Joseph Knight, Sr.
Joseph Knight, Sr. (November 26, 1772 – February 2, 1847)[1] was a close associate of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and provided significant material support to Smith's translation and publication of the Book of Mormon.
Knight was born in Oakham, Massachusetts. In 1795 he married Polly Peck. By 1800 they were living in Vermont. They moved to Colesville, New York in 1808.
He first met Joseph Smith while Smith was working for Josiah Stowell. He later hired Smith to work at his large farm and gristmill. Smith's courting of Emma Hale was helped by Knight lending him his sled. The Smiths also borrowed Knight's wagon when they went to pick up the Golden Plates from the Hill Cumorah.
Knight was baptized on 28 June 1830. All his children, their spouses, his sister, and three of his wife's siblings along with their spouses all joined the early Latter Day Saint church. They constituted the Colesville Branch, the first branch in the church, and they later sold their homes and properties and migrated as a group to Thompson, Ohio and then Jackson County, Missouri. Among Knight's children was Newel Knight.
Knight and his family were driven from Jackson County in the Mormon persecutions of 1832–1833 and eventually settled in Caldwell County, Missouri. They were driven from this county in the winter of 1838–1839 and settled shortly later at Nauvoo.
They again were driven out of Nauvoo with the Saints in 1846, and journeyed west with the Mormon pioneers. Knight died on the trek at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa on 2 February 1847.
Notes
- ↑ Hartley 2000
Sources
- Arrington, Leonard J.; Bitton, Davis (1981), "Joseph Knight: Friend to the Prophet", Saints Without Halos: The Human Side of Mormon History, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, ISBN 0-941214-01-X.
- Hartley, William G. (1986), 'They Are My Friends': A History of the Joseph Knight Family, 1825-1850, Provo, Utah: Grandin Book, ISBN 0-910523-23-1.
- Hartley, William G. (January 1989), "The Knight Family: Ever Faithful to the Prophet", Ensign 19 (1): 43–49.
- Hartley, William G. (1993), "Close Friends as Witnesses: Joseph Smith and the Joseph Knight Families", in Black, Susan Easton; Tate, Charles D., Jr., Joseph Smith, The Prophet, The Man, Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, p. 271–83, ISBN 0-88494-876-5.
- Hartley, William G. (2000), "Knight, Joseph, Sr.", in Garr, Arnold K.; Cowan, Richard O.; Cannon, Donald Q., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, p. 627, ISBN 1-57345-822-8.
- Hartley, William G. (2003), Stand By My Servant Joseph: Story of the Joseph Knight Family and the Restoration, Provo and Salt Lake City: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History and Deseret Book, ISBN 1-57345-306-4.
- Jessee, Dean C. (Autumn 1976), "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History", BYU Studies 17 (1): 29–39.
- Porter, Larry C. (October 1978), "The Joseph Knight Family", Ensign 8 (10): 39–45.