[sevenbak]

but that didn't stop Old Joe.

I've often wondered why the Anti Mormons always refer to Joseph Smith as Joe. It's a nickname only given by the detractors, certainly he, his family or friends didn't use it.

Should we start calling St. Peter Pete?

How many others can we come up with. It would seem 11 of the 12 had an easier way to say it as well. Pete, Andy, Jim, Phil, Bart, Tom, Matt, Jim, Thad, Sims, Jude...

[Bonaparte]

"... why the Anti Mormons always refer to Joseph Smith as Joe. It's a nickname only given by the detractors, certainly he, his family or friends didn't use it."

Actually, they did.

See Origin of Mormonism, by Anna R. Webster Eaton, 1881.

As far as Mormonism was connected with its reputed founder, Joseph, always called "Joe Smith," it had its origin...

Are you really going to force me to dig out letters, diary entries, etc., further demonstrating that he was known among friends and intimates as "Joe"?

[Bonaparte]

"... why the Anti Mormons always refer to Joseph Smith as Joe. It's a nickname only given by the detractors, certainly he, his family or friends didn't use it."
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Okay, I'll give you yet another source for the fact that he was called Joe by his friends and intimates.

BTW, this source is from the website of a Mormon apologist [emphasis mine] --

Many people who knew Joseph Smith and his family spoke of their good character and diligence. An example of one non-LDS person's favorable views of Joseph comes from a former neighbor, Orlando Saunders, who was interviewed in 1881. He said of the Smith family: "They were the best family in the neighborhood in case of sickness; one was at my house nearly all the time when my father died." Saunders told Frederic G. Mather that the Smiths "were very good people. Young Joe (as we called him then), has worked for me, and he was a good worker; they all were. . . . He was always a gentleman when about my place." (Quotes are given in R.L. Anderson, "Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reappraised," Brigham Young University Studies 10 (Spring 1970): 309.)

[Bonaparte]

"... wondered why the Anti Mormons always refer to Joseph Smith as Joe. It's a nickname only given by the detractors, certainly he, his family or friends didn't use it."
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Here ya go!

Yet another reference to him as "Joe Smith," this time in a contemporary New York Sun editorial, that praises and defends him [emphasis mine].

A few newspapers boldly spoke with admiration for this American prophet. The New York Sun suggested, "It is no small thing, in the blaze of this nineteenth century, to give to men a new revelation, found a new religion, establish new forms of worship, to build a city, with new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture, to establish ecclesiastic, civil and military jurisdiction, found colleges, send out missionaries, and make proselytes in two hemispheres: yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution."

[Bonaparte]

"... why the Anti Mormons always refer to Joseph Smith as Joe. It's a nickname only given by the detractors..."
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This guy is certainly no detractor --

You hypocrites- you condemn as false the “prophet” Joseph Smith when all he’s done is repeat verbatim what the “prophet” Jesus prophesied. Don’t you know that when you condemn Joe, you’ve also condemned Jesus???

I guess he didn't get the memo about not calling Smith "Joe."