Craig K. Manscill: Joseph Knight Sr. bought this farmland on the east side of the Susquehanna River in 1810 and lived here for over 20 years. Late in 1826, while working as a farmhand on this property, the Prophet Joseph Smith told the Knights of the visitations with the angel Moroni, and they believed him.1
William G. Hartley: I consider the Joseph Knight family the second family of Mormonism. That is, Joseph Smith went to work for Father Knight when Joseph was twenty-years-old, the year before he even received the gold plates. He was hired as a hired hand to help the Knight property. They had a carding mill and a grist mill. So Joseph slept in their house and worked for them for several weeks. And in the process Joseph Knight Sr. and his twenty-year-old son Joseph Jr. got well acquainted with him. He very secretly shared with Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr. the fact that an angel had visited him and that there were gold plates that he was to receive the next year.2 So even before Joseph Smith knew Oliver Cowdery, he knew the Knight family.3
Craig K. Manscill: Joseph Knight Sr. provided timely food and supplies to Joseph and Oliver Cowdery during the translation of the Book of Mormon4 and was a recipient of a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants.
William G. Hartley: It basically tells him to help further the work, but it also says as early revelations said, “the field is white already to harvest” (D&C 12:3). We often think that the field is the world, but if you think of the field from a farmer’s point of view, there are different parts of the farm that can be harvested at certain times. Certainly the Knight family was a field white and ready to harvest. That is, Joseph Knight was married to Polly Peck. She had brothers and a sister in the area. The Knight Family—Joseph and Polly Knight—had several children, including Newell Knight and married daughters. There is a big pool of connected relatives. As Joseph Smith gets more connected with the Knight family, they become a very important pool of converts for the prophet. When the Book of Mormon was coming off the press, in March of 1830, Joseph Knight was there and anxious to see a copy of the Book of Mormon. When the Church was organized on April 6, 1830, about two dozen of the sixty or so people who attended that conference, that organizing meeting, were Colesville Knight relatives.
Craig K. Manscill: Three months after the organization of the church, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery performed thirteen baptisms here in this stream running through the Joseph Knight farm. The Knight family had previously built a small dam across the stream in order to prepare a place for the baptisms. The night before the baptismal service, intolerant neighbors had demolished the dam, but the Knights were able to repair it early the following morning. Those baptized included Emma Smith, members of the Knight family, and nearby friends.5 The Prophet Joseph later reported, “Before the baptizing was entirely finished, the mob began again to collect, and shortly after we had retired, they amounted to about fifty men. They surrounded the house of Mr. Knight—whither we had retired—raging with anger, and apparently determined to commit violence upon us….It was only by the exercise of great prudence on our part, and reliance in our Heavenly Father, that they were kept from laying violent hands upon us; and so long as they chose to stay, we were obliged to answer them various unprofitable questions, and bear with insults and threatenings without number.”6 It was also near here that the first miracle of the Latter-day Church was performed when the Prophet Joseph Smith cast an evil spirit out of Newel Knight.7
William G. Hartley: Newel Knight becomes very troubled, and he wants to do what he should. Joseph Smith says, “You need to pray vocally.” Newel Knight tries, and he has trouble. He goes into the woods near his home, and he is overcome by an evil spirit. His relatives send for Joseph Smith to come and deal with it. Well, Joseph was well-versed in the Bible, and he knew that the ancient apostles had authority to cast out demons. He had never done it, but he exercised his authority and cast the demon out of Newel Knight and Newel said that he saw the villainous devil leave his body.8 Joseph Smith considers that the first miracle in the Church. He is astounded himself that he has that power and authority to cast out devils. The story spreads in the neighborhood. Newell Knight, the recipient of the miracle, shortly thereafter, accepts baptism and is the first of the Knight family to join the Church. Joseph Smith then comes to Colesville and preaches and baptizes—speeding the story up—this pool of relatives and by the end of 1830, we have at least sixty brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, that are the Knight extended family—the Pecks and the Demilles, and the Slades, and the Culversare members of the church. The group is designated the Colesville Branch. Church history refers to them as such. For a time, Hyrum Smith goes to Colesville to be the presiding elder in charge of the Branch. He is then called by revelation to do other things. Newell Knight is put in charge of the branch. From then on, Newell will kind of be the presiding authority, if you will, of the Colesville Branch when it moves to Ohio.
Craig K. Manscill: This home and beautiful farm was sacrificed at the command of God in 1831 when Saints, including the Knight family who lived here, were asked to gather to Ohio.9 Many members of the Knight family journeyed westward, not only to Ohio, but also to Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, and Utah. They remained steadfast and true to the faith to the end of their lives.10
William G. Hartley: In Nauvoo, in about 1842, Joseph Smith is reflecting thoughtfully about people who have stood by him since the beginning, and there were not a lot. I am sure he is thinking of Martin Harris and David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery. He writes and says, “I’m going to record in the Book of the Law of the Lord the names of the faithful few who have stood by me from the beginning. And I think of my old friend Father Knight and his sons Newel and Joseph.” Then he makes this powerful, simple statement: “They are my friends.”11
1 Larry C. Porter, “A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816-1831” (Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1976), 187; BYU Studies reprint, 2000, 73.
2 Lucy’s Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir, ed. Lavina Fielding Anderson, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001), 376-380.
3 For a more comprehensive story of the Knight family see William G. Hartley, Stand by My Servant Joseph: the Story of the Joseph Knight Family and the Restoration, (Provo, Utah: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History and Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2003)
4 Joseph Smith, “History Drafts, 1831—Circa 1847,” The Joseph Smith Papers: Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832-1844, eds. Kern Lynn Davidson, David J. Whitaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, Richard L. Jensen, (Salt Lake City: The Church Historians Press, 2012), 1:304-306; Joseph Smith, Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2d ed., rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973),1:47; Dean Jesse, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies, 17:1[Autumn 1976]:36.
5 William G. Hartley, Stand by My Servant Joseph, 77-78, 98-99,106-109.
6 Joseph Smith Papers: History, 1:394-398.
7 Joseph Smith Papers: History, 1:380-386.
8 Joseph Smith Papers: History, 1:384.
9 Doctrine and Covenants 37:3; 38:31-37.
10 Hartley, 482-483.
11 Joseph Smith “December 1841 – December 1842,” The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Volume 2, December 1841 – April 1843, eds. Andrew h. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, Richard Lloyd Anderson, (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2011), 2:115. See also, Hartley, 345.
