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2 The Smith Family in New England and New York

By Larry C. Porter
book cover
A Study of the Origins of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816–1831
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Although the scope of this study does not call for a comprehensive examination of the family of Joseph Smith, Sr., in their New England setting, the writer has endeavored to furnish sufficient background to give an understanding of the character of the family and some of the motivations which prompted the Smiths to move from Vermont to New York. This abbreviated treatise begins with those events immediately surrounding the marriage of the Prophet’s parents, Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith.

The state of Vermont has maintained birth, marriage and death records since about 1760 to the present time. The original marriage entry for Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack can still be seen at the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office under date of December 7, 1797. It stated:

This may certify that Joseph Smith was married to Lucy Mack on the 24 of January AD 1796 by me attest. A true Record H. [Hezekiah] Hutchinson T. C. [Town Clerk] Seth Austin Justice Peace.1

Joseph Smith, a resident of the township of Tunbridge, Orange County, Vermont, met Lucy Mack, of Gilsum, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, while the latter was staying temporarily with her brother, [10] Stephen Mack.2 Stephen operated a mercantile and tinning business in partnership with John Mudget at Tunbridge. The comparative financial prosperity enjoyed by the partnership of “Mack and Mudget” is easily discerned by a survey of the land transactions enacted in the name of that firm.3 This fact is further attested to by the dowry of $1,000 which these two men gave Lucy soon after her marriage.4

Joseph Smith came to Tunbridge with his father, Asael, in 1791. A land deed, dated June 21, 1791, marks the approximate time of the family’s arrival and identifies the grantee as “Asael Smith of Ipswich in the province of Massachusetts.”5 At the Tunbridge site, Asael and his sons began to clear the land and establish a homestead. Their property lay in the southern portion of the township, in what was [11] termed the “Tunbridge Gore,” on the North Royalton boundary. This locality became known as the “Smith Settlement.” Junius F. Wells made an investigation into local records and reported that this area was set off as School District No. 13 and that Jesse Smith, a son of Asael, was appointed trustee.6 In addition to the initial purchase in Lot 18, the Smiths soon increased their holdings by acquiring acreage in Lots 17 and 19, in the “Tunbridge Gore, and Lot 10, in the southwest portion of Tunbridge.7 According to Junius F. Wells, at the time of their marriage, Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith “occupied the first clearing of the farm [in Lot 18], working it on shares, while the father and other sons broke up the remainder.”8 [12]

While residing at Tunbridge, Joseph Smith became imbued with the Universalist doctrine. The articles of incorporation forming the local society names Asael Smith as moderator of the founders’ meeting. The signatures of Asael Smith, Jesse Smith and Joseph Smith were inscribed on the document which stated:

This may certify all whom it may concern that we whose names are here under written have regularly formed ourselves into a society and wish to be known by the name or forme [sic] of Universalists and whereas the laws of the state of Vermont allow free liberty of conscience to worship God according to the Dictates thereof and it being contrary to the Dictates of our conscience, to pay money to Support any teacher of a Diferent [sic] Denomination agreeable therefore to the liberty of the laws of our State we wish not to be Charged with any tax toward the support of any teacher of an Diferent [sic] Denomination whatever

Alexander StedmanAbner Borough
Asael SmithDavid Grow
Peter GrowLevi Stedman
Samuel BranchJohn Ridle
Abel Camp JunJoseph Smith
Jesse SmithEdward Grow
Benoni PollyEbene Tilley
Wm ClementsDeliverance Brown
 Daniel Hunt Jun

The above is a true copy of the record by order of Asael Smith moderator Wm Clements Clerk for said society Tunbridge [13] December 6, 1797

Tunbridge December 6, 1797 received the above for (and is a true) record attest Hezekiah Hutchinson town clerk. I have seen the above record with my own eyes and attest there with written by hand HH9

A later addendum was inscribed on the right-hand side of the same document, which read:

Tunbridge July 10: 1799 This may certify that I the subscriber never signed or put my name to this paper or gave any person liberty so to do Deliv.r Brown

I desire the town clerk to put the above on record Deliv.r Brown

The above is a true record attest H Hutchinson town clerk10

Joseph and Lucy Smith made their home in the “Gore” for six years, 1796–1802.11 Two children were born to the Smiths in this period, Alvin, February 11, 1798, and Hyrum, February 9, 1800. The official birth entries are still in existence.12

In 1802, Joseph and Lucy rented their farm at Tunbridge and moved to the town of Randolph, Orange, County, Vermont, where they [14] entered the mercantile business.13 While there, Lucy contracted a serious illness which threatened her life. At this time, she made a covenant with God that if He allowed her to live she would serve Him. Upon recovering from her protracted illness, Lucy endeavored to fulfill this covenant. She stated that she “went from place to place, for the purpose of getting information, and finding, if it were possible, some congenial spirit who could enter into my feelings, and thus be able to strengthen and assist me in carrying out my resolutions.”14

Not finding the “congenial spirit” which she sought, Lucy nevertheless concluded that it was her “duty to be baptized.” “Finding a minister who was willing to baptize me, and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination,” she wrote, “I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance.”15 Lucy Smith did not identify the minister or the denomination which he represented.

