Joseph: Prophecy Fulfilled

By Maureen Chaffin

Foretold since the time of Enoch is a prophet of the last days named Joseph, who would restore prophecy, priesthood, temples; and bring forth a New Torah - the Stick of Joseph. This is the incredible true story of that Joseph, born in 1805, who grew to manhood in the untamed wilderness of the American frontier. At the age of 14 his life was indelibly altered when he received a vision; wherein the Lord called Joseph to do a marvelous work and a wonder, re-establish the Kingdom of God, and prepare the way for the Coming of the Messiah. The Adversary, enraged at this threat to his reign and realm, rose up in his wrath and viciously sought to destroy Joseph. Thus, began Joseph's extraordinary efforts to accomplish the Lord's commands, while desperately struggling to elude the murderous hands of his nefarious foes. And in so doing, Joseph unknowingly fulfilled ancient Hebrew prophecy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: May 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781478797388

Maureen Chaffin

Born in Colorado, Maureen Chaffin also lived in the mountains of Wyoming and S. Dakota, but married a cowboy who loves the desert. What is left of the Chaffin homeplace farm/ranch is west of Grand Junction CO. In the early years they had an eight-party telephone line, no television, and farmed such remote places that they packed in our water, cooked on a campfire, and slept on the tentless ground. Her four children labored in the fields with her.

Book preview

1. THE BOY JOSEPH

The measure of a man begins in his boyhood. – M. Chaffin

Isaiah 48.10 "…refined thee…in the furnace of poverty."

I am Joseph, and this is my history.

It is a tale of woe, fraught with peril, trials, and affliction; entwined with heavenly visions, sacrifice and love. It is an account of my life, which no man knows, written to put seekers of truth in possession of the facts. It is a story I too wouldst doubt, save that I lived it.¹.

Yet now, mine enemies are conspiring to murder me and my days art numbered; I must, therefore, hasten the narrative.

I wasn’t always hated. Indeed, as a youth I wast². looked up to, and my father respected. But even then, for some unbeknownst reason, I seemed destined to a life of suffering.*

I wast born in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five, on the twenty-third day of December, to Lucy Mack Smith³. and Joseph Smith, Sr.⁴. in Sharon, Vermont. Though I am their fourth son, I beareth the namesake of my father, and strive always to wear it with honor.⁵.

My first paternal ancestor to leave the British Isles⁶. for America ‘twas Robert Smith,⁷. who arrived in Massachusetts in 1638,⁸. settling in Toppsfield.⁹. There the Smith families remained until 1791, when my Grandfather Asael Smith,¹⁰. who served during the American Revolution,¹¹. became the object of sectarian intolerance - especially after giving shelter in his home to a Quaker, who as a people were despised and persecuted – and moved, along with his wife and eleven children, first to northern New Hampshire, thence to Tunbridge Vermont,* where, with the aid of his sons, he cleared a large farm from virgin forest.

In 1669, my maternal ancestor, John Mack, born in Inverness, Scotland¹². from a long line of clergymen, sailed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in Lyme, Connecticut. My Grandfather Solomon Mack¹³. fought in the French and Indian War, and too, the American Revolution.¹⁴. As my grandfathers dandled me on their knees, their love of God and liberty diffused into my soul.

My mother, Lucy Mack, met my father whilst visiting her brother Stephen Mack¹⁵. in Tunbridge.

Father was over six feet tall, powerfully built, a champion wrestler, taught music by note, and owned a handsome farm. They married¹⁶. in January 1796,¹⁷. and farmed successfully for six years, during which time my brothers Alvin¹⁸. and Hyrum were born and my sister Sophronia; their happiness was marred only by the loss of their first child, a son who died shortly after birth.

Then father rented out his farm, and they moved to Randolph Vermont and opened a mercantile establishment. It ‘twas there that my mother was diagnosed with consumption;¹⁹. the very disease from which her two older sisters had died. When one and all gave mother up for dead, she made a solemn covenant with God to serve Him, her family, and to search for the true religion for the rest of her life, if He wouldst but spare her. The Lord accepted mother’s promise, and she lived.

Father continued merchandising, and, having ascertained that crystallized ginseng root sold at a very high rate in China,²⁰. he concluded to embark in traffic of this article, and consequently made an investment of all the means by which he commanded and couldst borrow in order to crystallize and export the root. When father obtained a quantity of the same, Mr. Stevens, a merchant from Royalton, offered father three-thousand dollars for the crop. But father declined and instead went to New York himself and there didst arrange shipment to China. Mr. Stevens followed and had his son represent the ginseng cargo. Some while later, Stevens the younger returned with the vessel, and told father a plausible tale that the sale had been a perfect failure, and gave father only a small chest of tea.

Young Stevens rented a warehouse from mother’s brother, Major Stephen Mack, and employed eight or ten hands for crystallizing ginseng. Erstwhile,²¹. my uncle went to see him and found young Stevens in his cups.²². Being thus under the influence of liquor, young Stevens took my uncle by the hand and led him to a large trunk filled with heaping amounts of silver and gold. ‘There, sir,’ observed he, ‘are the proceeds of Mr. Smith’s ginseng!’

My uncle ‘twas much astounded at this, and being greatly disturbed, left that night for Randolph to tell my father. After young Stevens sobered up, and, realizing what he hath done, immediately called for his carriage, took all the cash, gold and silver, and fled to Canada. Father pursued the thief, but the crook proved too illusive.

Father arrived home much dispirited, for he had lost everything.

In order to quickly pay his Boston debts, they hastened to Tunbridge, Vermont where father sold his farm for half its worth - $800.00 – to which mother added her $1,000 that had been given her for a wedding gift.²³. They then moved to Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, where father rented the Dairy Hill cottage and farm from my Grandfather Solomon Mack; father cultivated in the summer, and taught school during the winter.

Here it ‘twas that I, Joseph, wast born, the twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord eighteen-hundred and five.²⁴.

After their circumstances beganst to improve, we moved thence to Tunbridge, where my brothers Samuel, Ephraim – who lived only ten days - and William wert born.²⁵.

When I wast five years of age, in 1811, we moved to the small community of West Lebanon in New Hampshire, where my sister Catherine ‘twas born. Father once again taught school during the winter months and farmed in the summer, with the family labouring beside him.

