Joseph Smith Sr.

Joseph Smith Sr. (July 12, 1771 – September 14, 1840) was the father of Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Smith Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses, the second of two groups of witnesses that stated that they had seen and handled the golden plates, which his son, Joseph, said was his source material for the Book of Mormon. Smith was an original member of his son's church, the Church of Christ, in 1830 when it was founded. In 1833, Smith became the church's first patriarch, and in 1837 became a member of the First Presidency of the church until his death in 1840.

Smith was born on July 12, 1771, in Topsfield, Massachusetts, to Asael Smith and Mary Duty. He married Lucy Mack in Tunbridge, Vermont, on January 26, 1796, and had 11 children with her. Details of Smith's paternal line go back to his 3rd great-grandfather Robert Smith from Lincolnshire, England who settled in Massachusetts colony during the Puritan migration. Some previous DNA testing on Smith's descendants had revealed some Irish roots.

Smith was a Universalist in his early years and founded a Universalist society in Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1797 with his brother Jesse and father Asael. While the society was short-lived, Smith maintained a philosophical, though not an institutional, tie to Universalism. Like most 19th-century Americans, Smith was unaffiliated with any organized religion for much of his life.

Smith practiced his Universalist beliefs through folk religion and magical beliefs, which included dream Interpretation and visionary experience, use of "divining rods" and "seer stones", as well as using magic to identify and dig for buried treasure. Smith modeled each folk religion and magic tradition for all of his children. Most notably his son Joseph relied on all three categories of folk magic gifts as he shared his religious story of obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon.

Smith, like his wife Lucy, struggled with depression. Lucy described her husbands depression as "deep periods of melancholy," which she said he "medicated" with alcohol. Other contemporaries of Smith characterized his self-medication, more severely and chronically, as persistent alcohol abuse. Folk magic also offered Smith less self-destructive and destabilizing comforts. In dreams he taught his family were visionary Smith saw resolution to the troubles that regularly overwhelmed him and Lucy in life. Smith believed one such dream foreshadowed his own salvation.

Smith tried his hands at several occupations, including farmer, teacher, and shop-keeper, none of which proved very successful. He moved his family to Palmyra, New York, in 1816 and began to make payments on a farm located on the edge of neighboring Manchester Township. Work on a frame house at the farm was halted by the unexpected death of Smith's eldest son, Alvin, in 1823.

Smith subsequently failed to make payments on the farm. Lemuel Durfee purchased it as a favor to the family and allowed the Smiths to continue there as renters until 1830. In Palmyra–Manchester Smith and his sons, including Joseph Smith Jr., employed their folk magic practices in a number of treasure digging excavations during the 1820s.

Smith's wife, Lucy, became involved with Presbyterianism. Joining the Presbyterian church did not dissuade Lucy away from folk religion and magic beliefs she shared with her husband. However, the differing religious affiliations Smith and Lucy held did cause her personal dissonance. In her own visionary dreaming experience, she said felt she received a divine witness that her husband would some day accept "the pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God." When the older Smith was baptized into the Church of Christ, his son Joseph seemed to feel it was the culmination of Lucy's vision. In the interim, Smith continued to have his own visionary dreams with highly symbolic content.