samuel H. Smith (brother)
* William Smith (brother)
* Katharine Smith (sister)
* Don Carlos Smith (brother)
* Lucy Smith (sister)

Signature|
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Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 - June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religious movement he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Born in Sharon, Vermont, Smith moved with his family to Western New York, following a series of crop failures in 1816. Living in an area of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening, Smith reported experiencing a series of visions. The first of these was in 1820, when he saw "two personages" (whom he eventually described as God the Father and Jesus Christ). In 1823, he said he was visited by an angel who directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published the Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of those plates. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints or Mormons.

In 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communal Zion in the American heartland. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, which was intended to be Zion's central location. During the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the Kirtland Temple. Smith and his followers left Ohio and Missouri after the collapse of the church-sponsored Kirtland Safety Society and violent skirmishes with non-Mormon Missourians escalated into the Mormon extermination order. They established a new settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois which quickly grew to be the second-largest city in Illinois during Smith’s mayoralty.

Joseph Smith launched a presidential campaign in 1844. During his campaign, Smith and the Nauvoo City Council ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor‘s printing press after it criticized Smith's power and his practice of polygamy. This inflamed anti-Mormon sentiment. Fearing an invasion of Nauvoo, Smith rode to Carthage, Illinois, to stand trial, but was shot and killed by a mob that stormed the jailhouse. During his ministry, Smith published numerous documents and texts, many of which he attributed to divine inspiration and revelation from God. He dictated the majority of these in the first-person, saying they were the writings of ancient prophets or expressed the voice of God. His followers accepted his teachings as prophetic and revelatory, and several of these texts were canonized by denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, which continue to treat them as scripture. Smith's teachings discuss God's nature, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious community and authority. Mormons generally regard Smith as a prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah. Several religious denominations identify as the continuation of the church that he organized, including the LDS Church and the Community of Christ.

## Life

[edit]

Timeline of Joseph Smith's life[neutrality is disputed]

Important dates and locations in the life of Joseph Smith
Date  | Age  | Event
1796  | –  | Marriage of Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith Sr.
1805  | 0  | Born near Sharon, Vermont on 23 December
1816–1817  | 10–11  | Family moved near Palmyra, New York
1820  | 14  | First Vision
1823  | 17  | First appearance of angel Moroni on 21 September
1827  | 21  | Marriage to Emma Hale on 18 January
Obtained golden plates
1829  | 23  | Bulk of Book of Mormon translated
Received the Priesthood
1830  | 24  | Book of Mormon published
The Church of Christ founded on 6 April
Revision of the Bible commenced
1831  | 25  | Church headquarters moved from New York to Kirtland, Ohio
Revelation of gathering place in Missouri
1833  | 27  | Book of Commandments printed
1834  | 28  | Led Zion's Camp to Missouri
1835  | 29  | Organized the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Doctrine and Covenants published
1836  | 30  | Kirtland Temple completed
1837  | 31  | Missionaries sent to England
Dissension and financial problems in Kirtland
1838  | 32  | Moved from Ohio to Missouri
Surrendered to Missouri militia and incarcerated in Liberty Jail
1839  | 33  | Allowed to escape
Relocated to Illinois
Met with U.S. president Martin Van Buren seeking redress for Missouri grievances
1841  | 35  | Commissioned as lieutenant general of Nauvoo Legion
1842  | 36  | Organized Female Relief Society
Introduced temple endowment ceremony
Elected mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois
1843  | 37  | Revelation on plural wives and eternal marriage recorded
1844  | 38  | Nominated as U.S. presidential candidate
Ordered Nauvoo Expositor destroyed
Killed by mob with brother Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois on 27 June

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### Early years (1805–1827)

[edit]

Main article: Early life of Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Vermont, on the border between the villages of South Royalton and Sharon, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Smith Sr., a merchant and farmer.[8] He was one of eleven children. At the age of seven, Smith had a bone infection and, after receiving surgery, used crutches for three years.[9] After an ill-fated business venture and three successive years of crop failures culminating in the 1816 Year Without a Summer, the Smith family left Vermont and moved to Western New York,[10] and took out a mortgage on a 100-acre (40 ha) farm in the townships of Palmyra and Manchester.[11]

The region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm during the Second Great Awakening.[12][13] Between 1817 and 1825, there were several camp meetings and revivals in the Palmyra area.[14] Smith's parents disagreed about religion, but the family was caught up in this excitement.[15] Smith later recounted that he had become interested in religion by age 12, and as a teenager, may have been sympathetic to Methodism.[16] With other family members, he also engaged in religious folk magic, a relatively common practice in that time and place.[17] Both his parents and his maternal grandfather reported having visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.[18] Smith said that, although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, he was confused by the claims of competing religious denominations.[19]

Years later, Smith wrote that he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion.[20] He said that in 1820, while he had been praying in a wooded area near his home, God the Father and Jesus Christ together appeared to him, told him his sins were forgiven, and said that all contemporary churches had "turned aside from the gospel".[21] Smith said he recounted the experience to a Methodist minister, who dismissed the story "with great contempt".[22] According to historian Steven C. Harper, "There is no evidence in the historical record that Joseph Smith told anyone but the minister of his vision for at least a decade", and Smith might have kept it private because of how uncomfortable that first dismissal was.[23] During the 1830s, Smith orally described the vision to some of his followers, though it was not widely published among Mormons until the 1840s.[24] This vision later grew in importance to Smith's followers, who eventually regarded it as the first event in the restoration of Christ's church to Earth.[25] Smith himself may have originally considered the vision to be a personal conversion.[26]

Smith said he received golden plates from the angel Moroni at the Hill Cumorah.

According to Smith's later accounts, while praying one night in 1823, he was visited by an angel named Moroni. Smith claimed this angel revealed the location of a buried book made of golden plates, as well as other artifacts including a breastplate and a set of interpreters composed of two seer stones set in a frame, which had been hidden in a hill near his home.[27] Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning, but was unsuccessful because Moroni returned and prevented him.[28] He reported that during the next four years he made annual visits to the hill, but, until the fourth and final visit, each time he returned without the plates.[29]

Meanwhile, Smith's family faced financial hardship, due in part to the death of his oldest brother Alvin.[30] Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers,[31] a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period.[32] Smith was said to have an ability to locate lost items by looking into a seer stone, which he also used in treasure hunting, including, beginning in 1825, several unsuccessful attempts to find buried treasure sponsored by Josiah Stowell, a wealthy farmer in Chenango County.[33] In 1826, Smith was brought before a Chenango County court for "glass-looking", or pretending to find lost treasure; Stowell's relatives accused Smith of tricking Stowell and faking an ability to perceive hidden treasure, though Stowell attested that he believed Smith had such abilities.[34] The result of the proceeding remains unclear because primary sources report conflicting outcomes.[35]

Emma Hale Smith, who married Joseph Smith in 1827.

While boarding at the Hale house, located in the township of Harmony (now Oakland) in Pennsylvania, Smith met and courted Emma Hale. When he proposed marriage, her father, Isaac Hale, objected; he believed Smith had no means to support his daughter.[36] Hale also considered Smith a stranger who appeared "careless" and "not very well educated".[37] Smith and Emma eloped and married on January 18, 1827, after which the couple began boarding with Smith's parents in Manchester. Later that year, when Smith promised to abandon treasure seeking, his father-in-law offered to let the couple live on his property in Harmony and help Smith get started in business.[38]

Smith made his last visit to the hill shortly after midnight on September 22, 1827, taking Emma with him.[39] This time, he said he successfully retrieved the plates.[40] Smith said Moroni commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else,[d] but to translate them and publish their translation. He also said the plates were a religious record of Middle-Eastern indigenous Americans and were engraved in an unknown language, called reformed Egyptian.[41] He told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them.[42]

Although Smith had abandoned treasure hunting, former associates believed he had double crossed them and had taken the golden plates for himself, property they believed should be jointly shared.[43] After they ransacked places where they believed the plates might have been hidden, Smith decided to leave Palmyra.[44]

### Founding a church (1827–1830)

[edit]

Main article: Life of Joseph Smith from 1827 to 1830

In October 1827, Smith and Emma permanently moved to Harmony, aided by a relatively prosperous neighbor, Martin Harris,[45] who began serving as Smith's scribe in April 1828.[46] Although he and his wife, Lucy, were early supporters of Smith, by June 1828 they began to have doubts about the existence of the golden plates. Harris persuaded Smith to let him take 116 pages of manuscript to Palmyra to show a few family members, including his wife.[47] While Harris had the manuscript in his possession—of which there was no other copy—it was lost.[48] Smith was devastated by this loss, especially since it came at the same time as the death of his first son, who died shortly after birth.[49] Smith said that as punishment for his having lost the manuscript, Moroni returned, took away the plates, and revoked his ability to translate.[50] During this period, Smith briefly attended Methodist meetings with his wife, until a cousin of hers objected to inclusion of a "practicing necromancer" on the Methodist class roll.[51]

Cover page of the Book of Mormon, original 1830 edition

Smith said that Moroni returned the plates to him in September 1828,[52] and he then dictated some of the book to his wife Emma.[53] In April 1829 he met Oliver Cowdery, who had also dabbled in folk magic; and with Cowdery as scribe, Smith began a period of "rapid-fire translation".[53] Between April and early June 1829, the two worked full time on the manuscript, then moved to Fayette, New York, where they continued the work at the home of Cowdery's friend, Peter Whitmer.[54] When the narrative described an institutional church and a requirement for baptism, Smith and Cowdery baptized each other.[55] Dictation was completed about July 1, 1829.[56] According to Smith, Moroni took back the plates once Smith finished using them.[57]

The completed work, titled the Book of Mormon, was published in Palmyra by printer Egbert Bratt Grandin[58] and was first advertised for sale on March 26, 1830.[59] Less than two weeks later, on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ, and small branches were established in Manchester, Fayette, and Colesville, New York.[60] The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety and renewed the hostility of those who remembered the 1826 Chenango County trial.[61] After Cowdery baptized several new church members, Smith's followers were threatened with mob violence. Before Smith could confirm the newly baptized, he was arrested and charged with being a "disorderly person".[62] Although he was acquitted, both he and Cowdery fled to Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Smith later claimed that, probably around this time, Peter, James, and John had appeared to him and had ordained him and Cowdery to a higher priesthood.[63]

Smith's authority was undermined when Cowdery, Hiram Page, and other church members also claimed to receive revelations.[64] In response, Smith dictated a revelation which clarified his office as a prophet and an apostle, stating that only he had the ability to declare doctrine and scripture for the church.[65] Smith then dispatched Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and others on a mission to proselytize Native Americans.[66] Cowdery was also assigned the task of locating the site of the New Jerusalem, which was to be "on the borders" of the United States with what was then Indian territory.[67]

On their way to Missouri, Cowdery's party passed through northeastern Ohio, where Sidney Rigdon and over a hundred followers of his variety of Campbellite Restorationism converted to the Church of Christ, swelling the ranks of the new organization dramatically.[68] After Rigdon visited New York, he soon became Smith's primary assistant.[69] With growing opposition in New York, Smith announced a revelation that his followers should gather to Kirtland, Ohio, establish themselves as a people and await word from Cowdery's mission.[70]

### Life in Ohio (1831–1838)

[edit]

Main article: Life of Joseph Smith from 1831 to 1837

When Smith moved to Kirtland in January 1831, he encountered a religious culture that included enthusiastic demonstrations of spiritual gifts, including fits and trances, rolling on the ground, and speaking in tongues.[71] Rigdon's followers were practicing a form of communalism. Smith brought the Kirtland congregation under his authority and tamed ecstatic outbursts.[72] He had promised church elders that in Kirtland they would receive an endowment of heavenly power, and at the June 1831 general conference, he introduced the greater authority of a High ("Melchizedek") Priesthood to the church hierarchy.[73]

Converts poured into Kirtland. By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Latter Day Saints in the vicinity,[74] many expecting Smith to lead them shortly to the Millennial kingdom.[75] Though his mission to the Native Americans had been a failure,[76][77] Cowdery and the other missionaries with him were charged with finding a site for "a holy city". They found Jackson County, Missouri. After Smith visited in July 1831, he pronounced the frontier hamlet of Independence the "center place" of Zion.[78]

For most of the 1830s, the church was effectively based in Ohio.[74] Smith lived there, though he visited Missouri again in early 1832 to prevent a rebellion of prominent church members who believed the church in Missouri was being neglected.[79] Smith's trip was expedited by a mob of Ohio residents who were outraged over the church's presence and Smith's political power. The mob beat Smith and Rigdon unconscious, tarred and feathered them, and left them for dead.[80]

A mob tarred and feathered Smith in 1832.

