William Smith, late in his life
(Wikimedia CC, public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
William Smith, the younger brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, led an occasionally tempestuous life and, although he had served in the Twelve and as patriarch to the Church, was excommunicated late in 1845. \u00a0He never returned, although he affiliated himself from time to time with various offshoots of the Restoration movement.<\/p>\n
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Roughly two weeks before his death in Iowa in 1893, William,\u00a0then eighty-two, was asked by an interviewer, \u201cDid not you doubt Joseph\u2019s testimony [about the Book of Mormon] sometimes?\u201d<\/p>\n
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William replied, \u201cNo; we all had the most implicit confidence in what he said. \u00a0He was a truthful boy. \u00a0Father and mother believed him, why should not the children? \u00a0I suppose if he had told crooked stories about other things we might have doubted his word about the plates, but Joseph was a truthful boy. \u00a0That father and mother believed his report and suffered persecution for that belief shows that he was truthful. \u00a0No, sir, we never doubted his word for one minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But William\u2019s confidence in Joseph\u2019s account of the Book of Mormon didn\u2019t rely only upon his trust in his brother.<\/p>\n
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Although he wasn\u2019t among the official Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, he testified that he \u201cwas permitted to lift them [the plates] as they laid in a pillow case; but not to see them, as it was contrary to the commandments he [Joseph Smith] had received. \u00a0They weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 William Smith, the younger brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, led an occasionally tempestuous life and, although he had served in the Twelve and as patriarch to the Church, was excommunicated late in 1845. \u00a0He never returned, although he affiliated himself from time to time with various offshoots of the Restoration movement. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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