Mormonism in the 19th century explained

This is a chronology of Mormonism. In the late 1820s, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, announced that an angel had given him a set of golden plates engraved with a chronicle of ancient American peoples, which he had a unique gift to translate. In 1830, he published the resulting narratives as the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ in western New York, claiming it to be a restoration of early Christianity.

Moving the church to Kirtland, Ohio in 1831, Joseph Smith attracted hundreds of converts, who were called Latter Day Saints. He sent some to Jackson County, Missouri to establish a city of Zion. In 1833, Missouri settlers expelled the Saints from Zion, and Smith's paramilitary expedition to recover the land was unsuccessful. Fleeing an arrest warrant in the aftermath of a Kirtland financial crisis, Smith joined his remaining followers in Far West, Missouri, but tensions escalated into violent conflicts with the old Missouri settlers. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered their expulsion from Missouri, and Smith was imprisoned on capital charges.

After escaping state custody in 1839, Smith directed the conversion of a swampland into Nauvoo, Illinois, where he became both mayor and commander of a nearly autonomous militia. In 1843, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. The following year, after the Nauvoo Expositor criticized his power and such new doctrines as plural marriage, Smith and the Nauvoo city council ordered the newspaper's destruction as a nuisance. In a futile attempt to check public outrage, Smith first declared martial law, then surrendered to the governor of Illinois. He was killed by a mob while awaiting trial in Carthage, Illinois.

After the death of the Smiths, a succession crisis occurred in the Latter Day Saint movement. Hyrum Smith, the Assistant President of the Church, was intended to succeed Joseph as President of the Church,^[1] but because he was killed with his brother, the proper succession procedure became unclear. Initially, the primary contenders to succeed Joseph Smith were Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Young, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, claimed authority was handed by Smith to the Quorum of the Twelve. Rigdon was the senior surviving member of the First Presidency, a body that led the church since 1832. At the time of the Smiths' deaths, Rigdon was estranged from Smith due to differences in doctrinal beliefs. Strang claimed that Smith designated him as the successor in a letter that was received by Strang a week before Smith's death. Later, others came to believe that Smith's son, Joseph Smith III, was the rightful successor under the doctrine of Lineal succession.

Several schisms resulted, with each claimant attracting followers. The majority of Latter Day Saints followed Young; these adherents later emigrated to Utah Territory and continued as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Rigdon's followers were known as Rigdonites, some of which later established The Church of Jesus Christ. Strang's followers established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). In the 1860s, those who felt that Smith should have been succeeded by Joseph Smith III established the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which later changed its name to Community of Christ.

Under Brigham Young, the LDS Church orchestrated a massive overland migration of Latter-day Saint pioneers to Utah, by wagon train and, briefly, by handcart. The Apostles directed missionary preaching in Europe and the United States, gaining more converts who then gathered to frontier Utah. In its remote settlement, the church governed civil affairs and made public its practice of plural marriage (polygamy). As the federal government asserted greater control over Utah, relations with the Mormons enflamed, leading to the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Mormon polygamy became a major political issue, with federal legislation and judicial rulings curtailing Mormon legal protections and delegitimizing the church. Eventually, the church issued a manifesto discontinuing polygamy, which paved the way to Utah statehood and realignment with mainstream American society.

17th Century

• Joseph Smith's earliest confirmed paternal ancestor Robert Smith is born. He was possibly born in 1626. He is first recorded in 1638 in Boston, Mass. as an indentured servant. DNA shows Joseph Smith was Irish The ancestry of the Smith family before then is uncertain, but DNA testing suggests Irish or Scottish roots.

18th Century

• Jason Mack, Joseph Smith's great uncle, and brother of Solomon Mack sets up a religious community in Canada.

1730s

• Solomon Mack, grandfather of Joseph Smith, is born.

1750s

• Solomon Mack takes part in the French and Indian War.

1770s

• Solomon Mack takes part in the American Revolutionary War, the separatist rebellion against British rule.

1790s

1791

• Smith's aunt Lovisa Mack Tuttle, after a two-year illness, is miraculously healed. Returning from a near death experience, she tells of a vision in which Jesus spoke through a veil and told her to "warn the people to prepare for death" and to "declare faithfully unto them their accountability before God".

