Dating in the late 1700s wasn’t quite the same as today.  In our next conversation with Dr. Mark Staker, author of “Joseph & Lucy Smith’s Tunbridge Farm,” we’ll learn more about how Joseph Senior met his future with Lucy Mack Smith.

Mark:  Lucy, then comes into the picture. Joseph meets her, down in the village.
GT:  Joseph, Sr.
Mark:  Joseph, Sr. meets her down in the village where her brother introduces her to his customer, who was Asael. He introduces her, his sister, to his customer’s son. So, that was how the two met.
GT:  She was Lucy Mack. Is that right?
Mark:  Lucy Mack. Her brother was Stephen Mack. At that time, you didn’t walk up as a young man to a young woman and say, “Hi, what’s your name? Can I have your phone number?” That just was not done. You waited until you were properly introduced. I tried to follow through. This story has developed how Joseph Sr. and Lucy met. She was working in her brother’s store. They met somehow there. He came in to buy stuff. First, he wouldn’t have just walked up and introduced himself to her that way. Second, young women didn’t work as clerks in the store. I know in the movie, in the TV series Little House on the Prairie it happened and it did occasionally happen, husbands and wives working together. But, it probably wouldn’t have happened in this circumstance for a number of reasons, one of them being that her brother didn’t have a store right hand, he says that later. He had a lot of other businesses, including a sawmill where he would come and get his lumber for his barrels. So, he introduces Joseph, Sr. and Lucy Mack and they get married and move in to this home that we’ve been talking about, that Aesel and Mary had their family in.
Do you know any other stories of the Joseph Smith, Sr family? Check out our conversation….
Don’t miss our previous conversation with Dr. Mark Staker.
533: Smith Family Farm in Vermont