In Jackson County, existing Missouri residents resented the Latter Day Saint newcomers for both political and religious reasons.[81] Additionally, their rapid growth aroused fears that they would soon constitute a majority in local elections, and thus "rule the county".[82] Tension increased until July 1833, when non-Mormons forcibly evicted the Mormons and destroyed their property. Smith advised his followers to bear the violence patiently until after they had been attacked multiple times, after which they could fight back.[83] Armed bands exchanged fire, killing one Mormon and two non-Mormons, until the old settlers forcibly expelled the Latter Day Saints from the county.[84]

After petitions to Missouri governor Daniel Dunklin for aid were unsuccessful,[85] Smith organized and led a small paramilitary expedition, called Zion's Camp, to aid the Latter Day Saints in Missouri.[86] As a military endeavor, the expedition was a failure. The men of the expedition were disorganized, suffered from a cholera outbreak and were severely outnumbered. By the end of June, Smith deescalated the confrontation, sought peace with Jackson County's residents, and disbanded Zion's Camp.[87] Nevertheless, Zion's Camp transformed Latter Day Saint leadership because many future church leaders came from among the participants.[88]

After the Camp returned to Ohio, Smith drew heavily from its participants to establish various governing bodies in the church.[89] He gave a revelation announcing that in order to redeem Zion, his followers would have to receive an endowment in the Kirtland Temple,[90] which he and his followers constructed. In March 1836, at the temple's dedication, many who received the endowment reported seeing visions of angels and engaged in prophesying and speaking in tongues.[91]

Smith dedicated the Kirtland Temple in 1836.

In January 1837, Smith and other churchleaders created a joint stock company, called the Kirtland Safety Society, to act as a quasi-bank; the company issued banknotes partly capitalized by real estate. Smith encouraged his followers to buy the notes, in which he invested heavily himself. The bank failed within a month.[92] As a result, Latter Day Saints in Kirtland suffered extreme high volatility and intense pressure from debt collectors. Smith was held responsible for the failure, and there were widespread defections from the church, including many of Smith's closest advisers.[93]

The failure of the bank was one part of a series of internal disputes led to the demise of the Kirtland community.[94] Cowdery had accused Smith of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage servant in his home, Fanny Alger.[95] Construction of the Kirtland Temple had only added to the church's debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors.[96] After a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on a charge of banking fraud, he and Rigdon fled for Missouri in January 1838.[97]

### Life in Missouri (1838–39)

[edit]

Main article: Life of Joseph Smith from 1838 to 1839

By 1838, Smith had abandoned plans to redeem Zion in Jackson County, and instead declared the town of Far West, Missouri, in Caldwell County, as the new "Zion".[98] In Missouri, the church also took the name "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", and construction began on a new temple.[99] In the weeks and months after Smith and Rigdon arrived at Far West, thousands of Latter Day Saints followed them from Kirtland.[100] Smith encouraged the settlement of land outside Caldwell County, instituting a settlement in Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Daviess County.[101]

Political and religious differences between old Missourians and newly arriving Latter Day Saint settlers provoked tensions between the two groups, much as they had in Jackson County. By this time, Smith's experiences with mob violence led him to believe that his faith's survival required greater militancy against anti-Mormons.[102] Tensions between the Mormons and the native Missourians escalated quickly until, on August 6, 1838, non-Mormons in Gallatin, Missouri, tried to prevent Mormons from voting, and a brawl ensued.[103] The election day scuffles initiated the 1838 Mormon War. Non-Mormon vigilantes raided and burned Mormon farms, while Danites and other Mormons pillaged non-Mormon towns.[104] In the Battle of Crooked River, a group of Mormons attacked the Missouri state militia, mistakenly believing them to be anti-Mormon vigilantes. Governor Lilburn Boggs then ordered that the Mormons be "exterminated or driven from the state".[105] On October 30, a party of Missourians surprised and killed seventeen Mormons in the Haun's Mill massacre.[106]

Smith was held for four months in Liberty jail.

The following day, the Mormons surrendered to 2,500 state troops and agreed to forfeit their property and leave the state.[107] Smith was immediately brought before a military court, accused of treason, and sentenced to be executed the next morning, but Alexander Doniphan, who was Smith's former attorney and a brigadier general in the Missouri militia, refused to carry out the order.[108] Smith was then sent to a state court for a preliminary hearing, where several of his former allies testified against him.[109] Smith and five others, including Rigdon, were charged with treason, and transferred to the jail at Liberty, Missouri, to await trial.[110]

Smith bore his imprisonment stoically. Understanding that he was effectively on trial before his own people, many of whom considered him a fallen prophet, he wrote a personal defense and an apology for the activities of his followers. "The keys of the kingdom", he wrote, "have not been taken away from us".[111] Though he directed his followers to collect and publish their stories of persecution, he also urged them to moderate their antagonism toward non-Mormons.[112] On April 6, 1839, after a grand jury hearing in Daviess County, Smith and his companions escaped custody, almost certainly with the connivance of the sheriff and guards.[113]

### Life in Nauvoo, Illinois (1839–1844)

[edit]

Main article: Life of Joseph Smith from 1839 to 1844

Many American newspapers criticized Missouri for the Haun's Mill massacre and the state's expulsion of the Mormons.[114] Illinois then accepted Mormon refugees who gathered along the banks of the Mississippi River,[115] where Smith purchased high-priced, swampy woodland in the hamlet of Commerce.[116] He attempted to portray the Mormons as an oppressed minority and unsuccessfully petitioned the federal government for help in obtaining reparations.[117] During the summer of 1839, while Mormons in Illinois suffered from a malaria epidemic, Smith sent Young and other apostles to missions in Europe, where they made numerous converts, many of them poor factory workers.[118]

Depiction of Smith at head of the Nauvoo Legion

Smith also attracted a few wealthy and influential converts, including John C. Bennett, the Illinois quartermaster general.[119] Bennett used his connections in the Illinois state legislature to obtain an unusually liberal charter for the new city, which Smith renamed "Nauvoo".[120] The charter granted the city virtual autonomy, authorized a university, and granted Nauvoo habeas corpus power—which allowed Smith to fend off extradition to Missouri. Though Latter Day Saint authorities controlled Nauvoo's civil government, the city guaranteed religious freedom for its residents.[121] The charter also authorized the Nauvoo Legion, a militia whose actions were limited only by state and federal constitutions. Smith and Bennett became its commanders, and were styled Lieutenant General and Major General respectively. As such, they controlled by far the largest body of armed men in Illinois.[122] Smith appointed Bennett as Assistant President of the Church, and Bennett was elected Nauvoo's first mayor.[123]

Smith planned the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, which was completed after his death.

The early Nauvoo years were a period of doctrinal innovation. Smith introduced baptism for the dead in 1840, and in 1841 construction began on the Nauvoo Temple as a place for recovering lost ancient knowledge.[124] An 1841 revelation promised the restoration of the "fullness of the priesthood"; and in May 1842, Smith inaugurated a revised endowment or "first anointing".[125] The endowment resembled the rites of Freemasonry that Smith had observed two months earlier when he had been initiated "at sight" into the Nauvoo Masonic lodge.[126] At first, the endowment was open only to men, who were initiated into a special group called the Anointed Quorum. For women, Smith introduced the Relief Society, a service club and sorority within which Smith predicted women would receive "the keys of the kingdom".[127] Smith also elaborated on his plan for a Millennial kingdom; no longer envisioning the building of Zion in Nauvoo, he viewed Zion as encompassing all of North and South America, with Mormon settlements being "stakes" of Zion's metaphorical tent.[128] Zion also became less a refuge from an impending tribulation than a great building project.[129] In the summer of 1842, Smith revealed a plan to establish the millennial Kingdom of God, which would eventually establish theocratic rule over the whole Earth.[130]

It was around this time that Smith began secretly marrying additional wives, a practice called plural marriage.[131] He introduced the doctrine to a few of his closest associates, including Bennett, who used it as an excuse to seduce numerous women, wed and unwed.[132] When rumors of polygamy (called "spiritual wifery" by Bennett) got abroad, Smith forced Bennett's resignation as Nauvoo mayor. In retaliation, Bennett left Nauvoo and began publishing sensational accusations against Smith and his followers.[133]

By mid-1842, popular opinion in Illinois had turned against the Mormons. After an unknown assailant shot and wounded Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs in May 1842, anti-Mormons circulated rumors that Smith's bodyguard, Porter Rockwell, was the gunman.[134] Though the evidence was circumstantial, Boggs ordered Smith's extradition. Certain he would be killed if he ever returned to Missouri, Smith went into hiding twice during the next five months, until the U.S. Attorney for Illinois argued that his extradition would be unconstitutional.[135] (Rockwell was later tried and acquitted.) In June 1843, enemies of Smith convinced a reluctant Illinois Governor Thomas Ford to extradite Smith to Missouri on an old charge of treason. Two law officers arrested Smith but were intercepted by a party of Mormons before they could reach Missouri. Smith was then released on a writ of habeas corpus from the Nauvoo municipal court.[136] While this ended the Missourians' attempts at extradition, it caused significant political fallout in Illinois.[137]

According to researchers Ronald Romig and Lachlan Mackay, Smith posed for a daguerreotype by Lucian R. Foster sometime in 1844; the photograph was published in 2022 in the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal.[138][139]

In December 1843, Smith petitioned Congress to make Nauvoo an independent territory with the right to call out federal troops in its defense.[140] Smith then wrote to the leading presidential candidates, asking what they would do to protect the Mormons. After receiving noncommittal or negative responses, he announced his own independent candidacy for president of the United States, suspended regular proselytizing, and sent out the Quorum of the Twelve and hundreds of other political missionaries.[141] In March 1844—following a dispute with a federal bureaucrat—he organized the secret Council of Fifty, which was given the authority to decide which national or state laws Mormons should obey, as well as establish its own government for Mormons.[142] Before his death the Council also voted unanimously to elect Smith "Prophet, Priest, and King".[143] The Council was likewise appointed to select a site for a large Mormon settlement in the Republic of Texas, Oregon, or California (then controlled by Mexico), where Mormons could live under theocratic law beyond the control of other governments.[144]

Smith launched a presidential campaign in 1844 on a platform which proposed gradually ending slavery, protecting the liberties of Latter Day Saints and other minorities, reducing the size of Congress, reestablishing a national bank, reforming prisons, and annexing Texas, California, and Oregon.