1796

• January 24: Smith's parents Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith are married in Tunbridge, Vermont, by Seth Austin.
• Smith's grandfather Asael Smith states in a letter that "I believe that the stone is now cut out of the mountain without hands, spoken by Daniel, and has smitten the image upon his feet."

1797

• Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith have an unnamed baby child, who dies. There is disagreement on whether this was a boy or a girl.
• December 6: Joseph Sr., his father Asael, his brother Jesse, and fourteen others form a Universalist Society.

1798

• February 11: Smith's brother Alvin Smith is born in Tunbridge, Vermont.

1799

• April 10: Smith's grandfather Asael Smith writes a letter to his family, intended to be read after his death, articulating his belief in universal salvation, warning them not to look to outward formalities of religion. Asael Smith, however, was a pew holder of the local Congregational church, a church known at the time for having preachers who taught Christian Universalism and Unitarian theology.

1800s

1800

• February 9: Smith's brother Hyrum Smith is born in Tunbridge, Vermont.
• August 4 – May 4, 1801: The Smith family may not have been counted during the 1800 U.S. census. Although there are "Joseph Smith" families in both Tunbridge and Poultney, Vermont, neither of them match in ages and children with the family of Joseph and Lucy Smith.
• 1800–02: Smith Sr. may have moved temporarily to or visited Poultney, Vermont, 50 miles from Tunbridge, according to residents who said he lived there "at the time of the Wood movement here".
• spring or early summer: A counterfeiter named (Justus?)^[2] Winchell organizes a dowsing company to dig for money in Middletown and Rutland, Vermont. Winchell associates with Nathaniel Wood, who had founded the New Israelites some years earlier, whose religious elements included temple building, divination, polygamy, and the idea that they were literal descendants of the Israelites. Among the company is Warren Cowdery Jr., the father of Oliver Cowdery, the dowser who became Smith's scribe in 1829. According to interviews conducted by a local historian, Joseph Smith Sr. was also part of the New Israelites, and was one of its "leading rods-men." There is no historical consensus linking Smith Sr. to the New Israelites; however, James C. Brewster reported that Smith claimed that his money digging career began during this decade or earlier.^[3]

1802

• January 14: The New Israelites, having prophesied this day as the end of the world, are confronted by local militia. This is known as the "Wood Scrape". The militia fires their weapons to disperse the "Fraternity of Rodsmen".
• about spring: Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith rent out their farm in Tunbridge, Vermont, and move to the more urban Randolph, Vermont, to set up a merchant shop. They operate with $1,800 in goods on credit from merchants in Boston.
• Soon after moving to Randolph, Smith Sr. speculates on a shipment of ginseng, which he sends from the port in New York City to China.
• about fall or winter: Six months after moving to Randolph, Lucy contracts tuberculosis.
• 1802–03: While deathly ill, Lucy has a religious conversion after she believes she hears the voice of God. She said that she perceived her "mind at one time raising gradually, borne away to Heaven above all then reverting back again to my babes and my Companion at my side", after which she promised God that if she would live, she would try to find religion, and then heard a voice saying "Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you let your heart be comforted ye believe in God believe [sic] also in me". Lucy tries to find a religious home, but is unhappy with several ministers; therefore, she concludes that "there is not on Earth the religion which I seek I must again turn to my bible taking Jesus and his deciples [sic] for an ensample".

1803

• A large Christian revival sweeps across Vermont and Connecticut.
• about 1803: After the ship returns from China with the proceeds from the sale of Smith Sr.'s ginseng (a round trip that might have taken about a year), the earnings are stolen by a Royalton merchant who flees to Canada.
• Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith move from Royalton back to Tunbridge, Vermont.
• The Smiths must sell their farm in Tunbridge to cover their debts to Boston merchants, and they thereafter become poor tenants.
• May 17: Smith's sister Sophronia is born in Tunbridge.
• 1803–04: Lucy attends meetings at a Methodist church, and Smith Sr. "went a few times to gratify [Lucy] for he had so little faith in the doctrines taught by them that my feelings were the only inducement for him to go".
• 1803–04: Hearing that Joseph Sr. is attending Methodist meetings, Smith's Universalist grandfather Asael Smith appears at his door, throws Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, into the house, and angrily demands that Smith Sr. read it until he believes it. He also suggests that Smith Sr. ought not let Lucy attend the meetings. As a result, the Smiths stop attending Methodist church meetings.
• 1803–04: Lucy Mack Smith visits a grove near Tunbridge to pray about her husband's rejection of organized religion. When she returns home and goes to sleep that night, she has a vision that Smith Sr. would eventually accept the "pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God."

