Sabbath March 1st … visited my aged Br Joseph who has been sick all winter found him very low went to meeting Joseph gave spoke to the people was much interested.
—1 March 1840
[1] This report is here published for the first time. Although History of the Church, 4:89, indicates that the Prophet did not arrive home from Washington, D.C., until 4 March 1840, John Smith's diary is probably accurate in dating this account: it was contemporaneously written and the date given was indeed a Sunday.
[2] John Smith (1781-1854) was the Prophet's uncle. He was baptized in 1832 and was appointed president of the Nauvoo Stake in October 1844, after Joseph's death.