Smith, JOSEPH (1805-1844), the founder of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon sect, was born in Sharon, Vt. When he was ten years of age his parents removed to Palmyra, N. Y. When he was 22 years of age Smith announced that in a vision an angel revealed to him the spot where the Bible of the western continent was buried. Following the directions thus obtained, Smith claimed that there was delivered to him the volume containing the doctrine on which Mormonism is founded. The new sect met with persecution and the Mormons were gradually driven westward. In 1844 Smith was arrested for alleged violations of the law, and lodged in jail in Carthage, Ill, where he was shot by a mob. See MORMONS.