麻豆APP

Top 10 Facts about Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader who founded Mormonism and the Latter-Day Saint movement.

He is best known for translating the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Members of the Church believe that he was led to a heal near Palmyra, New York, receiving an ancient record from Angel Moroni.

Joseph Smith was born on the border of South Royalton and Sharon Vermont on December 23, 1805. He was named after his father Joseph Smith Sr., a merchant and a farmer.

His mother, Lucky Mack Smith, is noted for being an important leader of the movement during Joseph鈥檚 life. He had ten siblings.

1. Joseph Smith鈥檚 fourth surgery saved his leg

There was a major typhoid outbreak in New England between 1811 and 1814. Joseph Smith suffered terrible fevers due to typhoid which caused an abscess in his shoulder. The first surgery doctors lanced his shoulder to drain it out of infected material.

The bacteria from the shoulder abscess are assumed to have spread through his bloodstream into the tibia of his left leg. Eventually, the infected leg began to swell. The second surgery was done after three weeks of excruciating pain felt by Joseph on his infected leg. Dr Stone, a surgeon from Hannover, made an eight-inch incision between Joseph鈥檚 knee and ankle. 

As the incision healed, Joseph was still in distress. The third surgery was performed making a longer incision. Unfortunately, the swelling continued to rise as the healing progressed.

The fourth surgery was an experimental one. It involved cutting through new bone growth to extract the infected bone from the interior cavity. This was unheard of in America and they relied on amputation for such cases.

Dr Nathan Smith, the primary surgeon, performed the difficult leg surgery. Nine large pieces of bone were removed during the surgery. Another fourteen pieces that had made their way to the wound’s surface were also removed.

2. Joseph Smith had several heavenly visions

Joseph Smith Photo By Bathsheba W. Smith –

Before becoming a spiritual prophet, Joseph experienced several visions that he claimed to be from God.  

In his first spiritual trance, Joseph Smith recorded that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. He asked them, 鈥淥f all the churches in the world, which is the right one?鈥� As stated by Smith, both answered that all the churches were wrong.

After the first heavenly mission, according to Smith, an angel of God came to him in a dream. Angel Moroni is believed to have visited Joseph on numerous occasions. He inspired Smith to write the Book of Mormon which according to religious critics is very similar to the Bible.

3. Joseph Smith was arrested six times in one day

Arrest Photo By OpenClipart on

Joseph Smith is said to be subjected to approximately thirty criminal actions during his life and is reported to have been arrested at least forty-two times.

On July 27, 1837, Joseph Smith set out from Kirkland to visit the Saints in Canada. He first got arrested by the sheriff in Painesville on some spurious charges. Luckily, he was released for lack of evidence.

He was arrested again and this happened six times before the day was even over. Each time the charges were dropped and after the last, Joseph postponed his to the following day. He turned and returned to Kirtland.

4. Joseph Smith ran for President

Joseph Smith Photo By William Armitage –

Joseph Smith began to seek out which presidential candidate to support when Mormons were persecuted due to their religious beliefs. He sent out many letters but no candidate was willing to support his cause.

This made him decide to run for the President of the United States with Sidney Rigdon as his vice-presidential running mate. 

In his campaign platform, Smith proposed to gradually end slavery, reduce the size of the congress, re-establish a national bank, reform prisons and authorize the federal government to protect the liberties of Latter-Day Saints and other minorities.

His political stands were eye-opening and this made him grow in strength and many feared he would win the 1844 Presidential elections. However, Smith鈥檚 Presidential campaign abruptly ended on 27th June due to an unexpected tragedy.

5. He had more than 30 wives

After Joseph took over the Bible, Mormons were allowed to have multiple wives. They based their argument on Abraham, a Biblical character, who had multiple wives.

Smith was involved in polygamy justifying himself using the Bible and history shows that he had up to 40 wives in total.

Some of his wives were underaged and others were married to someone else. Interestingly, some of his followers were married to his followers, and Smith didn’t seem to mind, and his followers didn’t seem to mind either.

6. Joseph raked up over 200 Lawsuits

Judge gavel Photo By QuinceCreative on

Joseph Smith was constantly persecuted by the public and the press due to his religious beliefs. He was involved in legal cases in more than four U.S. states and one U.S. territory.

Smith鈥檚 Papers show that he was involved in more than 200 cases in which he was a plaintiff, defendant, witness or judge. He actively defended the Church鈥檚 right to exist and its right to own property.

7. Joseph kept his practice of polygamy a secret

Polygamy at the time was illegal in the United States. Joseph Smith who was polygamous unveiled his secret to a privileged few.

There is no secret between two people, and his secret was leaked from one person to another over the years until it was published in the press.

Enraged, Joseph sent his followers to destroy the press that printed out the news to keep his secret from being spread.

8. Joseph moved over ten times during persecution

The United States was deeply Christian, and many of its citizens disagreed with Mormonism’s doctrines and principles. Christianity highly discouraged polygamy which on the other hand was allowed in Mormonism.

Joseph had to move from house to house nearly 14 times to avoid persecution. Considering his childhood, Smith moved from state to state 20 times!

9. He made false prophecies

Joseph Smith made numerous prophecies about the United States, the coming of the Lord, and the construction of the Temple.

His prophecy on the destruction of the United States failed. He also made a prophecy for the coming of the Lord in 1835. According to Smith, the Lord was to return in 56 years but in 1891, the Lord’s Coming was still a story.

He also predicted the construction of a Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, which was never completed due to Mormon persecution. Another prophecy unfulfilled.

10. Joseph was killed in cold blood

Joseph Smith’s grave Photo By Cambene –

When Joseph Smith ran for president, he was frequently threatened by his opponents, who eventually decided to carry out their plot. They tried to get him arrested several times but they never got a sufficient reason.

They eventually claimed he committed treason, knowing full well that bail would be denied for such an offence. Smith was arrested as a result and taken to jail, where he was accompanied by his brother and other associates.

On June 27, 1844, while Smith was awaiting trial, a drunken mob was hired to assassinate him.