### Death

[edit]

Main article: Killing of Joseph Smith

A 19th-century painting depicting the mob attack inside Carthage Jail

By early 1844, a rift developed between Smith and a half dozen of his closest associates.[145] Most notably, William Law, his trusted counselor, and Robert Foster, a general of the Nauvoo Legion, disagreed with Smith about how to manage Nauvoo's economy.[146] Both also said that Smith had proposed marriage to their wives.[147] Believing these men were plotting against his life, Smith excommunicated them on April 18, 1844.[148] Law and Foster subsequently formed a competing "reform church", and in the following month, at the county seat in Carthage, they procured indictments against Smith for perjury (as Smith publicly denied having more than one wife) and polygamy.[149]

On June 7, the dissidents published the first (and only) issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, calling for reform within the church but also appealing politically to non-Mormons.[150] The paper alluded to Smith's theocratic aspirations, called for a repeal of the Nauvoo city charter, and decried his new "doctrines of many Gods". (Smith had recently given his King Follett discourse, in which he said that God was once a man, and that men and women could become gods.)[151] It also attacked Smith's practice of polygamy, implying that he was using religion as a pretext to draw unassuming women to Nauvoo to seduce and marry them.[152]

Fearing the Expositor would provoke a new round of violence against the Mormons, the Nauvoo City Council declared the newspaper a public nuisance, and Smith ordered the Nauvoo Legion to assist the police force in destroying its printing press.[153] During the council debate, Smith vigorously urged the council to order the press destroyed,[154] not realizing that destroying a newspaper was more likely to incite an attack than any of the newspaper's accusations.[155]

Smith was shot multiple times before and after falling from the window.[156]

Destruction of the newspaper provoked a strident call to arms from Thomas C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal and longtime critic of Smith.[157] Fearing mob violence, Smith mobilized the Nauvoo Legion on June 18 and declared martial law.[158] Officials in Carthage responded by mobilizing a small detachment of the state militia, and Governor Ford intervened, threatening to raise a larger militia unless Smith and the Nauvoo City Council surrendered themselves.[159] Smith initially fled across the Mississippi River, but shortly returned and surrendered to Ford.[160] On June 25, Smith and his brother Hyrum arrived in Carthage to stand trial for inciting a riot.[161] Once the Smiths were in custody, the charges were increased to treason, preventing them from posting bail.[162] John Taylor and Willard Richards voluntarily accompanied the Smiths in Carthage Jail.[163]

The death masks of Joseph Smith (left) and Hyrum Smith (right)

On June 27, 1844, an armed mob with blackened faces stormed Carthage Jail, where Joseph and Hyrum were being detained. Hyrum, who was trying to secure the door, was killed instantly with a shot to the face. Smith fired three shots from a pepper-box pistol that his friend, Cyrus H. Wheelock, had lent him, wounding three men,[164] before he sprang for the window.[165] (Smith and his companions were staying in the jailer's bedroom, which did not have bars on the windows.) He was shot multiple times before falling out of the window, crying, "Oh Lord my God!" He died shortly after hitting the ground, but was shot several more times by an improvised firing squad before the mob dispersed.[166] Smith was the first U.S. presidential candidate to be assassinated.[167]

## Legacy

[edit]

Main article: Legacy of Joseph Smith

Gravesite of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith, in Nauvoo, Illinois

### Immediate aftermath

[edit]

Following Smith's death, non-Mormon newspapers were nearly unanimous in portraying Smith as a religious fanatic.[168] Conversely, within the Latter Day Saint community, Smith was viewed as a prophet, martyred to seal the testimony of his faith.[169]

After a public funeral and viewing of the deceased brothers, Smith's widow—who feared hostile non-Mormons might try to desecrate the bodies—had their remains buried at night in a secret location, with substitute coffins filled with sandbags interred in the publicly attested grave.[170][171] The bodies were later moved and reburied under an outbuilding on the Smith property off the Mississippi River.[172] Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church), under the direction of then-RLDS Church president Frederick M. Smith (Smith's grandson) searched for, located, and disinterred the Smith brothers' remains in 1928 and reinterred them, along with Smith's wife, in Nauvoo at the Smith Family Cemetery.[170][172]

### Impact and assessment

[edit]

Modern biographers and scholars—Mormon and non-Mormon alike—agree that Smith was one of the most influential, charismatic, and innovative figures in American religious history.[173] In a 2015 compilation of the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time, Smithsonian ranked Smith first in the category of religious figures.[174] In popular opinion, non-Mormons in the U.S. generally consider Smith a "charlatan, scoundrel, and heretic", while outside the U.S. he is "obscure".[175]

Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Smith's legacy varies between denominations:[176] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members consider Smith the founding prophet of their church,[177] on par with Moses and Elijah.[178] Meanwhile, Smith's reputation is ambivalent in the Community of Christ, which continues "honoring his role" in the church's founding history but deemphasizes his human leadership.[179] Conversely, Woolleyite Mormon fundamentalism has deified Smith within a cosmology of many gods.[180]

Buildings named in honor of Smith

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City

The Joseph Smith Building on the campus of Brigham Young University

Memorials to Smith include the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City[181] the former Joseph Smith Memorial building on the campus of Brigham Young University as well as the Joseph Smith Building there,[182] a granite obelisk marking Smith's birthplace,[183] and a fifteen-foot-tall bronze statue of Smith in the World Peace Dome in Pune, India.[184]

### Successors and denominations

[edit]

See also: Succession crisis (Latter Day Saints) and List of denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement

Smith's death resulted in a succession crisis within the Latter Day Saint movement.[185] He had proposed several ways to choose his successor, but never clarified his preference.[186] The two strongest succession candidates were Young, senior member and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Rigdon, the senior remaining member of the First Presidency. In a church-wide conference on August 8, most of the Latter Day Saints present elected Young. They eventually left Nauvoo and settled the Salt Lake Valley, Utah Territory.[187]

Nominal membership in Young's denomination, which became the LDS Church, surpassed 17 million in 2023.[188] Smaller groups followed Rigdon and James J. Strang, who had based his claim on a letter of appointment ostensibly written by Smith but which some scholars believe was forged.[189] Some hundreds followed Lyman Wight to establish a community in Texas.[190] Others followed Alpheus Cutler.[191] Many members of these smaller groups, including most of Smith's family,[192] eventually coalesced in 1860[193] under the leadership of Joseph Smith III and formed the RLDS Church (Community of Christ), which has about 250,000 members.[194]

## Family and descendants

[edit]

See also: List of Joseph Smith's wives and Children of Joseph Smith

The first of Smith's wives, Emma Hale, gave birth to nine children during their marriage, five of whom died before the age of two.[195] The eldest, Alvin (born in 1828), died within hours of birth, as did twins Thaddeus and Louisa (born in 1831).[196] When the twins died, the Smiths adopted another set of twins, Julia and Joseph Murdock, whose mother had recently died in childbirth; the adopted Smith died of measles in 1832.[197] In 1841, Don Carlos, who had been born a year earlier, died of malaria, and five months later, in 1842, Emma gave birth to a stillborn son.[198]

Joseph and Emma had five children who lived to maturity: adopted Julia Murdock, Joseph Smith III, David Hyrum Smith, Frederick Granger Williams Smith, and Alexander Hale Smith.[199] Some historians have speculated—based on journal entries and family stories—that Smith fathered children with his plural wives. However, in cases where DNA testing of potential Smith descendants from plural wives has been possible, results have been negative.[e]

After Smith's death, Emma was quickly alienated from Young and the LDS leadership.[202] Emma feared and despised Young, who in turn was suspicious of Emma's desire to preserve the family's assets from inclusion with those of the church. He also disliked her open opposition to plural marriage. Young excluded Emma from ecclesiastical meetings and from social gatherings.[203] When most Mormons moved west, Emma stayed in Nauvoo and married a non-Mormon, Major Lewis C. Bidamon.[204] She withdrew from religion until 1860, when she affiliated with the RLDS Church headed by her son, Joseph III. Emma maintained her belief that Smith had been a prophet, and she never repudiated her belief in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.[205]

### Polygamy

[edit]

See also: Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy, Mormonism and polygamy, and List of Joseph Smith's wives

By some accounts, Smith had been teaching a polygamy doctrine as early as 1831, and there is evidence that he may have been a polygamist by 1835.[206] Although the church had publicly repudiated polygamy, in 1837 there was a rift between Smith and Cowdery over the issue.[207] Cowdery suspected Smith had engaged in a relationship with Fanny Alger, who worked in the Smith household as a serving girl.[208] Smith did not deny having a relationship, but he insisted that he had never admitted to adultery.[209] "Presumably", historian Bushman argues, "because he had married Alger" as a plural wife.[210]

In April 1841, Smith secretly wed Louisa Beaman,[211] and during the next two-and-a-half years he secretly married or was sealed to about thirty or forty additional women.[c] Ten of his plural wives were between the ages of fourteen and twenty; others were over fifty.[212] Ten were already married to other men, though some of these polyandrous marriages were contracted with the consent of the first husbands.[213][6]: 124 Evidence for whether and to what degree Smith's polygamous marriages involved sex is ambiguous and varies between marriages.[214] Some polygamous marriages may have been considered solely religious marriages that would not take effect until after death.[215] In any case, during Smith's lifetime, the practice of polygamy was kept secret from both non-Mormons and most members of the church.[216] Polygamy caused a breach between Smith and his first wife, Emma;[217] historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich summarizes by stating that "Emma vacillated in her support for plural marriage, sometimes acquiescing to Joseph's sealings, sometimes resisting".[218]

## Revelations

[edit]

An artistic representation of the golden plates with the Urim and Thummim connected to a breastplate, based on descriptions by Smith and others

According to Bushman, the "signal feature" of Smith's life was "his sense of being guided by revelation". Instead of presenting his ideas with logical arguments, Smith dictated authoritative scripture-like "revelations" and let people decide whether to believe,[219] doing so with what Peter Coviello calls "beguiling offhandedness".[220] Smith and his followers treated his revelations as being above teachings or opinions, and he acted as though he believed in his revelations as much as his followers.[221][222] The revelations were written as if God himself were speaking through Smith, often opening with words such as, "Hearken O ye people which profess my name, saith the Lord your God".[223]

### Book of Mormon

[edit]

Main article: Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon has been called the longest and most complex of Smith's revelations.[224] Its language resembles the King James Version of the Bible, as does its organization as a compilation of smaller books, each named after prominent figures in the narrative.[225] It tells the story of the rise and fall of a Judeo-Christian religious civilization in the Western Hemisphere,[226] beginning about 600 BC and ending in the fifth century.[225][227] The book explains itself to be largely the work of Mormon, a Nephite prophet and military figure. Christian themes permeate the work.[228]

External videos

Presentation by Remini on Joseph Smith, October 19, 2002, C-SPAN

Some scholars have considered the Book of Mormon a response to pressing cultural and environmental issues in Smith's day.[229] Historian Dan Vogel regards the book as autobiographical in nature, reflecting Smith's life and perceptions.[230] Biographer Robert V. Remini calls the Book of Mormon "a typically American story" that "radiates the revivalist passion of the Second Great Awakening".[231] Author Fawn Brodie suggested that Smith composed the Book of Mormon by drawing on sources of information available to him, such as the 1823 book View of the Hebrews.[232] Other scholars argue the Book of Mormon is more biblical in inspiration than American. Richard Bushman writes that "the Book of Mormon is not a conventional American book" and that its structure better resembles the Bible.[233] According to historian Daniel Walker Howe, the book's "dominant themes are biblical, prophetic, and patriarchal, not democratic or optimistic" like the prevailing American culture.[234] Author Jan Shipps argues that the Book of Mormon's "complex set of religious claims" provided "the basis of a new mythos" or "story" which early converts accepted and lived in as their world, thus departing from "the early national period in America into a new dispensation of the fulness of times".[235]

According to some accounts, Smith dictated most of the Book of Mormon by looking into a seer stone placed in a stovepipe hat.

