Saints Without Halos: A Mormon History Website

Mormon History 1830-1844

Joseph H. Wakefield (1792–1835)

Joseph Wakefield, who figured in the baptism of Joseph Smith's cousin, George A. Smith, and the ordination of his uncle, Uncle John Smith, moves to Kirtland, becomes disillusioned with the Book of Mormon and joins the committee to "investigate" it. This leads to the famous/infamous Hurlburt affidavits and their subsequent publication in the first anti-Mormon book, Mormonism Unvailed (1834).

Born		July 7, 1792 in Dublin, Cheshire Co., New Hampshire, eighth of eight children.	Wakefield register, 57.
Died		January 18, 1835 in Willoughby (formerly Chagrin, 1835), Ohio	Wakefield register, 57.
Father		Thomas Wakefield (Jan. 12, 1751, in Reading, Massachusetts–Jan. 109, 1832 in Champion, New York)	Wakefield register, 57.
Mother		Elizabeth (Betsey) Hardy (July 22, 1750 in Bradford, Massachusetts–Jan. 10, 1832 in Champion, New York)	Wakefield register, 57.
Marries		December 13, 1812 marries Eunice Sawyer.	Wakefield register, 57.
New York		Living in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York when converted.	Papers 1:520.
Baptized		May 9, 1831 called on a mission with Parley P. Pratt (h), John Corrill, and others to travel among the churches.	¶ D&C 50:38
First Kirtland conference High Priesthood		June [3]–6, 1831 attends first Kirtland conference as an elder and is one of the first twenty-three ordained to the High Priesthood.	First Conference in Kirtland
Mission calling		June 6, 1831 called on a mission with to the "eastern lands" with Solomon Humphrey to the east (this is when most go to Missouri with Joseph).	¶ D&C 52:35
Ordains Uncle John Smith		[September 1832] ordains Uncle John Smith (brother of Joseph Smith Sr.) an elder.	WWJ 4:65.
Baptizes George A. Smith		September 10, 1832 baptizes George A. Smith (son of Uncle John) at Potsdam, New York.
Kirtland		1833 moves to Chagrin, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio.	Wakefield register, 57. His sister, Dorcas Wakefield Rudd, died in Mayfield (7 mi. SW of Chagrin), in 1857, but no evidence she joined the church.
Apostasy	¶	Joseph H. Wakefield, who baptized me, after having apostatized from the Church, announced to the astonished world the fact that, while he was a guest in the house of Joseph Smith, he had absolutely seen the Prophet come down from the room where he was engaged in translating the word of God, and actually go to playing with the children! This convinced him that the Prophet was not a man of God, and that the work was false, which, to me and hundreds of others, he had testified that he knew came from God. He afterwards headed a mob meeting, and took the lead in bringing about a persecution against the Saints in Kirtland and the regions around about.	George A. Smith, Jan. 10, 1858, JD 7:112. ¶ Doings and Sayings
Committee to investigate Book of Mormon		December 1833 joins the committee formed at a public meeting in Kirtland for the purpose of investigating the origins of the Book of Mormon. Other committee members are: O. A. Crary, Amos Daniels, John F. Morse, Samuel Wilson, Josiah Jones, Warren Corning Jr., James H. Paine, Sylvester Cornwell, and Timothy D. Martindale. The committee hires D. P. Hurlbut "to ascertain the real origin of the Book of Mormon, and to examine the validity of Joseph Smith's claims to the character of a Prophet." Hurlbut then sets off for New York where he interviews individuals who knew the Smith family in Palmyra.	"To the Public," PT, Jan. 31, 1834. Source
Testifies in Hurlbut case		January 13, 1834 testifies on behalf of D. P. Hurlbut at the Smith vs. Hurlbut pre-trial hearing in Painesville. No record of testimony given at the hearing is known, but the summary states, "After hearing the testimony it is the opinion of the Court that the complainant had reason to fear that Doctor P. Hurlbut would beat wound or kill him or injure his property as set forth in his complaint, and it is the consideration of the Court that the defendant enter into a recognizance to keep the peace generally and especially towards the complainant and also to appear before the Court of Common Pleas on the first day of the term thereof next to be holden in and for said County and not depart without leave, or stand committed till the Judgment of the Court be complied with." In April the court finds for the plaintiff and directs Hurlbut to keep the peace and post a $200 bond plus court costs of $112.59. (Wakefield does not testify in the April trial.)	Court Documents, 431–432.
Committee's findings to be published Spaulding theory		January 31, 1834 Painesville Telegraph publishes the findings of the Book of Mormon investigation committee. While acknowledging that "no human authority can in any case whatever control or interfere with the rights of conscience" the committee asserts measures can be taken "to avert the evils which threaten the Public by the location in this vicinity, of Joseph Smith Jun. … who is now, under pretence of Divine Authority, collecting about him an impoverished population, alienated in feeling from other portions of the community, thereby threatening us with an insupportable weight of pauperism." In the committee's judgment, "the force of truth ought without delay to be applied to the Book of Mormon, and the character of Joseph Smith, Jun." The committee is arranging to publish "a work which will prove the 'Book, of Mormon' to be a work of fiction and imagination, and written more than twenty years ago, in Salem, Ashtabula County, Ohio, by Solomon Spalding, Esq., and completely divest Joseph Smith of all claims to the character of an honest man, and place him at an immeasurable distance from the high station which he pretends to occupy."	"To the Public," PT, Jan. 31, 1834. Source

		Family
Wife		Eunice Sawyer, md. December 13, 1812.	Wakefield register, 57.
Children		Augustus (b. June 15, 1815, lives in Mentor, Ohio) Martha (b. Sept. 10, 1816; d. Dec. 3, 1878) Mary (b. Apr. 18, 1818; d. Feb. 2, 1866) Emmons (b. May 29, 1820; d. Sept. 8, 1820) Thomas Albert (b. Dec. 14, 1825; d. Jan. 28, 1826) Lavinia W. (b. Mar. 21, 1828) Gilbert (b. July 4, 1831; d. Sept. 24, 1831)
Wife		Miss Pepper
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