It ‘twas here that the typhoid epidemic²⁶. came and raged tremendously, leaving 6,000 dead in the upper Connecticut valley. Save for my parents, each of us fell ill. Hyrum,²⁷. who attended the academy in Hanover, a few miles north of Lebanon, ‘twas stricken in school and brought home in a wagon – more dead than alive. My sister Sophronia²⁸. wast afflicted for over three months; the doctor coming daily trying to save her, but on the ninetieth day he said she wast too far gone, and left. When Sophronia ceased breathing altogether, mother grabbed her and paced the floor, fervently praying; and father also petitioned the Lord. Those present told mother that she ‘twas crazy – her child wast dead; but Sophronia at length gasped for breath and lived.

I ‘twas seven-years-old during this bane, and had recovered from the fever, but one day, whilst sitting in a chair, I screamed out! as a pain seized my left shoulder, and ‘twas in such agony that my parents immediately sent for a doctor. When the doctor examined me, he opined that it ‘twas merely a sprain. I declared this could not be the case! as I hoth not received an injury. Despite my protestations the physician insisted that it must be so, and dabbed my shoulder with ointment.

When two weeks of extreme suffering had elapsed, the physician made a closer examination and found a large fever sore betwixt my breast and shoulder. He immediately lanced it, and fully a quart of matter discharged. Whereupon, the pain shot like lighting down my side into the marrow of the bone of my left leg, and ‘twas so intense that I cried out in despair -

Oh, father! Father! How canst I bear it?

Then my leg commenced to swell and I suffered the greatest of agonies. During this period my mother cared for me much of the time, holding me in her arms in order to mitigate my suffering, which physically over-exerted her and she wast taken ill due to exhaustion.²⁹. My brother Hyrum, who hath somewhat recovered, and is known for his remarkable tenderness and sympathy, desired to take mother’s place. I was laid upon a low bed and Hyrum sat beside me, day and night, holding the affected part of my leg in his hands and pressing it between them, so that I might be enabled to endure the pain from which I so excruciatingly suffered.³⁰.

At the end of three weeks, my parents once again sent for the surgeon. He made an incision of eight inches on the front side of the leg between the knee and ankle. This relieved the pain in a great measure, and I ‘twas quite comfortable until the wound began to heal, then the pain became as violent as ever! The surgeon was called again. This time he enlarged the wound, cutting my leg to the bone. As soon as it started to heal it once again began to swell, which swelling continued to rise till my parents deemed it wisdom to call a council of surgeons.

Lucy Mack Smith: The seven gentlemen rode up to the door and were invited into a room apart from where Joseph lay. They being seated, I addressed the council, seeking to know how they intended to save my son’s leg. They answered,

    We have cut it open to the bone and find it so infected that we consider his leg incurable. Therefore, to save his life, it will be necessary to amputate his leg.

    Amputate! This ‘twas a thunderbolt to me! I appealed to the principal surgeon, saying,

    Dr. Stone, canst thou not make another trial? Perhaps by cutting around the bone, taking out the diseased part, and by this means save his leg?

    Seeing their resistance, save for Dr. Nathan Smith, who seemed to be reflecting upon the possibility, I jumped up and stood barring the door to Joseph’s room.

    "Thou shalt not, thou must not, take off his leg, I implored. I will not consent to let anyone enter his room until I receive the promise that thou wilt try once more!"

    The council looked at Dr. Nathan Smith, who, after having established and served fifteen years at Dartmouth Medical College in Hanover, New Hampshire, ‘twas passing through the neighborhood on his way to Yale to found a medical school there. After a whispered consultation amongst the surgeons, they agreed to my stipulation, and I allowed them into Joseph’s room.

Joseph Smith, Jun.: One of the doctors approached me and said, My poor boy, we are come again.

    Yes sir, I replied. Hast thou come to take off my leg?³¹.

    No-o-o, answered the surgeon, ’tis your mother’s request that we make one more effort, and that is what we are now going to do.

    Dr. Nathan Smith³². explained to me how he intended to cut out a section of the tibia. He then ordered cords to be brought to bind me fast to a bedstead; but to this I objected. When the doctor insisted that I must be confined, I very decidedly responded,

    No, doctor, I will not, for I canst bear the operation much better if I have my liberty. Then, asked Dr. Stone, wilt thou drink some brandy?

    Nay, said I, not one drop.

    Wilt thou take some wine? rejoined another doctor. You must take something, or ye wilt never endure the severe operation to which thou must be subjected.

    No! I exclaimed. "I will not touch one particle of liquor,³³. nor be tied down! But I will tell thee what I wilt do. My father shall sit on the bed and hold me in his arms, and then I will endure whatever is necessary in order to have the bone taken out."

    Mother, I knew, couldst not bear to see me suffer so, and wouldst, therefore, have to leave the room.

    When I beseeched her to not remain, she hesitated. With tears swimming in my eyes, I promised her,

    "The Lord will help me, and I shall get through it."

    To this request mother consented, and getting a number of folded sheets, laid them under my leg and departed into the fields to pray – as is her manner.

    The surgeons commenced operating by boring into the bone of my leg, first on the side it was affected, then on the other side. Father’s hold kept me from writhing away and I endured the drilling as courageously as a little tike could, but I screamed when they hammered and chiseled off the first piece of my leg bone. I screamed out so loudly that mother ran into my room!

    Oh, mother, I implored, go back, go back! I will try to tough it out, if thou wilt please go away. She reluctantly complied.

    Tears streamed down father’s face as he spake words of encouragement to me. I strove to unflinchingly endeavor, but by the time the third piece ‘twas hacked and shattered away, my screams were so piercing that mother again burst into the room!; where she beheld me sodden in blood and pale as a corpse with great rivulets of sweat; blood still gushed from the wound, the bed literally drenched with it, and I - and I, lying upon it.

    Oh, my God! she wailed, what a spectacle for a mother’s eye!

    Then she wast immediately forced from the room and detained by my brothers.³⁴.

    After the procedure³⁵. ‘twas accomplished, my wound bound, and my blood-soaked clothes removed, father tenderly put me upon a clean bed. However, it wasn’t until the room ‘twas cleared of every appearance of blood, and the surgical instruments taken away, that mother wast permitted again to enter. She laid my head upon her lap and wiped my brow with a cloth bathed in cold water. Mother, grateful that my leg ‘twas not amputated, wept forth prayers of gratitude, and begged the Lord that I wouldst recover and yet live.

    But, alas, my torment wast not over; throughout the next year I endured unceaseless pain as fourteen additional pieces of bone worked their way to the surface. Father made crutches for me, on which I hobbled about for the next three years, dragging my frail frame to and fro; only to collapse upon my pallet lying on the floor near the hearth.

    The disease and suffering so wasted my pitiful body³⁶. that mother easily carried me in her arms as she worked, though she is small of stature.

