Joseph Smith

Born in Vermont in 1805, Joseph Smith Jr. moved with his family to western New York after crop failures left them struggling. In 1820, during the fever of the Second Great Awakening, he reported seeing two personages he later identified as God the Father and Jesus Christ. Three years later an angel directed him to buried golden plates inscribed with an ancient American civilization's history. He published the Book of Mormon in 1830 as their translation and organized the Church of Christ the same year, calling it a restoration of early Christianity. Smith led his followers west to build a communal Zion, first to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, where violent clashes and an extermination order drove them out. They founded Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the state's second-largest city under his leadership as mayor. In 1844 he launched a presidential campaign, but after the Nauvoo City Council destroyed a newspaper's press for criticizing his power and polygamy, opposition exploded. He surrendered to authorities on June 27, 1844, and a mob stormed the jail and shot him dead.