Get to Know Joseph Part 1: The Boy Joseph Smith
If you don’t know the name of Joseph Smith, he was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the first prophet of this dispensation. I’m planning on giving you several installments on the life of Joseph Smith. Here is the boy Joseph Smith.
Early Years of the Boy Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. was born December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.
Joseph Sr. and Lucy had several children named Alvin, Hyrum, Sophronia, Joseph Jr., Samuel Harrison, William, Catherine, Don Carlos, and Lucy. They also had two children that died as infants, an unnamed child, and Ephraim.
Little is known about Joseph Smith’s early years. His mother Lucy said, “nothing occurred during his early life except those trivial circumstances which are common to that state of human existence.” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother).
A Major Illness
However, Lucy does share one significant event that occurred while the family was living in Lebanon, New Hampshire. At age 7, young Joseph contracted typhus fever which is characterized high fever, headaches, and a dark red rash. Initially, the doctor thought it was a sprain, but after two weeks of intense pain, the doctor reexamined Joseph and found a large fever sore had formed on his chest. The doctor lanced the sore and an entire quart of fluid came out.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of Joseph’s ordeal. Joseph’s leg soon began to swell and for the next three weeks, he suffered excruciating pain. During this time, Joseph’s brother Hyrum showed compassion for his brother by sitting beside Joseph day and night, applying pressure to the leg to help alleviate the horrific pain.
The surgeon was called for again and he made an eight-inch incision on the front of the leg, between the knee and ankle. This provided significant relief for a time, but the pain returned with a vengeance.
The surgeon was once again summoned and the same procedure was followed, enlarging the wound and deepening it to the bone. Unfortunately, the success of the procedure was short-lived. As soon as the incision began to healing, the swelling and pain would return. The complications from typhus fever lead to an infection that we would today call, osteomyelitis.
When the swelling returned yet again, the family determined to seek further medical help. This time, a council of surgeons convened and, after careful consultation, determined that amputation was the only route to follow for success.
Joseph’s mother pleaded with the surgeons, asking, “Gentlemen, what can you do to save my boy’s leg?” Their answer was grim: “We can do nothing; we have cut it open to the bone and find it so affected that we consider his leg incurable and that amputation is absolutely necessary in order to save his life.”
Elder Neal A. Maxwell provides further insight into the surgeon who ultimately attended the boy Joseph Smith. “The medical doctor in final attendance, it turns out, was Dr. Nathan Smith, founder of the Dartmouth Medical School. He brought two doctors and several medical students with him to attend to young Joseph, who resisted amputation and pain-deadening alcohol. It turns out that Dr. Nathan Smith was highly qualified, and he was using a very advanced technique. Thus ‘the only man in America who could save [Joseph’s] leg was just five miles away’. Happily, for young Joseph, Dr. Smith’s plans to leave the area had been delayed by a typhoid epidemic.” (“Discipleship and Scholarship,” BYU Studies 32, no. 3)
The surgeon wanted to tie young Joseph down to prevent him from moving and offered him some liquor to dull his senses and reduce the pain. However, Joseph refused both. Instead, he proposed that his father, Joseph Sr., sit on the bed and hold him in his arms. Joseph also requested that his mother leave the room. With remarkable faith for his young age, Joseph said, “The Lord will help me, and I shall get through with it.”
The surgery was excruciatingly painful. The surgeons drilled into the bone in a couple of places and then broke away large pieces of it. Upon the removal of the first piece, Joseph screamed out so loudly that Lucy, who had gone several hundred yards away from the house, came running back. Despite his agony, Joseph sent his mother away again.
When the third piece of bone was removed, Joseph’s mother returned and described the scene:
“The wound tore open, the blood was still gushing from it, and the bed literally covered with blood. Joseph was pale as a corpse, and large drops of sweat were rolling down his face, whilst upon every feature was depicted the utmost agony!”
Once again, Lucy was forced from the room.
Despite the horrific ordeal, the operation was a success, and the boy Joseph Smith’s leg soon healed.
Thank you for reading Get to Know Joseph Part 1: The Boy Joseph Smith
To continue part 2, read on here
Image credits: LDS Church