    When I had so far recovered as to be able to travel, uncle Jesse Smith³⁷. took me to his home in Salem, Massachusetts for the benefit of my health; with the fond hope that the ocean air and the sea-breezes might strengthen me. In this we were not disappointed. By-and-by, I learned to walk unaided, though thereafter I limped.³⁸.

Lucy Mack Smith: Shortly after sickness left our family, we moved to Norwich, in the state of Vermont. In this place we established ourselves on a farm belonging to one Esquire Moredock, and there experienced three consecutive years of crop failures. The first year that our crops failed, we succeeded in obtaining bread for the family by selling fruit gathered from the place.

    The second year the crops wert again a perfect failure. Mr. Smith now determined to plant once more, and if he shouldst meet with no better success than he hath, he wouldst then go to the state of New York, where wheat ‘twas raised in abundance. The last year, 1816,³⁹. ‘twas so severe – it being without a summer, as it snowed or froze every month of the year – that it caused a famine amongst the people; and many suffered from cold and hunger.⁴⁰.

Joseph Smith, Jun.: I returned to the loving arms of my family, only to find father much discouraged. Stirred by newspaper advertisements of land in New York, that were well-timbered, well-watered, easily accessible and well known for its fertility, with long-term payments of two or three dollars an acre - father settled his accounts, in front of witnesses, and headed westward that Fall, to the Finger lakes region. After renting a dwelling in Palmyra, New York – locally known as Swift’s Landing - he sent for us.

    Father’s communication brought false creditors, who ordered mother to pay their bogus claims. Rather than to hazard a lawsuit - for which there were several leading citizens willing to defend mother - and miss traveling with the caravan, mother sold all of the furniture, most of her cooking utensils, the majority of our food, and several suits of clothing.

    By considerable effort, mother raised the $150 dollars and liquidated their unjust demands;

    thereby enabling us to leave with the caravan.⁴¹.

    When ere William⁴². or Catherine tired from walking, my brothers Alvin and Hyrum hoisted them upon their shoulders; mother and Sophronia took turns carrying the baby, Don Carlos. Samuel assisted our aged grandmother Mack,⁴³. who hast lived with us for some time. They also pushed the wagon out of the mud, fed our horses, tended the poultry, and prepared the meals. Due to my lameness, I rode on the children’s easy seat in the wagon, (then later alongside the teamster), and grandmother Mack rode on the wagon chair. She and I held the baby and younger children when ere they napped.

    Father had hired an unknown teamster, a Caleb Howard, to drive our wagon; who spent his wages along the way in drinking and gambling. As we journeyed through South Royalton, Vermont, I joined my family in walking on the boards and looking into the storefronts. Mr. Howard stopped at the nearest pub, where he lingered too long. He boarded the wagon in a drunken stupor, and, due to his negligence, caused a wagon to overturn atop my grandmother Mack! which left her grievously injured. We hastened grandmother to Tunbridge, Vermont, where we put her in uncle Daniel Mack’s⁴⁴. tender mercies and a physician’s care. It ‘twas a poignant scene of parting, for grandmother had a premonition that we wouldst never again meet in this life, and she wept over mother, long and bitterly.⁴⁵.

    We sadly rejoined the caravan, and didst continue our trek westerly on the Appalachian trail, into New York – land of the Iroquois tribes - across parts of the Adirondack mountains and through the Mohawk Valley. Mr. Howard not only remained unabashed, but also proved to be unprincipled as well as unfeeling. Howard wanted the Gates’ daughters to ride beside him, and thus he drove me from my place on the wagon. For a week, I ‘twas forced to walk upwards of 30 miles per day⁴⁶. through the mud and snow, and I didst suffer the most excruciating weariness and pain.

    When my brothers Alvin and Hyrum protested on my behalf, Howard didst ferociously attack them! brutally knocking them down with the butt of his whip whilst cursing most vilely. We bore patiently with his abuse until one morning, when we were about twenty miles west of Utica, New York, we discovered Mr. Howard unloading our belongings, in order to steal our wagon and team!

Lucy Mack Smith: We were preparing for that day’s journey, and my oldest son came to me and said,

    Mother, Mr. Howard hast thrown our goods out of the wagon, and is starting off with the team!

    Upon hearing this, I told Alvin to fetch the man, and I met him in the bar-room, in the presence of a large company of travelers, both male and female, where I asked his reasoning for his actions. He stated that he spent all the money advanced to him, which ‘twas for the entire expedition, and that he refused to go any farther.

    I then announced to those present:

    Gentlemen and ladies, please give me your attention. Now, as sure as there is a God in heaven, that team, as well as the goods, belongeth to my husband, and this man intends to take them from me - leaving me with eight children, and without the means of proceeding on my journey.

    Turning to Mr. Howard, I said,

    "Sir! I forbid you touching anything of ours. I will take charge of the team – there’s no further use of you!

Joseph Smith, Jun.: Whilst mother was rousing the citizenry to aid us in putting a halt to his shenanigans, the Gates’ three sons – the youngest being nineteen – didst viciously beat me, and left me for dead.

    As I lay wallowing in my blood, a stranger came,⁴⁷. picked me up from out of the mud, ministered unto me, and carried me upon his shoulder; the family reloaded the wagon – mother having publicly denounced and rid us of teamster Howard - and drove the team the rest of the way. In January of 1817, we entered Palmyra⁴⁸. completely destitute, having exhausted all resources during the 300 mile journey – mostly from payments of highway taxes; but we rejoiced, for once again we art in the fond society of our gentle father, who ‘tis of gaunt and haggard visage, and wearing rusty clothes.

    My parents immediately gathered the family and we sat down and counseled together relative to the course we should set forth to alleviate our dire straits, as we arrived with only two cents. We concluded to unite our energies in obtaining a piece of land. Father had rented a small framed building for us to dwell, from Messrs. Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight, in the eastern outskirts of the village on lower Main street;⁴⁹. here we established a ginger cake, root-beer and confectionery shop.

    Alvin hired on with a building crew as a carpenter’s helper, and later worked on the Erie Canal.⁵⁰. Father and Hyrum contracted work building fireplaces and stonewalls, digging wells and curbing them; in betwixt times they coopered,⁵¹. or made split-wood chairs, black-ash baskets, birch besoms,⁵². sap-bowls,⁵³. bee-gums⁵⁴. and eaves-troughs.⁵⁵. Mother, having done considerable at painting oil-cloth coverings⁵⁶. for tables, stands, and etcetera,⁵⁷. worked at painting oil cloth coverings to sell in the stores belonging to Mr. Stowell⁵⁸. and Mr. Knight; and she aided Sophronia in confectionery making.⁵⁹.

