During the April 1930 General Conference, President Heber J. Grant made an error when recounting the age of Joseph Smith (Joseph was 14, not 15, when he had the First Vision):
In like manner Joseph Smith, an obscure country
boy, fifteen years of age, when he related to certain sectarian ministers of
the neighborhood that he had received a heavenly vision, was made the victim of
ridicule and bitter persecution. (Heber J. Grant, Conference
Report [April 1930], 9)
This might have just been a slip (after all, Joseph Smith
was born in 1805 and the First Vision took place in 1820) or the
common error of confusing ordinals with cardinals (the First Vision took
place in the 15th year of Joseph’s life).
