KnoWhy #772 | January 14, 2025
How Did Joseph Smith’s Family Testify of the First Vision?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” Joseph Smith—History 1:17
The Know
Today, Latter-day Saints recognize Joseph Smith’s First Vision as one of the principal events of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Joseph Smith prayed for wisdom, he recorded, “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith—History 1:17). This vision inaugurated a series of events that would lead to the coming forth and translation of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the Priesthood, and the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Between the years 1832 and 1844, Joseph Smith would leave four firsthand accounts of this event.1
However, while modern Latter-day Saints typically refer to the First Vision as the inaugurating event of the Restoration, Kyle R. Walker and other historians have noted that “members of the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family typically began their narrative of the church’s earliest history by recounting events connected to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon” rather than the First Vision itself.2 Furthermore, in his 1838 account, Joseph mentions sharing his vision only with a Methodist minister in the area, not with his family (Joseph Smith—History 1:21). For this and other reasons, some historians have posited, “There is no evidence in the historical record that Joseph Smith told anyone but the minister of his vision for at least a decade.”3
While Joseph may not have immediately told his family the full story of what he experienced in the Sacred Grove, Walker has noted that based on “recently discovered sources from Smith family members . . . the family likely knew elements of his First Vision experience much earlier than previously thought.”4 It would rather appear that Joseph “did share some experiences with his family that went beyond that brief conversation with his mother [recorded in Joseph Smith—History 1:20].”5
Of the Smith family members who would share details regarding the First Vision, Joseph’s parents and two of his younger siblings, William and Katharine, left the most writings pertaining to the First Vision.6 However, various circumstances should be considered when discussing these sources. They generally came many years after the fact, which may have shaped how the Smith family remembered certain aspects. The family also grew up in an oral history culture, in which they typically retold rather than wrote down many remembrances.7 Nonetheless, significant traces of the Smith family’s early knowledge of this event can be seen.
One potential consideration could also be how the Smiths viewed the First Vision as one of many consecutive spiritual manifestations leading up to the restoration of the Church on April 6, 1830. Joseph’s mother, Lucy, conceptually linked these manifestations to a series of seven dreams her husband had in the year 1819.8 According to Lucy’s history, Joseph Smith Sr.’s last dream ended abruptly with an angel telling him, “There is but one thing which you lack, in order to secure salvation.”9 Joseph Sr. awoke and was unable to hear the rest of the angel’s message. “The next sentence in Lucy’s history describes the religious revival in the Palmyra vicinity and her son Joseph’s struggle to sort through the contentions he observed among the different religions” before inserting Joseph’s account of the First Vision—“the missing piece that would secure her husband’s salvation.”10
Katharine Smith Salisbury would also conceptually link the First Vision to the subsequent coming of Moroni, who would often begin relating the events of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon specifically with Joseph’s “experience of the Lord appearing unto him, and of his seeing both the Father and the Son.”11 In one account, she related, “After he [Joseph] had his first vision, he lay in bed one night studying what he had seen” before Moroni appeared to him in 1823.12
William Smith is also known to have frequently conflated the events of the First Vision with those of the visitation of Moroni. But Walker notes that William “was recollecting these events from his own memory of what he had heard, and not simply citing from what had been published by that point,” especially given how “his reminiscences correspond with some of Joseph Smith’s lesser-known accounts of the First Vision, which William could have only learned of from Joseph himself.”13
William and Katharine also highlight many of the same events leading up to the First Vision that Joseph mentioned. Both siblings describe Joseph attending camp meetings, with Katharine placing many of these meetings in a grove of trees.14 Both also recall that Joseph was influenced by James 1:5–6 in his decision to pray in the Sacred Grove, and William even names George Lane as the Methodist preacher who was influential on the young Joseph before this event.15
Katharine would go on to relate the story of Joseph’s First Vision to her children and grandchildren multiple times before her death, each time focusing on how after Joseph had experienced darkness and despair, he saw “two bright lights coming down from above; [and] when they were close to him he saw that they were heavenly messengers.”16 In other accounts, Katharine explicitly identifies these messengers as God the Father and Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith also are recorded as telling Wandle Mace about the First Vision in 1839, likewise identifying the personages as God and Jesus.17
Katharine told her son Frederick that after the First Vision, Joseph “would teach the family,” and she specifically remembered one evening when the family listened to “her brother’s description of the heavenly messages which he had received from God and his Son.”18 She and William also remembered that the family faced persecution shortly after the First Vision because they believed what Joseph had told them.19 Furthermore, this persecution led to Sophronia becoming sick with consumption, which Katharine specifies occurred when Sophronia was seventeen. This would mark the earliest persecution in the years of 1820–1821, matching Joseph’s history.20 Such persecution is something that the entire family went through, and so their records of it reflect memories of the individuals’ own experiences rather than retellings of what Joseph had specifically told them. All of this is significant corroborating evidence that Joseph had shared with them at least some details of his marvelous vision shortly after it occurred.
