In approximately 1881, Oliver B. Huntington recorded in his journal some reminiscences, one of them being the one about which you inquired. The following is a copy of that account as copied from his journal:
“The inhabitants of the moon are more of a uniform size than the
inhabitants of the earth, being about 6 feet in height.
They dress very much like the quaker style and are quite general in style, or
the one fashion of dress.
They live to be very old, coming generally, near a thousand years.
This is the description of them as given by Joseph the Seer, and he could ‘See’
whatever he asked the Father in the name of Jesus to see.
I heard him say that ‘he could ask what he would of the Father in the name of
Jesus and it would be granted’ and I have no more doubt of it than I have that
the mobs killed him.”
Oliver B. Huntington also authored an article on the same subject
which appeared in the Young Woman’s Journal, volume 3 (March, 1892):
263-264. We are enclosing a copy of this article.
We have checked through our files in an effort to find out how
reliable the information in the article is. Our patriarchal blessing index
shows no record of Oliver B. Huntington receiving a patriarchal blessing from
Joseph Smith, Sr., in 1837 or in any other year. The records in dictate that he
did receive a patriarchal blessing in 1843 from Hyrum Smith and another in 1897
from John Smith. We have read both of these blessings and find that neither of
the mention the moon, inhabitants of the moon, or any information that could be
interpreted as such. Oliver B. Huntington received a father’s blessing
from his father, William Huntington, in 1836. In this father’s blessing it
says: “. . . Before thou art 21 thou wilt be called to preach the fulness of
the gospel; thou shalt have power with God even to translate thyself to Heaven
and preach to the inhabitants on the moon or the planets if it shall be
expedient.”
Memories, of course, are always subject to question, and it was
many years after the death of the Prophet that Brother Huntington recorded in
his reminiscences the things he claims Joseph Smith said about men on the moon.
That his memory did play tricks on him is demonstrated by the fact that he made
errors in his account of the patriarchal blessing.
We have checked our files to see if we could find anything else
that would indicate that Joseph Smith ever taught that there were inhabitants
on the moon. We have found nothing in our research to show that he ever taught
this.
Sincerely,
David M. Mayfield, Assistant Church Librarian-Archivist.
Source: Thomas S. Medford, “A Response to Eight False Prophecies of
Joseph Smith,” January 6, 1980, M230.9 M488re 1980, Church History Library
