The Life of Joseph Smith from pro-LDS sources only

Dec. 23, 1805

Birth

Joseph Smith Jr. is born in Sharon, Vermont.

Joseph Smith Jr. was born December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, where his father farmed land he rented from Lucy’s father, Solomon Mack.

Solomon Mack sees a vision

Solomon Mack (Joseph's grandfather) sees a vision and publishes a booklet about it.

Solomon Mack’s booklet, printed at Windsor, Vermont, about 1811, is an autobiography of his life as a settler, soldier, merchant and farmer that ends with his conversion to Christianity. During a long illness beginning in the fall of 1810 he wrote that he seemed to see a bright light at night and heard a voice calling him.

Joseph Smith Sr.'s first vision

Joseph Smith Sr. tells his family of his first vision. Describes a log box containing food. An analogy for no true religion today.

Lucy Mack Smith dates this dream to about 1811, while the family lived in Royalton, Vermont. A guide told Joseph Sr. that the barren field was the world “inanimate and dumb in regard to the true religion,” and that he would find a box whose contents would make him wise; beasts drove him off before he could eat.

Note: In Lucy Mack Smith’s telling, the box lay on a log; it wasn’t made of logs.

Joseph Smith Sr.'s second vision

Joseph Smith Sr. tells his family of his second vision: a narrow path to a tree with delicious fruit. He brings his family. A spacious building across the valley.

Lucy Mack Smith places this dream in 1811, shortly after the family moved from Royalton, Vermont, to Lebanon, New Hampshire. The spacious building stood “opposite the valley,” full of finely dressed people who scorned the family; Church History in the Fulness of Times compares it to Lehi’s dream of the tree of life.

Unknown date

Leg surgery

Typhoid fever and bone infection. Undergoes surgery to remove the infection.

The surgery took place in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, during a typhoid epidemic (the Joseph Smith Papers timeline says ca. 1812; the Church History Topic places it in 1813). The infection was in Joseph’s left leg; Dr. Nathan Smith of Dartmouth Medical College removed pieces of infected bone instead of amputating. Lucy Mack Smith called the illness “typhus fever.”

Crops fail

The family farmed land owned by “Esq Moredock” at Norwich, Vermont, where crops failed three years in a row (about 1814–1816); the third failure, from an untimely frost, decided Joseph Sr. to move to New York.

"Year Without a Summer"

1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer. The April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia disrupted weather worldwide, and killing frosts struck New England between June and August 1816; the frosts destroyed the Smiths’ crops in Vermont and led them to move to New York.

Joseph Smith Sr.'s third vision

Joseph Smith Sr. tells his family of his third vision: a garden with 12 wooden giants that heal him.

In the dream Joseph Sr., sick and lame, was led to a garden where two carved seats each held six wooden images “the size of a very large man”; when all twelve bowed to him he was healed.

Note: Lucy Mack Smith places this dream later, after the family had built their log house in Palmyra (about 1818), and doesn’t number it.

Family opens a small shop

The family first rented a house in Palmyra village for about two years, living on day labor and a small shop. Saints says Lucy and her daughters made and sold pies, root beer and decorative cloths; Palmyra resident Pomeroy Tucker later described Joseph Sr.’s “cake and beer shop” (quoted by Larry Porter).

Dec. 1817

Joseph Smith Sr. becomes a Freemason

Joseph Smith Sr. becomes a Free Mason.

Note: A “Joseph Smith” was initiated in the Canandaigua lodge on Dec. 26, 1817, but historians disagree whether he was Joseph Sr. The Church’s history names Hyrum Smith, not Joseph Sr., as a Mason in the 1820s.

Log home outside town

Moved to a log home outside of town as renters or possibly squatters.

The log home was finished in the fall of 1818 and the family moved in during the winter of 1818–19; they lived there until 1825 and again in 1829–30. It stood about two miles south of Palmyra village, just north of the Palmyra–Manchester town line.

Note: Church sources describe the Smiths as buyers: they made a first payment on 100 acres and had permission to build a log house. The “squatters” claim came from neighbors, and BYU historian Donald Enders rejects it. The family rented later, after the farm was sold in December 1825.

Joseph Smith Sr.'s sixth vision

Joseph Smith Sr. has a 6th vision of rushing to a meetinghouse and needing to repent to enter.

Lucy Mack Smith calls this “the sixth” of Joseph Sr.’s dreams. Shut out of a meetinghouse on the day of judgment, he was admitted only after praying in the name of Jesus Christ to be forgiven of his sins.

Note: In Lucy Mack Smith’s telling he thought “there was no need of being in a hurry” and arrived too late.

Second Great Awakening

A revival of religious interest and large gatherings in rural communities. This included debates between preachers and members.

Historians call the wave of revivals in the early 1800s the Second Great Awakening; in rural areas it featured camp meetings that drew crowds for days. Lucy Mack Smith recalled a revival that reached all the denominations near the Smith home and ended in “a terrible dispute” among the churches over converts.

Joseph Smith Sr.'s seventh vision

Joseph Smith Sr. tells his family of his 7th vision. A spirit wrote on paper and then he woke up.

Lucy Mack Smith dates this dream, the last she records, to 1819.

Note: In Lucy Mack Smith’s telling the visitor was a peddler, who offered to write down the one thing Joseph Sr. lacked for salvation. Joseph Sr. woke before it was written.

