Table of Content
Significantly, the Smith family lived in this log home during the time of the First Vision and visits from the angel Moroni informing Joseph, Jr., regarding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon on the night of September 21-22, 1823. Not long after the Smiths moved into the log home, situated a few hundred feet to the north, they contracted to purchase an additional 100 acres adjoining their 80 acre farm. Alvin determined to build a home where his parents could enjoy their family in their later years and to repay them for all of their love, toil, and sacrifice in behalf of their children. Sadly, before Alvin could finish this more spacious frame home, he died on November 19, 1823, while the Smiths still resided in the log home. He passed away just a few months after Moroni had appeared to his younger brother. The Mormons toil on the large stone building from 1833 until 1836, dedicating one day out of seven to its construction.
During the temple's consecration, hundreds report seeing angels and other miraculous visions. As Smith's Church of Christ grows, he finds himself under greater scrutiny from local authorities and residents. Sidney Rigdon, an Ohio preacher who learns of Smith's religion through missionaries, embraces Smith as a new prophet and urges the New York group to migrate to Ohio. In January 1831, Smith leads his family and about seventy-five followers west to Kirtland, Ohio. ; Smith (1853, p. 82)); however, Lucy's history also indicates that after the appearance of the angel, Joseph had made two annual visits to the hill Cumorah before the 1823 death of her son Alvin (Smith 1853, p. 85), which Lucy incorrectly dated to 1824 (Smith 1853, p. 87).
American Experience
Smith stated that the retelling of his vision story "excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase". Tales of visions and theophanies, however, were not unusual at the time, though the clergy of many organized religions often resisted the stories. Early prejudice against Smith may have taken place by clergy, but there is no contemporary record of this.[original research? ] The bulk of Smith's persecution seems to have arisen among laity, and not because of his First Vision, but because of his later assertion to have discovered the golden plates in a hill near his home; the statement was widely publicized and ridiculed in local newspapers beginning around 1827.
Later, Smith reportedly determined by looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale Smith, his future wife. There is no specific record of Smith seeing the angel in 1826, however, after Joseph and Emma were married on January 18, 1827, Smith returned to Manchester, and as he passed by Cumorah, he said he was chastised by the angel for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord". He was reportedly told that the next annual meeting was his last chance to get the plates and the Urim and Thummim. Lucy's account, recorded thirty years after the period in which the visions are said to have occurred, suggests "a tendency to make her husband the predecessor of her son" by echoing passages in the Book of Mormon. According to an account by Willard Chase, the angel gave Smith a strict set of "commandments" which he was to follow in order to obtain the plates. Among these requirements, according to Chase, was that Smith must approach the site "dressed in black clothes, and riding a black horse with a switch tail, and demand the book in a certain name, and after obtaining it, he must go directly away, and neither lay it down nor look behind him".
Joseph Smith, Jr.'s 1842 Account of Angel Moroni's Visit
The Smith family first built a log home, then in 1822, under the supervision of Joseph Smith's oldest brother Alvin, they began building a larger frame house. Alvin died in November 1823, possibly as a result of being given calomel for "bilious fever", and the house remained uncompleted for a year. By this time Joseph Smith Sr. may have partially abdicated family leadership to Alvin, and in 1825, the Smiths were unable to make their mortgage payments.
Rising from humble beginnings in the 1830s, the church now counts twelve million members worldwide. The story of the polio crusade pays tribute to a time when Americans banded together to conquer a terrible disease. The medical breakthrough saved countless lives and had a pervasive impact on American philanthropy that continues to be felt today.
RELIGIOUS CLIMATE
After Smith’s death, Mormon leaders incorporated polygamy as a Mormon doctrine until 1890, when it was repealed under pressure by the U.S. Smith later claimed that an angel named Moroni appeared to him in 1823, had him transcribe and then bury some golden plates and start up a new church, the Mormon Church, named after the Book of Mormon. The Ensign Peak Foundation is an independent 501 organization whose mission is to identify, preserve, and commemorate sites, events, and people of significance in Latter-day Saint history throughout the world. The kitchen of the Smith home was the scene of one of the most disappointing events in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In the summer of 1828, against the Lord’s clear counsel, Joseph allowed his scribe, Martin Harris, to take 116 pages of handwritten translation of the Book of Mormon plates to show to his wife in Palmyra, New York.
When Martin did not return to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Joseph and Emma lived at the time, Joseph traveled to Palmyra to inquire the reason for Martin Harris’ delayed return. Word was sent to the Harris home that Joseph needed to speak with Martin immediately. Hours passed before Martin entered the Smith home, where he sat at the kitchen table with his head in his hands avoiding eye contact with Joseph. ” When Martin informed Joseph that he had lost the manuscript, Lucy Mack Smith said that Joseph clinched his hands together and exclaimed, “All is lost, is lost! It is I who tempted the wrath of God by asking him for that which I had no right to ask, as I was differently instructed by the angel.” And he wept and groaned, walking the floor continually.
The Bible Or The Book Of Mormon?
Near the log cabin is a very large building– a “temple.” The place was totally devoid of any people. The cabin was obviously decorated to imitate a typical family dwelling in the early 1800s. The Smith log home in Palmyra, NY is a Church Historical Site, owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is open seven days a week and may be entered when accompanied by missionary hosts during posted hours. Shortly after Joseph’s experience, tragedy struck the Smith family with the death of Joseph’s elder brother Alvin.
The comfortable, but meager financial state of the Smiths is reflected in the simplicity of this room. A replica of Hyrum’s chest used to secure the Book of Mormon plates is placed on the dresser on the northern wall. Soon after Joseph brought the plates to the Smith home, the hearth stones of the fireplace were removed, the plates were safely situated beneath them, and then the hearth was carefully replaced to avoid suspicion. Founder of a uniquely American religion, Joseph Smith was a poor farm boy who became a charismatic prophet, much criticized polygamist, town and temple builder, and finally a martyr for the faith he had established. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of America's fastest growing religions.
Thus, on September 22, 1823, a day listed in local almanacs as the autumn equinox, Smith said that he went to a prominent hill near his home, and found the location of the artifacts. There are varying accounts as to how Smith reportedly found the precise location of the golden plates. In 1838, Smith stated that this location was shown to him in a vision while he conversed with Moroni. This conforms to an account by Smith's friend Joseph Knight Sr., though he refers to Smith's guide only as "the personage." However, according to a Palmyra resident Henry Harris, Smith told him he located the plates using his seer stone. In yet another account, the angel required Smith to follow a sequence of landmarks until he arrived at the correct location.
His sister Katharine is shown helping Joseph place the plates on the table, while his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, is at her side. The paintings depict four key Restoration events that took place on the site and are displayed in a new exhibit in the Welcome Center, to the right of the panoramic window offering an expansive view of the Smith farm. They were installed in March 2020, shortly after Church historic sites closed due to COVID-19.
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