one record shows born in 1758...unlikely!
one record shows born in 1758...unlikely!
James and Maurice died of diptheria in Jan. 1892.
Volunteered 18 Mar 1862. Hospitalized at Richmond of wounds in Jul 1862. Taken prisoner at Fredricksburg 13 Dec 1862, he was exchanged 17 Dec 1862. Died of Typhoid fever in the hospital at Staunton, VA. Pvt. Co H 21 Reg NC
(From Joseph SMITH and the Restoration by Ivan J. Barrett, a proffesr of mine at BYU, 1973. Larry Anderson)Seven of Joseph's ancestors had been on the Mayflower and 3 signed the Mayflower Compact. This including John Howland, a fifth great grandfather on the Mack line. While crossing the Atlantic on the way to America, he narrowly escaped death durign a violent storm. While the ship, Mayflower, was pitching in the churning waters, young Howland walked above the gratings and was huried into the briny sea. "But it pleased God that he caught hold of the tgopsail hallards, which hung overboard." Holding tenaciously to the rope, he was plunged into the water. In the fury of the storm he clung on until his friends pulled him back on deck. For days he suffered after this harrowing experience but, writes the Mayflower Historian, he fully recovered to become "a profitable member, both in Church and Common wealth."
John Howland married Elizabeth Tilley shortly after arriving at Plymouth. She of course, was the dau. of other Mayflower passengers, or Pilgrims. Within months half the Pilgrims died, including Elizabeth's parents. John and Elizabeth had 10 children of whom William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth Colony wrote in 1650, "and they are both now livign and have 10 children now all living. And their eldest daughter hath 4 chidlren; and their second daugher 1, all living, so 15 are come of them."
When the ancestors of Joseph are traced to the seat of their beginnings - Europe - they have their place among the worty families. Most belonging to the land owning and gentry classes; sevearl families were entitled with coats of arms. Among his male ancestrs who cameto America are to be foudn militia officers and privates. Three of his forebears fought in the revolutionary war. One was prominant in the councils of Patriots who resisted teh impositions of Gerat Britain. Through Joseph Smith's ancestry one can trace mah of the "Springs and rivulets cotnributing to the main stream of his life.THE SMITHS
Eighteen years after John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley debarked from teh Mayflower, a boy by the name of Robert Smith arrived in Boston. He had come directly from London, although he had been born in Willoughby. Lincolnshire, in 1626. Why a boy of twelve should be so far away from home we may never know, but those were the days of adventure, and the New World beckoned to many English youths.
Robert stayed in Boston long enough to build three houses. He was a tailor and worked at this trade in Boston until he prospered fairly well materially. He purchased 208 acres of land in the township of Boxford, approximately twenty milse due norht of Boston. Part of Robert's farm lay in Topsfield, Essex Co. Since Robert's son Samuel had built a hosue there, and the next three generations on his father's side caem to be known as the Topsfield SMITHS.
Robert married Mary French, a dau. of Thomas French, who is mentioned by John Winthrop, son of the Mass. gove, as a scholar of Scotland. Mary was a member in full communication in the Topsfield Chruch. If Robert was a church member, he was not in full communion; his name doesnot appaer with his wife's on the chruch register. He was esteemed by his neighbors as a quiet, unassuming an, deeply concerend with the welfare of the community and generous to the needy. He and mary were the parents of ten children.
As Joseph was hired by Josiah Stowel (Stoal) of Chenango Co., NY to look and dig for a supposed lost Spanish buried silver mine, he boarded with Isaac Hale and met their daughter Emma. Joseph becomes engaged to her but opposed by the parents.
Joseph's adopted son, Joseph Murdock SMITH, dies from a cold caught when he was pulled from Joseph's arms durign the mobbing. (Some claim this child was the first martyr in the Church; see BYS, W '74, 205.)