05 September 2013 - Sharon, VT

One of our purposes on this trip is to make an effort to visit Church History sites and photograph them for our record.  Leaving Concord, our first stop was to visit Sharon, VT, the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in 1805.  On our way there, we made a side trip to Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.  The doctor who founded the medical school there, in 1797, was Dr. Nathan Smith, (no relation to the Prophet).  He was the surgeon who operated on the infected leg of young Joseph, saving his life, and avoiding an amputation.  The original medical school buildings are long gone, but some of the early structures still stand.  We learned about them from the staffer at the school information kiosk. He and I were surprised that we are both friends with the same person, one of the students who was with me at Columbia, who happened to be his fraternity brother.  He wanted me to remember him to my friend and mention that I talked to John "Bear" Everett.  Small world.

Note the year listed on the top of the building, identifying when the building was built.  Due to a lack of elevators in that era, no buildings were higher than 3 stories, a decent stair hike.  Only a couple of the old buildings this age still stand on campus.

Running beside the campus is the beautiful, smoothly flowing Connecticut River, the boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont.  It is the site for the school's rowing team and is a lovely stretch of water.  It served as an avenue of commerce for a couple of centuries and justified the founding of Hanover, on it shore, in the late 1700's.

From Hanover it is but a short, beautiful, tree-lined drive to Sharon.  The road parallels the White river until you turn to climb the rolling, green hills to the birthplace.  In the days of Joseph Smith, we were told that only 20% of Vermont was forested, the rest had been cleared over the years by settlers. Now it has been reforested and is just the opposite percent.  The soil is shallow and even now, trees cannot sink roots deeply.  Farming is tough on the sloping hillsides and rocks grow in the ground probably as well as crops.  There are so many rocks here that the are used for walls and fences, foundations and buildings.  In days gone by, they even used large, flat stones as bridges, one of which still stands near the Church site.

This stone bridge spans a small creek along the turnpike road from Vermont to Boston, which ran near the Smith home.  It must have taken a lot of effort to build such a bridge and wheel ruts are still visible in the stones.




In about 1905, the Church bought 400 acres of Vermont hills and woods, including the birthplace of the Prophet.  Here they erected a monument to this great man, an obelisk of granite, a foot in height for every year of the Prophet's life.  It is a magnificent and fitting tribute, well maintained by the Church.  The grounds are landscaped and lovely, with the woods encircling the location like a natural, regal, crown.  We were blessed with a private tour of the surrounding homesteads, just foundation ruins, that were occupied by the Solomon Mack family.  He was the father of Lucy Mack Smith. These grounds seemed hallowed by the memories and the impact of one momentous life, that shaped a destiny for the sons and daughters of God.