| Show SKETCH OF P tub tur AUTO lant ernt or 09 GEORGE ALBERT SMITH I 1 was wat born lorn in the town of potsdam Pot idam st lawrence county nem new tork york on the 1 dayot 1 june jane 1817 my f father tather john smith was the sixth son on of of asael asaei and mary and was barnon born on the day of t july 1781 he married Clariss clarissa aLmap lyman the lith sep sept 1815 my lly grandt grandfather ather asael asaei smith wa was the second son BOX of samuel smith the second an and d priscilla aed and was born in Tops topsfield field massachusetts march fth 1744 and married mary duty feb 12 1767 my great grandfather the second samuel smith was the son of birst first r st samuel Samu elSmith smith and rebecca curtis and was born on the january 1714 in topsfield Tops field essex county massachusetts and married priscilla gould nth may 1734 his father samul samuel smiths smithy the first was the son of robert and mary smith who came cam e from england he was born on an the january 1666 in topsfield Tops field essex t county massachusetts and was married to rebecca curtis daughter of john rohn curtis on january 1707 M my Y mother clarissa lyman was the daughter aughter el of richard lyman who was an orderly ergeant for several yearb years in the war of independence during which ti time meby by exposure ht he contracted a disease which produced an untimely death a few years after aft erthe the war leaving a family of small children M my y mother waa was waa reared under the care of her uncle the rey rev elijah lyman pastor of the first presbyterian church at brookfield orange county bounty vermont my grandmothers grandm othera maiden name was philo 1410 meia aela Lo loomane Loo mace ornace my aly father and mother were members of the congregational church at potsdam and spared ao no pains to impress my mind from fr orn oin my infancy ancy anzy with the importance of living a life of obedience to the principles of the religion of heaven which they taught me as well as they understood it the winter after I 1 was nine years old I 1 resolved received a blow upon my head which rendered me IBB in insensible sensible for three weeks A council of surgeons decided that the skull yas was fractured and th the blood settled under it and that the only remedy was wab trepanning my father being a man of faith falth and believing that god would heal me djan dismissed ased the tila physicians and ia in a few weeks I 1 recovered although for many years I 1 felt the effects of that blow at an early age I 1 felt a disposition to enquire af after ter ier the thi original principles of the gospel I 1 asked my father where the presbyterian church originated he answered with the apostles I 1 enquired where the methodist church originated he replied with john weal wesl wesley ef ln in england about a hundred bundred years ago I 1 where there the baptist church originated he sald said baid bald with mr williams who first settled rhode island or with the Wal wai denies denges es I 1 enquired why these sects did not join the presby teriann benana wb who descended dir directly atly from the apostles lie he answered they all think that they descended directly from the apostles this opened my eyes la TA the chef fall fali all ali of 1828 my arand grandfather tather father received hy letter ietter from my uncle joseph Josept hsmith fSmith sen ben be formation information la that his son joseph had received several jag jai teril veril remarkable visions my grandfather was waa than then livin living in stockholm st lawrence cuaty also three of his bons sons jesse asahel asal silas the old gintle gentleman dintleman man said that he always knew that god was going to raise up some branch of his family to be a great benefit to mankind but my uncles ridiculed josephs visions soon after a letter was received from joseph jaa jua in which he declared that the sword of yem wom vengeance bance of the almighty hung over this generation and that except they repented and obeyed the gospel and turned from ways way bumbling themselves before the lord it wald f all fall upon the wicked and sweep them thera from tree the tk earth as with the besom ap of dearee tion this letter ietter made adeep impression upon my mind min dand and my father tather said cf joseph wrote like a prophet ili in the month of august IS uncle joseph smith a and his bis younger youngest t s son bon n don carlos came to my f fathers ath ers on a visit bringing with them some books of mormon mornion my aly father kiad kind fiad had not seen his brother for about eighteen years be had lived in wayne and ontario counties western new york a distance from ua us of ak miles As my urcle urcie uncle was in great haste to see his father my father ook a bakori wagon and carried them to stockholm about twelve miles where my grandfather and uncles resided my mother and myself occupied saturday and sunday reading the bekof book of mormon on sunday evening the neigh neighbors boro gathered into in to see the golden bible 31 asit as it was called by them and coa con commenced fenced raising objections to it although I 1 did not yet believe the book their objections looked to me me so foolish that I 1 c commenced om answering thema them and exposed the fallacy of their object objections loni ioni so pal pai palpably paulk that