Seven (1812)of his youth used to earmark and embellish the stature of Joseph and was a compelling force
for later LDS historians to further deify Joseph and set him up to be worshiped.
Joseph was scared to death (like any seven-year-old) upon hearing that he would need
to have his leg cut off. In the end, the physicians were persuaded to save his leg, but this
would involve an excruciating surgery. During the operation to save his leg, his mother was
delirious with agony and drama, as any mother would be. Her actions were so upsetting to
the young Joseph that she had to be physically removed from the house by the attending
physicians. Of course, Lucy didn’t see it this way and she reported of her young son, thus,
looking up into my face, his eyes swimming with tears...said
beseechingly, “Now, Mother, promise me you will not stay, will you? The
Lord will help me. I shall get through with it, so do leave me and go a way
off, till they get through with it.^11No seven-year-old talks that way, but as Lucy told it and as her scribe, Ms. Coray,
reported it, Joseph was God’s chosen messenger and was to be remembered as one who acted
the part, even as a child. Unfortunately, none of these tales are true. Lucy was beside herself to
see her son in pain and was literally carried out of the house crying uncontrollably.
The other story that was reported by LDS historians, taken from Coray’s account of
what she gained from her interviews with the grieving Lucy Smith, was concerning Joseph’s
refusal to “drink some brandy,” or “take some wine.” Lucy said (according to Coray’s notes)
that the doctor tried to give Joseph some wine saying, “You must take something, or you
can never endure the severe operation to which you must be subjected,” to which Joseph
supposedly responded, “No! I will not touch one particle of liquor.”^12 These details are
completely false and again came from a grieving Lucy some thirty years later, attempting to
aggrandize the son that had just been murdered by the world.
Joseph’s father, Joseph Sr., was a heavy drinker who often found solace in the
bottle to massage the weaknesses he felt from his many personal and business failures.
There was liquor in the house, but it wasn’t wine. It was whiskey. Joseph trusted his
father to know what was best for him; so when his father brought out his bottle of
whiskey and told Joseph to drink some to ease the pain he was about to feel, Joseph took
the bottle and tried to drink it. Anyone who hasn’t developed an acquired taste for
alcohol would understand what happened next. Joseph spit the whisky out of his mouth
and onto his father, crying, “I can’t drink that Father! Please just hold me tight!”
His mother’s only reference to the assumptions she would make about what occurred,
came from what she gathered from being outside the house where she had just been forcefully
evicted, only overhearing Joseph’s cries. That’s all she knew about the incident.
Joseph Let Them Believe What They Wanted
Because of his role to be to the people whatever they wanted him to be—according
to their desires and free will and for their sake—Joseph never disputed any legend the
people wanted to believe about him and which, in their minds, supported him as their
“Moses.” In fact, on more than one occasion Joseph would say in private to some of his
closest associates, “Let them believe what they want about me if it serves for their good. ”^13
Is there any wonder why most of his closest friends left him and called him a fallen prophet,
thinking him to be vain or willing to let a “lie” stand without correction?