M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

President Hinckley at Joseph Smith’s Birthplace
Text by Maurine Jensen Proctor, with photos by Scot Facer Proctor

It is bitter cold in Vermont in the dead of winter.  Reporters from local Vermont newspapers, Salt Lake and Japanese TV stations and the Boston Globe, stamp their feet against the cold and stay out in the biting weather for only a few minutes before they hurry back in to the Visitors’ Center at the Joseph Smith birthplace in Sharon and huddle for warmth on this December 22nd.


Satellite uplink trucks are in place here to broadcast the commemoration from this obscure location at Joseph Smith’s birthplace.

They are waiting for President Hinckley to arrive, who is coming to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith and arriving a day early for a press conference.  It is the shortest and darkest day of the year as the sun scoots across the horizon, low in the sky.


The winter solstice sun reflected for a brief few moments on the 38 ½ foot granite shaft that was placed here Dec. 23, 1905.

Thoughts turn to that moment, so long ago when, on the 23rd, just after the winter solstice, as the light begins to return to the earth, a baby Joseph Smith was born, who would revolutionize the world.  It was a timely, symbolic birth.

It would have been cold like this in a draughty cabin for a baby to be born, a deep freeze of a place where if you just stepped out of the door for a few minutes, cheeks, toes and fingers began to painfully numb.  Here on a rented farm in the most meager of circumstances and with the plain name of Joseph Smith, the Lord sent his Latter-day Elias who would restore all things.


The original stoop to the rented cabin where the
baby Joseph Smith was born is still in place.

Now, 200 years later, with the sun still low in the sky, a 95 year-old prophet has traveled across the country and braved the frigid weather, to be at this place for what he called in October conference “a great celebration.”

Why Not Stay Home?

You would think that at his age, at Christmas time, and with his dislike of travel, it would be enough to stay home in Salt Lake and preside at the Conference Center.  Yet President Hinckley told the Saints at conference, “I intend, if possible, to go to the place of his birth to repeat what Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Church, did on December 23, 1905, a century ago.  On that occasion he dedicated the monument which marks the place of the Prophet’s birth and where a memorial cottage has also been built.”


President Hinckley and Elder Ballard stood at the same place where Joseph F. Smith had stood one hundred years earlier.

True to his word and his determination, President Hinckley arrived at the birthplace and, while photographers clamored for pictures, stood before the 38-1/2 foot solid granite shaft and marveled at the mission of Joseph Smith.  (While he also quipped, “Where’s the Vermont sun?”)


President Hinckley poses with Elder Ballard and many family members at the monument to Joseph Smith.

President Hinckley has both an enormous knowledge and sense of history.  He said, “This is a very significant event.  It happens only every 100 years.”  And, at 95, he acknowledges, “I’m within 5 years of being part of all that hundred years... I’m glad I made it today.”


President Hinckley looks on as the media clamor
for just the right angle, just the right shot.

A reporter asked, “Why was it significant for you to personally travel here?” President Hinckley answered, “Because this is the ground.  This is the starting place.  This is the place where we can look back. We are grateful that Junius Wells bought the old Mack farm [in 1905]… More come to see it than ever did in the past and more will come in the future.”


President Hinckley and Elder Ballard share a few moments talking together at the monument.

“The boy who was born here became the prophet of the Church, and today that Church has a membership of approximately 12 million in 160 nations.  The growth of this work is an absolute miracle, and to think that it all came from a little boy with a common name who lived in a remote area with very little education, but his name has become known for good all over this world.  It is for that reason that we are here to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth.”


President Hinckley and son, Clark Hinckley, share a moment at the monument.

The 38-1/2 foot solid shaft of polished granite that stands as a monument to Joseph Smith at his birthplace was placed here with great difficulty in 1905.  The heavy obelisk was transported by wagon with 22 horses to this remote spot over ground that was sometimes surprisingly boggy in that December.  Junius Wells spearheaded the effort.

