Essentials
Born: 3 November 1772, Oakham, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Son of: Benjamin KNIGHT and Hannah or Sarah CROUCH
Baptized: 28 June 1830
Married: 1. Polly PECK, 18 January 1796; Windham, Vermont; 2. Phoebe CROSBY (Peck), before 1834; place uncertain
Died: 3 February 1847; Mount Pisgah, Harrison County, Iowa

Page contents
One-minute history
Doctrine and Covenants 12
Susan Easton Black article
Map showing the Joseph Knight, Sr. home

External links
Joseph and Polly Knight Family Organization
Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History

BY DARYL JAMES
FROM 'JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES' (1994)
     Joseph Knight Sr. was born November 1772 at Oakham, Worcester County, Mass., the oldest of nine children. His family moved to Windham County, Vt., around 1780 when he was 8, and he remained there about 35 years.
     Joseph married Polly Peck around 1796 when he was 23 and she was 21. Together they had seven children. After Polly died in 1831, Joseph married Phoebe Crosby and had six more children. Joseph and Polly moved to Colesville, N.Y., around 1815 and established a sawmill. In late 1826, Joseph Smith became a hired hand for Joseph Knight Sr. in Colesville.
     Young Joseph did farm work and probably helped at the Knights' sawmill. In November 1826 Joseph Smith told the Knight family he had seen a vision of God the Father and the Son six years earlier near Palmyra, N.Y. -- 115 miles northwest of Colesville. He also told them about the Gold Plates he was preparing to receive.
     The Knights were impressed with Young Joseph's story and later became instrumental in the rise of the Church. Joseph Knight Sr. was also instrumental in Joseph Smith's courtship with Emma Hale. ``I paid him the money and furnished him with a horse and cutter [sled] to go and see his girl,'' writes Joseph Knight Sr. (Joseph and Emma married shortly after this in 1827).
     "When the time came for Joseph Smith to obtain the plate s,'' writes William G. Hartley, ``Father Knight traveled to the Smith home, where the Prophet used his wagon to retrieve the plates. Late that night, after Joseph Smith had returned from his mission, he said to Brother Knight, `It is ten times better than I expected.' According to Father Knight, the Prophet described the plates, though he seemed `to think more of the glasses or urim and thummim than he did of the plates.'''
     By early 1828, Joseph and Emma Smith had moved to Emma's father's property, about 30 miles from the Knights. Joseph Smith found it impossible to both earn a living and translate the plates. The Smiths asked Joseph Knight Sr. for help. Although the Knights were ``not in easy circumstances,'' Father Knight gave the Prophet as much as he could. A few days later, Father Knight visited the couple and gave them money to buy paper for the translation. ``Father and I often went to see him and carry him something to live upon,'' writes Joseph Knight Jr.
     Years later Joseph Smith praised Father Knight for these supplies. "They enabled us to continue the work when otherwise we must have relinquished it for a season,'' he said. In May 1829, Joseph Knight Sr. desired to know what he should do regarding the divine work then unfolding. The Prophet inquired of the Lord and received a revelation instructing Father Knight to ``seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion'' (D&C 12:6). This was the first of seven revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants mentioning the Knights. On the day The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, one-third of the 60 people in attendance were Knight relatives. Joseph Knight Sr., his wife, and many others were baptized June 28, 1830, in Colesville; however, Joseph Smith was arrested before these people could be confirmed. Joseph Knight Sr. acquired a lawyer to defend Joseph Smith at his trial and had him freed.
     Between 1831 and 1846, the Knight clan helped to pioneer 10 Church settlements in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska. In January 1842, Joseph Smith listed in the Book of the Law of the Lord the names of the ``faithful few'' who had stood by him through his trials. Joseph Knight Sr. was among those listed. ``For 15 years he has been faithful and true, and even-handed and exemplary, and virtuous and kind, never deviating to the right hand or to the left,'' writes Joseph Smith.
     Joseph Knight Sr. headed west with the Church in 1846, but died in Iowa Feb. 3, 1847, before reaching Utah. He was 74.

-- Sources: 1. Lydia Knight's History: The First Book of the Noble Women's Lives Series. Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City, 1883. (On record at Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; Provo, Utah.) 2. The Jesse Knight Family: Jesse Knight, His Forbears and Family, by J. William Knight. The Deseret News Press, 1940. (On record at Harold B. Lee Library, BYU, Provo, Utah.) 3. "The Knight Family: Ever Faithful to the Prophet," by William G. Hartley. The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 1989, pps. 43-49.