    Father fashioned a handcart in which I peddled our wares through the streets⁶⁰. on holidays, public occasions, and to the packet basin.⁶¹. My younger brothers Samuel and William oft aided me, and we didst a lively business. Shortly after our arrival, I, along with my siblings, attended school in the little log schoolhouse on Durfee Road during a brief term⁶². in the winter of 1817.

    The hand of friendship ‘twas extended to us on every side.

    But the region, known as the western wilderness,⁶³. wast filled with danger. The scream of the panther couldst ever be heard; bears and timber wolves relentlessly came into the settlement, destroying buildings, carrying off calves, sheep, hogs, and geese. We children lived in constant fear of being attacked, and killed. The wolves became so bold that a committee of hunters and trappers ‘twas formed to rid us of the pack, and protect the village.⁶⁴.

    Two years prior to our arrival at Swift’s landing, the Indian tribes allied of British Colonel John Butler’s Troy Rangers during the American Revolution, had strewn death and destruction throughout the backwoods settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, and desolated the whole Niagara frontier during the War of 1812.⁶⁵. Nonetheless, father negotiated with a land agent at Canandaigua⁶⁶. for one hundred acres of timbered land, a wild tract about two miles south of the village, located on the Palmyra-Farmington township line,⁶⁷. where the Tuscarora Indians, who are mostly peaceable, set up their hunting camps; but other tribes passing through bring trouble – often kidnapping white children. Thus, father’s arrangement didst cause much concernment and trepidation amongst the villagers, who thought father ‘twas either too bold or naive in desiring to take his family amongst the risk of bears, wolves, catamounts⁶⁸. and Indians.

    Nevertheless, and anticipating a removal thither, we constructed a bark-roofed log cabin in a glade on the Palmyra side, which hast two rooms on the ground floor, and a garret.⁶⁹. But the land agent fell ill, and confined to his bed. At long last he sent his representative, the papers were drawn, and the contractual agreement finalized in 1819.⁷⁰.

    We then settled in the log cabin and commenced to labour on the one hundred acres - with the musket nearby for protection and fresh meat. During our first year there, my father, brothers and I cleared, on the Farmington side, 30 acres of the heaviest timber we ever saw, and planted wheat thereon; and cleared another 30 acres the year subsequent. We planted fruit trees, a cane grove for molasses, and we farmed. We built a coopering shed for the making of casks and barrels, smoke-houses for curing meats, hencoops,⁷¹. and a sheepfold.⁷². We sold cord wood and ashes,⁷³. raised and sold garden vegetables and crops. We also tapped the sap of twelve to fifteen hundred maple trees, and made maple sugar in season - of which we averaged 1,000 pounds annually.⁷⁴.

    Our maple sugar became highly prized, as it was known to be the finest in the area, and won many ribbons at the fair.

    Thus, in the first year’s time we were able to pay nearly the entire amount owed on the hundred-acre tract.

    For which, proclaimed mother, we bless God, and His mercy - that endureth forever.

Sarah D. Pea Rich: …when I was only five years old…plead with my mother to let me stay down to the sugar camp and see them drain off the sugar, for father had built a board shanty…to stay in nights, to attend to the making of the sugar and molasses, and taking care of the maple water; but Mother would not let me stay nights for fear I would get sick eating too much warm sugar, but in the day time she would let us go, for it gave us so much pleasure and fun to help father and brothers to keep the fire going, for when the sugar began to get thick they then had to give all their attention to stirring the sugar to keep it from burning, and were glad to have us children to keep the fire burning, and we enjoyed the fun so well that we never got tired (p. 1).

Commentary for The Boy Joseph

For some unbeknownst reason, I seem to be destined to a life of suffering…

Author’s note: Before giving the following quotes, the reader needs to be reminded that the Hebrew word messiah means anointed; in biblical time’s priests, kings and prophets were all anointed. When Cyrus, a pagan king, allowed the Israelites to return to their land, they called Cyrus messiah, saviour and redeemer.

The author is Irish and comes from a long line of Catholics, was baptized a Methodist when a little girl, but is now LDS; and she wants the reader to know that the title Suffering Messiah rightly belongs to Jesus Christ. For when Christ took on the sins of the world, during his/the Atonement at Gethsemane, he suffered so excruciatingly that he bled at every pore; hence why all of Christendom calls Jesus the Suffering Messiah.

However, some have applied Suffering Servant to Jesus, but JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD, not the servant. The servant of and forerunner to Messiah ben David/Jesus is the latter-day Ephraimite prophet - messiah ben Joseph - who will suffer all the days of his life – mostly from his excruciating efforts to reestablish the Gospel of Jesus Christ once again upon the earth, and to prepare all things for the Coming of the Lord. Unfortunately, the titles of the Suffering Messiah and the Suffering Servant have become confused, intertwined and misapplied.

Suffering Messiah rightly belongs to Jesus, and Suffering Servant should belong to ben Joseph.

From Harold Henery Rowley’s book, The Servant of the Lord and other Essays in the Old Testament, is a chapter titled, The Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah: "It has long been commonly held that amongst the Jews the concepts of the Davidic Messiah, the Son of Man,* and the Servant of the Lord were separate and distinct before the time of Jesus, (p.61) and that the former of these [Ephraim] was already the concept of a Suffering Messiah. These are fundamentally different positions, requiring separate examination (p.64). His footnote states: The Suffering Messiah, Messiah ben Ephraim, appears in the Targum of pseudo-Jonathan and in the Babylonian Talmud…" (p.66).

[*In the New Testament Jesus called himself the Son of Man 55 times.]

From The Doctrine of the Messiah in Medieval Jewish Literature, The Servant of the [Davidic] Messiah voluntarily bears sufferings (Isaiah 42: 10, 12) and he suffers quietly and patiently (v.7)(p.41, Joseph Sarachek). His Name Shall Be Joseph; Dix suggests that possibly this tradition ‘influenced the composition of the Songs of the suffering Servant and the similar prediction of a suffering Messiah in Zechariah 12 (p.28, ftn. (G. H. Dix, The Messiah Ben Joseph, The Journal of Theological Studies, vol. XXVII, p. 130.), J. McConkie).

Dr. Abraham Cohen wrote that the suffering Messiah is Messiah ben Yoseph – the Suffering Messiah ben Yoseph – who, though humble, would suffer and be oppressed (p.2, Everyman’s Talmud)..

