Thursday, November 21, 2019

The Recollection of a Non-LDS Neighbour of the Smith Family Affirming Joseph Smith was Persecuted After the First Vision


Martha C. Cox, recollecting the words of a non-Mormon neighbour of the Smith family, wrote:

Mrs. Palmer was a Presbyterian. Her father owned a farm near the Smiths in the Palmyra-Manchester area when she was young. Her parents were friends with the Smith family. She "remembered the excitement stirred up among the people over the boy's first vision . . . She stated that one of their church leaders came to her father to demonstrate against allowing such close friendship between his family and the 'Smith boy,' as he called him . . . She remembered the churchman saying in a very solemn and impressive tone that the very influence the boy carried was the danger they feared for the coming generation, that not only the young man, but all who came in contact with him would follow him, and he must be put down" (Martha C. Cox, Autobiography, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah as cited by Matthew B. Brown, Historical or Hysterical: Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources)

This is important as it is a report of the words of a non-Mormon neighbour of the Smith family who witnessed the reaction of one of the persecutors of the young prophet after his First Vision, showing that Joseph Smith was indeed the recipient of some form of persecutions as a result of his claims of heavenly visions.