Ten (1815)
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Let your heart be comforted. Ye believe in God,
believe also in me.’
“In a few moments my mother came in and looked upon me and cried out, ‘Lucy, you are
better.’ My speech came and I answered, ‘Yes, Mother, the Lord will let me live. If I am faithful to my
promise which I have made to him, he will suffer me to remain to comfort the hearts of my mother,
my husband, and my children.’” (Proctor, 48.)
(^19 666) America, 25–6.
(^20) Lucy’s brother and business partner gave her $1000 for her wedding present: “So they wrote
a check on their bankers for one thousand dollars and presented me with the same.” (Proctor, 44);
Later, her brother, Major Mack, rented out a home to the scandalous business partner of
Joseph Smith, Sr.: “In a short time after this, young Stevens hired a house of Major Mack, my brother,
employed eight or ten hands, and commenced crystallizing ginseng” (Proctor, 52);
Recorded still later, Joseph Smith, Sr. rented one of Lucy’s father’s farms: “Here my husband
rented a farm of my father, which he cultivated in the summer season and in the winter taught
school.” (Proctor, 62.)
(^21) “Recent research has shown that while Joseph Smith Sr. was unable to join the fraternity in
Vermont, at least two of his brothers and one brother-in-law became Masons in Randolph’s Federal
Lodge #15,” as copied from a forum post on “WEB CLIPS: Dan Vogel, ‘Mormonism’s Anti-Masonic
Bible.” Concerned Christians—Bringing the Biblical Jesus to the Latter-day Saints. 2009. Concerned
Christians. 10 Apr. 2011 http://www.concernedchristians.com. (Search “Vermont Randolph.”) It
is assumed the quote is from: Literski, Nicholas S. “An Introduction to Mormonism and
Freemasonry.” The Signature Books Library. Signature Books.
http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/essays/mason.htm.
(^22) “The father, Joseph Smith Sr. was a documented member of the craft in upstate New York.
He was raised to the degree of Master Mason May 7, 1818 in Ontario Lodge No. 23 of Canandaigua,
New York. An older son, Hyrum Smith was a member of Mount Moriah Lodge No. 112 at Palmyra,
New York.” (Terry Chateau. “Mormonism and Freemasonry.” Grand Lodge of British Columbia and
Yukon. 30 Apr. 2004. Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M., 10 Apr. 2011
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/lds/mormonism.html.
See also John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire—The making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844 (New
York: Cambridge UP, 2001) 140.
The term “Free and Accepted” was first used in 1722 in J. Roberts’, The Old Constitutions
belonging to the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons.
(^23) See chapter 37 for the details.
(^24) Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1997) 45–6.
(^25) A New York newspaper puts the wedding date in November 1830. See
“Rochester Daily Advertiser,” RickGrunder.com, 10 Jan. 2012
http://www.rickgrunder.com/Newspapers%20for%20Sale/lucindaharris.htm.
(^26) Compton, 43.
(^27) See “List of the wives of Joseph Smith [Jr.],” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 22 Jul.
2011, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 5 Aug. 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_wives_of_Joseph_Smith.
(^28) For one erroneous example, see Lance S. Owens, “Joseph Smith: America’s Hermetic Prophet,”
found in The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith, ed. Bryan Waterman (Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1999).
(^29) For one example, “The Morgan Affair is not unlike Joseph Smith’s death in the sense that it
was a setup—a ritual occult murder.” See video uploaded by “IExposeMormonism,” “Lucinda
Morgan Harris Smith The Morgan Affair Murder Polygamy Freemasonry Jijinks,” 1 YouTube, Jun.
2009, YouTube, LLC, 10 Jan. 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbuFUVN1QW0.
(^30) BOM, 4 Nephi 1:42.