Spring 1820

First Vision

Joseph Smith’s 1838 account dates the vision to “early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty,” when he was 14, in the woods near the family home on the south border of Palmyra Township.

Treasure digging

Joseph starts participating in treasure digging.

No source gives a start date. Church sources say that as a young man in the 1820s Joseph used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure, and that Josiah Stowell hired him for a treasure-seeking venture in 1825; the Gospel Topics essay cites Martin Harris that Joseph stopped by 1826.

Seer stone

Joseph found this seer stone in a well on the property of Clark Chase. Used for treasure digging and translating the Book of Mormon.

The Gospel Topics essay says Joseph “appears to have found one of the stones while digging for a well around 1822.” Accounts differ on whose well it was: Church historian B. H. Roberts named “a Mr. Clark Chase,” Richard Bushman says Joseph was digging with Willard Chase, and Saints says only “a neighbor.”

July 1823

Mortgage on the farm

Family gets a mortgage for the farm.

Note: No mortgage is on record. The Smiths were buying the farm on a land contract (“articled”), paid in yearly installments, with the last payment due in December 1825.

Sept. 21, 1823

First visit of Moroni

Moroni first appeared on the evening of September 21, 1823, in the family’s log home, returned twice that night, and appeared again the next day, when Joseph went to the hill where the plates were buried.

Nov. 19, 1823

Brother Alvin dies

Joseph's older brother Alvin dies.

Alvin, Joseph’s oldest brother, fell ill with what Lucy Mack Smith called “bilious cholick” on November 15, 1823, was given a heavy dose of calomel, and died four days later, a few months before his 26th birthday. Historians have suggested appendicitis as a primary cause.

Sept. 22, 1824

2nd visit

Goes alone. Unable to bring Alvin with him since his passing.

In 1823 Moroni told Joseph he could have the plates the next September if he brought “the right person,” “your oldest brother” (Saints, ch. 3). Alvin died in November 1823; on September 22, 1824, Joseph returned to the hill but did not obtain the plates.

Sept. 22, 1825

3rd visit

Brings Samuel T. Lawrence with him.

Note: This rests on Willard Chase’s 1833 statement, published by the Church’s critics. The Joseph Smith Papers name no companion for 1825.

The farm is lost

Family unable to pay the mortgage for the farm. They stay on the farm in exchange for labor.

Ownership passed to Lemuel Durfee on December 20, 1825. Lucy Mack Smith says the carpenter Stoddard and partners obtained a deed from the land agent before the family’s final payment, then gave it up to Durfee, who let the family rent the farm for four more years, paying rent by improving the land and by sons Samuel and Don Carlos working for him.

Note: The Smiths were buying on a land contract, not a mortgage. Lemuel Durfee bought the farm in December 1825 and let the family stay on.

Nov. 1, 1825

Money-digging company

Joseph Sr. and Jr. start a money-digging company involving Josiah Stowell.

Note: Josiah Stowell and other investors hired Joseph and his father; the Smiths didn’t start the company. The Nov. 1, 1825 agreement is known only from an 1880 newspaper printing and can’t be authenticated.

Nov. 1825

Staying with the Hales

The company stays with Isaac Hale's family.

Joseph wrote that while working for Josiah Stowell in Harmony, Pennsylvania, he “was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale” (JS—H 1:56–57). The Joseph Smith Papers date the hire to about October 10–24, 1825; Saints says Isaac Hale witnessed the workers’ contracts and let them live in his home, where Joseph met Emma.

Mar. 1826

Glass-looker trial

Joseph Smith on trial for being a "disorderly person." Smith is the subject of judicial proceedings in South Bainbridge, New York, before Justice Albert Neely. He is charged with being a "disorderly person" because he was a "glass looker." According to witnesses, he was either convicted but allowed to escape, or discharged for lack of evidence. Smith states that by looking at the stone he can discover hidden treasures, gold mines, coined money and lost property.

The hearing before justice of the peace Albert Neely of Chenango County was likely brought under a New York law against “pretending” to find lost goods. According to the Church History Topic, Joseph testified he had used his seer stone off and on to look for lost property but had given it up because it hurt his eyes. Accounts of the outcome conflict; the Church topic calls acquittal the most likely result, and the Joseph Smith Papers timeline says he was “tried and acquitted.”

Sept. 22, 1826

4th visit

Goes alone.

At this visit, Saints says, Moroni told Joseph to “quit the company of the money diggers” and to bring “the right person” next time; Joseph concluded it was Emma Hale.

Jan. 18, 1827

Elopes with Emma Hale

Joseph elopes with Emma Hale.

Because Emma’s parents opposed the match, the couple eloped and were married January 18, 1827, at the house of “Squire Tarbill” in South Bainbridge, New York (JS—H 1:57), then went to live with Joseph’s parents in Manchester.

Aug. 1827

A promise to Isaac Hale

Joseph commits to Isaac Hale he will stop glass-looking.

Peter Ingersoll, hired to move Emma’s belongings, said that in August 1827 Isaac Hale accused Joseph of “digging for money” and offered to help him in business if he moved to Pennsylvania and worked for a living, and Joseph agreed (quoted by Larry Porter). The promise to give up glass-looking is reported in statements by Ingersoll (1833) and Isaac Hale (1834) that critics of the Church published in 1834; the Gospel Topics essay cites Martin Harris that Joseph had stopped treasure seeking by 1826.