Smith never fully described how he produced the Book of Mormon, saying only that he translated by the power of God and implying that he had read its words.[236] The Book of Mormon itself states only that its text will "come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof".[237] Accordingly, there is considerable disagreement about the actual method used. For at least some of the earliest dictation, Smith's compatriots said he used the "Urim and Thummim", a pair of seer stones he said were buried with the plates.[238] However, people close to Smith said that later in the process of dictation, he used a chocolate-colored stone he had found in 1822 that he had used previously for treasure hunting.[f] Joseph Knight said that Smith saw the words of the translation while, after excluding all light, he gazed at the stone or stones in the bottom of his hat, a process similar to divining the location of treasure.[239] Sometimes, Smith concealed the process by raising a curtain or dictating from another room; at other times he dictated in full view of witnesses while the plates lay covered on the table or were hidden elsewhere.[240]

### Bible revision

[edit]

Main article: Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible

See also: Book of Moses

In June 1830, Smith dictated a revelation in which Moses narrates a vision in which he sees "worlds without number" and speaks with God about the purpose of creation and the relation of humankind to deity.[241] This revelation initiated a revision of the Bible which Smith worked on sporadically until 1833 but which remained unpublished until after his death.[242] He may have considered it complete, though according to Emma Smith, the biblical revision was still unfinished when Joseph died.[243]

In the course of producing the Book of Mormon, Smith declared that the Bible was missing "the most plain and precious parts of the gospel".[244] He produced a "new translation" of the Bible, not by directly translating from manuscripts in another language, but by amending and appending to a King James Bible in a process which he and Latter Day Saints believed was guided by inspiration; Smith asserted his translation would correct lacunae and restore what the contemporary Bible was missing.[245] While many changes involved straightening out seeming contradictions or making small clarifications, other changes added large interpolations to the text.[246] For example, Smith's revision nearly tripled the length of the first five chapters of Genesis into a text called the Book of Moses.[247]

### Book of Abraham

[edit]

Main article: Book of Abraham

See also: Joseph Smith's views on Black people, Curses of Cain and Ham and the LDS Church, Mormon teachings on skin color, and Mormonism and slavery

In 1835, Smith encouraged some Latter Day Saints in Kirtland to purchase rolls of ancient Egyptian papyri from a traveling exhibitor. He said they contained the writings of the ancient patriarchs Abraham and Joseph. Over the next several years, Smith dictated to scribes what he reported was a revelatory translation of one of these rolls, which was published in 1842 as the Book of Abraham.[248] The Book of Abraham speaks of the founding of the Abrahamic nation, astronomy, cosmology, lineage and priesthood, and gives another account of the creation story.[249] The papyri associated with the Book of Abraham were thought to have been lost in the Great Chicago Fire, but several fragments were rediscovered in the 1960s. Egyptologists have subsequently determined them to be part of the Egyptian Book of Breathing with no connection to Abraham.[250][251]

In his revisions of the Bible, and production of the Book of Abraham he taught that Black people were cursed by God with the curses placed on Cain and Ham, and linked the two curses by positioning Ham's Canaanite posterity as matrilinear descendants of Cain.[252]: 22, 29, 31, 54–57 In another book of the Pearl of Great Price the descendants of Cain are described as dark-skinned.[253]: 11–12, 128 He referred to the curses as a justification for slavery.[254]: 126 [255][252]: 27

### Other revelations

[edit]

See also: Book of Commandments and Doctrine and Covenants

> [The Holy Spirit] may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass.

—Joseph Smith[256]

According to Pratt, Smith dictated his revelations, which were recorded by a scribe without revisions or corrections.[257] Revelations were immediately copied and then circulated among church members. Smith's revelations often came in response to specific questions. He described the revelatory process as having "pure Intelligence" flowing into him. Smith, however, never viewed the wording to be infallible. The revelations were not God's words verbatim, but "couched in language suitable to Joseph's time".[258] In 1833, Smith edited and expanded many of the previous revelations, publishing them as the Book of Commandments, which later became part of the Doctrine and Covenants.[259]

Smith gave varying types of revelations. Some were temporal, while others were spiritual or doctrinal. Some were received for a specific individual, while others were directed at the whole church. An 1831 revelation called "The Law" contained directions for missionary work, rules for organizing society in Zion, a reiteration of the Ten Commandments, an injunction to "administer to the poor and needy" and an outline for the law of consecration.[260] An 1832 revelation called "The Vision" added to the fundamentals of sin and atonement, and introduced doctrines of life after salvation, exaltation, and a heaven with degrees of glory.[261] Another 1832 revelation was the first to explain priesthood doctrine.[262]

In 1833, at a time of temperance agitation, Smith delivered a revelation called the "Word of Wisdom", which counseled a diet of wholesome herbs, fruits, grains and a sparing use of meat. It also recommended that Latter Day Saints avoid "strong" alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and "hot drinks" (later interpreted to mean tea and coffee).[263] The Word of Wisdom was originally framed as a recommendation rather than a commandment and was not strictly followed by Smith and other early Latter Day Saints,[264] though it later became a requirement in the LDS Church.

Before 1832, most of Smith's revelations concerned establishing the church, gathering followers, and building the city of Zion. Later revelations dealt primarily with the priesthood, endowment, and exaltation.[265] The pace of formal revelations slowed during the autumn of 1833 and again after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple.[266] Smith moved away from formal written revelations spoken in God's voice, and instead taught more in sermons, conversations, and letters.[267] For instance, the doctrines of baptism for the dead and the nature of God were introduced in sermons, and one of Smith's most famed statements, about there being "no such thing as immaterial matter", was recorded from a casual conversation with a Methodist preacher.[268]

## Views and teachings

[edit]

Main article: Teachings of Joseph Smith

Smith described Jesus and God the Father as two distinct physical beings.

### Cosmology and theology

[edit]

See also: Mormon cosmology and God in Mormonism

Smith taught that all existence was material, including a world of "spirit matter" so fine that it was invisible to all but the purest mortal eyes.[269] Matter, in Smith's view, could be neither created nor destroyed; the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter. Like matter, Smith saw "intelligence" as co-eternal with God, and he taught that human spirits had been drawn from a pre-existent pool of eternal intelligences.[270] Nevertheless, according to Smith, spirits could not experience a "fullness of joy" unless joined with corporeal bodies. Therefore, the work and glory of God was to create worlds across the cosmos where inferior intelligences could be embodied.[271]

Smith taught that God was an advanced and glorified man,[272] embodied within time and space.[273] He publicly taught that God the Father and Jesus were distinct beings with physical bodies.[274] Nevertheless, he conceived of the Holy Spirit as a "personage of Spirit".[275] Smith extended this materialist conception to all existence and taught that "all spirit is matter", meaning that a person's embodiment in flesh was not a sign of fallen carnality, but a divine quality that humans shared with deity. Humans are, therefore, not so much God's creations as they are God's "kin".[276] There is also considerable evidence that Smith taught, at least to limited audiences, that God the Father was accompanied by God the Mother.[277] In this conception, God fully understood is plural, embodied, gendered, and both male and female.[278]

Through the gradual acquisition of knowledge, according to Smith, those who received exaltation could eventually become like God.[279] These teachings implied a vast hierarchy of gods, with God himself having a father.[280] In Smith's cosmology, those who became gods would reign, unified in purpose and will, leading spirits of lesser capacity to share immortality and eternal life.[281]

In Smith's view, the opportunity to achieve godhood (also called exaltation) extended to all humanity. Those who died with no opportunity to accept saving ordinances could achieve exaltation by accepting them in the afterlife through proxy ordinances performed on their behalf.[282] Smith said that children who died in their innocence would be guaranteed to rise at the resurrection and receive exaltation. Apart from those who committed the eternal sin, Smith taught that even the wicked and disbelieving would achieve a degree of glory in the afterlife.[283]

### Religious authority and ritual

[edit]

See also: Priesthood (Latter Day Saints), Mormonism and Freemasonry, and Endowment (Latter Day Saints)

Smith's teachings were rooted in dispensational restorationism.[284] He taught that the Church of Christ restored through him was a latter-day restoration of the early Christian faith, which had been lost in the Great Apostasy.[285] At first, Smith's church had little sense of hierarchy, and his religious authority was derived from his visions and revelations.[286] Though he did not claim exclusive prophethood, an early revelation designated him as the only prophet allowed to issue commandments "as Moses".[287] This religious authority included economic and political, as well as spiritual, matters. For instance, in the early 1830s, Smith temporarily instituted a form of religious communism, called the United Order, that required Latter Day Saints to give all their property to the church, to be divided among the faithful.[288] He also envisioned that the theocratic institutions he established would have a role in the worldwide political organization of the Millennium.[289]

By the mid-1830s, Smith began teaching a hierarchy of three priesthoods—the Melchizedek, the Aaronic, and the Patriarchal.[290] Each priesthood was a continuation of biblical priesthoods through lineal succession or through ordination by biblical figures appearing in visions.[286] Upon introducing the Melchizedek or "High" Priesthood in 1831, Smith taught that its recipients would be "endowed with power from on high", fulfilling a desire for a greater holiness and an authority commensurate with the New Testament apostles.[291] This doctrine of endowment evolved through the 1830s until, in 1842, the Nauvoo endowment included an elaborate ceremony containing elements similar to those of Freemasonry[292] and the Jewish Kabbalah.[293] Although the endowment was extended to women in 1843, Smith never clarified whether women could be ordained to priesthood offices.[294]

Smith taught that the High Priesthood's endowment of heavenly power included the sealing powers of Elijah, allowing High Priests to perform ceremonies with effects that continued after death.[295] For example, this power would enable proxy baptisms for the dead and marriages that would last into eternity.[296] Elijah's sealing powers also enabled the second anointing, or "fulness [sic] of the priesthood", which, according to Smith, sealed married couples to their exaltation.[297]

### Theology of family

[edit]

During the early 1840s, Smith unfolded a theology of family relations, called the "New and Everlasting Covenant", that superseded all earthly bonds.[298] He taught that outside the covenant, marriages were simply matters of contract, and that in the afterlife, individuals who were unmarried or who married outside the covenant would be limited in their progression towards Godhood.[299] To fully enter the covenant, a man and woman must participate in a "first anointing", a "sealing" ceremony, and a "second anointing" (also called "sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise").[300] When fully sealed into the covenant, Smith said that no sin nor blasphemy (other than murder and apostasy[301]) could keep them from their exaltation in the afterlife.[302] According to a revelation Smith dictated, God appointed only one person on Earth at a time—in this case, Smith—to possess this power of sealing.[303] According to Smith, men and women needed to be sealed to each other in this new and everlasting covenant (also called "celestial marriage") in order to be exalted in heaven after death and that such celestial marriage, perpetuated across generations, could reunite extended families of ancestors and descendants in the afterlife.[304]

Profile portrait of Smith, by Bathsheba W. Smith, created circa 1843

Plural marriage, or polygamy, was Smith's "most famous innovation", according to historian Matthew Bowman.[13] Once Smith introduced polygamy, it became part of his "Abrahamic project", in the phrasing of historian Benjamin Park, wherein the solution to humanity's chaos would be found through accepting the divine order of the cosmos, under God's authority, in a "fusion of ecclesiastical and civic authority".[305] Smith also taught that the highest level of exaltation could be achieved through marriage sealed with proper authority, the ultimate manifestation of the New and Everlasting Covenant. This included teachings that multiple wives would allow for a larger kingdom with more descendants. It was also believed at the time that polygamy was necessary to attain the highest degree in the celestial kingdom. [306] In Smith's theology, marrying in polygamy made it possible for practitioners to unlearn the Christian tradition which identified the physical body as carnal, and to instead recognize their embodied joy as sacred.[307] Smith also taught that the practice allowed an individual to transcend the angelic state and become a god, accelerating the expansion of one's heavenly kingdom.[308]

## See also

[edit]

* History of the Latter Day Saint movement
* List of founders of religious traditions
* Miracles attributed to Joseph Smith
* Mormonism in the 19th century
* Outline of Joseph Smith
* Smith family (Latter Day Saints)

