[5] He moved his family to Palmyra, New York, in 1816 and began to make payments on a farm located on the edge of neighboring Manchester Township.

[8] Work on a frame house at the farm was halted by the unexpected death of Smith's eldest son, Alvin, in 1823.

Though a spiritual man, Smith showed little interest in organized religion prior to his son Joseph reporting his visions to the family.

After much prayer, she said she had received a divine witness that her husband would some day accept "the pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God.

"[9] Smith professed that he had visionary dreams with highly symbolic content, perhaps related to his ambivalence about religious faith and sometimes presaging events to come.

[10] In the late 1820s, Smith's son, Joseph Jr., began to tell the family about golden plates, which he said contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.

In the following years, Joseph Jr. said he translated the plates into English through the use of a seer stone, which he found previously during a treasure digging expedition, as well as the Urim and Thummim, a device given to him by the angel Moroni.

Smith was present at the first performance of the Second Anointing ritual, the highest ordinance in the Latter-day Saint movement, which guarantees salvation and confers godhood.

[13] He blessed and ordained his eldest surviving son, Hyrum to succeed to the office of Presiding Patriarch by right of lineage.