Sept. 22, 1827

Gets the plates

Brings Emma with him. The money-digging company believes they own a part of the discovery.

Just after midnight as September 22, 1827 began, Joseph and Emma drove to the hill in Joseph Knight Sr.’s wagon; Emma waited while Joseph retrieved the plates, which he hid in the woods and brought home within a week. Church History in the Fulness of Times says some neighbors “may have also been involved in searching for the silver mine” and felt they should have “a share in any treasure,” and names Willard Chase among treasure seekers who tried to find the plates.

Oct. 1827

Martin Harris joins

Martin Harris, a wealthy resident, commits to help financially.

Martin Harris, a respected Palmyra landowner old enough to be Joseph’s father, became interested after Lucy invited him to visit. He helped pay Joseph’s debts and gave him $50 “to do the Lord’s work,” which made possible the move to Harmony, Pennsylvania, in December 1827.

Dec. 1827

Characters transcribed

Transcription of a few characters.

Note: Joseph wrote that he “copied a considerable number of them.” Martin Harris took a smaller sample to the scholars.

Feb. 1828

Martin Harris shows the transcript to scholars

Martin Harris showed the transcript to scholars.

On the way to New York City, Harris stopped in Albany to see Luther Bradish, then showed the characters to Samuel L. Mitchill and Charles Anthon of Columbia College. Anthon later denied Harris's account of their meeting, but Harris came away more convinced the characters were authentic.

~Apr. 12, 1828

Martin Harris becomes scribe

Martin Harris starts as scribe. Work to translate the first 116 pages. Harris states that Joseph translated by using the "two stones set in a bow of silver" by "placing them in the hat."

Harris's description comes from an interview published in Tiffany's Monthly in 1859, three decades after he served as scribe.

Note: The two phrases come from separate sentences in Harris’s 1859 interview: he described “the two stones set in a bow of silver by means of which the plates were translated,” and said he himself “never dared to look into them by placing them in the hat.”

~June 14, 1828

Manuscript shown to family

Martin Harris shows the manuscript to his family.

Joseph reluctantly let Harris take the pages, which Joseph called the Book of Lehi, to Palmyra after Harris promised to show them only to certain family members.

June 15, 1828

First child dies

First child, Alvin, dies. Emma almost dies.

The boy was born in Harmony, Pennsylvania, and died the same day. A gravestone there reads "In Memory of An Infant Son of Joseph And Emma Smith June 15th 1828."

Note: The chart names him Alvin. A relative later wrote “Alvin” in a family Bible, but Emma said the baby was never named.

July 1828

The 116 pages are lost

Joseph learns Martin Harris lost the 116 pages.

Joseph learned of the loss in early July 1828 at his parents' home in Manchester, New York, and after returning to Harmony received the revelation now in D&C 3. The number 116 comes from Joseph's 1829 preface and may have been an estimate rather than an exact count.

Sept. 22, 1828

Translating again

Joseph starts translating again. Slow progress. Works on Mosiah.

Emma Smith and Samuel Smith may have served briefly as scribes in early 1829, but no record shows which portions they wrote. When Oliver Cowdery arrived in April 1829, the work apparently picked up where Joseph and Martin Harris had stopped, in the book of Mosiah.

Note: Sept. 22, 1828 is when, by Lucy Mack Smith’s account, the plates were returned to Joseph. Sources differ on when translating resumed; the Joseph Smith Papers says only that it had by March 1829.

Seer stone in a hat

All of the Book of Mormon we have today was translated with this rock in a hat. "Now the first that my husband translated, [the book] was translated by use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color." (Emma Smith) Seer stones were a common part of folk magic in the time and region.

Emma Smith's description comes from a letter she wrote to Emma Pilgrim on March 27, 1870. The Ensign article says the young Joseph Smith "accepted such familiar folk ways of his day," including using seer stones to look for lost or hidden objects.

Note: This is Emma Smith’s recollection, from an 1870 letter. The Church’s essay says Joseph used both the interpreters and a seer stone, often the stone, and that the two were apparently interchangeable.

Mar. 1829

Martin Harris becomes skeptical

Martin Harris becomes skeptical and moves back to Palmyra.

Harris's wife Lucy had filed a complaint accusing Joseph of fraud, and Harris came to Harmony wanting more evidence that Joseph had the plates. The revelation (D&C 5) said three witnesses would see the plates and that Harris could be one of them if he humbled himself.

Note: Palmyra was Harris’s home. In March 1829 he visited Joseph in Harmony wanting proof of the plates, and went home after the revelation now in D&C 5, which the Joseph Smith Papers says “allayed his doubts.”

Mar. 1829

A revelation mentions a church

Joseph tries to keep Martin Harris with a revelation which mentions establishing a church.

The revelation was given at Harmony in March 1829 at Martin Harris's request. Its earliest text reads "I will establish my Church"; the current D&C 5:14 speaks of "the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness."

April 1829

Oliver Cowdery becomes scribe

Oliver Cowdery starts as a scribe for Joseph. Translates the rest of Mosiah, Alma and 3rd Nephi.

Cowdery began as scribe on April 7, 1829. Picking up near the beginning of Mosiah, the translation reached 3 Nephi by May 15 and ran through the end of the record before the small plates were translated.