The Suffering Messiah ben Yoseph – one who would suffer and be humbled…. The suffering Messiah was referred to as Messiah ben Yoseph (Google: the suffering messiah ben yoseph).

…father headed westward, that Fall, to Finger lakes region in hopes of better land.

History of Palmyra; "In 1620 King James I, of England, granted a patent to the Massachusetts Colony covering six million acres of land, then occupied by the Iroquois, or Six Nation Indian Confederacy, which then included the Onondagas, Oneidas, Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas and the Hurons. Early in the sixteenth century the Hurons of Canada were expelled from the confederacy. A little later the Tuscaroras came from the eastern sea-board (Carolinas) and were admitted into the confederacy. This six-nation confederacy made the strongest and most perfectly organized Indian government north of Mexico.

Massachusetts did not press her claim for this six million acre land grant, until after the close of the War of Independence…not over anxious for a settlement until after General John Sullivan’s successful expedition in 1779 against the Tories and Seneca Indians of Western New York, then known as the Genesee Country, or Finger Lakes Region. At the beginning of our war with England for our independence, our colonial soldiers were promised by the government, as a reward for their patriotism, 100 acres of land each, for the purpose of establishing homes. After the close of the war, New York State set aside a large tract of land consisting of 1,200 square miles, or seven hundred sixty-eight thousand acres, known in history as the Old Military Tract." This joined the Massachusetts grant on the east. After the close of the war, this tract was parceled out to the New York soldiers in 600 acre tracts, thus adding 500 acres to the original 100 acres promised by Congress. ….

The fact that Palmyra colonists were able to obtain clear titles to land proved an incentive to induce settlers to flock here, which gave Palmyra the start of other villages now rapidly springing up in the Finger Lakes region. Palmyra was a thriving village twenty years before Rochester was thought of. It should be remembered this whole drumlin hill region was an unbroken wilderness largely covered by virgin forest, except here and there limited areas cleared by the original Indian inhabitants, who were still growing an abundance of corn, beans, squash, etc. (p.1-2, Bean).

From the History of Scio, New York, published in 1896 is found more of what people endured and struggled through while living on the frontier: "It [Scio] lies entirely in the Genesee valley, Genesee river running in a northwest direction across its territory…. The valleys were filled with a massive growth of pine…. The productive capabilities of the new soil is shown by the crop of 300 bushels of corn planted in 1807 on land from which the trees had just been felled and among stumps so thick that no plow could be used. …the next year after they arrived, all the sheep and lambs of the settlement except six were killed by wolves and wildcats, and the forests were full of wild beasts. She [Polly Middaugh] frequently saw wolves and panthers, and the howls of the former were almost a daily concert at some seasons of the year. ….

Her father and uncles in one of the early years took some cloth to a cloth dresser’s, and before it was dressed the mill and contents were burned. Then the three legged wolf killed all of their sheep and left the wool scattered through the woods. They carefully gathered this wool, made it into cloth and carried it to another dressing mill. This mill also burned with their cloth, and for that winter they were forced to wear home made linen clothing. This three legged wolf was an enormous and ferocious black wolf…. It was the terror of a large extent of country for years, as is clearly shown by this resolution passed at the annual town meeting of Scio in 1841. Resolved, that we raise a (special) bounty of $20 on the three legged wolf if caught in this town. As this was in addition to the state bounty of $10 and the regular town bounty, which was in 1840 and 1841 $10 for full grown and $5 for whelp" wolves. …he was considered a dangerous enemy.

"John Middaugh’s ashery converted the ashes of the clearings into black salts and potash, which furnished, with the peltry [hides] obtained in the hunts in the woods, the only source of procuring ready cash. The road was a long and tedious one to Ithaca, the nearest market for the potash, and only light loads could be taken over the swampy ways and corduroy highways. But the people were contented. A simple frugal fare and plenty of exercise in the open air made robust folk who did the advance work of civilization most thoroughly.

…1821 when he [William Earley] bought wild land of Judge Philip Church about 2 ½ miles west of Scio village near Middaugh’s settlement, and built a rude log house, occupying it in February, 1822, with his wife and four children. The struggle for the necessaries of life was incessant. The father and older boys engaged in clearing the land. In haying and harvesting they would work for Judge Church on his farm near Belvidere, applying a portion of their wages as payment on the farm. …Mr. Earley carried, as was usual, a hickorybark torch to light the dark, muddy road through the woods. ….In October, 1832, about 9 o’clock in the morning, three bears came into Mr. Earley’s yard a few rods from the house and killed a number of sheep, wounding others. They caught one of the bears in a trap the next night. Mr. Earley went to the sugar bush [maple trees] about 4 o’clock one morning to start the fire under the sap kettles. He was soon surrounded by wolves which kept him there until daylight. He protected himself with the pokingsticks" used for fixing the fire by swinging their blazing ends in the faces of the snarling and howling wolves until daylight when they left him.

In 1837 the town voted a bounty of five dollars for a full grown and half that amount for a whelp wolf…. In 1838 the wolf bounty was doubled. These bounties continued matters of yearly action for several years after 1840. The old records reveal…the changing conditions of the people from when the axe and gun were the daily companion of each man, to when iron bridges began to be placed across the streams.

Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2006, Finger Lakes, Steeped in History, p 98-104, by Jonathan Kandell.

New York’s breathtaking Finger Lakes district has inspired American notables from Mark Twain to Harriet Tubman. It is the loveliest study you ever saw, Mark Twain wrote to a friend…. When the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lighting flashes…and the rain beats upon the roof over my head – imagine the luxury of it," Twain exulted.

"To the north lay Seneca Lake, one of the 11 slender bodies of water that give the Finger Lakes area its name. …this fertile 4,692-suare-mile corner of New York state, anchored on the north by Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, and on the south by smaller cities such as Corning, Elmira and Ithaca.

Mark Twain, who spent [20] summers in the Finger Lakes [at in-laws], called the area a fore-taste of heaven. The region’s dramatic views (Letchworth State Park, known as the Grand Canyon of the East") were carved by ice age glaciers [deepened by the Genesee River].

"…century old stands of oak, and fields of corn stretching to the horizon. …the Iroquois believed the Finger Lakes were created by the Great Spirit’s hands as he spread them upon the land to bless it. …. Geologists…ice age glaciers gouged the terrain as they advanced and retreated millennia ago. In the early 1800s, the watery network they created became the basis for the Erie Canal system connecting the area to the Hudson River and New York City. …Finger Lakes (as much as two miles deep).

