READINGS IN EARLY MORMON HISTORY
(Newspapers of California)
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Arthur B. Deming's Naked Truths About Mormonism Oakland, California: Deming & Co., 1888 (printed on the Seventh Day Adventist Pacific Press) Pg. 1 Salutatory Intro. Apology Spalding Derby to Rice Pg. 2 MSs. Osborn Saunders Anderick Butts W. Hine Pg. 3 Alderman Bell Sayer Stafford Rev. Whitney Pg. 4 O. Whitney Oberlin MS McKinstry Briggs editorial Pg. 1 Stafford Rogers Smith Harmon Polygamy S. 132 Pg. 2 Ford Goldsmith Miller Rockafelo Granger Morley Pg. 3 Aldrich Wilson Barber Lillie Grover Sherman Pg. 4 Parrish Pratt Cowdery Smith Tinker B. Young |
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Old Newspaper Articles Index | Misc. California Newspapers
COPYRIGHTED 1888, BY ARTHUR B. DEMING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Published Monthly by DEMING & CO., 856 Market St., Oakland. Terms. - Fifty Cents per year in advance; Single Copies 5 cents. In Clubs of Five, $2.00; Larger numbers in proportion. 
VOL. I.
OAKLAND, CAL., JANUARY, 1888.
NO. 1.
[ pg. 1 col. 1 ]
Dear Sir: Remembering the cordial reception you extended me when I called at the Historical Rooms in October, 1882, and the high compliment you bestowed upon my father, together with information obtained from Mrs. Woodruff while again visiting your Historical Rooms in April, 1886, lead me to address to yourself these lines. While visiting a former clerk of mine who had purchased a farm in Kirtland, Ohio, I learned that a debate was to be held in Kirtland, on the subject of Mormonism. I was urged to and did reluctantly become one of the Moderators. Mr. Braden, the opponent of Mormonism, was unable to satisfactorily prove some points he claimed, and he engaged a party to collect evidence to sustain his position. The party did not accomplish much and I undertook the business. I began in March, 1884, and have been engaged in it much of the time since. Owing to legal or other troubles, I suppose, Mr. Braden was unable to fulfill his agreements with me, and I determined to continue the important labor on my own account. The parties whose statements I intend to publish are, I believe, of unimpeachable character, and Mormons will be compelled to accept their testimony. I presume your Historical Society have not paid enough attention to their origin and early history. I hope to remedy the deficiency. I desire to thank your Society, through yourself, for the privilege they accorded me of making a catalogue of publications on Mormonism from your library, also for valuable extracts from the same. For want of money I have not succeeded as I might have done. I hope to derive means from the sale of my newspaper and continue the work, and with competent assistance re-edit, and present your Society with several copies of my intended book, "Naked Truths about Mormonism." I trust, as an honest man, you will carefully weigh the evidence and act accordingly. Sincerely for the truth, ARTHUR B. DEMING.
INTRODUCTION. The evening of my arrival in Salt Lake City I called on Gen. D. H. Wells, whom I had known in Illinois. I visited with part of his numerous family until 10 o'clock P.M., when he accompanied me to the Continental Hotel. We conversed on the sidewalk until 11 o'clock P.M. He said he had told me things about polygamy he had never told anyone. The hotel Manager, Mr. Davis, said everybody in the city admitted that General Wells was an honest Mormon. For the information of my readers who are not Mormons, I will state that Gen. Daniel H. Wells lived on a farm near the Mississippi River, in Hancock County, Illinois, before the Mormons settled Nauvoo. He told me their temple was built on a part of his farm. He was Justice of the Peace and was elected Coroner and my father was elected Sheriff in August, 1844. Polk was elected President on the same ticket. General Wells' first wife remained in Illinois, and he went to Utah and became a double brother-in-law to Brigham Young, and his Second Counselor. He was Mayor of Salt Lake City ten years, and had six wives and twenty-four children. I told one of his daughters that her mother loved their father more than [ pg. 1 col. 2: Introduction continued ] his other wives because her children resembled their father much more than theirs. Her reply was, "I know she does, and I wish he only had mother for his wife." The first wife's children claim to be superior to the plural wife's children. There certainly is a great difference between lawful love children, and illegal lust children. General Wells commands the Mormon Militia of Utah, and has held various other offices. One evening the General commenced to preach Mormonism to me. He began about Brother Joseph and the Hill Cummorah. I laughed and said, None of that, it would do no good. I afterward regretted I did not hear his argument. He desisted, but in a few minutes handed me the Wells