May 15, 1829

Joseph and Oliver baptize each other

They baptized each other in the Susquehanna River near Harmony, Pennsylvania, after stating that John the Baptist had conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on them.

Hyrum Smith and the Whitmers join

Hyrum Smith, David Whitmer and John Whitmer join.

Around June 1, 1829, David Whitmer moved Joseph and Oliver to his family's farm in Fayette, New York. Joseph baptized his brother Hyrum and David Whitmer about June 5–8; John Whitmer was probably baptized that month and sometimes served as a scribe.

Looking for a printer

Difficulty finding a willing printing press.

Three printers in Palmyra and Rochester (Egbert B. Grandin, Jonathan Hadley and Thurlow Weed) turned the job down. After Elihu Marshall of Rochester agreed, Joseph and Martin Harris went back to Grandin, who took it on.

June 11, 1829

Copyright

Joseph obtains the copyright for the Book of Mormon with just the title page.

The title page was deposited with Richard R. Lansing, clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York at Utica. The Joseph Smith Papers editors think Joseph more likely sent Oliver Cowdery, or mailed it, than went himself.

June 1829

Translation finished

Joseph translates 1 & 2 Nephi (replacements for the lost 116 pages). Translation is finished.

These books were translated last, at the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York; the Joseph Smith Papers dates the end of the translation to about July 1, 1829.

Note: The replacement for the lost pages was seven books: 1 Nephi through the Words of Mormon.

June 1829

Three and Eight Witnesses

Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris said an angel showed them the plates near the Whitmer home in Fayette, likely in the last days of June 1829. Soon after, near the Smith home, the Eight Witnesses (Christian, Jacob, Peter Jr. and John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith and Samuel Smith) handled the plates.

Aug. 1829

Printing begins

E. B. Grandin starts printing 5,000 copies. Paid for by Martin Harris.

The 5,000-copy run was more than twice the usual size for a book at the time. Harris mortgaged his farm to Grandin on August 25, 1829, and later paid the printing costs by selling 151 acres of land.

Mar. 26, 1830

Book of Mormon published

The Book of Mormon is published.

The Wayne Sentinel in Palmyra announced that day that the book was for sale; the first bound copies were sold at Grandin's printing office.

April 6, 1830

Church organized

The Church of Christ is organized.

Six people served as the legal organizers, with about forty others present. Joseph's 1839 history places the meeting at the Peter Whitmer Sr. home in Fayette, New York, though some early accounts say Manchester.

June 1830

Mission to the Lamanites

Oliver Cowdery is sent on a mission to the Lamanites.

Peter Whitmer Jr. was called to go with Cowdery in September 1830, and Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson in October. The four signed a covenant to preach to the American Indians on October 17, 1830, and reached northeastern Ohio on October 29.

Note: Oliver Cowdery was called in September 1830 (D&C 28) and left with three companions in October 1830.

June and July 1830

1830 trials

Joseph Smith on trial for being a "disorderly person." Joseph is arrested, tried and acquitted in South Bainbridge, New York, after being charged as a disorderly person; arrested, tried and discharged on the same charge in Colesville, New York, soon after.

The charges came after Joseph oversaw baptisms of about thirteen people near Colesville. The Joseph Smith Papers' legal introduction dates the hearings to June 29, 1830 (Chenango County, South Bainbridge) and June 30, 1830 (Broome County, Colesville); its events timeline gives ca. June 30 to July 3.

Summer 1830

Only one prophet

Other leaders claim prophethood and revelation. Joseph clarifies only he can receive revelation (for the Church).

In summer 1830 Oliver Cowdery demanded that Joseph remove words from a revelation, and in late summer Hiram Page, one of the Eight Witnesses, put forward revelations he received through a stone. The September 1830 revelation (D&C 28) and a conference on September 26, 1830, affirmed that only Joseph would receive revelations for the Church.

Fall 1830

Sidney Rigdon joins

Sidney Rigdon and his congregation join Mormonism. Frederick G. Williams joins.

The missionaries reached Rigdon's home on October 29, 1830, and Sidney and Phebe Rigdon were baptized on November 8. Parley P. Pratt reported 127 baptisms in the Kirtland area within two or three weeks, and the new convert Frederick G. Williams went west with the missionaries.

Note: Many members of Rigdon’s congregation joined, not all of them. Rigdon was baptized on Nov. 8, 1830.

Winter 1831

Church moves to Kirtland

The Church moves to Kirtland, Ohio.

A December 1830 revelation (D&C 37) directed the Church to gather to Ohio. Joseph and Emma Smith reached Kirtland in early February 1831, and most of the New York members followed that spring.

Split between Ohio and Missouri

The Church is split between Ohio and Missouri.

Kirtland served as Church headquarters because Joseph Smith lived there, while a July 20, 1831 revelation (D&C 57) named Independence, Missouri, as the center place of Zion. Members gathered to both places until 1838.

April 30, 1831

Twins born and die

Birth and death of twins.

Emma Smith gave birth to a girl and a boy in Kirtland on April 30, 1831; both died within hours. Emma apparently never named them. A family Bible later recorded the names Louisa and Thadeus, with no source given.

May 9, 1831

Murdock twins adopted

Joseph and Emma adopt the Murdock twins.