the they y went away confounded confound ed contenting themselves by saying baying you are a smart boy I 1 continued to read the book of mormon and framed in my mind a series of objections which I 1 supposed were sufficient to overthrow its authenticity and on tb the return of my uncle joseph I 1 undertook to argue with him upon the subject but he so successfully removed my objections and enlightened my mind that I 1 have never since ceased to advocate its divine authority uncle joseph and my cousin don carlos labored diligently to canvin convince S e our relatives of the truth of the work uncle jesse the oldest brother in the family opposed them in the most vindictive manner threatening a to hew uncle joseph down with pith aith a broad axe if he brought hib bis books into or preached any such damand nonsense in his bis house he followed him every place benefit he went and was BO go abusive as to prevent him talking on 11 the subject in his presence notwithstanding this uncles asahel asahe silas and my father were so f far ar impressed with the truth that they continued to investigate sti as did also several younker younger branches of the family soon after uncle joseph returned home mr solomon humphrey a baptist exhorter in stockholm being t impressed with the truth of the work went to manch manchester ester ontario county to see cousin joseph and was baptized and ordained an elder returned home and commenced preaching the word to the people although constantly hissed at by the ministers of I 1 all denominations and arid their followers we I 1 were also visited by elder eider joseph H wakefield who in connection with elder humphrey baptized several ih in stockholm and matil daville among whom were my ray mot mothers herPs brothers asa and george lyman and my grandmother philomela lyman iii in the year 1831 the there were several pro meetings b held heid by the congregation congregational a ests for the cori corl conversion version of sinners the he one held heid in december continued seventeen days I 1 had not yet obtained sufficient knowledge of the gospel to understand but what I 1 needed conversion versi on after the manner i of the sectarians sect arians to to fit in me e for baptism tm a and nd for this purpose I 1 attended the meetings as a seeker after religion night and day but could not profesa profess to be frightened nearly out of my benses senses for fear tear of hell bell and damnation when I 1 really felt no such fear and I 1 would not take my beat on the anxious benches without I 1 felt as others laid daid said they did and because I 1 would not be i a hypocrite but remained in the gallery as the only sinner left while hundreds were moaning for their sins I 1 was sealed up by the rev nev fred E cannon our minister to eternal damnation this solemn sentence was pronounced nine times in the name of jesus jesua christ with the addition that your blood isupov is upon your own head I 1 concluded if the minister bad any authority that my ry f ate fate was waa sealed and it if he be had bad none I 1 was foolish for going to hib his meet I 1 an iea lea 6 n to 00 gyst ate ato to tomys my satisfaction at that il the isaian kenlan sectarian kea iea lan ian i churches were without the true priesthood in september 1831 my mother M I 1 oth er was waa baptized thae thad the thle congregational church commenced to labor aa or with my father and mother but did not begin correctly according t to the directory my father having been a prominent prini rient riene member and hav hay having ing heen been engaged in the performance of almost every church labor with the refractory members for seventeen years corrected their blunder which caused them to begin again they continued thib this labor by bending sending weekly committees until the of january when they excommunicated them for heresy 1 1 january 9 1831 1837 1 my father was baptized by b y E elder lder ider S humphrey and was confirmed and ordained an elder by elders jos JOB 11 wakefield aed and and S humphrey my father had been for several beveral years very feeble in health and for about six months previous to his baptism had not been hben able to visit isil his barn and was wab pronounced by physicians irr in the last stage of consumption liis bis neighbors all believed that baptism would kill him I 1 cut the ice in the creek and arid broke a road for forty rods through the crust on two feet of snow the day was very cold the neighbors looked on with astonishment ment nt expecting to see him die in the water but his health continued improving improTi ng from that nio moment ment during du ing that thal ev evening i ening he hada had bad a vision of the savi savl savior or the next day be he visited his bis barn ile he soon commenced travel ling and preaching ills his former christian friends denouncing him as crazy saying that tha i t the lin improved proved condition of his health was the result of insanity and were greatly surprised that a craze crazy man should know more mord about abod the bible than they did I 1 in every neighborhood where be he preached he be was followed up lip by sectarian ministers who slandered and abused the saints in every possible manner in order to save if possible their sinking craf crafts ta 5 mr talbert who wab was very f famous amous for preaching hell