While engaged in the merchandising business at Randolph, Joseph Smith found that the crystallization end sale of ginseng root held every prospect of yielding a substantial return on his investment. That product had a high market value in China because of its supposed medicinal qualities.16 Lucy Smith described her husband’s involvement with the [15] ginseng trade in the following terms:

He therefore concluded to embark in a traffic of this article, and consequently made an investment of all the means which he commanded, in that way and manner which was necessary to carry on a business of this kind, viz., crystallizing and exporting the root. When he had obtained a quantity of the same, a merchant by the name of Stevens, of Royalton, offered him three thousand dollars for what he had; but my husband refused his offer, as it was only about two-thirds of its real value, and told the gentleman that he would rather venture shipping it himself.17

Both Joseph Smith and Mr. Stevens shipped their respective cargo on the same vessel bound for China out of New York City. Although they apparently made separate arrangements with the captain for the disposal of their product, the son of Mr. Stevens in some way secured charge of both lots. The ginseng was subsequently sold at an excellent profit in Asia, but this fact was misrepresented by young Stevens upon his return. Joseph Smith was informed that the venture had been a “perfect failure,” and was awarded a mere chest of tea in compensation for his investment. However, Stevens’ dishonesty was finally exposed by Stephen Mack, and the young man made a hurried flight into Canada to avoid apprehension. Joseph Smith followed him for a season but was unable to overtake the fugitive, and was forced to return in a “dispirited” state to face his creditors.18

Joseph had invested heavily in the China venture. His accounts [16] showed a deficit of some eighteen hundred dollars, owed to Boston merchants, and that a total of approximately two thousand dollars had been lost through bad debts. It was intended that the ginseng sale would offset these losses. Lucy’s dowry and the farm at Tunbridge, Vermont, to which the Smiths had returned immediately following the shipment to China, provided their only means of raising the necessary collateral to meet their financial obligations. The $1,000 dowry was sacrificed and the farm sold for eight hundred dollars. The combined proceeds were then used to liquidate the $1,800 owed in Boston.19 [17]

The sale of the farm at Tunbridge necessitated the removal of Joseph and Lucy Smith to the town of Royalton, Windsor County, Vermont. They were there only a few months when they again moved to Sharon, Windsor County, an adjoining town on the east. In that township, they rented a portion of a farm belonging to Lucy’s father, Solomon Mack.20 One hundred acres of land, lying partly in the town of Sharon and partly in the town of Royalton, had just been purchased from Samuel Shepard II by Solomon Mack, of Tunbridge, Orange County, on August 27, 1804.21 Solomon is reported to have located his home on the “Old Turn [18] pike” road to the northeast, while Joseph and Lucy took up residence to the southwest in a log cabin, on a prominence which has been known as “Dairy Hill.” It was in this dwelling that the Prophet Joseph Smith was born, December 23, 1805.22 The doctor who delivered Joseph Smith, Jr., is reported to have been Dr. Joseph Adam Denison.23 [19]

A geographical problem has arisen relative to where Joseph Smith, Jr., was born. A glance at a topographical map will indicate the difficulty. The “Joseph Smith Memorial,” marking the site of his birth, is located right on the Sharon-Royalton town line. The town line was run by compass course in the late 1700’s when the towns were chartered. Since then there have been no official lines established.24 [20]

Through their agent, Junius F. Wells, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints secured the site of Joseph’s birth on May 23, 1905.25 At the time of this procurement, portions of the old stone foundation of the home were still visible.26 Witness of this fact, and the validity of the site as the actual birth place, was attested to by Benjamin C. Latham, November 14, 1905. His deposition stated:

I Benjamin Cole Latham, son of Alsop Latham and Sallie Cole, daughter of Benjamin Cole who cleared the first acre on the old Haynes place one mile down the highway from the Joseph Smith’s birthplace testifying say . . . that I knew Asahel White who formerly lived on the Mack farm in White Hollow, That I knew Ebenezer Dewey 3rd who died in 1843 aged 80 years, both of whom were born on, occupied and lived on, the farm adjoining to the west and south of the Solomon Mack Farm which Mack farm, including the birthplace of Joseph Smith, the [21] foundations of which house are still intact, I owned for twenty-three years from 1868 to 1892. That I have often heard the last named Dewey also his father, speak familiarly of the place where the foundations still remain, as being the former home of Joseph Smith Sr. and the birth place of Joseph Smith the Prophet. That the cellar and foundation now standing on the hill have for many many years been pointed out as the ruins of the house in which Joseph Smith was born.27

Under the auspices of the Church, Junius F. Wells supervised the erection of a thirty-eight and one half foot granite shaft (from Barre, Vermont) in time to appropriately commemorate the 100th anniversary of Joseph’s birth.28 A memorial cottage was also begun in association with the monument. Referring to the cottage in an address given during the dedication of the granite shaft, Saturday, December 23, 1905, Elder Wells described what happened to the old stone foundation. He related:

I would like to have had this cottage finished. It should have been finished, according to the contract, on the first of December [1905] but Mr. Perkins, the contractor, and Mr. Walker the architect, have had many disappointments and delays. . . .

Now, as to this house. It is built over the old cellar. The hearthstone is right where it was. That mantel has been built around it. The sentimental reason of it is this: Joseph Smith was only three years old when his parents moved; so if he had any association with that hearthstone, it was as a child. I thought perhaps it was where he was washed and dressed as a babe.29 [23]

The old Memorial Cottage was torn down in 1959 and two buildings, a Directors Cottage and a Bureau of Information, constructed in its stead. These new additions were dedicated on October 15, 1962. The Bureau of Information now houses the old hearthstone which has been placed some 200 feet southeast of its original position in the Joseph Smith home.30 The only other “surviving” remnant of the original home, a doorstep, lies on a grassy slope immediately north of the Directors Cottage and identifies the site of the Smith cabin.

