Footnotes
[1]. See Improvement Era, vol. V. Mother Smith's Memoirs were first published by Orson Pratt in Liverpool, England, in 1853, under the title Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. As "Mother Smith" dictated chiefly from memory, there were some inaccuracies in her work, as first published by Elder Orson Pratt. Afterwards the work was corrected by a committee of which the late George A. Smith, Church Historian, was chairman. It is this revised copy from which the Era edition was published in 1902, and which is cited in these notes.
[2]. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 23.
[3]. Lucy Smith followed the business of hand painting oilcloth covers for tables, stands, etc., see her History of the Prophet Joseph, ch. 17.
[4]. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 24.
[5]. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 117.
[6]. The fact that the Prophet took these two men into his confidence is supported by the testimony of Mr. John Reid, Esq., in a speech before the state convention held in Nauvoo, at which Joseph Smith was nominated to be president of the United States. Mr. Reid had known the Prophet in an early day when he was working for Mr. Stoal in Chenango county, and thus speaks of him: "After living in that neighborhood about three years, enjoying the good feelings of his acquaintances, as a worthy youth, he told his particular friends that he had had a revelation from God to go to the west about eighty miles, to his father's, in which neighborhood he would find hid in the earth an old history written on golden plates, which would give great light and knowledge concerning the destiny of all nations, kindreds, and tongues; he said that he distinctly heard the voice of him that spoke. Joseph Knight, one of the fathers of your church, a worthy man and my intimate friend, went with him. * * * In a few days his friends returned with the glad news that Joseph had found the plates and had gone down to his father-in-law's for the purpose of translating them." History of the Church, vol. I, p. 94.
[7]. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 23.
[8]. The original of Mrs. Campbell's letter is on file at the Church Historian's Office, package 4.