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Joseph Smith, Sr. (1771-1840) was the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates and was the first Presiding Patriarch of the early Latter Day Saint church. Early life Joseph Smith, Sr. was born on July 12, 1771 in Topsfield, Massachusetts to Asael Smith and Mary Duty. He married Lucy Mack in Tunbridge, Vermont on January 24, 1795, and had eleven children with her. Smith tried his hands at several professions, including farmer, teacher, shop-keeper, none of which proved very successful. He moved his family to Palmyra, New York in 1816 and began to make payments on a farm located on the edge of neighboring Manchester Township. Work on a frame house at the farm was halted by the unexpected death of Smith's eldest son, Alvin, in 1823. Smith subsequently failed to make payments on the farm. Lemuel Durfee purchased it as a favor to the family and allowed the Smiths to continue there as renters through 1830. Smith showed little interest in religion and was content to allow his wife control over the religious upbringing of their children. This indifference bothered Lucy very much. After much prayer, she received a divine witness that her husband would some day accept "the pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God." (Smith, 56) Smith did have visionary dreams with highly symbolic content, obviously related to his ambivalence about religious faith and sometimes presaging events to come. These dreams continued after the family's move to Palmyra, New York, until he had had seven in all; Lucy remembers five well enough to quote in detail. (Smith) Book of Mormon In the late 1820s, Smith's son, Joseph Jr., began to tell the family about Golden Plates, which he said contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. In September of 1827, Joseph Jr. obtained the plates, which Joseph Sr. testified he felt and lifted while wrapped in cloth. In the following years, Joseph Jr. claimed to translate the plates into English through the use of the Urim and Thummim, a sacred device given to him by an angel of God. When the work was near completion, at the end of June 1829, Joseph Sr., and seven other men signed a joint statement, testifying that they had both lifted the plates and seen the engravings on the plates. Known as the "Testimony of the Eight Witnesses," this statement was published with the first edition of the Book of Mormon and has been a part of nearly all subsequent editions. Joseph Smith Sr. was baptised as one of six founding members, when the Church of Christ (as the Latter Day Saint church was first known) was organized on April 6, 1830. When Joseph Jr. saw Joseph Sr. come up out of the water, he is reported to have cried, "Oh, my God! Have I lived to see my own father baptised into the true church of Jesus Christ!" Presiding Patriarch In January 1831, Joseph Smith Sr. and his family moved to the church's new headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio. He was ordained to be the church's first Presiding Patriarch on December 18, 1833. Likening his father to Adam, the Joseph Smith, Jr. said, "So shall it be with my father; he shall be called a prince over his posterity, holding the keys of the patriarchal priesthood over the kingdom of God on earth, even the Church of the Latter Day Saints" (quoted in Bates and Smith, page 34). As part of his new role, Joseph Smith Sr. presided in council meetings, ordained other patriarchs and administered Patriarchal Blessings. On December 6, 1834, Smith was also made an Assistant President of the church. Deathbed blessings Smith moved with his family to Far West, Missouri in 1838 and from there to the church's new headquarters at Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839. Old age and illnesses had taken their toll and by the end of summer 1840, Smith realized he was dying. He called his family around him to administer patriarchal blessings. He blessed his wife: "Mother, do you not know that you are the mother of as great a family as ever lived upon the earth. . . . They are raised up to do the Lord's work" (Smith, chap. 52). He blessed and ordained his eldest surviving son, Hyrum to succeed to the office of Presiding Patriarch by right of lineage. Joseph Smith, Sr. died on September 14, 1840, continuing to affirm his testimony in the Book of Mormon. http://en.wikipedia.org
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