Joseph Smith Jr., 1st President of the Church
Born December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, Joseph Smith Jr. was the fifth of eleven children of Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack. He worked on the family farm in Vermont and later in western New York. A series of remarkable spiritual experiences prepared him for his prophetic calling. Beginning in 1820 at Palmyra, New York, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in vision. Through revelation, he translated and published The Book of Mormon, organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 1830, and received revelations to guide the Church. By inspiration, he called Apostles and other Church leaders, defined doctrines, and taught the principles and ordinances that would lead to exaltation. Under his leadership, Latter-day Saints founded communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He was sustained as First Elder of the Church on April 6, 1830. On June 27, 1844, at Carthage, Illinois, Joseph Smith died a martyr to his faith.

Hyrum Smith (1800-1844) was the older brother of the Prophet Joseph. He was martyred with this brother in Carthage, Illinois, in June of 1844.

David Whitmer (1805-1888) was one of the three witnesses of The Book of Mormon. He died in Richmond, Missouri, at the age of eighty-four.

Lucy Mack Smith: Mother of the Prophet
Lucy Mack Smith was born July 8, 1775 at Gilsum, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. She married Joseph Smith, Sr. January 24, 1796 at Turnbridge, Vermont. They were the parents of eight sons and three daughters. Lucy was baptized April 6, 1830 at Fayette, New York and endowed on or before October 8, 1843 in the upper floor of Joseph Smith's Mansion House and in the Nauvoo Temple on December 11, 1845.
After arriving in Nauvoo, she and her husband lived in a log cabin on the Joseph Smith homestead property. Later they moved into a new home on the southeast corner of Main and Water streets. She then moved into this house after the Mormon Exodus of 1846.
After the death of her son Joseph, she wanted to go west with the Saints; but due to ill health and other considerations, she remained in Nauvoo with her daughter Lucy Millikin. She died and was buried there in 1856 at the age of eighty.

Martin Harris
Except for Joseph Smith, no man played a more varied role in the coming forth of The Book of Mormon than Martin Harris. He provided financial support so the Prophet could move from Manchester, New York, to Harmony, Pennsylvania in December 1827, helping to fulfill an ancient prophecy (see Isaiah 29:11-12). He also served as scribe, became a witness of the coming forth of The Book of Mormon, financially assisted in its publication, and testified of the truthfulness of the book throughout his life.

Oliver Cowdery

Oliver Cowdery (1806-1850), scribe to Joseph Smith and witness of The Book of Mormon (1829), Second Elder of the Church (1830), and Assistant President of the Church (1834), editor, and lawyer, was with Joseph Smith when the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods and keys were restored. After ten years of separation from the Church, he was re-baptized. He died at age forty-three, faithful to his testimony.

The Sacred Grove
In the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith, Jr. entered this remnant of an ancient forest to kneel in prayer. The vision he beheld of God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, initiated the restoration to the earth of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nine years later, in late June of 1829, Joseph Smith Jr. gathered a small group of his family and friends to a secluded spot in these woods and showed them the gold plates from which The Book of Mormon was translated. He allowed each of the eight participants to hold the ancient record, turn its pages and examine its characters. They prepared a written testimony, which was published in The Book of Mormon.
Palmyra, New York

This is a replica of the home where the Smith family once lived. Originally built in 1818, and discovered in a 1982 archaeological dig, the Smith Family Home was reconstructed on the same site and dedicated by Pres. Hinckley in March of 1997.

The Log Home of the Smith Family
Around 1818, Joseph Smith, Sr., his wife, Lucy Mack Smith, and their eight children moved from Palmyra village to Stafford Road, just north of the 100 acres they planned to acquire. They built a log home and outbuildings, where they resided for approximately seven years.
In late 1825 they moved a few hundred feet south to their new frame home. Their son Hyrum had arranged to purchase the eighty acres of land surrounding the log home. Following his marriage to Jerusha Barden in November of 1826, Hyrum and his wife resided in the log home.
In the spring of 1829, Father and Mother Smith and their younger children returned to the log home where they lived with Hyrum's family until the fall of 1830.

This is the main room in the house. Notice the fireplace where all the cooking was done. They had a cast iron hook where the pot hung over the fireplace. Women's skirts catching on fire was one of the biggest causes of death in that time period next to childbirth.

This picture is taken in the "master bedroom". The room that you can see through the door was known as the birthing room, or it was where sick children stayed.

This picture is taken by the front door of the Log home. You can see how small the house is and how close the back door is.

This is the Log House from the back.

First Appearance of Moroni

Here, late in the evening on Sunday, 21 September 1823, seventeen-year-old Joseph retired for the night. Concerned about his standing before the Lord, he earnestly prayed for forgiveness of his sins. He was confident that he would again receive a divine manifestation. Suddenly his room filled with light and a heavenly messenger stood by his bedside in partial fulfillment of the great prophecy of John the Apostle (see Revelation 14:6-7).
Joseph described this resurrected being: "He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrists; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.
Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me (Joseph Smith History 1:31-32)."
The messenger introduced himself as Moroni, a prophet who had lived on the American continent. As holder of the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim (see D&C 27:5). Moroni came at the appointed hour to reveal the existence of a record written on gold plates which had lain hidden in the ground for fourteen centuries. It was "an account of the former inhabitants of this continent.... He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants..." (Joseph Smith History 1:34) Joseph was to translate the record and publish it; because of this and other things he would be called to do, his name would be known for good and evil among all people (see v. 33).
Moroni cited several passages from The Bible quoting prophets such as Malachi, Isaiah, Joel, and Peter concerning the preparations to be made in the last days for the millennial reign of Christ. This commenced the gospel tutorship of Joseph Smith by Moroni.
So important was Moroni's message and the need to impress it on the mind of the young prophet that Moroni returned twice more that night and repeated the same instructions, adding information each time. During the first interview, Joseph saw in vision the location of the plates (see v. 42).
They were buried in a hillside about three miles from his home. In the second visit, Joseph was told of judgments which were coming upon the earth (see v. 45). At the end of the third visit, Moroni warned Joseph that Satan would try to tempt him to get the plates for their temporal value because of his family's poverty. Moroni directed seventeen-year-old Joseph that he was to have only one purpose for obtaining the plates, and that was to glorify God. Only one motive should influence him, and that was to build God's kingdom (see v. 46). Through subsequent events the Prophet learned why Moroni had given such admonitions and directions. Joseph's interviews with Moroni occupied most of the night, for at the end of the third visit he heard a rooster crow. Indeed, a new day of spiritual light was about to dawn. Isaiah spoke of this day as a time when a "marvellous work and a wonder" would come forth (Isaiah 29:14).

The Frame House

The Smiths