Julia Clapp Murdock died after giving birth to twins, Joseph and Julia. Her widowed husband, John Murdock, gave the babies to Joseph and Emma, who took them at nine days old. Sources differ on the birth date: the Joseph Smith Papers give April 30, 1831, and the Church's family-history pages give the day after the Smith twins were born.

Summer 1831

Zion in Missouri

Joseph visits Independence, Missouri, labeled as Zion. A temple site is dedicated but never built.

A revelation dated July 20, 1831 (D&C 57) named Independence as the center place of Zion. On August 3, 1831, Sidney Rigdon dedicated a temple site west of the town and Joseph Smith laid a cornerstone. The Saints were driven from Jackson County in 1833, before a temple could be built.

Mar. 24, 1832

Tarred and feathered

Joseph and Sidney are tarred and feathered. Joseph was going to be castrated but the doctor refused. His tooth was chipped when the mob tried to poison him. The reason the mob did this is unclear: possible reasons include religious persecution. Another is Joseph may have made advances on a teenager, Nancy Marinda Johnson (who he was later sealed to), or a dispute over property. One of the adopted Murdock twins died of exposure related to this fight.

The attack took place on the night of March 24–25, 1832, at the John and Elsa Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio. Saints describes a man with a knife who "refused to cut him" and a man who tried to pour a bottle of acid down Joseph's throat; it "broke on Joseph's teeth, chipping one of them." Baby Joseph Murdock Smith already had measles; the Joseph Smith Papers say he died on March 29 "from measles and possibly from exposure to cold air during attack."

Note: Her name was Marinda Nancy Johnson. The Church’s history ties the mob to former members and anger over Ezra Booth’s letters and the vision in D&C 76. The theory about Marinda has no Church source, and Richard Bushman writes that it “fell for lack of evidence.”

Brigham Young joins

Brigham Young was living in Mendon, New York, when Eleazer Miller baptized him in April 1832.

Nov. 6, 1832

Joseph Smith III born

Joseph Smith III is born.

Born in Kirtland, Ohio. He later became president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Dec. 1832

Book of Commandments

The Book of Commandments is published.

Note: Printing began in Independence, Missouri, about December 1832, but a mob destroyed the press on July 20, 1833, before any copies were bound. Members saved pages and bound a few incomplete books.

Winter 1833

School of the Prophets

The School of the Prophets starts. The Word of Wisdom is first written.

The school first met on January 22, 1833, in an upper room of Newel K. Whitney's store in Kirtland. The Word of Wisdom (D&C 89) was received there on February 27, 1833, prompted in part by Emma Smith's concerns about tobacco use in the school.

Mar. 18, 1833

First Presidency organized

The First Presidency is organized with Jesse Gause and Sidney Rigdon as counselors.

Note: On March 18, 1833, the counselors ordained were Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams. Jesse Gause had been called as a counselor in March 1832 and was excommunicated that December.

June 6, 1833

Kirtland Temple begun

Kirtland Temple construction begins.

On June 6, 1833, a conference in Kirtland told the building committee (Reynolds Cahoon, Jared Carter and Hyrum Smith) to begin work immediately. Other accounts put the first day of work on June 5 or June 7. The cornerstones were laid on July 23, 1833.

Fall 1833

Driven from Jackson County

Missouri battles between Saints and locals. Saints move out of Jackson County to neighboring areas.

Vigilantes destroyed the Church's printing office in Independence on July 20, 1833. Violence resumed on October 31, and after a skirmish near the Big Blue River on November 4, most of the roughly 1,200 Saints in the county fled across the Missouri River into Clay County.

Sometime between 1832 and 1837

Fanny Alger

First polygamous relationship: Fanny Alger, age 16 to 20. Fanny lived with the Smith family and was a servant. This relationship was not public or well known. Oliver Cowdery was upset about it and was later excommunicated over this disagreement.

Fanny Alger was born in 1816 and "lived and worked in the Smith household" (Gospel Topics essay). Later accounts say her uncle, Levi Hancock, performed a private marriage ceremony. She left Ohio with her family in 1836 and soon married Solomon Custer in Indiana.

Note: Oliver Cowdery’s 1838 trial weighed nine charges. One was that he had falsely accused Joseph of adultery.

Spring 1834

Zion's Camp

An armed party led by Joseph Smith departs from Ohio to defend the Mormons expelled from Jackson County, Missouri. Shortly after arriving in Missouri, the force is disbanded.

About 230 men, women and children marched from Ohio and Michigan in May and June 1834. When Governor Daniel Dunklin would not call out the militia, a June 22, 1834 revelation (D&C 105) released the camp from redeeming Zion. It disbanded at the end of June during a cholera outbreak that killed 13 camp members.

1834

Priesthood restoration accounts

First descriptions of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood restorations.

Note: Oliver Cowdery’s 1834 letters give the first detailed account of John the Baptist and the Aaronic Priesthood. The first clear record of Peter, James and John is in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.

Nov. 1834

Lectures on Faith

The School of the Elders. The Lectures on Faith: a set of seven theological lectures. These were initially included with the Doctrine and Covenants, but were removed in the 1920s.

The seven lectures were given in the School of the Elders in Kirtland in the winter of 1834–35. They were printed as the "Doctrine" part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants and dropped starting with the 1921 edition. The Joseph Smith Papers note that most scholars now attribute most or all of them to Sidney Rigdon.