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Doctrine and Covenants 12

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet to Joseph Knight, Sen., at Harmony, Pennsylvania, May 1829. HC 1: 47-48. Joseph Knight believed the declarations of Joseph Smith concerning his possession of the Book of Mormon plates and the work of translation then in progress, and several times had given material assistance to Joseph Smith and his scribe, which enabled them to continue translating. At Joseph Knight's request the Prophet inquired of the Lord and received the revelation.
     A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
     2. Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore, give heed unto my word.
     3. Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whosoever desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
     4. Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.
     5. Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.
     6. Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.
     7. Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work;
     8. And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.
     9. Behold, I am the light and the life of the world, that speak these words, therefore give heed with your might, and then you are called. Amen.

Other scriptural reference to Joseph Knight Sr.:
D&C 23:6-7, Joseph Knight Sr. is told to pray.

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Benefactor of the Prophet

BY SUSAN EASTON BLACK
FROM WHO'S WHO IN THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
SALT LAKE CITY: BOOKCRAFT, INC. (1997) PP. 166-168
     In 1808 Joseph Knight Sr. and his family moved to Bainbridge, New York, and two years later to Colesville, New York, where they resided for nineteen years. Father Knight, as Joseph was affectionately known by the Saints, purchased a farm on the Susquehanna River and built a gristmill, Biographer William G. Hartley wrote that he was “not rich, yet he possessed enough of the world’s goods to secure to himself and family, not only the necessaries, but also the comforts of life.” His religious orientation was the Universalist doctrine.
     Father knight first became acquainted with Joseph Smith in 1826. While lodging at the Knight home, Joseph spoke of his glorious visitation. “My father and I believed him,” wrote Joseph Knight Jr., “and I think we were the first to do so, after his own family.” When Joseph Smith obtained the Book of Mormon plates, he used Father Knight’s horse and carriage as his means of conveyance.
     Joseph Knight wrote of assisting the young prophet on another occasion: “I let him have some little provisions and some few things out of the store, a pair of shoes, and three dollars in money to help him a little.” He also wrote, “I gave ... Joseph a little money to but paper to translate.” Joseph Smith praised Father Knight for his donations that “enabled us to continue the work when otherwise we must have relinquished it for a season.”
     As others sought baptism into the Church, Father Knight hesitated: “I had some thots to go forrod, But I had not red the Book of Mormon and I wanted to (examine) a little more I Being a Restorationar and had not (examined) so much as I wanted to.” Aware of his hesitation, the Prophet Joseph prayed for him and received a revelation in April 1830: “Joseph Knight,...you must take up your cross, in the which you must pray vocally before the world as well as in secret...It is your duty to unite with the true church, and give your language to exhortation continually.” (D&C 23:6-7).
     In obedience Father Knight was baptized on 28 June 1830 by Oliver Cowdery. Soon after his baptism religious persecution was directed against him. Rather than deny his new faith Father Knight left New York and settled with others from Colesville in the small Ohio community of Thompson. “We all went to work and made fence and planted and sowed the fields,” wrote Father Knight. His stay in Thompson was brief: “we was Commanded to take up our Journey to the Regions westward to the Boarders of the Lamanites.”
     He moved with the Saints to Jackson County, Missouri, in 1831. There the Knight family suffered from poverty. According to William G. Hartley, “A stranger staring at them would not see in them the prosperous Yankees they had once been in New York before embracing Mormonism.”
     In 1839 the Knight family settled in Nauvoo. There Father Knight was feeble and unable to work. His son Newel wrote, “My father, as my own family, depended on me for bread and the necessities of life.” He added, “It was a pleasure to me to supply his wants and add to his comforts.” Aware of his faithfulness and poor health, the high council donated a house and a lot to him. One day the Prophet Joseph saw his elderly friend hobbling along without a cane. The Prophet approached him and, putting his arm around him, pressed Father Knight’s fingers onto the top of his cane and said, “Brother Knight, you need this cane more than I do.” The Prophet then told him to keep it as long as he needed it, and then to pass it on to descendants with the first name Joseph. The cane has been passed down through several descendants until the present day.
     On 22 January 1842 the Prophet Joseph wrote a tribute to Joseph Knight:
     Joseph Knight...was among the number of the first to administer to my necessities...For fifteen years he has been faithful and true, and even-handed and exemplary, and virtuous and kind, never deviating to the right hand or to the left. Behold he is a righteous man, may God Almighty lengthen out the old man’s days: and may his trembling, tortured, and broken body be renewed,...and it shall be said of him, by the sons of Zion, while there is one of the remaining, that this man was a faithful man in Israel; therefore his name shall never be forgotten.
     Father Knight left Nauvoo and, with the aid of his son Joseph Knight Jr., gathered with the poor in Mount Pisgah, Iowa. Father Knight died in February 1847 at Mount Pisgah at the age of seventy-four.

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Lydia GOLDTHWAITE
Joseph KNIGHT Sr.
Newel KNIGHT
Sally KNIGHT
Polly PECK

CHILDREN WITH POLLY PECK

CHILDREN WITH PHOEBE CROSBY (PECK)