“My father, Joseph Smith, Senior, left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra.” — Joseph Smith Jr.¹

The Smith family moved to Palmyra, New York, in the winter of 1816, hoping to start over once more. By 1818, they had purchased 100 acres of land between Palmyra and Manchester and began clearing the trees to farm.²

The small town was named after the ancient port city in Syria,³ but though Palmyra had first been settled in 1789,⁴ the population had only grown to around 3700 by 1820.⁵ A few years later, in 1825, the Erie Canal was finished and connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River. This made Palmyra an important city and opened up new economic opportunities.

Importantly for Joseph Smith Jr., upstate New York—including Palmyra—was part of the area known as the "burned-over district."⁷ Charles Grandison Finney, a prominent evangelical minister, coined the term, describing the western and central regions of New York in the early nineteenth century as "burnt over" due to the intense level of religious revivals, like a wildfire burning through an area.⁸

1. Joseph Smith-History 1:3

2. Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 1, 5-11

3. "About Palmyra," palmyrany.com

4. "Palmyra Township," josephsmithpapers.org

5. “Palmyra, Palmyra Township, New York,” josephsmithpapers.org

6. "When Was the Erie Canal Built and How Long Did It Take?" familysearch.org

7. "First Vision Accounts," churchofjesuschrist.org

8. "Burned-over District," American History USA