Joseph Smith

Smith, Joseph (1805–44), founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Fayette, N.Y., in 1830. Its doctrine and organization are derived from several texts, principally the Book of Mormon (1830), which is based on golden tablets inscribed with sacred writings that Smith claimed to have found and translated with miraculous help. Community opposition caused him to move his colony to the Midwest, where it flourished despite schisms. But when Smith announced his candidacy for the US presidency in 1844, non-Mormons arrested both him and his brother, Hyrum, for conspiracy and treason. Taken from jail at Carthage, Ill., by a mob, they were shot.

See also: Mormons.