genealogy, and requested me to read a statement he showed me. It read: "In 1666, at Wethersfield, Connecticut, Gov. Thaddeus Wells married Elizabeth Foot, daughter of John Deming." and then he claimed a relationship, and to make it stronger he offered me two of his daughters, before I left the city, who were own sisters, for wives, which offer I declined (no reflection intended towards the ladies, one of whom has since married and died with her first child). One of his daughters said that she was a Bob Ingersoll woman; that as soon as any of the young ladies were active in church work, the Elders were after them for plural wives. I made so many inquiries about their institution they became somewhat annoyed and another daughter inquired if I was writing a book. I replied I had no such intentions, which was true at the time One evening at a late supper with the General, one of his wives stood and waited upon us throughout the meal. I felt sorry for the lady, who was a superior woman that most any man of suitable age would be proud to claim for his wife. The supper was good, and very neatly prepared. The General told me he caused the following notice to be inserted in the Deseret News, the church paper:-- "THE SON OF AN OLD FRIEND. -- Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Deming, of New York, who is on a business visit to this city. He is a son of the late General Deming. mentioned in the early history of the church, and whose memory, on account of his friendly offices to the Latter-day Saints in days when they were in deep trouble, is held in respect by them. General Deming was an intimate friend of Gen. D. H. Wells."When father was Sheriff he often took me with him to Nauvoo and elsewhere. He usually stopped overnight with Orson Spencer or Brigham Young. Joseph A. Young, his oldest son, showed me the places of interest in the city and the temple. I played on the green, evenings, with Orson Spencer's children. His daughter, who is Bishop H. B. Clauson's first wife, informed me that father carried her in his buggy to Carthage, and she stayed one week at our house, and slept in the room the prophet occupied before he leaped from the window and was shot and killed. Father made a great many enemies by his efforts to protect innocent Mormons from mob violence, in Hancock County, Illinois. He lived in constant expectation of being killed. Our neighbors sometimes, evenings, would rap on our windows and tell us to pull down the shades or we would be shot, as men were prowling about with guns. [ pg. 1 col. 3: Introduction continued ] One evening I answered a loud rap at the east door and invited Mr. ___ in. He handed me a letter for my father, and told me to tell him he was wanted at the Court House immediately. He read the letter and reached for his hat to go. Mother said he must not go, they meant some evil for him. She prevailed upon him to remain indoors. The next day we were informed that Mr. Wilson, a hotel-keeper, stood near the jail with a gun, intending to kill him when he left the house. After he killed Doctor Marshall, the County Clerk, in self-defense, for the night before the doctor made a speech to a crowd, from the north door-steps of the Court House, and said either he or Deming should die the next day. Gen. D. H. Wells informed me that he saw the doctor assault father, who backed out of the County Clerk's office, and when Marshall had him by the throat, shot him with his pepperbox revolver, and killed him. Mortimor Thompson, I think his name was, who was a bitter enemy of father's, and a member of the Carthage Grays, came to the district school and informed the teacher, who was a bitter anti-Mormon, that Dr. Marshall was killed. He immediately closed the school. I started with my younger brother, for the jail. We lived in the dwelling part, which was distant two long squares after turning the corner west of the school house. When I turned the corner, I saw Lieut. Frank Worrell, of the Carthage Grays, and another of father's enemies, standing in the road near the wool-carding mill, which was half way to the jail. I surmised they intended harm to myself and brother, so we went east of the school house, and through the premises adjoining, and skulked along by the fences crossed the road leading north of the Court House on the run, unobserved by the men, and finally reached the jail through Colonel Freeman's garden. The teacher often, without sufficient cause, whipped me severely. I told father he did because he belonged to the mob party, and hated him. Father, whose profession was a teacher, always sided against me, until one day he whipped me very hard; it made me so sick and sore I ate no dinner. I plead so earnestly he permitted me to remain home that afternoon. I think he remonstrated with Price, the teacher. Father was treated as meanly as the guard of the Carthage Grays could devise. He was put in the middle dark cell, and mother, my