The Why
While Joseph may not have initially told his family the full details of his vision, much as he was nervous to relate his discussions with Moroni three years later, he clearly trusted his family and began sharing some details of the event with them very early on.21 This event would be influential not only for the young prophet but also for his entire family. Taken together, the Smith family’s statements support Joseph’s accounts of the First Vision and shed additional light on this important event.
Because Joseph could rely on his family, sharing details of his experiences helped in additional ways beyond confiding in them about his subsequent visions. The Smith family would collectively help bring forth the Book of Mormon, defending and testifying about the plates. Indeed, while three of the Smiths (Joseph Sr., Hyrum, and Samuel) would serve as three of the Eight Witnesses, other members of the family would testify to having hefted or protected the plates at various times, including William, Katharine, Sophronia, and Lucy Mack Smith.22 Had they not been prepared to believe and trust Joseph as early as his First Vision, their invaluable witnesses to these important events may never have happened.
Ultimately, the Smith family saw the First Vision and other subsequent manifestations as some of the most important events of the Restoration. They never said anything to the contrary. Rather, they united behind these manifestations and were able to remember them to draw on heavenly support. Modern Latter-day Saints can likewise follow their example as they seek to better understand the First Vision.
Kyle R. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” Journal of Mormon History 47, no. 2 (2021): 1–22.
Kyle R. Walker, Sister to the Prophet: The Life of Katharine Smith Salisbury (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2024), 20–22, 246–247, 258.
Kyle R. Walker, William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet (Greg Kofford Books, 2015), 41–62.
- 1. For an analysis of the different accounts of the First Vision, see Scripture Central, “Joseph Smith’s Firsthand Accounts of the First Vision,” Joseph Smith—History Insight 1 (February 4, 2020).
- 2. Kyle R. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” Journal of Mormon History 47, no. 2 (2021): 1.
- 3. Steven C. Harper, First Vision: Memory and Mormon Origins (Oxford University Press, 2019), 11. Matthew B. Brown, A Pillar of Light: The History and Message of the First Vision (Covenant Communications, 2009), 41–42, also notes, “Fear of non-acceptance may have also played a role in his reticence,” which would have only been exacerbated based on the preacher’s response. As such, there exists “uncertainty about the date of full disclosure to [Joseph’s] parents, brothers, and sisters.” Furthermore, while Orson Pratt in 1871 noted that Joseph “returned to his father's house, and told the vision, not only to his parents and neighbors, but to some of the preachers of the religious denominations in that place,” it is not entirely clear where he is getting this information or if he is referring to Joseph’s interaction with his mother immediately after the event as recorded in Joseph Smith—History 1:20. Orson Pratt, “The Fulfillment of Prophecy—The Early History of the Church—The Book of Mormon,” in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Latter-day Saints Book Depot, 1855–1886), 14:141. For another discussion on Joseph’s potential hesitance to fully discuss the details of this vision, see James B. Allen and John W. Welch, “The Appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in 1820,” in Exploring the First Vision, ed. Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2012), 46–49.
- 4. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 2.
- 5. Kyle R. Walker, Sister to the Prophet: The Life of Katharine Smith Salisbury (Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center; Deseret Book, 2024), 20.
- 6. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 4.
- 7. For brief discussions on these points, see Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 2–4; Lavina Fielding Anderson, “Lucy Mack Smith,” in United by Faith: The Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family, ed. Kyle R. Walker (BYU Studies; Covenant Communications, 2005), 53–54.
- 8. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 4–5: “Lucy . . . ultimately inserted Joseph Smith’s First Vision immediately following Joseph Sr.’s last in a series of seven spiritual dreams, which Lucy said occurred in the
- 9. “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845,” p. 72, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 10. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 5. For another discussion on how Lucy Mack Smith shaped this discussion in light of the visionary experiences of her family, see Harper, First Vision, 48–49.