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Church of Christ was the official name on April 6, 1830.[1] In 1834, the official name was changed to Church of the Latter Day Saints[2] and then in 1838 to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The spelling "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" was adopted by the LDS Church in Utah in 1851, after Joseph Smith's death in 1844, and is today specified in Doctrine and Covenants.[3]
2. ^ Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith III, and at least four others each claimed succession.
3. ^ a b Estimates vary, but most historians generally place the number of Smith's polygamous wives as between 30 and 40.[6]: 105 [7] For example:
* Smith (1994, p. 14) counts 42;
* Quinn (1994, pp. 587–88) counts 46;
* Compton (1997, p. 11) counts at least 33;
* Bushman (2005, pp. 437, 644) counts 32;
* Davenport (2022, p. 139) counts 37.
4. ^ However, eventually a total of eleven others published statements affirming having been shown the plates. See Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses.
5. ^ Perego's summary of alleged children of Smith by polygamous wives lists fourteen.[200][201] His chapter discusses six cases of DNA analysis in detail. Successful analyses disconfirmed paternity for Smith. However, Perego notes that for other alleged cases, issues such as insufficient data and "genealogical noise" make confident conclusions impossible. For more on DNA research and Smith's alleged paternity of children of women other than Emma Smith, also see: "Research focuses on Smith family". Deseret News. May 28, 2005. Archived from the original on June 30, 2006.; "DNA tests rule out 2 as Smith descendants: Scientific advances prove no genetic link". Deseret News. November 10, 2007. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007.; Perego, Ugo A.; Myers, Natalie M.; Woodward, Scott R. (Summer 2005). "Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith, Jr.: Genealogical Applications" (PDF). Journal of Mormon History. 32 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2006.
6. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 171–73) writes that witnesses said that Smith shifted from the Urim and Thummim to the single brown seer stone after the loss of the earliest 116 manuscript pages; Bushman (2005, pp. 70, 578n46) notes that "Lucy Smith said that Joseph received the interpreters again on September 22, 1828" but that "Although the assertion clashes with other accounts, David Whitmer said Moroni did not return the Urim and Thummum... Instead Joseph used a seerstone for the remaining translation"; Jortner (2022, p. 42) follows Lucy Smith's account and writes of "the removal and subsequent restoration of the Urim and Thummum by an angel".

## Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Shields, Steven (1990). Divergent Paths of the Restoration (fourth ed.). Independence, Missouri: Restoration Research. ISBN 0-942284-00-3.
2. ^ Joseph Smith. "Minutes of a Conference". Evening and Morning Star. Vol. 2, no. 20\. Kirtland, OH. p. 160. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
3. ^ "D&C 115:4".
4. ^ Garr, Arnold K. (Spring 2002). "Joseph Smith: Mayor of Nauvoo" (PDF). Mormon Historical Studies. 1 (1): 5–6.
5. ^ Jenson, Andrew, ed. (1888). The Historical Record: A Monthly Periodical. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson. p. 843. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
6. ^ a b Hales, Brian C. (April 1, 2024). "Joseph Smith's 'Polyandry': Expanding the Narrative". Journal of Mormon History. 50 (2). Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. doi:10.5406/24736031.50.2.06. ISSN 0094-7342 - via Duke University Press.
7. ^ Remini (2002, p. 153)
8. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 9, 30); Smith (1832, p. 1)
9. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 21)
10. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 27–32)
11. ^ "Smith Family Log Home, Palmyra, New York". Ensign Peak Foundation. Archived from the original on October 5, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
12. ^ Martin, John H. (2005). "An Overview of the Burned-Over District". Saints, Sinners and Reformers: The Burned-Over District Re-Visited, published in the Crooked Lake Review. No. 137. Fall 2005.
13. ^ a b Bowman, Matthew (March 3, 2016). Butler, Jon (ed.). "Mormonism". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.326. ISBN 978-0-19-932917-5.
14. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 36–37); Quinn (1998, p. 136)
15. ^ Vogel (2004, p. xx); Hill (1989, pp. 10–11); Brooke (1994, p. 129)
16. ^ Vogel (2004, pp. 26–7); D. Michael Quinn (July 12, 2006). "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist 'Camp-Meeting' in 1820" (PDF). Dialogue Paperless. p. 3\. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
17. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 30–31); Bushman (2005, p. 51); Shipps (1985, pp. 7–8); Remini (2002, pp. 16, 33); Hill (1977, p. 53)
18. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 14–16, 137); Bushman (2005, pp. 26, 36); Brooke (1994, pp. 150–51); Mack (1811, p. 25); Smith (1853, pp. 54–59, 70–74)
19. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 38–9); Vogel (2004, p. 30); Quinn (1998, p. 136); Remini (2002, p. 37)
20. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 39); Vogel (2004, p. 30); Quinn (1998, p. 136)
21. ^ Remini (2002, pp. 37–38); Bushman (2005, p. 39); Vogel (2004, p. 30)
22. ^ Vogel (2004, p. 30); Remini (2002, p. 40); Harper (2019, p. 9)
23. ^ Harper (2019, pp. 10–12)
24. ^ Harper (2019, pp. 1, 51–55)
25. ^ Allen, James B. (Autumn 1966). "The Significance of Joseph Smith's "First Vision" in Mormon Thought". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 1 (3): 29–46\. doi:10.2307/45223817. ISSN 0012-2157. JSTOR 45223817. S2CID 222223353.
26. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 39); Vogel (2004, p. 30); Remini (2002, p. 39)
27. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 136–38); Bushman (2005, p. 43); Shipps (1985, pp. 151–152)
28. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 50); Jortner (2022, p. 38)
29. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 163–64); Bushman (2005, p. 54)
30. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 42)
31. ^ Bushman (2008, p. 21); Bushman (2005, pp. 33, 48)
32. ^ Taylor, Alan (Spring 1986). "The Early Republic's Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830". American Quarterly. 38 (1): 6–34\. doi:10.2307/2712591. JSTOR 2712591.
33. ^ Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 17); Brooke (1994, pp. 152–53); Quinn (1998, pp. 43–44, 54–57); Persuitte (2000, pp. 33–53); Bushman (2005, pp. 45–53); Jortner (2022, p. 29)
34. ^ Jortner (2022, pp. 29–31)
35. ^ Jortner (2022, p. 33); Vogel, Dan. "Rethinking the 1826 Judicial Decision". Mormon Scripture Studies: An e-Journal of Critical Thought. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011.; "Introduction to State of New York v. JS–A". The Joseph Smith Papers. Archived from the original on December 20, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022,
36. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 53); Vogel (2004, p. 89); Quinn (1998, p. 164)
37. ^ Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 17–18)
38. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 53–54)
39. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 12); Quinn (1998, pp. 163–64); Bushman (2005, pp. 54, 59); Easton-Flake & Cope (2020, p. 126)
40. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 59–60); Shipps (1985, p. 153)
41. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 9); Bushman (2005, p. 54); Howe (2007, pp. 313–314); Jortner (2022, p. 41)
42. ^ Bushman (2004, pp. 238–242); Howe (2007, p. 313)
43. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 61); Howe (2007, p. 315); Jortner (2022, pp. 36–38)
44. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 12); Remini (2002, p. 55); Bushman (2005, pp. 60–61)
45. ^ Remini (2002, pp. 55–56); Newell & Avery (1994, p. 2); Bushman (2005, pp. 62–63)
46. ^ Easton-Flake & Cope (2020, p. 129)
47. ^ Shipps (1985, pp. 15–16); Easton-Flake & Cope (2020, pp. 117–119); Smith (1853, pp. 117–18)
48. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 16);Easton-Flake & Cope (2020, pp. 117–118)
49. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 67–68)
50. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 17)
51. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 68–70)
52. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 18); Bushman (2005, pp. 70, 578n46); Phelps (1833, sec. 2:4–5); Smith (1853, p. 126)
53. ^ a b Bushman (2005, p. 70)
54. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 70–74)
55. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 5–6, 15–20); Bushman (2005, pp. 74–75)
56. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 78)
57. ^ Remini (2002, p. 68)
58. ^ Jortner (2022, p. 43)
59. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 154)
60. ^ For the April 6 establishment of a church organization, see Shipps (1985, p. 154); for Fayette and Manchester (and some ambiguity over a Palmyra presence), see Hill (1989, pp. 27, 201n84); for the Colesville congregation, see Jortner (2022, p. 57);
61. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 117); Vogel (2004, pp. 484–486, 510–512)
62. ^ Hill (1989, p. 28); Bushman (2005, pp. 116–18)
63. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 24–26); Bushman (2005, p. 118)
64. ^ Hill (1989, p. 27); Bushman (2005, p. 120)
65. ^ Hill (1989, pp. 27–28); Bushman (2005, p. 121); Phelps (1833, p. 67)
66. ^ Hill (1989, p. 28); Bushman (2005, p. 112); Jortner (2022, pp. 59–60, 93, 95)
67. ^ Phelps (1833, p. 68); Bushman (2005, p. 122)
68. ^ Parley Pratt said that the Mormon mission baptized 127 within two or three weeks "and this number soon increased to one thousand". See McKiernan, F. Mark (Summer 1970). "The Conversion of Sidney Rigdon to Mormonism". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 5 (2): 71–78\. doi:10.2307/45224203. JSTOR 45224203. S2CID 254399092; Bushman (2005, p. 124); Jortner (2022, pp. 60–61)
69. ^ McKiernan, F. Mark (Summer 1970). "The Conversion of Sidney Rigdon to Mormonism". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 5 (2): 71–78\. doi:10.2307/45224203. JSTOR 45224203. S2CID 254399092