While at Sharon, Joseph Smith, Sr., kept his family in substance by cultivating a farm in the summer and teaching school in the winter. “In this way . . . our circumstances gradually improved, until we found ourselves quite comfortable again.”31The Smiths resided at Sharon for approximately three years. Successive moves of the family, after their departure from Sharon, have been traced by Lucy. She reported:

We moved thence to Tunbridge. Here we had another son, whom we named Samuel Harrison, born March 13, 1808. We lived in this place a short time, then moved to Royalton, where Ephraim was born, March 13, 1810 [he died, Mar. 24, 1810]. We continued here until we had another son, born March 13, 1811, whom we called William. . . .

In 1811, we moved from Royalton, Vermont, to the town of Lebanon, New Hampshire. . . . Here [at West Lebanon] we settled [24] ourselves down, and began to contemplate, with joy and satisfaction the prosperity which had attended our recent exertions.32

According to Dr. Russell R. Rich, Brigham Young University, the home of the Joseph Smith, Sr., family was at West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Dr. Rich described the location of the home site in the following terms:

The Smiths lived in West Lebanon on what is today a southern extension of Main Street, leading toward the airport. The home was on the east side of the street as you go toward the south, and about one block below the crossing of the Mascoma River. A cable television office occupies the site today. The property belongs to Mr. Carl Witherell. The Smith home was torn down between September, 1967 and December, 1967, as part of an urban development project designed to create a business park. The Smith children attended school a short distance from their home on what is still known today as Poverty Lane.33

Figure 1. Site of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s Birthplace, Sharon, Vermont.
Foundation of the home in which Joseph Smith, Jr. was born, December 23, 1805, Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont. The original photograph was taken in about 1905 and is located at the Joseph Smith Memorial Bureau of Information, Sharon, Vermont. [22]

At West Lebanon, Grafton County, New Hampshire, still another child was added to the family with the birth of a daughter, Catherine, July 28, 1812.34 Here the children of an appropriate age, attended a common school. Hyrum was enrolled in an academy at Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire.35 This school was undoubtedly an institution known as the “Academy,” “Moor’s School” or “Moor’s Charity School,” [25] and named in honor of a wealthy farmer, Col. Joshua Moor [also Moore]. Frederick Chase stated:

Though we have no catalogue of its students or a record of its course of study, yet we know something of it incidentally. It had thirty scholars in 1780, eight in 1794, forty-four in the fall of 1813, and sixty-one in the summer of 1814. Of these sixty-one about seventeen were charity scholars, carried upon the Moor’s School share of the Wheelock rents and one was an Indian on the Scotch fund. The tuition charged to paying pupils was two dollars a quarter, and was given to the preceptor. In August, 1810, at the annual examination of the School by a committee of six, thirty scholars were examined in various classes. The lowest class, in which an Indian named Ignatius, was examined in reading and spelling only: the next in the same, with the addition of English grammar and arithmetic; a fourth in Vergil; and a fifth, containing an Indian, Noel Annance, in Cicero’s Orations and the Greek Testament. The scholars at this time were nearly all boys of the village.36

Mr. Kenneth C. Cramer, Archivist, Dartmouth college Libraries, reported:

Our records of Moor’s Charity School are incomplete and consist of various volumes of account books, day books, journals, as well as different listings of students. Thus many sources need to be checked in order to re-create the enrollment of this 1811–15 period. In doing this we found no mention of the name Hyrum Smith for this period. This in no way implies that he did not attend the school, however. At that time the Charity School was located across the Green from the present Dartmouth Row near where the present Crosby Hall now stands. . . .37 [26]

An infectious fever, identified by Lucy as “Typhus fever,” afflicted the people of Lebanon and “raged tremendously.”38 The Smiths were not immune to the fever. First Sophronia, next Hyrum and then Alvin were taken with the sickness. Finally all but Joseph Sr., and Lucy were laid prostrate. Each in his turn recovered, save Joseph, Jr., who was visited with apparent side affects.39 The diagnosis of a “sprained shoulder” by the attendant physician, Dr. Parker [Parkhurst?] proved instead to be a swelling, under the arm, of quite a different nature. When the infected area was opened it discharged freely and the soreness was relieved. However, Joseph Smith, Jr., stated:

 . . . the disease removed and descended into my left leg & ankle & terminated in a fever sore of the worst kind, and I endured the most acute suffering for a long time under the care of Drs. Smith, Stone & Perkins of Hanover. At one time eleven Doctors came from Dartmouth Medical College at Hanover, New Hampshire, for the purpose of amputation, but young as I was, I utterly refused to give my assent to the operation, but consented to their trying an experiment by removing a large portion of the bone from my left leg, which they did, and fourteen additional pieces of bone afterwards worked out before my leg healed, during which time I was reduced so very low that my mother could carry me with ease.40

Thinking that the “sea-breezes” would be beneficial to his recovery, Joseph’s parents sent him to Salem, Massachusetts, in company with his uncle, Jesse Smith. There is no indication as to the length [27] of his stay in that locality.41 The History of Lebanon, N.H., makes no identification of the physicians named by Joseph.42 Lucy Smith named Dr. Stone as the “Principal surgeon” among those who attended her son.43 He doesn’t appear, however, identification can be made for Drs. Smith and Perkins.44These men have been named as Dr. Nathan Smith and Dr. Cyrus Perkins.45

Almost a year of illness had reduced the Smith family to a low state. At this time, Joseph and Lucy again thought to better their condition by a move to the town of Norwich, Windsor County, Vermont. Lucy stipulated that they moved from New Hampshire “shortly after the sickness left our family.”46 In Norwich the Smiths resided on a farm [28] belonging to Esquire Moredock (Murdock).47 The farm was described as being “in the town of Norwich, about two miles north of the village on the old turnpike road.”48

The Smiths suffered a series of setbacks in their efforts to recover from their losses on the Vermont side of the Connecticut Valley. Mother Smith wrote:

The first year [1814?] our crops failed; yet, by selling fruit which grew on the place, we succeeded in obtaining bread for the family, and making considerable exertion, we were enabled to sustain ourselves.