Feb. 1835

Quorums of the Twelve and Seventy

The Quorum of the Twelve and the Quorum of the Seventy are created.

The Three Witnesses named the Twelve Apostles on February 14, 1835, and the first Seventies were ordained on February 28, 1835. Eight of the original Twelve, and all of the first Seventies, had marched in Zion's Camp.

July 1835

Egyptian mummies and papyri

Egyptian mummies and papyri are purchased.

Michael Chandler, an entrepreneur touring with Egyptian artifacts, brought four mummies and several papyrus scrolls to Kirtland. In July 1835 a group of Church members and others bought them for $2,400.

Sept. 1835

Doctrine and Covenants

The Doctrine and Covenants is published.

A general assembly of the Church accepted the book on August 17, 1835, and bound copies were for sale by September 1835. It held the Lectures on Faith and 103 sections of revelations, up from 65 chapters in the Book of Commandments.

Fall 1835

Book of Abraham

Book of Abraham translation.

Joseph Smith worked on the translation in the summer and fall of 1835 and finished at least the first chapter and part of the second. All five chapters were published in the Times and Seasons in Nauvoo between March and May 1842.

John Taylor and William Law join

John Taylor joins. William Law joins.

Parley P. Pratt baptized John Taylor on May 9, 1836; Taylor was living in Toronto, Canada. The Joseph Smith Papers date William Law's baptism only as "by 1837." Law later served as a counselor in the First Presidency in Nauvoo, 1841–1844.

March 27, 1836

Kirtland Temple dedicated

The Kirtland Temple is dedicated.

The day-long service included the dedicatory prayer now found in D&C 109, the sacrament, music, and the Hosanna Shout.

April 3, 1836

Sealing power

Sealing power given from Elijah to Joseph.

The visions in D&C 110 came to both Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1836; Moses and Elias also appeared. The account comes from Joseph Smith's journal and was added to the Doctrine and Covenants in the 1876 edition.

June 20, 1836

Frederick G. W. Smith born

Frederick Granger Williams Smith is born.

Born in Kirtland and named after Frederick G. Williams, Joseph Smith's counselor in the First Presidency. He died in Nauvoo in 1862.

Summer and Fall 1836

Gathering in Missouri

Preparations to consolidate the Church in Missouri.

In late June 1836, Clay County officials asked the Saints to find a new place to live, and Church leaders there agreed to leave. That year the Missouri legislature created Caldwell County for Latter-day Saint settlement, and the Saints founded Far West there.

Late 1836 to mid-1837

Kirtland Safety Society

Kirtland Safety Society Bank. Charges against Joseph Smith for issuing bank notes without a state charter. A good idea that was poorly executed and caused many issues for Joseph and members. Leadership fought, and many left or were excommunicated over this issue.

The society was organized on November 2, 1836. When the Ohio legislature did not grant a charter, it reorganized in January 1837 to operate without one, and it stopped operating by August 1837 during the Panic of 1837. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were tried and fined under an 1816 Ohio banking statute for circulating the society's notes.

1837–1838

Released and excommunicated

Released from the First Presidency: Frederick G. Williams. Excommunicated: Martin Harris and at least 27 other leaders.

Frederick G. Williams was removed from the First Presidency on November 7, 1837, and Hyrum Smith replaced him. The Kirtland high council cut off the leading dissenters in late December 1837. Williams was restored to fellowship in 1840, and Martin Harris was rebaptized in 1870.

Note: A letter of Jan. 1, 1838, says 28 people were cut off in Kirtland, including Martin Harris, and names six of them as leaders of the dissenters.

1838

Church moves to Missouri

After a revelation on January 12, 1838 told the First Presidency to "move on to the west," Joseph Smith left Kirtland that night. He arrived at Far West, Missouri, on March 14, 1838, and many Kirtland members followed later that year.

1838

Excommunicated in Missouri

Excommunicated: John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, William E. McLellin, and Apostles Lyman E. Johnson, John F. Boynton, Luke S. Johnson, Thomas B. Marsh, Orson Hyde and William Smith. Orson Hyde and William Smith are later reinstated as Apostles.

Note: Six of these were excommunicated in Missouri in 1838: John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Lyman E. Johnson and William E. McLellin. John F. Boynton and Luke S. Johnson were cut off in Kirtland around the start of 1838. Thomas B. Marsh was excommunicated in Quincy, Illinois, in March 1839. Orson Hyde and William Smith were suspended from the Twelve in May 1839, not excommunicated, and restored within weeks.

June 2, 1838

Alexander Hale Smith born

Alexander Hale Smith is born.

Born at Far West, Missouri, and named after Alexander Doniphan, the lawyer and militia general who helped the Saints.

1838

Missouri Mormon War

An influx of members leads to tension over property and voting with locals. Missouri Executive Order 44 to murder all Mormons. Church leaders captured and to be executed. Saved by Doniphan. Imprisoned at Liberty Jail. Joseph escaped.

Fighting followed an election-day brawl at Gallatin on August 6, 1838. After the siege of Far West, Gen. Samuel D. Lucas ordered Joseph Smith and other leaders executed, and Gen. Alexander Doniphan refused to carry out the order. The prisoners were held in Liberty Jail from December 1, 1838. In April 1839 the guards let them escape while moving them to Boone County for trial.