…Mary Jemison, a European captured…at age [12] by Native Americans in the mid-1700s. [Some sources state that one in four colonial white children were stolen by the American Indians.] Jemison eventually married a Seneca [Native American]…. Before European settlement in the late 1700s, Ganondagan was home to some 4,500 Seneca who lived in 150 bark longhouses.

Some history of that time era:

1800 U.S. census showed pop. 5,308,000; in 1800 Louisiana [Territory] was secretly transferred to France [Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of Mexico’s freedom from France]; 1800 U.S. capital moved from N.Y. to Washington; from 1801 – 1809 Thomas Jefferson, a republican/whig from Virginia, was president of the U.S.; 1801 war was declared on the U.S. by pasha – Barbary pirates – extortion in the name of Islam; 25 years of war between England and France.

1803 the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million; 1804-1806 the Lewis and Clark expedition/exploration of the Louisiana Purchase; 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France; Spain declared war on Britain. 1804 Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel; 1804 Thomas Jefferson re-elected president of the U. S.; 1801-1805 Tripolitian War. [Islamist Muslims held U.S. citizens hostage, then captured a U.S. merchant ship that had run aground. The war with the Islamists was the United States’ first over-seas war. To prevent being beheaded the Marines wore leather around their necks – hence the name of leathernecks.]

1807 England boarded a U.S. ship, randomly took four American men and immediately hanged them.

1809 – 1817 James Madison, Republican/Whig from Virginia, was president of United States; 1810 census [third one conducted in U.S.] pop. 7,239,881 - of which 1,191,362 were slaves. Both black and white slaves [usually Irish] were included in the count.

In 1811 Native Americans were defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana Territory [Indiana means land of the Indians]; 1811: first steamboat to sail down Mississippi reached New Orleans; Jane Austin’s book Sense and Sensibility was published. December 16, 1811 the seventh largest earthquake in U.S. history shook the New Madrid fault line [centered in present day Memphis, Tennessee], swallowing trees, buildings, and livestock. Some accounts say it caused the Mississippi River to reverse direction and flow north for awhile. January 23, 1812, a second earthquake, of equal proportion, hit in the same area; followed by another massive earthquake on February 7, 1812, [recorded as 9th largest earthquake in U.S. history].

June 1812 the U.S. declared war on Britain. The U.S. war with the Islamists [aka Barbary Pirates] temporarily halted during the 1812 War with Britain. Louisiana, named after France’s King Louis XIV, became a state in 1812, along with the state of Mississippi, from the Indian word misi (big).

1813 James Madison was sworn in as President for a 2nd term; 1813-1814 War with Creek Indians – Andrew Jackson, leader of the military forces and who hated Indians, crushed them; 1813 defeat of the Chesapeake; Battle of Lake Erie; Battle of the Thames.

Aug. 1814 Washington [D.C.] was burned by the British, and Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner; Dec. 24, 1814 U.S. and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the 1812 War; Jan. 8, 1815 U.S. won the Battle of New Orleans [didn’t know the war was over]; in 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia and was defeated – he was exiled to the Island of Elba in 1814.

In 1815 the French monarchy was re-established; 1816 Indiana admitted to statehood; 1817 Mississippi admitted; 1817 – 1825 James Monroe, a whig/republican from Virginia, was president; 1817-1818 first Seminole War [Seminole – name of an Indian tribe]; 1817 construction began on the Erie Canal in New York.

In 1818 the treaty with Great Britain set the 49th parallel as the northern boundary of the United States. Illinois was made a state in 1818. Illinois is a combination of French and Indian words meaning Land of the Illini (Land of men, or warriors). 1816-1819 U.S. continued the war with the Islamists/Barbary Pirates.

MAP

______________________

1. Joseph Smith, Jr.: No man knows me. No man knows my history. …. I don’t blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself.

2. Pronounced was – then lightly tapping the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth for the t.

*See Commentary.

3. Lucy, born 8th of July, 1776 in Gilsum, New Hampshire.

4. Joseph Sr., born July 12th, 1771 in Toppsfield, Massachusetts.

5. Isaiah and the Prophets, To Joseph of Egypt the Lord said: I will remember you from generation to generation; and his name shall be called Joseph, and it shall be after the name of his father; and he shall be like unto you; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand shall bring my people salvation (p.15, Nyman).

   #10 of the Footsteps of Mashiah ben Yoseph, …a name given a child at his birth is not given by chance; rather, the name is placed in the mouth of his father by Heaven….

6. Of interest is the statement of Yair Davidy’s, author of Joseph, the Israelite Destiny of America, of the prophesied Joseph whose ancestry is from the British Isles. (11/7/2006. The Two Messiahs. www.britam.org/messiah.html.)

7. Joseph Smith DNA Revealed: New Clues from the Prophet’s Genes; by Ugo A. Perego, MSC. Presented 7 Aug., 2008 at the tenth annual FAIR Conference:

After extensive DNA research and data collected, Ugo A. Perego discovered that Robert Smith is a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages - warlord of fifth century Ireland; from whom about five centuries of Irish rulers descended. The high frequency of this particular genetic signature in the northwest region of Ireland is the legacy left by the royal Irish family and their large posterity. [Several sources state that the foretold latter-day ben Joseph would be descended from noble birth.]

Ugo A. Perego: We are talking about a very rare haplotype…. Earlier we saw that the haplogroup marker M222 was also found in the same geographic area. We have two genetic witnesses and Joseph Smith has both of them. Based on the data presented, I would like to propose the idea that perhaps Robert Smith, this 12 year old indentured servant…[is] of Irish descent. ….And you know the history, the struggles of impoverished Irish families.... …not welcomed in England and perhaps this family adopted a new surname to blend in – and what better surname then the most common one in England (pp.1-13, internet).

8. From 1630-1643 was the Great Puritan Migration to Massachusetts where they were free to practice their own beliefs/religion and not have the Church of England forced on them by British law; Harvard founded in 1636; Charles the First was the king of England, and the Thirty Years War ravaged Europe.

9. Toppsfield – also spelled Topsfield.

10. Asael Smith, born 7, March, 1744 in Toppsfield; second son of Samuel II. As a small child Asael’s neck was severely burned, the cords contracted, drawing the neck to one side, and rendered it stiff. He suffered a great deal of malice due to his deformity. When very young his mother died, his father remarried and she – perhaps due to his injury - hated Asael. In his Will to his family, Asael gave this counsel to his wife: …if you should marry again, remember what I have undergone by a stepmother, and do not estrange your husband from his own children or kindred, lest you draw on him and on yourself a great sin (p.9, vol. 1, A Comprehensive History of the Church, Roberts). Asael married Mary Duty of Windham N. Hampshire, lived there, and then moved to Dumbarton and Manchester. Asael inherited the old homestead at Toppsfield on the death of his father.