The crops the second year [1815?] were as the year before— a perfect failure. Mr. Smith now determined to plant once more, and if he should meet with no better success than he had the two preceding years, he would then go to the state of New York, where wheat was raised in abundance.

The next year [1816?] an untimely frost destroyed the crops, and being the third year in succession in which the crops had failed, it almost caused a famine. This was enough; my husband was now altogether decided upon going to New York.49

The “untimely frost” of 1816, was a general condition and not merely local to Norwich. The situation which it created has been described in the following account:

Perhaps the heaviest blow which hit Vermont in any of those years was the “cold season” of 1816. On the eighth of June snow fell to a depth of several inches, ice formed on the ponds, leaves froze on the trees, and the growing crops throughout the state were almost completely ruined. Planting had to be begun all over again, and the summer was so cold and dry that almost nothing matured. There was widespread suffering the next winter. What corn there was, was imported [29] from outside the state and sold for three dollars a bushel. One reads of families subsisting on hedgehogs, boiled nettles and clover heads. Something, it seemed, had gone permanently wrong with the weather; and when this cold season piled itself on top of all the preceding afflictions, a good many Vermonters were ready to quit. And who could blame them? At the end of such a long and varied hard luck story, one feels that all the emigration from Vermont—and more too—has been accounted for.50

Joseph Smith, Sr.’s, determination to investigate the prospects of land in the state of New York was common. More than sixty towns in Vermont were losing inhabitants between 1810 and 1820, and the growth of as many more stood practically dormant. During this period, migrations out of the state rose to “flood” proportions. Emigration seems to have reached its peak in the years 1816 and 1817. Northern New York, the Military Tract and the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in Western New York, were among the recipients of this influx from Vermont.51 Stilwell’s portrayal of a typical emigration to Western New York has some interesting parallels, with modifications, to the eventual removal of the Smiths. He reported:

The migration followed the familiar pattern . . . the young man starting out, frequently on foot, for the long hike to the country beyond the Genesee. There they selected lands, began a clearing, and erected enough of a cabin to keep out of the weather. Then back again on foot to Vermont to get their families . . . Usually the women-folk and children were loaded into a sledge in midwinter along with a jumble of food and furniture, farewells were said, and a pair of stout oxen started dragging the whole load through the drifts. The entire journey took about a month. The idea seems to have been to start in February, arriving at the new home before the snow went off and in time for the spring plowing. Sometimes the [30] snow failed, and a wagon had to be bought en route. Once they arrived, the old, brave story of pioneering began again. Some of the earlier cabins, in western New York had no windows; others had no chimneys—the fire being built against the side of the house until it burned through the wall . . . More than one Vermonter arrived in such a state of complete poverty that he was forced to buy his land on credit and pay for it by his own day-labor.52

The newspapers of the day carried frequent advertisement of available lands in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, listing them as “well-timbered, well-watered, easily accessible and undeniably fertile—all to be had on long-term payments for only two or three dollars an acre.”53 Whether it was such an ad, a letter from a Vermonter who had already gone west, the glowing reports of an emigrant returning for his family, or some other source, is not stipulated, but Joseph Smith, Sr., concluded to investigate for himself.

The exact time of Joseph Smith, Sr.’s, departure for the state of New York is not known. However, the date would have undoubtedly been at a time following the birth of a new son, Don Carlos Smith, born at Norwich, Vermont, March 25, 1816,54 and at a juncture when the crops had sufficiently matured to be destroyed by the unseasonable cold. The historian records June 8, 1816, as the date on which snow and freezing conditions virtually destroyed crops throughout the state of [31] Vermont.55 Perhaps this also marks the “untimely frost” spoken of by Lucy and identifies the point at which Father Smith made his determination to investigate conditions in New York.

Joseph Sr., traveled to Palmyra, New York with a Mr. Caleb Howard.56 Having found the circumstances satisfactory, Father Smith directed a “communication” to his family requesting them to make final preparations for the move to Palmyra. A team soon arrived to pick them up. Mr. Howard had been commissioned by Joseph Smith Sr., to return to Vermont and convey his wife and children to their new home. The family went from Norwich, Vermont, to Royalton, and bidding farewell to friends and relatives in that vicinity, they began the arduous journey.57 A vivid insight into the circumstances of their three-hundred mile trip through the snows of 1816, has been left by Joseph Smith, Jr. The author has reproduced the entire account because of its pertinence. Referring first to his bout with typhus fever, Joseph said:

 . . . after I began to get about I went on crutches till I started for the State of New York where my father had gone for the purpose of preparing a place for the removal of his family, which he affected by sending a man after us by the name of Caleb Howard, who, after he had got started on the journey with my mother & family spent the money he had received of my father in drinking & gambling &c.—We fell in with a family by the name of Gates who were traveling west & Howard drove me from the wagon & made me travel in my weak state through the snow, 40 miles per day for several days, during which time I suffered the most excruciating weariness & pain, & all this that Mr. Howard might enjoy the society of two of Mr. Gates’ Daughters which he took on the wagon where I [32] should hive [sic] rode, & this he continued to do day after day through the Journey, & when my brothers remonstrated with Mr. Howard, for his treatment to me, he would knock them down with the butt of his whip. When we arrived at Utica, N. York Howard threw the goods out of the waggon [sic] into the street & attempted to run away with the Horses & waggon [sic] but my mother seized the horses by the reign [sic] & calling witnesses forbid his taking them away as they were not his property. On our way from Utica I was left to ride on the last sleigh in the company (the Gates family were in sleighs) but when that came up I was knocked down by the driver, one of Gates’ Sons, & left to wallow in my blood until a stranger came along, picked me up, & carried me to the Town of Palmyra. —Howard having spent all our funds My Mother was compelled to pay our landlords bills from Utica to Palmyra in bits of cloth, clothing &c. The last payment being made with the drops taken from sister Sophronia’s ears, for that purpose. Although the snow was generally deep through the country during this journey we performed the whole on wheels, except the first two days, when we were accompanied by my mother’s mother, Grandmother Lydia Mack who was injured by the upsetting of the Sleigh, & not wishing to accompany her friends west, tarried by the way with her friends in Vermont, & we soon after heard of her death supposing that she never recovered from the injury received by the overturn of the Sleigh.58

