Joseph's Suppot Group, The Doctrine and Covenants

It's something of a miracle that the young Joseph Smith had any supporters at all. He wasn't even twenty-five years old, and had no special background that would seem to qualify him as a religious leader. His education was spotty, his family had no heritage of wealth or leadership. Of course, there was no church history except the claim of restoration, no buildings, no operations manual, and no real clue as to what would happen next to insure that this infant organization wouldn't be strangled in its own crib.
What Joseph did have, right from the first, was the ability to speak with power and sincerity that caused people to change their minds about him. Sure, he needed help, but he was willing to give help as well, and put himself in the lead in projects that involved hard work and personal risk.
Then The Book of Mormon came into existence, thanks in part to donations that helped pay for the printing, a major sum at the time. Those close to Joseph concluded that this book could not have sprung from the mind of someone of any background without inspiration.
I suppose the men who knew Joseph Smith at first must have wondered many things. Why would God choose this young man for this formidable set of tasks, although the Bible had several similar instances? Could there be a position for me in this new Kingdom which would allow my name to be more widely known? What could I do to help this young man deal with the complexities of this wicked world?
Some of these men, young by current standards but living during a time when lives were shorter in pre Civil War America, brought their questions directly to Joseph, and he in turn took them to Christ in prayer. Today's volume called the Doctrine and Covenants is made up of revelations given in answer to these and other questions, which, taken as a whole, provide an outline for this new Church's organization and procedures.
Most of the answers are not given in great detail, and so required an even higher level of faith for these men. Some have names that are well known today, particularly Brigham Young and John Taylor, both later presidents of the church. Others are well known within the Church, but not outside of it because of their coming short of total faithfulness: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, David and other members of the Whitmer family and some others.
The shortcomings of these early followers seem foolish now, a full 180 plus years later when the Church exists almost everywhere in the world. I can't help personally feeling that these men who joined the cause when it was brand new may be judged with a different standard than we who live today and see the evidence of how greatly the Lord has blessed this once humble organization led by an unlettered young man from a farm in New England.