Jesse Nathaniel Smith — Spiritual Conversion of Silas and Mary Aikens Smith

Jesse Nathaniel Smith documented the spiritual conversion of his parents, Silas Smith and Mary Aikens Smith, in Stockholm, New York. Silas, the younger brother of Joseph Smith Sr. and uncle to the Prophet Joseph Smith, was initially skeptical of the new faith. However, through the testimony of his family and the influence of the Spirit, he and Mary were converted and baptized in 1830. Jesse viewed their conversion and subsequent faithfulness through the persecutions in Missouri and Illinois as a foundational spiritual miracle for his family, noting the divine influence that led them to join the body of the Saints.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

My father, Silas Smith, was a younger brother of Joseph Smith, Sr., the father of the Prophet. He resided in Stockholm, St. Lawrence County, New York. He was a man of good standing in the community, and was a member of the Congregational Church. When the gospel was first preached in that region by his brother, Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son, Don Carlos, my father was favorably impressed, but he was slow about yielding obedience to the gospel, owing to the determined opposition of his wife, Mary Aikens, and his brother, Jesse, who was an ardent opponent of the work. My father was baptized in the year 1835 by his nephew, Hyrum Smith. My mother, Mary Aikens, was baptized in the year 1837, by Elder Lyman E. Johnson.