Lucy Mack Smith attested to the deficit of worldly wealth with which they arrived at their destination. She related:

 . . . we in a short time arrived at Palmyra, with a small portion of effects, and barely two cents in cash. When I again met my husband at Palmyra, we were much reduced—not from indolence, but on account of many reverses of fortune, with which our lives had been rather singularly marked. Notwithstanding our misfortunes, and the embarrassments with which we were surrounded, I was quite happy in once more having the society of my husband and in throwing myself and children [33] upon the care and affection of a tender companion and father.59 [34]

Notes

1. Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Miscellaneous Records, Book “A”, p. 129, located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office, Tunbridge, Orange County, Vermont, hereafter cited as Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Miscellaneous Records, Book “A”.

2. Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853), pp. 36–37, hereafter cited as “Lucy Smith.” Where significant changes occur between the 1853 edition and the revised edition of 1902, the writer will make a distinction between the two texts.

3. Land Deeds, Book No.1, p. 208; Land Deeds, Book No. 2, pp. 50, 93, 99, 105, 106, 107, 377 et al., located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office, Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vt. In 1970 only one general store persisted in the small community of Tunbridge. Attempting to identify any remnant of the old mercantile establishment of “Mack and Mudget,” the writer talked to Mrs. Vernon G. Steed who, with her husband had operated “Steed’s IGA” for fifteen years. Mrs. Steed stated that she had been told that their building was at least one hundred and fifty years old. She said that she was unaware of any relationship between the present site and the “Mack and Mudget” firm. Mrs. Steed further indicated that at one time there were four stores in the community, but she did not know how old these other establishments might have been. Personal interview with Mrs. Vernon G. Steed, Tunbridge, Vermont, April 1, 1970.

4. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 45.

5. Land Deeds, Book No.1, p. 324, located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office, Tunbridge, Vt.

6. “Records of Junius F. Wells,” LDS Church Historian’s Office, cited in “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book,” (Unpublished, typescript history), located at the Joseph Smith Memorial, Sharon, Vermont; hereafter cited as “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book.” A “gore” is a term used in Vermont to define a piece of property which lies outside of the legal survey line and, therefore, is not included in the original survey of a particular township. The “Tunbridge Gore” was added to the Township of Tunbridge by legislative act.

7. Land Deeds, Book No. 2, pp. 101, 121, and 211, located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office, Tunbridge, Vt.

8. “Records of Junius F. Wells,” cited in the “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book”. In the company of Glade F. Howell, New England Division Coordinator for the LDS Department of Seminaries and Institutes, and Kenneth R. Myers, Supervisor of Home Study, New England District, the writer visited the “traditional” site of the old Smith homestead at the “Tunbridge Gore,” March 31, 1970. The location was identified by President Robert L. McShinsky, President of the LDS South Royalton Branch. The home currently situated at the site is not the original. Mr. Stanley Sargent, who occupies the present home, informed the writer that the old house had burned down several years ago and a new one had been built in its place. He was unaware of the historical significance attached to the location. He stated that for many years the property was owned by Mr. John F. Bennett, and it is still referred to as the “lower Bennett” place.

Dr. Russell R. Rich, Brigham Young University, informed the writer that Mr. Lewis Middleman, a local historian at Tunbridge, Vermont, believed that the Joseph Smith, Sr., home was not at the site of the Sargent residence, but further east, “where an old hole of a cellar is still visible.” Personal interview with Dr. Russell R. Rich, January 29, 1971.

On March 31, 1970, the author also spoke to Mr. Clark E. Davis, 74 years of age, and former President of the LDS South Royalton Branch. He stated that he first visited the Smith homestead (at the site of the Sargent residence) fifty years ago, and that “the house was small, with a double-pitch roof and attic. It had been remodeled, but was the same basic structure.” Mr. Davis indicated that the significance of the site was impressed on him by Heber C. Smith about twenty years ago.

Heber C. Smith first visited the Joseph Smith Memorial and vicinity in September, 1907, as a guest of Junius F. Wells. He subsequently returned as director of the Memorial, 1919–1924; 1927–1930, and 1946–1955. See “Letter of Heber C. Smith to Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy Archibald, February 12, 1963,” located in the “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book.”

9. Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Miscellaneous Records, Book “A”, p. 188. Asael also had a pew in a community church house, in the village of Tunbridge, which was apparently separate from the Universalist society. A floor plan of this community meeting house shows that Asael owned pew No. 41. See Ibid., pp. 195, 196.

10. Record of Births, marriages, Deaths and Miscellaneous Records, Book “A”, p. 88.

11. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 45.

12. Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Miscellaneous Records, Book “A”, pp. 130, 402. In Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 40, there is an apparent deviation in the dating of Alvin’s birth. In that text the date is recorded as Feb. 11, 1799. However, Book “A”, p. 130, above, dates his birth as Feb. 11, 1798. Lucy Smith’s history was later revised by George A. Smith and Elias Smith and published under the title History of the Prophet Joseph by his Mother Lucy Smith (Salt Lake City: Improvement Era, 1902). Their revision agrees with Book “A”.

13. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 45.

14. Ibid., pp. 47–48.

15. Ibid., p. 48.

16. Ibid., p. 49. The Encyclopedia Britanica states:

Ginseng is the common name of two species of Panax (family Araliaceae), herbs whose roots constitute a drug in China. . . .

The Chinese from time immemorial have considered ginseng to be a cure for most diseases and infirmities. In fact the generic name of the plant, Panax, is derived from Greek words translated as “panacea,” a cure-all. The continued demand for ginseng roots, and especially those roots that may resemble a man in form, is probably due to a belief widely held among the Chinese that ginseng is an aphrodisiac. There is no evidence, however, to indicate that ginseng has any value, either as a drug or as an aphrodisiac. The export of wild ginseng root from America to the orient began in the early 1700s. . . Shipments have continued from that time until the present.

See Encyclopedia Britanica (1970), X, 424.

17. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 49.

18. Ibid., pp. 49–50.The Prophet later stated that his father “was swindled out of the entire proceeds by the shipmaster and agent, he was consequently obliged to sell his farm and all his effects to pay his debts.” See HC, 4:89–90.

19. Ibid., pp. 49–51. The writer has been unable to find any indenture in the name of Joseph Smith which would give the particulars of the sale of the farm. The earliest indenture in Tunbridge involving a “Joseph Smith,” May 12, 1794, describes property in Lot 197 which was not in the “Gore,” but in north Tunbridge, and identifies this “Joseph” as being of Gilmantown, Stafford County, New Hampshire. See Land Deeds, Book No. 2, p. 47, located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office, Tunbridge, Vt.

There were two “Joseph Smith’s” living simultaneously in Tunbridge. Subsequent land transactions reflect only the purchases of the “second” Joseph Smith not the father of the Prophet. See Land Deeds, Book No. 2, p. 510, et al. See also Book “A”, p. 397, which lists the birth of a daughter to a Joseph and Hannah Smith in Tunbridge.

The writer believes that it is possible that there was an interfamily sale or exchange made. As already described, the initial family holdings in Lot 18 were in the name of Asael Smith, with Joseph eventually settling on and working the homestead on shares. It is conceivable that the family purchased his “share” without the need of a legal document showing such a transfer. Joseph and Lucy were apparently still living on the farm as late as May 17, 1803, when a daughter, Sophronia, was born. See Records, Book “A”, p. 402. Again, there appears to be a discrepancy in the printed edition of Lucy Smith, 1853, and that of the records in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office. Lucy’s book, p. 40, designates May 18, 1803 [the 1902 ed., says May 16, 1803], while Book “A” specifies May 17, 1803.

During this period there was an interesting agreement entered into by members of the Smith family involving the mortgage of Lots 10 and 17. This document stipulates the following:

The consideration of the above obligation is such that if I the said Asael Smith do pay or cause to be paid to the said Thomas Emerson (of Topsfield, Mass.) a certain note of hand of this day date signed by me the subscribers & Asael Smith Jr., and Silas Smith for seven hundred dollars payable in one year from the date with the interest then this obligation to be void & of none effect otherwise to remain in full force & virtue. Paul Spooner Asael Smith Jesse Smith June 2, 1803.—See Land Deeds, Book No. 3, p. 69, located in the Tunbridge Town Clerk’s Office. The writer suggests that this transaction could have been entered into in order to raise the capital to purchase Joseph’s “share,” or may be in some way connected with the effort to settle accounts with the “Boston” merchants. However, it may reflect other encumbrances which were taken on by the designated parties.

20. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 56.

21. Land Deeds, Vol. 5, p. 313, located in the Sharon Town Clerk’s Office, Sharon, Vermont. Mrs. Esther J. Drown was the town clerk in 1970. Relative to the movement of Solomon Mack, Sr., from Gilsum, New Hampshire to Tunbridge, Vermont, Archibald F. Bennett indicated that in the Grand Levies of Gilsum “from 1799 on, only the name of Solomon Mack appears. This was Solomon, Jr., who had married in 1797; his father had gone to live in Tunbridge where three of his married children were then residing. . . . The last remaining unmarried child of the family, Daniel Gates Mack, of Montague, Mass., married Sally Ball, of Montague, at Tunbridge, Vt., 27 January, 1799. When Solomon Mack and wife Lydia removed to Tunbridge, they probably lived with these newlyweds. The census of Tunbridge, Vermont, for 1800, lists. . . Solomon Mack with one male in family between 26–45.” The Improvement Era, LIX (January, 1956), 36.

22. Dr. Russell R. Rich, who has made a detailed investigation of the purported Solomon Mack dwelling, informed the writer that he is satisfied from his research that the existing foundation marks the site of the original Mack home. Personal interview with Dr. Russell R. Rich, January 29, 1971.

23. In December, 1969, the LDS Church Historian’s Office received an item of information from Dr. C. S. Evans, M.D., of Salt Lake City, designed to lend an additional note of insight into the birth of Joseph Smith, Jr. The Historian’s Office informed the writer of the following particulars:

During the year 1969, Dr. Evans attended an F.A.A. Seminar in Oklahoma. While in attendance at this seminar he was approached by a Dr. John D. Spring. Noticing that Dr. Evans was from Salt Lake he asked if he was LDS and related the following. (Dr. John D. Spring is a non-member [non-Mormon] from Nashua, New Hampshire). Dr. Spring said that his ancestor, Joseph Gunnison [Joseph Denison], was the doctor that delivered Joseph Smith. He was a country doctor who rode around on horseback and was paid in produce. Dr. Gunnison [Dr. Denison] evidently kept a diary which was in the possession of Dr. Spring’s aunt but has now been thrown away.