11. The American Revolution, 1765–1783, was when the Thirteen American Colonies broke from England and formed the United States of America. Americans rejected taxation; protests escalated as in the Boston Tea Party of 1773. In 1774 the Patriots suppressed the Loyalists, expelled all royal officials, and each colony set up their own government. The British sent combat troops, including German Hessians, to re-establish control by England’s King George III. With the backing of the Second Continental Congress the Patriots fought the British. History books have the war ending in 1783, but the British were still in American Forts until 1794, fighting the Patriots.

*See MAP on page 18.

12. 1734 History of Five Colonial Families: It is thought that the Mack family dropped their original name, retaining the prefix only, thereby being better able to escape persecution on account of their religious belief. It is said that part of their coat of arms was a boar’s head. ….One branch of the family thinks that the original name was McDermon (vol. I, p 343; as found in Robert’s book, A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. I, p. 17). [Usually the Scotch prefix is spelled Mac, and the Irish is Mc.]

13. Solomon was the son of the Congregational pastor at Lyme, Connecticut. After the death of his mother at age four, his father apprenticed Solomon to a farmer in the neighborhood. When he reached his majority and was set free from bondage, Solomon entered the service of his majesty, King George III. The French and Indian War, 1754-1763 was at its height, and Solomon had active service during the next four years - around Lake George, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He was discharged in 1759, and married Lydia Gates, who was a schoolteacher and a very accomplished young woman.

14. Though Solomon Mack was left crippled from a tree falling upon him and rode side saddle, he served in the Revolutionary War on both land and sea; two of his sons fought with him. He was in Israel Putnam’s company when ambushed after a costly assault on Ticonderoga. Solomon: The enemy rose like a cloud and fired. …the tomahawks and bullets were flying around my ears like hail stone. When everyone retreated, Solomon remained behind and saved a wounded man’s life from the Indians. While in the Lake George-Champlain sector, hauling baggage by ox teams with another man, Indians suddenly appeared. Unarmed, Solomon saw no other way to save myself, only to deceive them by stratagem. He called loudly to his companion and the nonexistent reinforcements behind him, and charged headlong with only a staff for a weapon; when the other man appeared, it gave the Indians a terrible fright, and I saw them no more. …the grass I did not let grow under my feet (History of Joseph Smith By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith, p.4).

15. Solomon Mack’s son, Stephen Mack, enlisted in the Revolutionary army at the age of 14, and was eventually promoted to Brigadier General. Stephen was in Detroit in 1812 at the time of Hull’s surrender. When, as a newly appointed captain, he was ordered by his superior officers to surrender, he was so highly indignant that he broke his sword across his knee and threw it into the lake, saying he would never submit to the disgraceful compromise. Hull hoisted a white table cloth of surrender, and, without any firing of weapons, gave up the fort, town and territory of Michigan to the enemy/British.

   By 1820, Stephen Mack was the proprietor of a large mercantile establishment in Detroit, and a number of stores in various parts of Michigan and Ohio. At his own expense he built a turn-pike road from Detroit to Pontiac where he owned a large farm and there lived. In 1828 he was a member of the council of the territory of Michigan. When Stephen Mack died, he left his family an estate of $50,000 without encumbrance.

   Due to the deaths of her two elder and beloved sisters, Lucy Mack was in a state of despair and severe mourning. Concerned over Lucy’s welfare, Stephen brought her home to live with him.

16. Lucy was 19 years old; Joseph Sr. was 24.

17. In 1796 John Adams was elected 2nd president of U.S.; Tennessee, from the Indian word Tanasi, (a group of Cherokee villages on the Little Tennessee River), [nasi (pronounced nah-see) is also an ancient Hebrew word which means chieftain, patriarch, king, or leader] was admitted as the 16th state; 1796 Land Act provided for survey of public lands and their sale at public auction; Frederic William III was king of Prussia.

    1791 Vermont, a French word meaning green mountain, admitted as state; 1792, Kentucky, from the Indian word Kentahten meaning land of tomorrow, was admitted to the Union.

18. Alvin b. Feb. 1798, Hyrum b. Feb.1800, Sophronia b. May 1803.

19. consumption – tuberculosis.

20. Crystallized ginseng root was being used by the Chinese as a remedy for the plague that was raging there. Ginseng is an herb of the genus Arelia, having a root of aromatic and stimulant properties.

21. Erstwhile – once.

22. In his cups – drunk.

23. $500 from her brother Major Stephen Mack, and $500 from his business partner, John Mudget.

24. When transposed to the Jewish calendar, the 23rd of December, 1805, is the 1st day of the tenth month of Tevet 5566. This Hebrew date has much symbolism. The Hebrew year of 5566 is considered especially portent. Early sages predicted that the end days Joseph would be born in 5556 or 5566.

   Joseph was the only one of Lucy’s family to be born in Sharon, Vermont. President Joseph F. Smith, son of Hyrum and nephew of Joseph Jr., authorized Junius F. Wells to purchase what was once the Mack farm, including the birth site of Joseph Smith, Jr. In 1905 a memorial cottage and granite monument were erected there. Both sites were dedicated by President Smith on Dec. 23, 1905, the 100th anniversary of Joseph’s birth.

25. Samuel born March 13, 1808; Ephraim born March 13, 1810; William born March 13, 1811. Joseph Jun. was two, four, and five years old, respectively, at the births of his brothers.

26. Typhoid fever is transmitted by food, water, milk, and healthy looking people who are carriers of the disease, i.e. Typhoid Mary Malone. Typhoid Fever: Polluted water is the most common source of typhoid. At present, there are 107 different strains of the bacteria. Typhoid fever is characterized by the sudden onset of sustained fever, severe headache, nausea, severe loss of appetite, constipation or sometimes diarrhea. Severe forms have been described with mental dullness and meningitis. Typhoid fever affects 17 million people worldwide every year, with approximately 600,000 deaths (p.1 internet).

From a different internet site; Typhoid Fever in the 1800’s: Typhus fever is a rickettsiall disease caused by the organism. Rickettsia prowazekii, a Gram negative, obligate intracellular bacterium. Humans are exposed through arthropod viable in a dead louse for weeks. Evidently there are conflicting views as to the cause of Typhoid Fever.

