Joseph Smith Jr.

On January 18, 1827 John Smith married Emma Hale. The couple had nine biological and two adopted children of which only five of the infants survived.

On June 27, 1844 John Smith and his brother who were confined in Carthage jail, Illinois, on charges of inciting riots and treason, were killed by an armed mob. He was shot several times after which he fell out of the window and died. The mob shot him several times even after his death.

His final resting place is the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Joseph Smith Jr. was born in on December 23, 1805, to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith at Sharon, Vermont. His father was a farmer and merchant.

He suffered from typhoid fever at the age of seven which led to a bone infection. After a couple of operations the infection was successfully cured although he had to be on crutches for three years and limped slightly throughout his life.

Following ill fate and monetary losses, his family shifted to Palmyra, New York during 1816-17.

His interest in religion began at twelve and he started reading Bible and attended church classes.

Like his family members he also got involved in religious folk magic. His parents and maternal grandfather believed that the dreams and visions that they experience are nothing but messages from God.

In 1823, an angel named Moroni visited him one night and informed him of an ancient book, a breastplate and two seer stones among other artefacts that were hidden at Hill Cumorah in Manchester. After several unsuccessful attempts for years, he retrieved the book made of golden plates on September 1827 while he visited the hill with his wife Emma. He said he was instructed by Moroni not to reveal the plates to anyone rather translate and publish the record which contains religious practices of indigenous Americans.

With the help of his rich neighbour, Martin Harris, he moved to Harmony in October 1827 along with his pregnant wife Emma.

Harris took interest in transcribing Smith’s dictation, thus he came to Harmony in February 1828. After convincing Smith, Harris took the manuscript in mid-June to show his family members, but lost it. Smith’s new-born son Alvin died on the same day.

Smith said Moroni took away the plates and also his translating power as he lost the manuscript and returned it to him on September 22, 1828. Thereafter, he worked with Oliver Cowdery who transcribed his dictation. The translations were published in a book ‘Book of Mormon’ in March 1830.

There were eight witnesses of the plates including Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer along with male members of families of Smith and Whitmer who testified to have seen the plates by signing statements. Smith said after he finished using the plates, angel Moroni took them back.

A number of scholarly works on him were produced by Mormons, non-Mormons and biographers. These works reflect different aspects of him including being a prophet, a man of God, a maniac, a myth-maker and a pious fraud among others.

Different memorials were built in his honour including a granite obelisk commemorating his place of birth and the ‘Joseph Smith Memorial Building’ in Salt Lake City in Utah.

In 2015, the ‘Smithsonian’ magazine in its category of religious figures ranked him first in the list of ‘100 Most Significant Americans of All Time’.