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
Notes
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[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.