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- Founder and First President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormons). Born in Sharon, Vermont, his parents, Joseph and Lucy Smith, operated a farm. When the farm failed, Joseph Senior moved the family to Palmyra, New York, hoping to do better. Near poverty nearly all their lives, the children had to work early to support the family, and as a result, their education suffered. At the age of 14, Joseph announced that he had seen a vision of God and Jesus Christ. Some years later, Joseph unearthed golden plates on a local hillside, and these plates would later be translated as the Book of Mormon. After printing and distributing copies of the Book of Mormon in the Upstate New York region, Smith gathered a small core of followers and founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Fayette, New York on April 6, 1830. Smith, his wife Emma, and several followers moved to Kirtland, Ohio, Far West, Missouri, and finally Nauvoo, Illinois to avoid religious persecution. After destroying a newspaper operation that printed negative material about him and his church, Joseph was arrested for "suppression of freedom of the press" and imprisoned at the Carthage Jail. On June 27, 1844, a mob of 200 men stormed the jail and murdered Joseph and his brother Hyrum. The brothers were buried together at their family homesite in Nauvoo, Illinois. Brigham Young became the next President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (bio by: Carla Fehr)
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1805 - 1844 (38 years)