fire and eternal punishment and was the presbyterian Presbyter iari lari minister at parishville Parish ville at a salary of a year and perquisites es came into one of my fathers meetings at Matil daville and interrupted him in a most abusive mannar manner demanding a sign and pronouncing the solemn sentence of of damnation on all who should believe the word my father told him in the presence of the congregation gat on that he was a wicked man and an adulterer and that his corruption should be exposed to the eyes of all men in the course of a f few ev months mr talbert was dismissed from his congregation who did not approve of his conduct in lodging with his hired girls a custom which it wis was proved he had long practised practiced mr fc however had been engaged for seven years yearb by his congregation he sued them for his salary in the district court and recovered being his salary for six years the remaining term of his engagement g ga in the spring of 1832 my father was invited to preach in a school house near home bome which created an excitement on the sunday previous to his bis meeting an appointment was circulated that mr hall a methodist presiding elder would expose mormonism at the stone school house at 4 pm and every family in the tile neighborhood was noil notified notified fied but ours seeing the turn out I 1 went to the meeting mr hall delivered a discourse disco urge urae from rev chap 22 v 18 cei cil it any man I 1 shall add unto these thin things B god shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book ile he asserted that after that was written tb there ere was no more revelation no more prophecy and all thai thal that was written after that time professing to be revelation or prophecy was from hell although but i a boy of fifteen I 1 looked sternly at mr liall hall hali when he made this assertion and could plainly perceive him change color coir ile he stopped and stammered and declared that I 1 if f the of the golden goiden bible would smite st lawrence river BO so that he could go to canada dry shod he would believe it his ills discourse escourse waga wasa tirade of abuse backed up by y elder eider bachelor a baptist minister As BOOB 1 I as the meeting was di dismissed is missed I 1 was surrounded by about forty of the neighbors cfall of all ali denominations mi and asked what I 1 thought of mr halls ber eer bermon sermon nion I 1 replied I 1 was wail never so ai al toni shed in all my life I 1 had bupt emr hall to be an honest man and bobear to hear bear him lie to the congregation when the whole assembly must knew that he was waa lying astonished me beyond measure what did mr hall sy eay hat that bat was not trued true they inquired I 1 replied replie di be b bid sid baid said that after john wrote his text that there was no more revelation no more prophecy and all that was written after that pretending to be inspired was from hell bell when he knows and so does every body else that looks inside a large family bible that jo john h n himself wrote his three epistles and his gospel years af after ten ter that text was written several of his hii methodist friends said it could coula net not be so but an old presbyterian among them said when you get got home look at the chronology in your ifie beblet ties and you will find that geo A is right A more ast abt astonished orlis hed company I 1 never saw 31 my y father father preached the next Sab abbit bathon 4 the tha fulfillment fulfilment of prophecy our neighbors neighbor ra were astonish astonished edat at his hia knowledge of the bible the sectarian ministers visited every family around and charged them not to visit or associate with anva us irl in any way in the least ae an f fana tana ania aria I 1 was ca catching and they would be in danger of going to hell during rry my f fathers athers long sickness and feeble health I 1 had carried earned on the farm myself and prejudice went BO so far that etwas it was wab with the greatest difficulty we I 1 could hire hands to assist in mowing thrashing ac and were under the necessity of hiring confirmed infidels whom the christians Christil would scarcely ever employ mr john dorothy an influential member of the presbyterian church proposed to me that if I 1 would woula leave my father and pledge myself never to become a mormon and commence immediately abely to go to school he would warrant me seven years education be he promised thai that there should be no failure if I 1 would study divinity and become a i af pf presbyterian asb tery i a n preacher I 1 told him that mr ca cannon annon his minister had sealed me up lip to eternal damnation and I 1 would consequently be unfit tor for a minister he replied that would make no difference I 1 answered then mr cannon has no authority from god and I 1 will not preach without authority he then baid eaid I 1 might choose my profession and I 1 should have the education if I 1 would agree never to jola joia the mormons cormons Mor mons I 1 told him that my f father tather was sick I 1 and that the commandment of god required me to honor my father and mother and it was my duty to take care of them as s I 1 was wax their only dependence he replied your father and mother have dishonored themselves thema elrea by becoming mormons cormons Mor mons take my advice and I 1 will |
