Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith says in his history that he was born at Sharon, Vermont, on 23 December 1805, and that his family moved to Palmyra and then to Manchester in the state of New York (Joseph Smith, History, JS—H 1:3). The same history tells of a vision in the spring of 1820 in which he saw two Personages and was told to join none of the churches (Joseph Smith, History, JS—H 1:14–20); an account written about 1832 tells it differently (Joseph Smith, History (c. 1832), p. 3).

The Book of Mormon appeared at Palmyra in 1830 with his name on the title page (Book of Mormon (1830) title page), and on 6 April of that year he and five others organized a church (Joseph Smith, History, vol. A-1, p. 37), which a revelation of 1838 names The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Doctrine and Covenants 115, heading and verse 4). The church’s announcement of his death says that he and his brother Hyrum were shot by an armed mob in the jail at Carthage on 27 June 1844, and that he had turned thirty-eight the previous December (Doctrine and Covenants 135:1–3, 6). See Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints.