Extract from His History

Abstract

Joseph Smith grew up in a visionary family that lived in a visionary culture, but nothing in the historical record reveals that he told his family about his first vision in the 1820s. Many modern saints easily recall that, when Smith returned home after his vision, he told his mother. But all the historical record—an 1842 redaction to the 1838/39 account—says is that he told his mother what he learned, not how. There is no evidence that he told anyone but the Methodist minister for a decade. There is no known evidence of him relating his experience to family members or others. In 1832, Smith remembered that he could find no one that believed him.