brother and I slept on beds on the floor with him. Judge of Probate, Greenleaf, and others of father's friends saved him from mob violence. He was soon bailed for $5,000, and Murray McConnell was engaged to defend him at the trial, to be held in Peoria, but father removed his flannel during a very hot day late in August, and caught cold, which resulted in brain fever, from which he died September 10, 1845, within twenty feet of where the Mormon prophet was shot. During the sickness, when delirious, four men were required to hold him in bed; he said they were coming to kill him. His dying request to mother was to give the boys educations if able, if not, trades. The pretext for assaulting father was his selling land Marshall claimed, at Sheriff sale. The cause was Mormon politics and hatred. While father lived he had a restraining influence over the violent opponents of the Mormons. They feared he would cause their arrest and punishment. The mob did not discriminate between the Mormons who were good, industrious, and peaceable citizens, and the Danites and bad Mormons, and consequently many innocent Mormons were wronged. I admit that it was almost impossible to capture, convict and punish Mormon criminals and those who stole on Mormon credit after they reached Nauvoo. The anti-Mormons, mostly Whigs, as soon as they heard of father's death, began burning the houses and other [ pg. 1 col. 4: Introduction continued ] property of Mormons. According to Gregg;s history of the county, published in 1880, they burned September 11, 1845, Yelrome or Morley Town, named after Isaac Morley, of Kirtland, Ohio, which contained about one hundred homes. The burning continued until the Quincy Rifles and other troops were stationed in Carthage, when order was restored. Soon after this hundreds of Mormons before leaving Nauvoo and the State, visited Carthage jail to see where their prophet and his brother were killed. It was my business to show visitors through the premises and explain the circumstances connected with the event. Sometimes they gave me a picayune, or bit. Mother said the Mormons were poor and not to accept anything from them. and I did not knowingly. I write these few of many similar facts to convince all who have become Mormons since 1846, that from childhood I have been friendly to them, and I propose to continue my friendship until all honest Mormons are thoroughly convinced that they have been most wickedly and cruelly deceived. I visited Carthage, Illinois, in August, 1882, and the old jail building, Court House and old school house now used as a carpenter shop. Judge J. M. Ferris accompanied me to St. Mary's, fourteen miles southeast of Carthage, where father had purchased from the Government, about 1836, 600 acres of land. He told me, as did [High]-Sheriff Patterson, that mother sold the farm much below its value, and that several persons they knew would have been glad to have paid much more than $6,500 in 1854. The homestead tract was a lovely mound on St. Mary's Prairie, about seven miles from Plymouth on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. The Judge said father's friends would have prevented its being sold were it not stated it was to remain with his relatives. Another piece of property was sold for $1,000, $600 cash, endorsed note $400. The agent neglected to have the note protested, and it never was paid. Within two years the lot was sold for $2,500, after removing the house. After returning to Carthage, I visited Quincy, Illinois, where father was buried beside his brother, who was killed by lightning in 1843 or '44, in Deacon Kimball's barn near the cemetery in the eastern part of the city. Although the lots were paid for, and the city authorities were offered $13 per year for the grass, by a man who agreed to mow it, in 1881-82 they leased it to a livery stable keeper, who pastured much of the time sixteen horses in the cemetery, and he let a man pasture two or three cows in it for watering his horses, for which the city received $25 annually. I was informed that there were many prominent citizens buried there, but their relatives had moved away. O. H. Browning had relatives buried there, also Henry Asbury told me he had. Instead of purchasing another lot in some better kept cemetery, and removing my father's and uncle's remains, I have devoted my time, and all the money and aid I could earn, borrow, or beg, with scarcely any assistance, in continuing my search for the evidence needed to prove the true origin of Mormonism. Various persons have respectfully called me a fool for so doing. I offered, when seventeen, to sign off my interest in my father's estate for $500, to be used in obtaining an education. I was compelled to learn a trade I always disliked, and after serving five years' apprenticeship, never did two weeks' work at it. Had my father avoided Mormon influence, I would no doubt received a thorough education, and most