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| Joseph Smith, Jr., was born in Sharon,
Vermont on December 23rd, 1805. His parents were Joseph, Sr. and Lucy Mack
Smith. The Smiths struggled to earn a living on the rocky, hilly land of
Vermont and moved many times. The Macks were a religious and literate family
and were fairly well off. By 1816, the "year of no summer", when there
were frosts in every month, the Smiths finally lost their farm and decided
to move west. They ended up in Palmyra, New York in the area termed by
Whitney Cross as "The Burned Over District" where religious fervor and
revivals were a commonplace. It was in Palmyra that Joseph Smith had his
visions and received the plates for the Book of Mormon.
Both Joseph Sr. and Jr., had the reputation of being able to find lost objects. Josiah Stowell, a farmer in South Bainbridge, now Afton, had heard of this ability. While visiting relatives in Palmyra, he looked up the Smiths. He met and hired both Smiths and some of their neighbors to come to this area to search for a reputed Spanish silver mine along the Susquehanna River. While on this search, they stayed at the home of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale in Harmony, Pa. Harmony is now Oakland, Pa. Joseph Jr. was attracted to Emma Hale, one of Isaac's daughters. Emma, a schoolteacher, born July 10th, 1804, was also attracted to Joseph. After the return of the treasure seekers to Stowell's farm in South Bainbridge, Joseph returned to Harmony to visit Emma several times. The Hales were staunch Methodists and did not approve of Joseph. Finally, on January 18th, 1827, Joseph and Emma eloped to South Bainbridge where they were married by Justice of the Peace, Zachariah Tarbell. A sign in front of the site of the house was erected by the State of New York in the 1930's along with two others recognizing Mormon sites. (Complied by Charles J. Decker, Afton Town and Village Historian)  |
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