—Personal Correspondence of Dean C. Jessee, LDS Church Historian’s Office, to the writer, February 13, 1970.

Upon receipt of this information from Dean Jessee, the writer contacted Glade F. Howell, New England Division Coordinator for the LDS Seminaries and Institutes, and requested that he call on Dr. John D. Spring in Nashua, New Hampshire. Mr. Howell visited Dr. Spring on May 27, 1970. From the following statement, the reader will note that the doctor involved in the account is “Dr. Joseph Denison” rather than the “Dr. Joseph Gunnision” identified in the information supplied the Church Historian’s Office by Dr. C. S. Evans of Salt Lake City. Dr. Spring stated:

I, John D. Spring, M.D., have told a family story concerning Dr. Joseph Denison of South Royalton, Vermont, who delivered Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints. The story was told my mother by her aunt, Mrs. Louise Elder, who had cleared out the house of Dr. Denison after the death of him and his family. The report was bound in his account books of delivering a son for old Joe Smith. Under a later date he had put a note on the same entry saying “If I had known how he was going to turn out I’d have smothered the little cuss.”

John D. Spring M.D.
273 Main St.
Nashua, N.H.

Signature witnessed by

Glade F. Howell
New England Division Coordinator
May 27, 1970.

Dr. Denison is described in the following terms:

Joseph Adams [Adam] Denison, M.D., eldest son of James and Eunice (Stanton) Denison, was born at Stonington, Connecticut, December 22, 1774. He studied medicine with Dr. Gallup [Dr. Benjamin Gallup?] one of the best known and most influential of the early settlers of Vermont. He became a resident of Bethel, Vermont, in 1797, and practiced his profession in that town till 1815, when he removed to Royalton, where he died September 5, 1855. He married, June 9, 1802, in Cornish, New Hampshire to Rachel Chase, who was born January 10, 1774, and died August 3, 1858, in her eighty-fifth year. She was a daughter of Dudley and Alice (Corbett) Chase (see Chase IX). They had nine children, three of whom died in childhood. The six who reached adult age were: Joseph A., George, an Episcopal minister, who died at Keokuk, Iowa; James, an attorney, who died at San Antonio, Texas; Alice (deceased) who married David W. Grant; Rachel C., who resided in Royalton, and Dudley C., a prominent lawyer of Royalton.—Ezra S. Stearns (ed.), Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire, (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), I, 311.

Bethel, Windsor County, Vermont, is located twelve miles northwest of Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont. For an extended genealogy of Dr. Jo Adam Denison,” see Evelyn M. Wood Lovejoy, History of Royalton, Vermont, with Family Genealogies, 1769–1911 (Burlington: Free Press Printing Company, 1911), pp. 749–752.

Unfortunately, the corroborative records of Dr. Denison himself have been “thrown away.” However, from the supportive statement of Dr. Spring, above, it is possible that the attendant physician at the birth of Joseph Smith, Jr., has been found.

24. To authoritatively locate the town line would require a vote at a town meeting by each town, Sharon and Royalton, and the appropiation of the necessary funds. To set the county line officially, would require an act of the Vermont Legislature authorizing the action and the appropriation of the necessary funds for the survey. Without getting involved in a “surveyor’s” controversy, the writer merely cites the comment of the LDS South Royalton Branch President, Robert L. McShinsky, who stated:

The bedroom in which Joseph was born was in Sharon township, while the remainder of the home was in Royalton township. The township line runs on an angle past the corner of the doorstep, through the reflecting pool and past the flagpole.”—Personal interview with Pres. Robert L. McShinsky, Sharon, Vermont, March 31, 1970.

Today the new director’s cottage is in South Royalton, while the monument and bureau are in Sharon township. A short distance west of the memorial is a beautiful chapel belonging to the LDS South Royalton Branch, Vermont District. It was dedicated June 27, 1965. In 1970 the branch had a membership of 345.

25. Land Deeds, Book 18, pp. 524–525, located in the office of the Town Clerk of Sharon, Vermont, and also in Book Y, page 14, of the Town Clerk of Royalton, Vermont.

26. See, Figure 1, p. 22. The original photograph, taken about 1905, was given to Elder and Sister LeRoy Archibald, missionary couple at the Joseph Smith Memorial, by Ruth R. Lombard, of Milton, Vermont, March 19, 1964. The frame in which the picture is housed, has been made from a branch of the tree in the center of the picture. The photograph originally belonged to her father.

27. Miscellaneous Record Book, Vol. 1, pp. 50–51. For the complete statement, see Appendix A. See also, Testimony of Harvey Smith, November 14, 1905, Misc. Rec. Bk., Vol. 1, pp. 49–50 and testimony of Maria N. Griffith, November 16, 1905, Misc. Rec. Bk., Vol. 1, pp. 52–53, located in the office of the Town Clerk of Sharon, Vermont.

28. The specific measurement of the shaft’s thirty-eight and one-half feet is reminiscent of one foot for each year of Joseph’s life. Thirty-eight spruce trees have also been planted at the site by the Vermont District priesthood members, one for each year of Joseph’s life.

29. Proceedings at the Dedication of the Joseph Smith Memorial Monument at Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, etc., December 23, 1905 ([Salt Lake]: Deseret New, n.d.), p. 15.

