Smith, Joseph

(1805–44)

   Denomination Founder.

   Smith was born in Vermont, in the United States of America, and in 1816 he moved to Palmyra, New York. In 1820 he had a conversion experience in which he claimed that God had revealed to him a series of golden plates. These were written in a strange language and were supposedly composed by descendants of Jewish exiles who had fled from the besieged city of Jerusalem in 586 bc and settled in America. Under the inspiration of the Angel Morani, Smith translated these plates and they were then taken up into Heaven. He published this document as The Book of Mormon. Later he produced Doctrine and Covenants, which was to be the fundamental basis for later Mormon theology. He moved to Illinois, where he infuriated his neighbours by his practice of polygamy. With his brother, he was arrested and he was murdered in Carthage Gaol. Leadership of the movement was taken over by Brigham young who guided the faithful over the Rocky Mountains to their final destination in Salt Lake City. The Church Smith founded is now known as the Church of God of Latter Day Saints.

   F.M. Brodie, No Man Knows my History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (1945);

   R.L Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (1984);

   J. Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (1985).