Bushman (2005, p. 124)
70. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 124–25); Howe (2007, p. 315)
71. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 150–52); Remini (2002, p. 95)
72. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 154–55); Hill (1977, p. 131)
73. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 31–32); Bushman (2005, pp. 125, 156–60)
74. ^ a b Arrington & Bitton (1979, p. 21)
75. ^ Shipps (1985, p. 81)
76. ^ Turner (2012, p. 41)
77. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 161)
78. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 162–163); Smith et al. (1835, p. 154)
79. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 180–182)
80. ^ Remini (2002, pp. 109–10); Bushman (2005, pp. 178–80)
81. ^ See Remini (2002, pp. 113–15); Arrington & Bitton (1979, p. 61))
82. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 222)
83. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 181–83, 235); Quinn (1994, pp. 82–83)
84. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 83–84); Bushman (2005, pp. 222–27)
85. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 227–8); Bruce A. Van Orden, "Importuning The Government" in We'll Sing and We'll Shout: The Life and Times of W. W. Phelps (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018), 123–134.
86. ^ Remini (2002, p. 115)
87. ^ Hill (1989, pp. 44–46) (for Smith deescalating and disbanding the camp); Bushman (2005, pp. 235–46) (for the numerical limitations, social tension, and cholera outbreak in the camp).
88. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 246–247); Quinn (1994, p. 85)
89. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 247); see also Remini (2002, pp. 100–104) for a timeline of Smith introducing the new organizational entities.
90. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 156–57); Smith et al. (1835, p. 233); Prince (1995, p. 32 & n.104).
91. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 310–19)
92. ^ Remini (2002, pp. 122–123); Bushman (2005, pp. 328–334)
93. ^ Remini (2002, p. 124); Bushman (2005, pp. 331–32, 336–39)
94. ^ Brooke (1994, p. 221)
95. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 322); Compton1997, pp. 25–42)
96. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 217, 329)
97. ^ Remini (2002, p. 125); Bushman (2005, pp. 339–40); Hill (1977, p. 216)
98. ^ Hill (1977, pp. 181–82); Bushman (2005, pp. 345, 384)
99. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 210, 222–23); Quinn (1994, p. 628); Remini (2002, p. 131)
100. ^ Remini (2002, p. 125); Bushman (2005, pp. 341–46)
101. ^ Walker, Jeffrey N. (2008). "Mormon Land Rights in Caldwell and Daviess Counties and the Mormon Conflict of 1838: New Findings and New Understandings". BYU Studies. 47 (1): 4–55\. JSTOR 43044611; LeSueur, Stephen C. (Fall 2005). "Missouri's Failed Compromise: The Creation of Caldwell County for the Mormons". Journal of Mormon History. 31 (2): 113–144\. JSTOR 23289934
102. ^ Quinn (1994, p. 92); Brodie (1971, p. 213); Bushman (2005, p. 355)
103. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 357)
104. ^ Remini (2002, p. 134); Quinn (1994, pp. 96–99, 101); Bushman (2005, p. 363)
105. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 364–65); Quinn (1994, p. 100)
106. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 365–66); Quinn (1994, p. 97)
107. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 366–67); Brodie (1971, p. 239)
108. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 242, 344, 367); Brodie (1971, p. 241)
109. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 369); Brodie (1971, pp. 225–26, 243–45)
110. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 369–70)
111. ^ Remini (2002, pp. 136–37); Brodie (1971, pp. 245–46);Quinn (1998, pp. 101–102)
112. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 377–378)
113. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 375); Brodie (1971, pp. 253–255); Bushman (2005, pp. 382, 635–36); Bentley, Joseph I. (1992). "Smith, Joseph: Legal Trials of Joseph Smith". In Ludlow, Daniel H. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan Publishing. pp. 1346–1348\. ISBN 0-02-879602-0. OCLC 24502140. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
114. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 246–247, 259); Bushman (2005, p. 398)
115. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 381)
116. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 383–384)
117. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 392–94, 398–99); Brodie (1971, pp. 259–60)
118. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 386, 409); Brodie (1971, pp. 258, 264–65)
119. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 410–11)
120. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 267–68); Bushman (2005, p. 412,415)
121. ^ Quinn (1998, pp. 106–08)
122. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 271)
123. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 410–411)
124. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 448–49); Park (2020, pp. 57–61)
125. ^ Quinn (1994, p. 113)
126. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 449); Quinn (1994, pp. 114–15)
127. ^ Quinn (1994, p. 634)
128. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 384,404)
129. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 415)
130. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 111–12)
131. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 427–28)
132. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 460)Brodie (1971, pp. 311–12)
133. ^ Ostling & Ostling (1999, p. 12); Bushman (2005, pp. 461–62); Brodie (1971, p. 314)
134. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 468); Brodie (1971, p. 323); Quinn (1994, p. 113)
135. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 468–75)
136. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 504–08)
137. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 508)
138. ^ Romig, Ronald; Mackay, Lachlan (Spring–Summer 2022). "Hidden Things Shall Come to Light: The Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr". John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 42 (1): 28–60\. ISSN 0739-7852.
139. ^ There is disagreement among historians about the identification and provenance of this daguerrotype; for an overview of arguments and positions for and against, see Stack, Peggy Fletcher (July 29, 2022). "'The Whole Affect Feels Off to Me' — Why Some Historians Doubt That's a Photo of Joseph Smith". The Salt Lake Tribune.
140. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 356); Quinn (1994, pp. 115–116)
141. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 118–119); Bushman (2005, pp. 514–515); Brodie (1971, pp. 362–364)
142. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 519); Quinn (1994, pp. 120–22)
143. ^ "How Joseph Smith and the Early Mormons Challenged American Democracy". The New Yorker. March 20, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
144. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 517)
145. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 527–28)
146. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 368–9); Quinn (1994, p. 528)
147. ^ Ostling & Ostling (1999, p. 14); Brodie (1971, pp. 369–371); Van Wagoner (1992, p. 39); Bushman (2005, pp. 660–61)
148. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 549, 531)
149. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 373); Bushman (2005, pp. 531, 538); Park (2020, p. 227)
150. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 539); Brodie (1971, pp. 374); Quinn (1994, p. 138)
151. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 539); Brodie (1971, pp. 375); Marquardt (1999, p. 312); Ulrich (2017, pp. 113–114)
152. ^ Oaks & Hill (1975, p. 14); Davenport (2022, pp. 147–148). The text of the Nauvoo Expositor is available on Wikisource.
153. ^ Park (2020, pp. 228–230); Marquardt (1999, p. 312)
154. ^ Park (2020, pp. 229–230)
155. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 541)
156. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 394)
157. ^ Ulrich (2017, p. 114); Park (2020, p. 230)
158. ^ Park (2020, pp. 231–232); McBride (2021, pp. 186–187)
159. ^ Ostling & Ostling (1999, p. 16)
160. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 546); Park (2020, p. 233)
161. ^ Ostling & Ostling (1999, p. 17); Park (2020, p. 234); McBride (2021, p. 191)
162. ^ Bentley, Joseph I. (1992). "Smith, Joseph: Legal Trials of Joseph Smith". In Ludlow, Daniel H. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan Publishing. pp. 1346–1348\. ISBN 0-02-879602-0. OCLC 24502140. Retrieved May 5, 2023.; Oaks & Hill (1975, p. 18); Park (2020, p. 234)
163. ^ McBride (2021, p. 192)
164. ^ Oaks & Hill (1975, p. 52); Brodie (1971, p. 393)
165. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 549)
166. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 393–94); Bushman (2005, pp. 549–50)
167. ^ "The First Mormon Presidential Candidate". ABC News. December 6, 2007.
168. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 332, 557–59)
169. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 558); Brodie (1971, pp. 396–97)
170. ^ a b Wiles, Lee (Summer 2013). "Monogamy Underground: The Burial of Mormon Plural Marriage in the Graves of Joseph and Emma Smith". Journal of Mormon History. 39 (3): vi–59. doi:10.2307/24243852. JSTOR 24243852. S2CID 254486845
171. ^ Bernauer, Barbara Hands (1991). "Still 'Side by Side'—The Final Burial of Joseph and Hyrum Smith". John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 11: 17–33\. JSTOR 43200879
172. ^ a b Mackay, Lachlan (Fall 2002). "A Brief History of the Smith Family Nauvoo Cemetery" (PDF). Mormon Historical Studies. 3 (2): 240–252.
173. ^ Bloom (1992, pp. 96–99); Persuitte (2000, p. 1); Remini (2002, p. ix)
174. ^ Lloyd, R. Scott (January 9, 2015). "Joseph Smith, Brigham Young Rank First and Third in Magazine's List of Significant Religious Figures". Church News.
175. ^ Turner, John G. (May 6, 2022). "Why Joseph Smith Matters". Marginalia Review. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022.
176. ^ Launius, Roger D. (Winter 2006). "Is Joseph Smith Relevant to the Community of Christ?". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 39 (4): 58–67\. doi:10.2307/45227214. JSTOR 45227214. S2CID 254402921
177. ^ Oaks, Dallin H. (2005). "Joseph Smith in a Personal World". The Worlds of Joseph Smith: A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress. Brigham Young University Studies. 44 (4): 153–172\. JSTOR 43045057
178. ^ Brodie (1971, p. vii); Shipps (1985, p. 37); Bushman (2005, p. xx); Widmer (2000, p. 97)
179. ^ Moore, Richard G. (Spring 2014). "LDS Misconceptions about the Community of Christ" (PDF). Mormon Historical Studies. 15 (1): 1–23\. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 20, 2021.
180. ^ Rosetti, Cristina (Fall 2021). "Praise to the Man: The Development of Joseph Smith Deification in Woolleyite Mormonism, 1929–1977". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 54 (3): 41–65\. doi:10.5406/dialjmormthou.54.3.0041. S2CID 246647004
181. ^ Rockwell, Ken; Neatrour, Anna; Muir-Jones, James (2018). "Repurposing Secular Buildings". Religious Diversity in Salt Lake City. University of Utah.
182. ^ Cook, Emily (June 18, 2018). "Joseph Smith Memorial Building (JSB)". Intermountain Histories. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
183. ^ Erekson, Keith A. (Summer–Fall 2005). "The Joseph Smith Memorial Monument and Royalton's 'Mormon Affair': Religion, Community, Memory, and Politics in Progressive Vermont" (PDF). Vermont History. 73: 118–151.
184. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (November 26, 2022). "What's a Giant Statue of Mormonism's Joseph Smith Doing in India?". Salt Lake Tribune.
185. ^ Quinn (1994, p. 143); Brodie (1971, p. 398)
186. ^ Shipps (1985, pp. 83–84); Quinn (1994, p. 143); Davenport (2022, p. 159)
187. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 556–557); Davenport (2022, p. 163)
188. ^ Walch, Tad (April 6, 2024). "Latter-day Saint membership passed 17.25 million in 2023, according to new church statistical report". Deseret News.
189. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 555–557)
190. ^ McBride (2021, p. 205)
191. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 198–09)
192. ^ Peter, Karin; Mackay, Lachlan; Chvala-Smith, Tony (October 14, 2022). "Theo-History: Plano Period". Cuppa Joe (Podcast). Project Zion Podcast. Event occurs at 1:52 and 9:47.
193. ^ Howlett, David J. (December 11, 2022). "Community of Christ". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023
194. ^ "Community of Christ". Encyclopædia Britannica. April 15, 2004. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023
195. ^ Posterity tree in Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 12–13)
196. ^ Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 27, 39)
197. ^ Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 39, 43); Jortner (2022, p. 88); "Smith, Joseph Murdock". The Joseph Smith Papers. Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
198. ^ Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 102–103); Rappleye, Christine (March 19, 2021). "Remembering Emma Hale Smith, the First President of the Relief Society". Church Newsroom. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023
199. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 554)
200. ^ Perego, Ugo. "Joseph Smith, the Question of Polygamous Offspring, and DNA Analysis". Persistence of Polygamy.
201. ^ Bringhurst & Foster (2010, pp. 233–256)
202. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 554); Avery & Newell (1980, p. 82)
203. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 554)
204. ^ Newell, Linda King (Fall–Winter 2011). "Emma's Legacy: Life After Joseph". 2010 Sterling M. McMurrin Lecture. John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 31 (2): 1–22\. JSTOR 43200523.; Bushman (2005, pp. 554–55)
205. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 555)
206. ^ Hill (1977, p. 340); Compton (1997, p. 27); Bushman (2005, pp. 323, 326); Ulrich (2017, pp. 16, 404n48); Davenport (2022, p. 138)
207. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 323–25); Hill (1977, p. 188)
208. ^ Ulrich (2017, p. 404n48); Compton (1997, p. 26); Bushman (2005, pp. 323–326); Smith (2008, pp. 38–39 n.81)
209. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 325)
210. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 323–25). See also Bradley, Don. "Mormon Polygamy Before Nauvoo? The Relationship of Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger". Persistence of Polygamy., Bringhurst & Foster (2010, pp. 14–58) and Park (2020, pp. 62–63) for other perspectives on the Smith-Alger relationship.
211. ^ Park (2020, pp. 61–62)
212. ^ Compton (1997, p. 11); Remini (2002, p. 154); Brodie (1971, pp. 334–43); Bushman (2005, pp. 492–498)
213. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 439)
214. ^ Van Wagoner (1992, p. 73n3); Bushman (2005, pp. 418–419); Park (2020, pp. 67, 104–105)
215. ^ Foster (1981, p. 159); Compton (1997, pp. 171–179, 558); Hales, Brian C. "Joseph Smith and the Puzzlement of 'Polyandry'". Persistence of Polygamy. pp. 129–130, in Bringhurst & Foster (2010, pp. 99–152)`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: postscript (link) as well as Hales (2013, pp. 1:418–425, 2:282); Park (2020, p. 67)
216. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 491); Park (2020, pp. 61, 67); Davenport (2022, pp. 131, 136–137)
217. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 494–495)
218. ^ Ulrich (2017, p. 89); see Park (2020, pp. 193–194) for a concurring assessment.
219. ^ Bushman (2005, p. xxi)
220. ^ Coviello (2019, p. 59)
221. ^ Bushman (2005, p. xxi,173)
222. ^ Vogel (2004, p. viii, xvii)
223. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. xx, 129)
224. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 105)
225. ^ a b Maffly-Kipp, Laurie (2008). "Introduction". The Book of Mormon. Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin. pp. vi–xxxii. ISBN 978-0-14-310553-4.
226. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 85–87); Jortner (2022, p. 48)
227. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 85)
228. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 108); Vogel (2004, pp. 122–23, 161, 311, 700)
229. ^ Bushman (2004, p. 48)
230. ^ Vogel (2004, pp. xviii–xix)
231. ^ Remini, Robert V. (2005). "Biographical Reflections on the American Joseph Smith". The Worlds of Joseph Smith: A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress. Brigham Young University Studies. 44 (4): 21–30\. ISSN 0007-0106. JSTOR 43045047.
232. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 46–48, 57–73).
233. ^ Bushman (2004, pp. 58–59)
234. ^ Howe (2007, p. 314)
235. ^ Shipps (1985, pp. 35–36)
236. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 72)
237. ^ Book of Mormon, title page.
238. ^ Remini (2002, p. 57); Bushman (2005, p. 66); Quinn (1998, pp. 169–70)
239. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 71–72); Marquardt & Walters (1994, pp. 103–04); Van Wagoner & Walker (1982, pp. 52–53)
240. ^ Remini (2002, p. 62); Van Wagoner & Walker (1982, p. 53); Bushman (2005, pp. 71–72); Marquardt & Walters (1994, pp. 103–04)
241. ^ Givens & Hauglid (2019, p. 37), quoting Moses 1:3
242. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 132, 142); Givens & Hauglid (2019, p. 32)
243. ^ Givens & Hauglid (2019, pp. 32–33)
244. ^ Givens & Hauglid (2019, p. 31)
245. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 133); Givens & Hauglid (2019, pp. 31–32)
246. ^ Hill (1977, p. 131); Givens & Hauglid (2019, p. 32)
247. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 138)
248. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 170–75); Bushman (2005, pp. 286, 289–290)
249. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 157, 288–290)
250. ^ Wilson, John A. (Summer 1968). "A Summary Report". The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: Translations and Interpretations. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 3 (2): 67–88\. doi:10.2307/45227259. JSTOR 45227259. S2CID 254343491.
251. ^ Ritner, Robert K. "Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham: A Response" (PDF). University of Chicago. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 5, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
252. ^ a b Stuart Bingham, Ryan (July 2015). "Curses and Marks: Racial Dispensations and Dispensations of Race in Joseph Smith's Bible Revision and the Book of Abraham". Journal of Mormon History. 41 (3): 22–57\. doi:10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.22. JSTOR 10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.22.
253. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7 - via Google Books.
254. ^ Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 - via Google Books.
255. ^ Smith, Joseph (April 1836). "For the Messenger and Advocate". The Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate. 2 (7): 290 - via The Joseph Smith Papers. "[I]t remains as a lasting monument of the decree of Jehovah, to the shame and confusion of all who have cried out against the South, in consequence of their holding the sons of Ham in servitude. 'And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.' ... (Gen. 9:25-26). Trace the history of the world from this notable event down to this day, and you will find the fulfillment of this singular prophecy. [T]he curse is not yet taken off from the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great a power as caused it to come; and the people who interfere the least with the purposes of God in this matter, will come under the least condemnation before Him ...."
256. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 388)
257. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 130)
258. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 174)
259. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 5–6, 9, 15–17, 26, 30, 33, 35, 38–42, 49, 70–71, 88, 198); Brodie (1971, p. 141)
260. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 106–7); "D&C 42".
261. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 117–18); "D&C 76".
262. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 202–205); "D&C 84".
263. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 166); Bushman (2005, pp. 212–213); "D&C 89".
264. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 289); Bushman (2005, p. 213); Ostling & Ostling (1999, pp. 177–78)
265. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 193–195)
266. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 159–60); Bushman (2005, pp. 229, 310–322)
267. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 419)
268. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 419, 421–3)
269. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 419–20); Brooke (1994, pp. 3–5)
270. ^ Widmer (2000, p. 119)
271. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 420–21); Bloom (1992, p. 101)
272. ^ Widmer (2000, p. 119); Alexander, Thomas (1989). "The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine: From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology". Line Upon Line. p. 59, in Bergera (1989, pp. 53–66)`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: postscript (link); Bloom (1992, p. 101)
273. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 421); Bloom (1992, p. 101)
274. ^ Remini (2002, p. 106); Givens (2014, p. 95); Coviello (2019, p. 59)
275. ^ Bartholomew, Ronald E. (2013). "The Textual Development of D&C 130:22 and the Embodiment of the Holy Ghost". BYU Studies Quarterly. 52 (3): 4–24\. JSTOR 43039922; Givens (2014, p. 96)
276. ^ Coviello (2019, pp. 65–68)
277. ^ Paulsen, David L.; Pulido, Martin (2011). "'A Mother There': A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven". Brigham Young University Studies. 50 (1): 70–97\. ISSN 0007-0106. JSTOR 43044842
278. ^ Ostler, Blair (Winter 2018). "Heavenly Mother: The Mother of All Women". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 51 (4): 171–182\. doi:10.5406/dialjmormthou.51.4.0171. S2CID 214816567; Toscano, Margaret (Spring 2022). "In Defense of Heavenly Mother: Her Critical Importance for Mormon Culture and Theology". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 55 (1): 37–68\. doi:10.5406/15549399.55.1.02. S2CID 247971894.
279. ^ Larson (1978, pp. 201, 205); Widmer (2000, p. 119)
280. ^ Widmer (2000, p. 119); Bushman (2005, pp. 535, 544)
281. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 455–56, 535–37)
282. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 422)
283. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 199)
284. ^ Brooke (1994, p. 33)
285. ^ Remini (2002, p. 84)
286. ^ a b Quinn (1994, p. 7)
287. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 7–8); Bushman (2005, pp. 121, 175); Phelps (1833, p. 67)
288. ^ Brodie (1971, pp. 106, 112, 121–22)
289. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 111–12, 115)
290. ^ Quinn (1994, pp. 27–34); Bushman (2005, pp. 264–65)
291. ^ Brodie (1971, p. 111); Bushman (2005, pp. 156–60); Quinn (1994, pp. 31–32); Prince (1995, pp. 19, 115–116, 119)
292. ^ Ostling & Ostling (1999, pp. 194–95); Prince (1995, pp. 31–32, 121–31, 146)
293. ^ Bushman (2005, p. 451)
294. ^ Prince (1995, pp. 140, 201)
295. ^ Brooke (1994, pp. 30, 194–95, 203, 208)
296. ^ Brooke (1994, pp. 221, 242–43); Brooke (1994, pp. 236)
297. ^ Brooke (1994, pp. 256, 294); Bushman (2005, pp. 497–98)
298. ^ Foster (1981, pp. 161–62)
299. ^ Foster (1981, p. 145)
300. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 497–98); Brooke (1994, pp. 256–57)
301. ^ Brooke (1994, p. 257)
302. ^ Bushman (2005, pp. 497–98)
303. ^ Davenport (2022, p. 143), quoting D&C 132:7.
304. ^ Foster, Craig L. "Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 and Joseph Smith's Expanding Concept of Family". Persistence of Polygamy, in Bringhurst & Foster (2010, pp. 87–98)`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
305. ^ Park (2020, pp. 91–92, 105, 153)
306. ^ Foster (1981, pp. 206–11); Compton (1997, pp. 11, 22–23); Smith (2008, pp. 356); Brooke (1994, p. 255); Brodie (1971, p. 300)
307. ^ Coviello (2019, pp. 56–57, 68–69, 82–88)
308. ^ Bloom (1992, p. 105); Foster (1981, p. 145); Brodie (1971, p. 300); Coviello (2019, pp. 56–57)

