![]() ![]() ![]() Only documents from before the time when Joseph Smith’s visions had become widely known can provide a reliable glimpse into how the Smiths were regarded in their community before negative rumors and gossip had sullied their reputations. “We never knew we were bad folks,” Joseph’s younger brother William remembered, “until Joseph told his vision.” 3 2 The Smiths themselves protested that such negative reports did not surface until after rumors of Joseph Smith Jr.’s visions began to spread. The sources gathered by Hurlbut and many others after him, though still of some historical value, are heavily tainted by later prejudices and the agendas of those collecting the statements in the first place. Since that time, the Smith family’s reputation in their Palmyra community has been a heavily contested topic. In 1833, an anti-Mormon named Doctor Philastus Hurlbut 1 gathered signed affidavits from the Smith’s New York neighbors which gave negative appraisals of the Smiths. ![]()
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