27. Hyrum was 13 years old.

28. Sophronia was 10 years old.

29. Lucy gave birth in 1812 to her daughter Catherine. During this outbreak, Lucy had seven children to care for - one a nursing toddler. Lucy’s next mentioned birth – Don Carlos – would not occur until March 1816.

30. Joseph had a condition that today would be called osteomyelitis. Wikipedia: "Osteomyelitis is an infection of bone or bone marrow with a propensity for progression, usually caused by pyogenic bacteria or mycobacteria. It is more common in children, where it may appear to occur for no apparent reason. …if untreated, an abscess of bone infection may form. Signs and symptoms of osteomyelitis include: intense pain and a sensation of heat at the site of the infected bone; areas of tenderness, redness, and swelling; persistent back pain that is not revived by rest, heat, or painkillers; abscesses containing pus in tissue surrounding the painful bone; fever in some cases; fatigue…. [Massaging spreads infection – notice that Hyrum only held or pressed the leg.]

   Wikipedia: Once the bone is infected, leukocytes enter the infected area, and in their attempt to engulf the infectious organisms, release enzymes that lyse the bone. Pus spreads into the bone’s blood vessels, impairing the flow, and areas of devitalize infected bone, known as sequestra, form the basis of a chronic infection. Often the body will try to create new bone around the area of necrosis. .… In children, large subperiosteal abscesses can form because the periosteum is loosely attached to the surface of the bone. In children, the long bones [tibia] are usually affected. Acute osteomyelitis almost invariably occurs in children.

31. In the 1800’s, the words surgery and amputation were synonymous. An 1820’/30’s American surgical kit was recently unboxed; it contained two saws for amputation, two screws for boring into bones, and knives. During the Civil War it was estimated that as many as 60,000 amputations were performed on both sides (Dr. Slater, Phisick, p. 4, internet).

32. It was providential that Dr. Nathan Smith was there. He founded two more medical schools – at Bowdon and the University of Vermont. He died in 1829, a legend in his own time. Described by William Welch as ‘one of the most interesting and important figures in American medicine,’ Dr. Smith has also been called ‘the Johnny Appleseed of American medicine’ for his unmatched role in the establishment of no less than four medical schools" (p.2 of 5, Two Hundred years of Medicine at Dartmouth, by Blough and Grossman: internet).

33. 3.With regards to surgery, the turning point in the 1800s was circa 1846, with the introduction of anesthesia. Prior to this time the use of an orderly to hold the patient down…alcohol or opium was a poor substitute, and meant that only major surgery could be undertaken. By far the most common operation was amputation, but also craniotomy (drilling holes in the head…) (Dr. Slater, Phisick, p. 4, internet).

34. Alvin was 15 years old, mother Lucy was 36, and Joseph Sen. was 41 years old.

35. In 1875, artist Thomas Eakins depicted a surgical procedure for osteomyelitis at Jefferson Medical College, in a famous oil painting titled, The Gross Clinic. The public raved about the newly developed modern procedure, which Dr. Nathan Smith had already performed in 1813, sixty-two years earlier, on the boy Joseph.

36. Some accounts state that Joseph weighed about 25 lbs.

37. Jesse Smith was the firstborn child of Asael and Mary Duty Smith, and was three years older than his brother, Joseph Sr. Jesse hated anything to do with religion or God. One time, when Jesse discovered that Joseph Sr. had attended a church service with his wife Lucy, Jesse threw a violent fit and forbade Joseph Sr. to ever attend church again. Much to Lucy’s dismay, Joseph Sr. timidly obeyed.

   Jesse had been on a visit at the Joseph and Lucy home, and it was probably on his orders that the boy Joseph was taken back with him. At the time of Joseph’s stay, Jesse and his wife Hannah Smith had ten children, ranging in ages from 2 to 20 years old.

38. When Jacob was wrestling with the Lord, [Genesis 32:24-32] demanding a promise that his descendants would be gathered and redeemed in the last days, the Lord made a covenant with Jacob while touching the inner thigh of Jacob’s left leg – which shriveled the tendons and caused him to be lame. From this incident came the Mosaic Law to not eat the meat from the thigh of the animal’s left hind leg, but to instead offer it up unto the Lord as sacrifice.

39. Don Carlos was born March 15, 1816.

40. Church History in the Fullness of Times, It was known as eighteen hundred and froze to death. The freakish weather was caused by the mid-April 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Dutch East Indies, Indonesia. Considered the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, it ejected an estimated twenty-five cubic miles of volcanic debris; dust blew into the stratosphere and obscured the sun so severely that it altered the weather pattern for an extended period. New England was hard hit. Four killing frosts struck between 6 June and 30 August (p. 24, Church Educational System).

41. Church History in the Fullness of Times; Unaware of the cause, but discouraged by successive crop failures, hundreds of people left New England – among them the Smiths of Norwich, Vermont. During the decade of 1810-20, there was a major exodus from Vermont. More than sixty Vermont towns experienced population losses. …. The exodus from Vermont was so great that it was almost a century before that state recovered (p. 24). The caravan became a combination of caravans; with each town they passed through, more and more joined in for protection from Indians and thieves until they stretched many miles – indeed an exodus.

42. William was 5 years old, Catherine was 4, and Don Carlos was an infant – having been born in March of that year and still nursing; Alvin was eighteen, Hyrum sixteen, Sophronia thirteen, Joseph was ten, Samuel eight years old, and mother Lucy turned 40 years old July 8th, 1816; Joseph Sr. turned 45 years old July 12th. Mother Lucy had her eight children with her on this trip. Cooking was done on a campfire, for which the younger children gathered wood and brush for fuel; water was hauled from streams, etc.

43. Lydia Gates Mack.

44. Daniel was the third child/son of Solomon and Lydia Mack, and brother to Lucy.

   Lucy Mack Smith: Daniel…possessed a very daring and philanthropic spirit which led him to reach forth his hand to the assistance of those whose lives were exposed to danger, even to the hazard of his own life. (p.27, History of Joseph Smith by his mother, Lucy Mack Smith). Joseph Jr. inherited that same caring attitude.

45. Grandmother Lydia Gates Mack: …as my last admonition, I beseech you to continue faithful in the service of God to the end of your days, that I may have the pleasure of embracing you in another and fairer world above.’ This parting scene was at one Willard Pierce’s, a tavern keeper (p.62, History of Joseph Smith by his mother).

46. The actual account said 40 miles per day. The author was incredulous at the distance and wondered if it was a typo. After examining several credible sources, she realized that walking 40 miles per day was commonly done at that time. On easy terrain a mile can be walked every 15 minutes, which equals four miles per hour. If sustained, ten hours of travel equals 40