Note: The order’s words: the Mormons “must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace.” It was carried out as an expulsion in the winter of 1838–39.

1839

Church moves to Nauvoo

The Church moves to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Church agents bought land at Commerce, Illinois, on April 30, 1839, and Joseph Smith's family moved there from Quincy on May 9–10, 1839. Joseph renamed the town Nauvoo; the post office name changed on April 21, 1840.

Mission to England

Extensive missionary work in England by the Apostles.

John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff were the first apostles to leave Commerce, on August 8, 1839, and reached Liverpool on January 11, 1840; most of the apostles returned in spring and summer 1841 with a large company of British converts. By then there were more than 6,000 Latter-day Saints in England and Scotland.

June 13, 1840

Don Carlos Smith

Don Carlos Smith, born June 13, 1840. Died at 14 months old.

He died in Nauvoo on August 15, 1841, about a week after his uncle and namesake, Joseph's brother Don Carlos Smith, died on August 7, 1841.

John C. Bennett joins

Bennett, then quartermaster general of the Illinois militia, began writing to Joseph in July 1840, moved to Nauvoo and was baptized in late September 1840, and helped draft and secure the Nauvoo city charter that year.

Fall 1840

Nauvoo Temple begun

Construction of the Nauvoo Temple starts.

Joseph announced plans for the temple around September 1, 1840, and the October 1840 general conference chose a building committee. A revelation on January 19, 1841 (D&C 124) commanded its construction, the cornerstones were laid on April 6, 1841, and the finished temple was dedicated on May 1, 1846.

1841

Changes in the First Presidency

Sidney Rigdon's role was diminished. John C. Bennett added to the First Presidency. William Law added to the First Presidency.

The January 19, 1841, revelation (D&C 124) named William Law a counselor to Joseph in place of Hyrum Smith, who became Church patriarch, and made Sidney Rigdon's role conditional on his faithfulness. On April 7, 1841, Bennett was named assistant president "until President Rigdon's health should be restored."

Fall 1841

First sealings

First sealings between Church leaders and their polygamous "spiritual" wives.

The Church’s essay on plural marriage also notes fragmentary evidence of an earlier plural marriage, to Fanny Alger in Kirtland in the mid-1830s. By June 1844, about 29 men and 50 women had entered plural marriage in addition to Joseph.

Note: The first sealing in Nauvoo was Joseph’s to Louisa Beaman on April 5, 1841. Fall 1841 fits his next two, to Zina Huntington Jacobs (Oct. 27) and Presendia Huntington Buell (Dec. 11).

1841–1844

Polygamy and polyandry

Joseph Smith had between 30 and 40 plural wives, according to careful estimates.

The Church’s essay says the exact number is unknown and that careful estimates put it between 30 and 40. Most of the women were between 20 and 40 when sealed; the oldest was Fanny Young and the youngest Helen Mar Kimball, sealed several months before her 15th birthday.

1841–1844

Concurrently married

Joseph married between 12 and 14 women who were concurrently married to other men in the Church.

The Church’s essay says these sealings came after the Louisa Beaman sealing and before Joseph married other single women, gives estimates of 12 to 14, and notes that several of the women said their sealings were for eternity alone. Brian Hales counts 14.

Note: Not every husband was a Church member: Mary Elizabeth Rollins’s husband, Adam Lightner, and Ruth Vose’s husband, Edward Sayers, were not Latter-day Saints.

1841

1841 sealings

• Louisa Beaman, 26
• Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs, 20
• Presendia Lathrop Huntington Buell, 31

Feb. 6, 1842

Stillborn son

Joseph and Emma's unnamed son died during childbirth in Nauvoo and was buried the same day.

March 1842

Joseph becomes a Freemason

Joseph becomes a Freemason. J. C. Bennett was involved in bringing Freemasonry to Nauvoo. This influenced the temple endowment.

Abraham Jonas, grand master of Illinois Masons, installed the Nauvoo Lodge on March 15, 1842, and made Joseph a Master Mason the next day. Bennett, a Mason since about 1827, was secretary of the Nauvoo Lodge in 1841–1842. The Church's history topic notes similarities in format and symbols between Masonic ritual and the endowment, along with differences in purpose and content.

May 4, 1842

First endowment

The first endowment ceremony.

On May 4–5, 1842, in the upper room of his red brick store in Nauvoo, Joseph gave the endowment to nine close associates, including Hyrum Smith and Brigham Young. Over the next two years more than 50 more men and women received it.

May 6, 1842

Governor Boggs shot

Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri was shot, possibly by Porter Rockwell sent by Joseph Smith.

Boggs was shot and seriously wounded at Independence, Missouri. After Bennett's accusation, Boggs signed an affidavit in July 1842 naming Joseph an accessory; Joseph was discharged by the U.S. District Court at Springfield, Illinois, in January 1843.

Note: Boggs was a former governor by 1842. The Church’s history says he was shot by “an unknown assailant.” The claim that Joseph sent Rockwell was John C. Bennett’s accusation, which Joseph denied, and a grand jury declined to indict Rockwell.

1842

John C. Bennett excommunicated

John C. Bennett is excommunicated.

Joseph and other leaders withdrew fellowship from Bennett on May 11, 1842, for adultery; Bennett resigned as mayor of Nauvoo on May 17, and the Times and Seasons published the notice on June 15, 1842. He then publicly attacked Joseph in a series of letters to the Sangamo Journal.

