One hundred acres of Lot 1 taxed to Joseph Smith, Sr., for the third time. (From Assessment Roll, Manchester, New York, 24 July 1823; courtesy Ontario County Records Center and Archives, Canandaigua, New York.)
This assessment
record is important
because it helps put into perspective when the Joseph Smith family
completed their move to
Manchester Township, New York.
About the
summer of 1820 (after 22
June 1820) Joseph Smith, Sr. and Alvin Smith entered into an
article of agreement to
purchase 100 acres in Farmington (Manchester), New York. They were
living in a cabin the
Township of Palmyra a short distance from the township line prior
to April 1820. In April 1822
the Smith family was still living there.
On 2 July 1822
Zachariah Seymour the
land agent from whom Joseph and Alvin Smith made purchase
arrangements dies. The Smith
family completed their move to the 100 acre farm by the spring of
1823. The 24 July 1823
Manchester land assessment record shows that Joseph Smith, Sr. was
assessed at $1000. This was
in additional value of $300 since the 29 June 1822 assessment.
Improvements
made on the Manchester
land included clearing the land and building a log home on the
property. Lucy Smith, mother of
Joseph Smith, Jr., stated that the land agent [Seymour] advised
them "to build a log house on the
land and commence clearing it[.] we did so" (Dan Vogel, ed.,
Early Mormon
Documents [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996], 1:277-78).
Lucy Smith
recorded, "In the spring
[1823] after we moved onto the farm we commenced making Mapel
[Maple] sugar . . . we then
began to make preparations for building a house as the Land Agent
of whom we purchased our
farm was dead and we could not make the last payment" (Vogel,
Early Mormon
Documents 1:284-85). Later that year her son Alvin commenced
building a frame house
on the farm.
Close up of 1823 Assessment Record with the name of Joseph Smith [Sr.].