President Hinckley said, “As we came up the road, I just marveled at the ingenuity and the work and the faith of Junius Wells, who got it here.”


When Joseph F. Smith came here in 1905,
he was 67 years old.  President Hinckley is 95.

“Tomorrow [December 23], we’re going to be talking via satellite back and forth with Salt Lake City.  Our conference center, which seats 21,00 people, will be filled to capacity.  The services will be broadcast on local television stations and via satellite all over the country and all over the world because this is a significant occasion.”

President Hinckley said that Joseph would be amazed.  “I think he would be pleased.”

Was this Latter-day prophet who succeeded Joseph Smith in that important calling feeling connected and close to him as he walked these historic grounds? “Yes.  There is something very subduing about being here,” said President Hinckley.


President Hinckley met with the press right by the fireplace that contains the hearthstone from the cabin where Joseph Smith was born.

Hyrum’s Great-Great-Grandson

Fittingly, accompanying President Hinckley on this trip is Elder Russell M. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve.  He is the great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith, who was martyred at Carthage Jail with his brother Joseph, and a great-grandson of Joseph F. Smith, who was President of the Church in 1905 and came to this spot on December 23rd to dedicate the monument.


Elder M. Russell Ballard knows of his heritage as a great-great-grandson of the Patriarch, Hyrum Smith.

Elder Ballard said, “Any time we go to a historic cite it draws our memories to our forefathers.  If you love your forefathers you can have very tender feelings.  My feelings are very tender.

“President Hinckley has a great affection for Joseph F. Smith, and I think in some ways that was a draw for him to be here to celebrate this 200th birthday.”  He said, “We mustn’t underestimate what it means to have the President of the Church whom we sustain as a prophet, seer and revelator here today.  That’s no small thing.”

“President Hinckley has talked about this for the last 6 months.  It is a privilege for me to be here.”

The Most Profound Celebration

It has been a year of celebration for Joseph Smith.  Academic conferences have been held, including one sponsored by the Library of Congress.  Books and papers have been written.  The media have given renewed attention in positive ways to the Church, including stories on CBS, the Boston Globe, NPR and many, many more.  Reporters from a Japanese television station are not only in Sharon for this event, but have spent at least 10 days in Salt Lake putting together a documentary because — as the reporter said when President Hinckley gave her a greeting in Japanese — “Japanese people are very interested in the Church.”


The press love being with President Hinckley and he seems to love being with them.

Yet for President Hinckley, perhaps the most profound celebration is the challenge that so many members of the Church have taken to read the Book of Mormon before the year’s end. “There has been a great flowering of faith,” he said.  People have been reading the Book of Mormon everywhere they go — in offices, on trains, while they are waiting for appointments.  President Hinckley said, “Never before in the history of the Church have you seen so many people reading the Book of Mormon as you have in the past few months.”

President Hinckley often cites the amazing accomplishments of the past two hundred years of the Church and then adds, “but we have not begun to scratch the surface.”  What he sees for the future is this: “This Church will grow and continue to grow.  That’s the prophetic destiny of it.”

In the press conference a reporter asked the inevitable question.  Does the Church focus too much on Joseph Smith? President Hinckley answered that Joseph was born on December 23rd and we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th.  He said, “There has been no greater testator concerning the reality and divinity of Jesus Christ than Joseph Smith the prophet.

“For someone who is not a member of the Church, I’d want them to know that I believe with all my heart, I have not the slightest doubt that Joseph Smtih was an instrument in the hands of God in restoring the ancient Church.  I have no doubt about that.  That’s my conviction, that’s my witness, that’s my testimony.”

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The Joseph Smith Commemorative Broadcast will originate from the Conference Center, December 23, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. MST with a coordinating broadcast from Sharon, Vermont. It will be available at stake centers via satellite.  For other viewing options see www.lds.org

The Church website at LDS.org also mentions these other available resources for learning more about Joseph Smith:

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