30. A metal plaque designates the spot from which the hearthstone was removed from placement in the Bureau of Information. The inscription read:

Birth place of Joseph Smith the Prophet, December 23, 1805–June 27, 1844. This plaque marks the place in the old Solomon Mack home where rested the family hearthstone (27 x 54 inches) now preserved in the new Bureau of Information 200 feet southeast from here. Around this hearthstone and its glowing fireplace, two days before Christmas 1805, the Smith family washed, dressed and cuddled the future organizer of “God’s Kingdom Restored”—December 23, 1963.

31. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 56.

32. Ibid., pp. 56, 58–60.

33. Personal interview with Dr. Russell R. Rich, January 29, 1971. Dr. Rich stated that he had obtained his information from Mrs. Dehlia Edson of West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Mrs. Edson’s daughter, Louise, had learned of the Smith’s residence in West Lebanon while visiting with a Miss Fannie Alden who lived to be more than one hundred years old. Miss Alden’s parents had owned an inn near the farm which the Smiths rented in Lebanon township.

34. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 41.

35. Ibid., p. 60.

36. Frederick Chase, A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire (to 1815), (Brattleboro, Vermont: The Vermont Printing Co., 1928), pp. 634–635, located in the Baker Memorial Library, Dartmouth College Libraries, Hanover, New Hampshire.

37. Personal correspondence of the Kenneth C. Cramer, Archivist, Baker Memorial Library, Dartmouth College Libraries, Hanover, New Hampshire, with the writer, April 28, 1970. In an accompanying pen diagram, Mr. Cramer further identified a plot immediately west of the junction of modern-day (1970) Main and Wentworth Streets as the site of the Charity School. Moor’s School was closed in 1849. See Leon Burr Richardson, History of Dartmouth College. (Brattleboro, Vt.: The Stephen Daye Press, 1932), Vol. II, p. 419.

38. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p.60.

39. Ibid.

40. Joseph Smith, “Manuscript History of the Church,” Book A-1, Note A, p. 131, located in the LDS Church Historian’s Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, hereafter cited as Joseph Smith, “MS History of the Church,” Book A-1. In this same treatise, Joseph Smith, Jr., stipulated that he was five years of age, or thereabouts at the time of the operation, Ibid., p. 131. See also Lucy Smith, op. cit., pp. 62–65.

41. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 65.

42. Rev. Charles A. Downs, History of Lebanon, N.H., 1761–1887 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Co., 1908, p. 240.

43. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 64.

44. Thinking that Dr. Stone might have been a member of the faculty or a student of Dartmouth College, the writer visited that institution and was informed by Mr. Walter Wright, Chief of Special Collections, Baker Library, Dartmouth, that their first medical graduate with the name of Stone was in 1826. Personal interview with Walter Wright, March 30, 1970. A survey of their records revealed no faculty member by the name of Stone nor could he be found in the local histories provided in the Lebanon Public Library, Lebanon, N.H.

45. Mr. Kenneth C. Cramer, Archivist, Baker Memorial Library, Dartmouth College, informed the writer that two early staff members of that institution fit the situation relative to time and circumstance, Dr. Nathan Smith and Dr. Cyrus Perkins. Mr. Cramer provided personal sketches of the lives of these men. See Appendix B herein. Mr. Cramer also examined the daybooks of these doctors but could not find conclusive proof of any visits to the home of Joseph Smith, Sr. However, it is possible that subsequent examination of those records may yet prove valuable in establishing the exact time of the devastating sickness among the Smith family and of their residence in West Lebanon.

46. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 66. The writer believes that they probably remained in Lebanon at least through the harvest season of 1813, before making their removal to Norwich.

47. 47. Ibid. Lucy Smith identified the landlord as “Esquire Moredock,” while another source calls him “Squire Murdock.” See “Records of Junius F. Wells,” p. 2, cited in the “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book.” [Since the completion of this dissertation in 1971 the writer has found that the landlord was Squire Constant Murdock, see LaMar C. Berrett, et al., Sacred Places: New England and Eastern Canada (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1999), 94–96.]

48. “Records of Junius F. Wells,” p. 2, cited in the “Joseph Smith Memorial History Book.”

49. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 66.

50. Stilwell, op. cit., pp. 129–130. For the effects of this cold spell in Seneca County, New York, see “The Cold Summer of 1816,” “Historical Scrapbook #2, 1875–19—,” p. 16, located in the Waterloo Library & Historical Society, Waterloo, New York.

51. Ibid., pp. 125, 134–135, 139.

52. Stilwell, op. cit., pp. 140–141.

53. Ibid., p. 135.

54. Patriarchal Blessing Record Book, Vol. 2, p. 12, located in the LDS Church Historian’s Office, Salt Lake City, Utah. This blessing was given by Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr., on the head of his son, Don Carlos Smith, September 15, 1835. The date and place of birth are given in connection with the blessing.

55. Stilwell, op. cit., p. 129.

56. Joseph Smith, “MS History of the Church,” Book A-1, Note A, p. 131.

57. Lucy Smith, op. cit., pp. 67–69.

58. Joseph Smith, “MS History of the Church,” Book A-1, Note A, pp. 131–132. Archiblad F. Bennett commented, “She died about 1818, presumably in Tunbridge or Royalton, but no gravestone inscription to her name has been located after diligent search.” See “Solomon Mack and His Family,” The Improvement Era, LIX (January, 1956), 37. Lucy Mack Smith asserted:

My aged mother, who had lived with us [at Norwich, Vermont] some time, assisted in preparing for the journey. She came with us to Royalton, where she resided until she died, which was two years afterwards, in consequence of an injury which she received by getting upset in a waggon while travelling with us . . . my mother went to Daniel Mack’s, with whom she afterwards lived until her decease.

—Lucy Smith, op. cit., pp. 68–69.

59. Lucy Smith, op. cit., p. 70.