## References

[edit]

* Arrington, Leonard; Bitton, Davis (1979). The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-46566-0..
* Avery, V.T.; Newell, L.K. (1980). "The Lion and the Lady: Brigham Young and Emma Smith". Utah Historical Quarterly. 48 (1): 81–97\. doi:10.2307/45060927. JSTOR 45060927. S2CID 254428549. Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
* Bergera, Gary James, ed. (1989). Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-69-9.
* Bloom, Harold (1992). The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-67997-2.
* Bringhurst, Newell G.; Foster, Craig L., eds. (2010). The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy. Independence, MO: John Whitmer Books. ISBN 978-1-934901-13-7.
* Brodie, Fawn M. (1971). No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (2nd ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-46967-4.
* Brooke, John L. (1994). The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34545-6.
* Bushman, Richard Lyman (2004). Neilson, Reid L.; Woodworth, Jed (eds.). Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13006-6.
* Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4270-4.
* Bushman, Richard Lyman (2008). Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Vol. 183\. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531030-6.
* Compton, Todd (1997). In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-085-X.
* Coviello, Peter (2019). Make Yourselves Gods: Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism. Class 200. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-47433-5.
* Davenport, Stewart (2022). Sex and Sects: The Story of Mormon Polygamy, Shaker Celibacy, and Oneida Complex Marriage. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-4705-1.
* Easton-Flake, Amy; Cope, Rachel (2020). "Reconfiguring the Archive: Women and the Social Production of the Book of Mormon". In MacKay, Michael Hubbard; Ashurst-McGee, Mark; Hauglid, Brian M. (eds.). Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 105–134\. ISBN 978-1-60781-743-7.
* Foster, Lawrence (1981). Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-252-01119-1.
* Givens, Terryl L. (2014). Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794928.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-979492-8.
* Givens, Terryl; Hauglid, Brian M. (2019). The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190603861.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-060386-1. OL 28940280M.
* Hales, Brian C. (2013). Joseph Smith's Polygamy. Vol. 1–3\. With the assistance of Don Bradley. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford.
* Harper, Steven C. (2019). First Vision: Memory and Mormon Origins. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199329472.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-932947-2.
* Hill, Donna (1977). Joseph Smith: The First Mormon. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. ISBN 0-385-00804-X.
* Hill, Marvin S. (1989). Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 978-0-941214-70-4.
* Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7.
* Jortner, Adam (2022). No Place for Saints: Mobs and Mormons in Jacksonian America. Witness to History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-4176-4.
* Larson, Stan (1978). "The King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text". Brigham Young University Studies. 18 (2): 193–208\. JSTOR 43040756.
* Mack, Solomon (1811). A Narraitve [sic] of the Life of Solomon Mack. Windsor, VT: Solomon Mack. OCLC 15568282.
* Marquardt, H. Michael; Walters, Wesley P (1994). Inventing Mormonism. San Francisco, CA: Smith Research Associates. ISBN 1-56085-108-2.
* Marquardt, H. Michael (1999). The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 978-1-56085-126-4.
* McBride, Spencer W. (2021). Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190909413.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-090941-3.
* Newell, Linda King; Avery, Valeen Tippetts (1994). Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (2nd ed.). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06291-4.
* Oaks, Dallin H.; Hill, Marvin S. (1975). Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00554-6.
* Ostling, Richard; Ostling, Joan K. (1999). Mormon America: The Power and the Promise. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-066371-5.
* Park, Benjamin E. (2020). Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier. New York: Liveright. ISBN 978-1-324-09110-3.
* Persuitte, David (2000). Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0826-X.
* Phelps, W.W., ed. (1833). A Book of Commandments, for the Government of the Church of Christ. Zion: William Wines Phelps & Co. OCLC 77918630. Archived from the original on May 20, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2005.
* Prince, Gregory A (1995). Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-071-X.
* Quinn, D. Michael (1994). The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-056-6.
* Quinn, D. Michael (1998). Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-089-2.
* Remini, Robert V. (2002). Joseph Smith. Penguin Lives. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-670-03083-X.
* Shipps, Jan (1985). Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01417-0.
* Smith, George D. (1994). "Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 27 (1): 1–72\. doi:10.2307/45228320. JSTOR 45228320. S2CID 254329894.
* Smith, George D (2008). Nauvoo Polygamy: "... But We Called It Celestial Marriage". Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 978-1-56085-201-8.
* Smith, Joseph Jr. (2002) [1832]. "History of the Life of Joseph Smith". In Jessee, Dean C (ed.). Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. ISBN 1-57345-787-6.
* Smith, Joseph Jr.; Cowdery, Oliver; Rigdon, Sidney; Williams, Frederick G., eds. (1835). Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Kirtland, Ohio: F. G. Williams & Co. OCLC 18137804. See Doctrine and Covenants.
* Smith, Lucy Mack (1853). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. Liverpool: S.W. Richards. OCLC 4922747. See The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
* Turner, John G. (2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04967-3. OCLC 894538617 - via Internet Archive.
* Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher (2017). A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-74212-4.
* Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Walker, Steven C. (1982). "Joseph Smith: The Gift of Seeing" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 15 (2): 48–68\. doi:10.2307/45225078. JSTOR 45225078. S2CID 254395171.
* Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1992). Mormon Polygamy: A History (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 978-0-941214-79-7.
* Vogel, Dan (2004). Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-179-1.
* Widmer, Kurt (2000). Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830–1915. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0776-7.

