Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Joseph Smith Sr., Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Joseph Smith Sr., Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Joseph Smith Sr.
(1771–1840)
Joseph Smith Sr., 1972, pencil on paper, William Whitaker, Church History Museum.
Joseph Smith Sr. was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1771. In 1796 he married Lucy Mack in Tunbridge, Vermont. He was the recipient of an early revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 4). In June 1829, he was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and the following year, on 6 April 1830, he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Seneca, New York. In 1831 he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he was ordained a high priest, participated in the School of the Prophets, served on the Kirtland high council (Doctrine and Covenants 102:3), and was called as patriarch and assistant president of the Church. In 1836 he accompanied his brother John Smith on a mission to the eastern United States. He moved to Far West, Missouri, in May 1838, to Quincy, Illinois, in February 1839, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois, in the spring. The next year he died in Nauvoo.
References in the Doctrine and Covenants