- 11. Oscar Case Reminiscence, ca. 1894, Tom and Carla Duke Papers, Burlington, IA; as cited in Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 11.
- 12. This was related in an interview published in the Kansas City Times, April 11, 1895; as cited in Kyle R. Walker, “Katharine Smith Salisbury’s Recollections of Joseph’s Meetings with Moroni,” BYU Studies 41, no. 3 (2002): 11. See also Walker, Sister to the Prophet, 24. Joseph also appears to have conceptually linked the visions at one point; he recorded in his history, “I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation as I had previously had one” as he prayed the night of September 23, 1823. “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 5, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 13. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 15–16. For a lengthier treatment of William’s recollections of these events, see Kyle R. Walker, William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet (Greg Kofford Books, 2015), 41–62, especially pages 44–52. For another discussion, see Harper, First Vision, 47–48. Lucy Mack Smith is also known to have conflated these visions on occasion, perhaps for these same reasons, although Katharine never appears to have done so.
- 14. Mary Salisbury Hancock, “The Three Sisters of the Prophet Joseph Smith, part 1,” Saints’ Herald 101, no. 2 (January 11, 1954): 11; Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 12–13, also notes that this is an accurate detail of Methodist camp meetings that took place near Palmyra in the 1820s. See, for example, the description of a Methodist camp meeting in Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Accuracy on the First Vision Setting: The Pivotal 1818 Palmyra Camp Meeting,” in Dodge and Harper, Exploring the First Vision, 113–118.
- 15. See Walker, William B. Smith, 48–49; Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 8–10. For more information regarding George Lane’s activities in New York at this time, see Larry C. Porter, “Rev. George Lane—Good ‘Gifts,’ Much ‘Grace,’ and Marked ‘Usefulness,’” in Dodge and Harper, Exploring the First Vision, 199–226; Scripture Central, “Who Was the Minister Joseph Smith Spoke to About His Vision?,” Joseph Smith—History Insight 11 (March 10, 2020).
- 16. Frederick V. Salisbury, “The Teachings and Testimonies of My Mother,” unpublished typescript, 1926–1928, 1, Hancock County Historical Society, Carthage, IL; as cited in Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 12. In other accounts, Katharine (as well as her brother William) focuses on one messenger who spoke to Joseph, much like Joseph Smith’s 1832 account. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 17, sees these recollections as “further evidence that during the early 1820s Joseph simply shared with his family” a more intimate version focusing on the heavenly being—namely, Jesus Christ—who addressed his concerns. See Walker, Sister to the Prophet, 21.
- 17. Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 5–6. Lucy Mack Smith also once told the story of the First Vision to Wandle Mace, describing it as “the time the Angels first visited him.” While some might take this reference to angels to refer to Moroni or others, it is said to have occurred when Joseph was “about fourteen years old” and matches language Joseph used in 1835, leaving Walker to believe that this might be another reference to God and Jesus Christ. See Wandle Mace, Journal and Autobiography, photocopy of original, ca. 1890, 33, Church History Library; as cited in Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 5.
- 18. Salisbury, “Teachings and Testimonies of My Mother,” 2; as cited in Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 14.
- 19. Salisbury, “Teachings and Testimonies of My Mother,” 2; as cited in Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 19. In contrast, Katharine recounts how the Methodist preacher not only rejected Joseph’s vision (as Joseph recorded) but also began disseminating this vision and encouraging others to persecute the Smith family. See Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 18–19; Walker, Sister to the Prophet, 22, 258. See also Mark L. McConkie, “Joseph Smith, Sr.,” in Walker, United by Faith, 7–8.
- 20. Joseph Smith—History 1:22; Walker, “Smith Family Recollections,” 19; Walker, Sister to the Prophet, 22; Gracia N. Jones, “Sophronia Smith Stoddard McCleary,” in Walker, United by Faith, 168.
- 21. For Joseph being afraid his father would not believe his account of Moroni’s visit, see “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [11], bk. 3,” p. [11], bk. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 22. For more on William’s testimony, see Walker, William B. Smith, 58–62; for Katharine’s and Sophronia’s, see Walker, Sister to the Prophet, 34, 172–173; for Lucy Mack Smith’s, see Sally Parker (neighbor of Lucy Mack Smith) to John Kempton, August 26, 1838, as reported in Janiece L. Johnson, “‘The Scriptures Is a Fulfilling’: Sally Parker’s Weave,” BYU Studies 44, no. 2 (2005): 116.