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Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

* J. Smith (1829–44)[1]
* Cowdery (1829–38)[1][2]
* Whitmer (1829–38)[1][2]
* Harris (unknown–1837)[1][2]
* Marsh (1835–39)[2]
* Patten (1835–38)
* B. Young Sr. (1835–77)
* H. C. Kimball (1835–68)
* Hyde (1835–78)
* McLellin (1835–38)[2]
* P. P. Pratt (1835–57)
* Luke Johnson (1835–37)[3]
* Wm. Smith (1835–45)[2]
* O. Pratt (1835–81)
* Boynton (1835–37)[2]
* L. E. Johnson (1835–38)[2]
* Page (1838–46)[2]
* J. Taylor (1838–87)
* W. Woodruff (1839–98)
* G. A. Smith (1839–75)
* W. Richards (1840–54)
* Wight (1841–48)[2]
* H. Smith (1841–44)[1]
* A. M. Lyman (1842–67)[4]
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* L. Snow (1849–1901)
* E. Snow (1849–88)
* F. D. Richards (1849–99)
* J. M. Grant (1854–56)[1]
* Wells (1857–91)[1]
* J. W. Young (1855–1924)[1]
* G. Q. Cannon (1860–1901)
* J. A. Young (1864–75)[1]
* B. Young Jr. (1864–1903)
* J. F. Smith Sr. (1866–1918)
* Carrington (1870–85)[2]
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* F. M. Lyman (1880–1916)
* J. H. Smith (1880–1911)
* Teasdale (1882–1907)
* H. J. Grant (1882–1945)
* J. W. Taylor (1884–1911)[2]
* M. W. Merrill (1889–1906)
* Lund (1889–1921)
* A. H. Cannon (1889–96)
* M. F. Cowley (1897–1911)[5]
* A. O. Woodruff (1897–1904)
* Clawson (1898–1943)
* Smoot (1900–41)
* H. M. Smith (1901–18)
* G. A. Smith (1903–51)
* Penrose (1904–25)
* G. F. Richards (1906–50)
* Whitney (1906–31)
* McKay (1906–70)
* Ivins (1907–34)
* J. F. Smith Jr. (1910–72)
* Talmage (1911–33)
* S. L. Richards (1917–59)
* R. R. Lyman (1918–43)[2]
* M. J. Ballard (1919–39)
* Widtsoe (1921–52)
* J. F. Merrill (1931–52)
* Callis (1933–47)
* Clark (1934–61)
* A. A. Hinckley (1934–36)
* Bowen (1937–53)
* S. Q. Cannon (1938–43)
* Lee (1941–73)
* S. W. Kimball (1943–85)
* Benson (1943–94)
* Petersen (1944–84)
* M. Cowley (1945–53)
* Moyle (1947–63)
* Stapley (1950–78)
* Romney (1951–88)
* L. Richards (1952–83)
* Bennion (1953–58)
* Evans (1953–71)
* Morris (1954–62)
* Brown (1958–75)
* Hunter (1959–95)
* G. B. Hinckley (1961–2008)
* Tanner (1962–82)
* Monson (1963–2018)
* Dyer (1967–77)[1]
* Packer (1970–2015)
* Ashton (1971–94)
* McConkie (1972–85)
* Perry (1974–2015)
* Haight (1976–2004)
* Faust (1978–2007)
* Maxwell (1981–2004)
* Nelson (1984–)
* Oaks (1984–)
* M. R. Ballard (1985–2023)
* Wirthlin (1986–2008)
* Scott (1988–2015)
* Hales (1994–2017)
* Holland (1994–)
* Eyring (1995–)
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* Bednar (2004–)
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* Christofferson (2008–)
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Notes

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Never a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Term ended by excommunication.
3. ^ Term ended by resignation.
4. ^ Term ended by removal of apostleship; was later excommunicated.
5. ^ Term ended by suspension of priesthood.

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Members of the Council of Fifty of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

* Adams (1844–45)
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* J. C. Rich (1867–1908)
* F.D. Richards (1849–99)
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* H. J. Richards (1867–1919)
* L. Richards (1844–76)
* P. Richards (1848–74)
* W. Richards (1844–54)
* Rigdon (1844–45)
* Rockwell (1844–78)
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* Shumway (1845–82)
* Shurtliff (1883–1922)
* E. Smith (1844–88)
* G.A. Smith (1844–75)
* H. Smith (1844)
* John Smith (1880–1911)
* J. H. Smith (1844–1911)
* Jos. Smith (1844)
* J. F. Smith (1867–1918)
* S. S. Smith (1880–1910)
* W. Smith (1844–45)
* W. R. Smith (1880–94)
* Smoot (1867–95)
* E. Snow (1844–88)
* L. Snow (1849–1901)
* W. Snow (1848–53)
* D. Spencer (1845–68)
* O. Spencer (1844–55)
* Stout (1867–89)
* G. J. Taylor (1867–1914)
* J. Taylor (1844–87)
* J. W. Taylor (1884–1916)
* W. W. Taylor (1880–84)
* Teasdale (1882–1907)
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* J. F. Wells (1880–1930)
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* Woodruff (1844–98)
* Woodworth (1844–48)
* Yearsley (1844–49)
* B. Young Sr. (1844–77)
* B. Young Jr. (1867–1903)
* John Young (1849–70)
* J. W. Young (1867–1924)
* Jos. Young (1845–81)
* J. A. Young (1867–75)
* P. Young (1845–79)
* S. B. Young (1884–1924)

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Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Presidents of
the Church|

* J. Smith Jr. (1830–44)
* B. Young Sr. (1847–77)
* Taylor (1880–87)
* Woodruff (1889–98)
* Snow (1898–1901)
* J.F. Smith Sr. (1901–18)
* Grant (1918–45)
* G.A. Smith (1945–51)
* McKay (1951–70)
* J.F. Smith Jr. (1970–72)
* Lee (1972–73)
* Kimball (1973–85)
* Benson (1985–94)
* Hunter (1994–95)
* Hinckley (1995–2008)
* Monson (2008–18)
* Nelson (2018–)

* v
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* e

Prophet-Presidents of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Community of Christ)

Pre-succession crisis|

| President|

* J. Smith Jr. (1830–44)

|

Post reorganization|

| Prophet-Presidents|

* J. Smith III (1860–1914)
* F.M. Smith (1915–46)
* I.A. Smith (1946–58)
* W.W. Smith (1958–78)
* W.B. Smith (1978–96)
* McMurray (1996–2005)
* Veazey (2005–2025)
* Cramm (2025–)

|

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* Mormonism & violence
* Utah War
* 2023 SEC case

Sacred texts|

* Holy Bible
* Book of Mormon
* Doctrine & Covenants
* Pearl of Great Price
* Book of Moses
* Book of Abraham
* Joseph Smith–Matthew
* Joseph Smith–History
* Articles of Faith

Beliefs
& practices|

* Apostolic succession
* Apostasy & restoration
* Calling
* Cosmology
* Adam & Eve
* Evolution
* Plan of salvation
* Degrees of glory
* Exaltation
* Premortal life
* Family Home Evening
* Fast Sunday
* "For the Strength of Youth"
* Gender
* "Family Proclamation"
* Transgender people
* God in Mormonism
* Heavenly Mother
* Ministering
* Marriage
* Celestial
* Interracial
* Polygamy
* Ordinances
* Baptism for the dead
* Marriage sealing
* Second anointing
* Temple endowment
* Temple garment
* Priesthood
* Race
* Black people
* Black Mormons
* Black temple & priesthood restrictions
* Curses of Cain and Ham
* Native Americans
* Pacific Islanders
* Slavery
* Revelation
* Reformed Egyptian
* Sexuality
* Birth control
* Homosexuality
* Sexual orientation change efforts
* Masturbation
* Soaking
* Spectrums of belief & practice
* Suicide
* Tithing
* Word of wisdom

Culture
& worship|

* Cultural depictions
* Especially for Youth
* Family Services
* Feminism
* Films
* List
* Foodways
* General Conference
* Helping Hands
* Humanitarian services
* Hymns
* Book
* Latter-day Saints Channel
* Liahona magazine
* Missionary service
* Mormons
* Music
* Pageants
* Pioneer Day
* Tabernacles
* Tabernacle Choir
* Temples
* List
* Worship services
* Sacrament

Leadership|

* President
* Russell M. Nelson
* List
* First Presidency
* Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
* Quorums of the Seventy
* Presiding Bishop
* Relief Society
* Sunday School
* Young Women
* Young Men
* Primary

Demographics|

* Membership history
* Statistics by country
* Mormon corridor
* Less-active Mormon
* Ex-Mormon
* LGBTQ Mormons & organizations

Organization|

* Congregational
* Area
* District
* Stake
* Ward
* Statistics
* Church Educational System
* BYU
* BYU-Idaho
* BYU-Hawaii
* BYU–Pathway Worldwide
* Ensign College
* Deseret Management
* Deseret Book
* Deseret Industries
* Deseret Media
* Temple Square Hospitality
* Deseret News
* Bonneville International
* Beneficial Financial
* FamilySearch
* RootsTech
* Philanthropies
* Finances
* Ensign Peak Advisors
* Perpetual Emigration Fund
* Perpetual Education Fund
* Utah Property Management
* AgReserves
* Deseret Ranches

Criticism|

* Anti-Mormonism
* Book of Abraham
* Book of Mormon
* Geographical setting
* Historical authenticity
* Linguistics
* Origin
* Fawn M. Brodie
* No Man Knows My History
* Christian Research Institute
* Ed Decker
* The God Makers
* John Dehlin
* Mormon Stories podcast
* Jeremy Runnells
* CES Letter
* Kinderhook plates
* Salamander letter
* September Six
* Jerald & Sandra Tanner
* Truth & Transparency

Related|

* Bloggernacle
* ComeUntoChrist.org
* Book of Mormon translations
* Joseph Smith Translation
* Joseph Smith Papers
* Dialogue
* FAIR organization
* FARMS organization
* I'm a Mormon campaign
* LGBTQ Mormon suicides
* Mormon fundamentalism
* Mormon History Association
* Mormon studies
* Mormonism & Nicene Christianity
* Relationship to U.S. politics
* LGBTQ rights
* Senkyoshigo
* Sunstone
* Joseph Smith Papyri
* Eyewitnesses
* Kirtland Egyptian papers
* Giving Machine

* Category
* Latter Day Saint Movement
* Outline

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* 2
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Italy
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Portugal
* 2
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Latvia
* Croatia
* Chile
* Korea
* Sweden
* Poland
* Vatican
* Israel
* Catalonia
* Belgium

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* ULAN

People|

* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie
* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
* SNAC
* Yale LUX

Portals:

* Biography
* Latter Day Saint movement
* United States

Joseph Smith at Wikipedia's sister projects:

* Media from Commons
* Quotations from Wikiquote
* Texts from Wikisource
* Data from Wikidata

*[c.]: circa
*[m.]: married
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