1804

• about 1804: The Smiths move from Tunbridge to Royalton, Vermont, where they "resided a few months".
• August 27: Smith's maternal grandfather Solomon Mack purchases property in Sharon, Vermont.
• 1804–05: Joseph Sr. and Lucy move to Sharon, Vermont, where they rent the farm of Lucy's father while Joseph Sr. cultivates crops in the summer and teaches school in the winter. Solomon Mack likely lives with them.

1805

• December 23: Smith is born in Sharon, Vermont, to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. Vermont residents recall that Smith Sr. told them the young Joseph was born with a caul (a sign of good luck), and that Smith Sr. "intended to procure a stone for [him] to see all over the world with".

1806

• May 3: Smith Sr. witnesses a land transaction between his in-laws Solomon Mack and Daniel G. Mack in Sharon, Vermont.

1807

• April 1: In the court of Windsor County, Vermont, a person is convicted of passing counterfeit money to "Joseph Smith".
• April 16: A second person is convicted of passing counterfeit money to "Joseph Smith".
• Sharon resident George Downer is convicted of passing two counterfeit bills the previous spring. There is some tenuous evidence, based in part on a descendant of the counterfeiter against whom Smith Sr. testified on April 1, that Smith Sr. was an accomplice in that case who avoided conviction by turning state's evidence.^[4]
• Smith family moves from Sharon back to Tunbridge, Vermont.
• October 15: Smith Sr., his brother Jesse, and other Tunbridge residents petition the Vermont legislature for an exemption from providing their own military equipment as members of the Vermont militia.

1808

• March 13: Smith's brother Samuel is born in Tunbridge, Vermont.
• 1808–10: Smith family moves from Tunbridge to Royalton, Vermont.
• 1808–10: Smith possibly attends school on Dewey Hill, taught by Deacon John Rinney, although he may have been too young.

1810s

1810

• March 13: Smith's brother Ephraim is born in Royalton, Vermont.
• March 24: Ephraim Smith dies.
• winter of 1810–11: A Christian revival occurs in the towns around Royalton, Vermont. Smith Sr. becomes "much excited upon the subject of religion" and "contended" for a restoration of primitive Christianity.

1811

• spring 1811: Smith's maternal grandfather Solomon Mack, after being ill all winter in Sharon, Vermont, and after searching the scriptures and praying, sees a vision and later hears a voice. He is converted to evangelical Calvinism and denounces Universalism.
• March 13: Smith's brother William is born in Royalton, Vermont.
• April:^[5] Joseph Smith Sr. tells his family about his first vision. He sees a field representing the barrenness of true religion upon the earth, and he sees a log containing a box. His spirit guide tells him that if he eats the contents of the box, he will be filled with "wisdom and understanding". He raises the lid of the box, but is unable to eat its contents because "all manner of beasts, horned cattle, and roaring animals, rose up on every side in the most threatening manner possible". Based on the vision, Smith Sr. concludes, more than ever, that there is no true religion on the earth. He would have six other visions between 1811 and 1819.
• after May 11:^[6] After selling his property in Sharon, Vermont, and moving to live with Smith's uncle Daniel in Royalton, Smith's maternal grandfather Solomon Mack self-publishes a booklet describing his heavenly visions and voices of the previous winter: .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• , reprinted from .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• . See Book of Mormon.
• .
• .
• . See Doctrine and Covenants.
• , copied to .
• .
• . See The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .

Notes and References

1. [Bruce R. McConkie]
2. Quinn argues that the Winchell referred to is Justus Winchell, born 1755. . Another possibility could be his first cousin Nathaniel Winchell.
3. Brewster stated that in 1837, Smith Sr. boasted that "I know more about money-digging than any man in this generation for I have been in the business for more than thirty years!"
4. See (noting the evidence is weak, but arguing that it favors the involvement of Smith Sr. given that court records verify there was an unnamed accomplice who testified against Downer). But see (discounting the evidence; Brooke notes that Brodie does not mention the court records showing there was an unnamed accomplice witness).
5. ("In April 1811, a month after William was born....").
6. The book's publication probably occurred after May 11, when Mack received money from the sale of his farm in Sharon, Vermont .