Jr. Joseph Smith

Born in Sharon, Vermont, in 1805 and raised in New York, he said that as a teenager he experienced visions that launched his religious calling. In 1830 he published the Book of Mormon and organized the Church of Christ, the movement that later developed into several Latter Day Saint denominations.

Over the next fourteen years, he led growing communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, produced new revelations and teachings, and became a powerful religious and civic leader in Nauvoo. His leadership also drew fierce opposition, and his life has been studied through both devotion and criticism ever since.

In 1844, after escalating tensions in Illinois, he was jailed in Carthage and killed by a mob along with his brother Hyrum. The movement he began survived him and spread widely, making his story central to American religious history.