1842

1842 sealings

• Agnes Moulton Coolbrith Smith, 33
• Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon, 23
• Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, 23
• Patty Bartlett Sessions, 47
• Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, 27
• Elizabeth Davis Brackenbury Durfee, 50
• Sarah Marietta Kingsley Howe Cleveland, 53
• Delcena Johnson Sherman, 37
• Eliza R. Snow, 38
• Sarah Ann Whitney, 17
• Martha McBride Knight, 37

Note: Ages are as printed on the chart. By the birth and sealing dates in the Joseph Smith Papers, Delcena Johnson Sherman was 35, and Marinda Johnson Hyde was 26 if sealed in April 1842 (27 at the other date given, May 1843). Sources disagree on Agnes Coolbrith’s birth year (1808 or 1811).

1843

Kinderhook plates

Fake plates "found" to bait Joseph into translating them. Joseph examined them and compared the symbols to previous translations.

In 1843 six bell-shaped brass plates were dug from a mound near Kinderhook, Illinois. Wilbur Fugate, Robert Wiley and a local blacksmith had made and buried them, and Fugate later called it a prank. Men involved brought them to Joseph in Nauvoo in early May 1843. His clerk William Clayton recorded Joseph's comment on their contents, but no translation was produced and Joseph soon lost interest.

May 28, 1843

Sealed to Emma

Joseph is sealed to Emma on May 28, 1843.

The sealing took place in the upper room of Joseph's red brick store in Nauvoo and is recorded in Joseph's journal for May 28, 1843.

Sept. 28, 1843

Second anointing

The second anointing. The first was between Joseph and Emma.

Joseph's journal for September 28, 1843, records that he and Emma were "anointed & ord[aine]d to the highest and holiest order of the priesthood."

1843

1843 sealings

• Ruth Vose Sayers, 34
• Flora Ann Woodworth, 16
• Emily Dow Partridge, 19
• Eliza Maria Partridge, 22
• Almera Woodard Johnson, 30
• Lucy Walker, 17
• Sarah Lawrence, 17
• Maria Lawrence, 19
• Helen Mar Kimball, 14
• Hannah Ells, 29
• Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes, 29
• Rhoda Richards, 58
• Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer, 32
• Olive Grey Frost, 27
• Mary Ann Frost Pratt, 34
• Melissa Lott, 19
• Nancy Maria Winchester, 14
• Fanny Young Murray, 56

Note: Ages are as printed on the chart. By the birth and sealing dates in the Joseph Smith Papers, Desdemona Fullmer was 33 and Fanny Young Murray 55, six days short of 56. Sources disagree on Hannah Ells’s birth year (1808 or 1813). Historians disagree about Mary Ann Frost Pratt: Todd Compton and Brian Hales don’t count her among Joseph’s wives, others date a marriage to about summer 1843, and a family history records a proxy sealing to Joseph in 1846, after his death.

1844

William Law removed

William Law is removed from the First Presidency. James Strang joins.

Joseph removed Law from the First Presidency about January 8, 1844. Law was excommunicated on April 18, 1844, and formed a new church with other dissenters later that month. James J. Strang, a lawyer from Burlington, Wisconsin Territory, was baptized by Joseph in Nauvoo about February 1844.

Jan. 29, 1844

Runs for president

Joseph runs for President of the USA.

The Quorum of the Twelve nominated Joseph in Nauvoo on January 29, 1844. His platform, General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, was published in February 1844, and in May about a hundred men left Nauvoo to campaign for him.

June 7, 1844

Nauvoo Expositor

William Law and his followers published only one issue, critical of Joseph, and revealed polygamy, which was a secret at the time. Joseph has the printing press destroyed. This caused riots.

The publishers were William and Wilson Law, Charles Ivins, Charles and Robert Foster, and Francis and Chauncey Higbee. On June 10, 1844, the Nauvoo City Council declared the paper a public nuisance, and Joseph, as mayor, ordered the city marshal to destroy the press, which was done that evening. Joseph and others were then charged with riot, which led to his surrender at Carthage.

June 18, 1844

Martial law

Enacted by Joseph for the Nauvoo Legion to counteract the riots.

On June 18, 1844, the Nauvoo Legion mustered after reports of increasing vigilante activity, and Joseph declared martial law in Nauvoo and told the Legion to prepare to defend the city.

June 27, 1844

Death in Carthage Jail

A mob of mostly former members storm the jail and kill Joseph and Hyrum.

Joseph and Hyrum had been jailed on June 25 on a treason charge. The attack came about 5 p.m. on June 27; John Taylor was badly wounded and Willard Richards escaped serious injury. Nine men were indicted in October 1844, and the five who stood trial were acquitted on May 30, 1845.

Note: No source calls the mob mostly former members. D&C 135 describes “an armed mob—painted black—of from 150 to 200 persons,” and the Ensign and BYU Studies identify many of them as men of the Warsaw militia, disbanded that morning. The men later tried included Thomas Sharp and Levi Williams, both opponents of the Church.

Nov. 17, 1844

David Hyrum Smith born

David Hyrum Smith is born, after his father's death.

He was born in Nauvoo nearly five months after his father's death. He later served as second counselor to his brother Joseph Smith III in the RLDS Church presidency (1873–1885).