If you’ve ever tried to dig into early American religious history, you’ve probably run into a bit of a mess. It’s a tangle of court records, angry neighbors, and devoted followers. But there’s one document that stands out because it feels so incredibly personal. I’m talking about the History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, a memoir dictated by Lucy Mack Smith. Honestly, it’s one of the most raw, heartbreaking, and controversial books in the entire Latter-day Saint canon. It isn’t just a dry list of dates. It’s a mother trying to make sense of why her sons were murdered in a Carthage jail.
Lucy didn't start writing this because she wanted to be a famous author. She was sixty-nine years old, mourning the deaths of her sons Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel, all of whom died within a single month in 1844. She was basically broken. In the winter of 1844–1845, she sat down in Nauvoo, Illinois, and began telling her story to Martha Jane Knowlton Coray.
Why this book almost didn't exist
You might think the church would have jumped at the chance to publish the founder’s mother’s memoirs. Nope. It actually caused a massive rift between Lucy and Brigham Young. See, Lucy’s narrative leans heavily into the importance of the Smith family as a dynasty. Brigham Young, who was busy trying to solidify his own leadership and move the Saints to Utah, wasn’t exactly thrilled with how much credit Lucy gave to her husband and sons over the institutional "Twelve Apostles."
When Orson Pratt eventually published it in England in 1853, Brigham Young went nuclear. He ordered the Saints to gather up all the copies and destroy them. He claimed it was full of "many mistakes." It took decades before the book was finally "sanitized" and accepted back into the fold. But if you read the original, unedited version today—often called the Biographical Sketches—you get a much more human, gritty look at the Smith family's poverty.
The grit of the Smith family life
People like to imagine Joseph Smith growing up in a peaceful, pastoral setting. The reality was a nightmare of debt. Lucy recounts the move to Palmyra, New York, after the family lost their farm in Vermont due to a failed ginseng venture. Imagine being a mother of eight, traveling across snowy roads with a husband who had already failed at business three times.
One of the most intense parts of the History of Joseph Smith by His Mother is her description of Joseph’s leg surgery. Most history books mention it as a footnote. Lucy describes it with the visceral detail of someone who heard her child screaming. Joseph was seven. He had a bone infection (osteomyelitis) following a typhoid fever outbreak. He refused to be tied to the bed. He refused whiskey to dull the pain. Lucy had to be ushered out of the room because she couldn't handle the sound of the saw hitting bone.
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This isn't just a religious story; it’s a story about 19th-century survival. Lucy talks about her husband, Joseph Smith Sr., and his "luck." They were always just one bad crop away from total ruin. This poverty is crucial because it explains why the neighbors in Palmyra looked at them with such suspicion. They weren't just "visionaries"; they were the "poor Smiths" who did odd jobs and looked for buried treasure to pay the mortgage.
The "First Vision" through a mother's eyes
Interestingly, Lucy doesn't focus as much on the 1820 First Vision as modern church curriculum does. In her original dictation, she spends way more time on her own religious searching. She was a seeker. She went from church to church, frustrated by the "clashing of religious sentiments."
When she describes Joseph coming home after his first encounter with the angel Moroni, it’s remarkably casual. She says he leaned up against the fireplace and told her, "Mom, I've found out for myself that Presbyterianism is not true." It’s such a teenager thing to say. It makes the "Prophet" feel like a real kid who just had a massive realization.
The controversy over "Mistakes"
What did Brigham Young hate so much about it?
- Family over Quorum: Lucy emphasizes that the Smith family was the "First Family" of the restoration. This threatened the power of the traveling apostles.
- Dates and Names: Lucy was nearly 70. She got some dates wrong. She mixed up names of people who lived in Vermont thirty years prior.
- The "Magical" Context: Lucy was very open about the family's use of "facsimiles" and their belief in certain folk magic traditions. Later leaders wanted to distance the church from that.
The book basically sat in the "naughty corner" of church history for a long time. It wasn't until the 20th century that historians realized Lucy's errors were mostly just the natural lapses of an elderly woman's memory, not a deliberate attempt to deceive. In fact, her descriptions of the topography of Manchester and Palmyra have been proven incredibly accurate by modern archaeology.
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Surviving the Missouri War
The middle sections of the book get dark. Really dark. Lucy describes the "Extermination Order" in Missouri and the time Joseph was taken away to Liberty Jail. She recounts a moment where she had to say goodbye to her sons while they were in a wagon, surrounded by a mob. She couldn't even see their faces; she just reached under the wagon cover to shake their hands one last time.
"I felt as though I could not live," she wrote.
She wasn't a stoic saint. She was a woman who felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest over and over again. Honestly, the History of Joseph Smith by His Mother is probably the best record we have of the emotional toll that early Mormonism took on the women involved.
What most people get wrong about Lucy
People often paint Lucy as a passive observer. She wasn't. She was the one who ran a small school in her home to make extra money. She was the one who led a group of Saints across Lake Erie when the ice was breaking up, basically acting as a captain. She was tough as nails.
There's a common misconception that she just "believed whatever Joseph told her." If you read her history, you realize she was skeptical and demanding of evidence long before Joseph had his visions. She had her own visionary dreams years before he did. If anything, Joseph grew up in a household where the supernatural was expected and discussed at the dinner table.
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Practical takeaways for history buffs
If you're going to read the History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, don't just grab the cheapest version on Amazon. Look for the "Revised and Enhanced" version edited by Scot and Maurine Proctor, or better yet, the Joseph Smith Papers project's version.
The Proctor version helps fix the weird chronological jumps Lucy makes. She tends to tell a story, realize she forgot something from five years earlier, and then backtrack. It’s a stream-of-consciousness narrative.
- Look for the "Old" names: She calls her husband "Mr. Smith" throughout much of the early chapters. It’s a very formal, 19th-century way of speaking that shows the respect (and distance) inherent in marriages back then.
- Pay attention to the gaps: Notice what she doesn't talk about. She barely mentions polygamy. Whether that’s because she didn't know the full extent of it or because she chose to protect her son's reputation is a major point of debate among historians like Dan Vogel or Richard Bushman.
Why you should care in 2026
History is usually written by the winners or the powerful. It’s rarely written by the mothers. Lucy’s account gives us the "domestic" history of the Smith family. We see the pots and pans, the dirty bandages, the unpaid debts, and the literal blood on the floor.
It reminds us that historical figures aren't marble statues. They were people who got sick, who argued about money, and who buried their children in the cold ground. Lucy Mack Smith didn't write a theological treatise. She wrote a defense of her family’s honor.
Next Steps for Research
To get the most out of this historical period, you should compare Lucy's account with other contemporary sources to see where they align and where they diverge.
- Read the "Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845" online at the Joseph Smith Papers website. It’s free and shows the original handwriting and corrections.
- Cross-reference with William Smith’s accounts. Joseph’s younger brother William also wrote about the family’s early years, often providing a slightly different perspective on their father’s "treasure digging."
- Visit the Smith Family Farm in Manchester. If you can, seeing the small size of the "Sacred Grove" and the layout of the cabin gives you a physical sense of the cramped, intense life Lucy describes.
- Investigate the "Voree" or "Strangite" schism. After Joseph died, some people used Lucy’s history to support the claims of James Strang rather than Brigham Young. Understanding this helps explain why the book was so controversial in Utah.
Understanding Lucy Mack Smith is the only way to truly understand Joseph. You can't separate the "Prophet" from the boy who grew up in Lucy's kitchen. Her history is the heartbeat of the early restoration, messy and flawed as it might be.