probably have lived a better and much happier life, and possibly some other more competent person with abundant patriotism and means would have succeeded much better than myself in securing sufficient proof of the fraudulent origin of Mormonism to have fully satisfied the most credulous Mormons, and cause [ pg. 1 col. 5: Introduction continued, etc. ] them to voluntarily abolish the institution because they believe the truth My life has been one of strong hopes and continued disappointments. I can prove, I believe, that my father did more for the Mormons than any other man in Illinois, in defending the guilty, I regret to say, as well as the innocent. All my APOLOGY. THOMAS JEFFERSON said he was not afraid to error so long as truth was left free to combat it. The chief reason Mormonism has caused our Government so much trouble and expense is, that our authorities have used force without enough facts. The Mormons are composed of two classes, the Deceivers and the Deceived, who are by far the most numerous, and are generally honest, industrious, well-meaning people. Had the newspaper managers of 1830 been as enterprising and thorough in collecting news as they are to-day, Mormonism would have been very short-lived. A few hundred dollars judiciously expended by a competent person would have proven Rev. Sidney Rigdon's frequent visits with Jo Smith, at Manchester, New York, and elsewhere, for several years before the "Book of Mormon was published, also how he obtained and used the Spaulding "Manuscript Found." The Mormon thistle was allowed to take root and grow because but few people thought it would ever amount to anything. The following extract is taken from the Times and Seasons, of Nauvoo, Illinois, December 1, 1844, page 727, John Taylor, late President of the church, editor: -- "If Mormonism succeeds, Christianity will receive a mortifying blow. The question is. "What ought to be done?" The answer is, "Inform the people." We have looked upon it as a mere delusion, containing the seeds of its own dissolution. But there is order in this fanaticism; there is system in this imposture, and it carried with it an invisible spirit by which the learned and the unlearned are strangely overcome.' -- Baptist Register, of New York.It seems that there were those in 1844 who knew what ought to be done to oppose Mormonism, but they did it not thoroughly. WANTED. -- Valuable original information regarding the origin and early history of Mormonism, similar to what is contained in this paper, for which a fair price will be paid, if used. Correspondence solicited. Address, A. B. Deming, Oakland, Cal. [ pg. 1 col. 6 ] ABOUT SPAULDING. In 1808 or 1809 the Spaulding Brothers engaged in a land speculation in New Salem, the northeast town in Ohio, now called Conneaut, an Indian name, meaning many fish, which formerly abounded in the creek of that name, and was a great Indian resort. In digging into the mounds, which are numerous thereabouts, in search for iron ore, the workmen discovered large skeletons, and what they considered evidences of a pre-historic race. Spaulding became greatly interested and his adopted daughter, who is still living, told me she well remembered seeing her father, when sitting (she standing by his side) place one of the bones of the skeleton beside his leg, and it reached considerable above his knee. He thought it was the skeleton of a giant The anticipation of war with England, which began in 1812, deterred people from settling near the lake for fear of an attack from Canada. The Spauldings being unable to sell their land, again failed. Solomon's health was poor, and he wrote several historical stories, from the profits, when published and sold, he hoped to improve his financial condition, and pay his debts. The country at that time was sparsely settled and Spaulding spent much time visiting about, usually three or four days at a friend's. He was a great character in that section, and was welcomed everywhere because he read his writings to them. Spaulding was recommended to go to Pittsburgh to have his book published, whither he removed his family in 1812. He left his "Manuscript Found" with Patterson Bros., who were publishers and book-sellers, for examination, hoping they would publish it. The climate of Pittsburgh did not agree with him, and he again moved to Goodwill, now called Amity, in Washington County, Pa., where he kept a temperance tavern, and died in 1816. Sidney Rigdon, who was born in St. Clair Township, Alleghany County, Pa., twelve miles south of Pittsburgh, in 1793, it is said, became acquainted with Spaulding and his manuscript in Pittsburgh. His widow one year later (1817) moved to Central New York and finally married and settled in Monson, Mass, where she died. In July, 1884, Mr. Eber D. Howe, the publisher of "Mormonism Unveiled," told me about the Spaulding's manuscript story, "Conneaut Creek." He said it was a romance of Indian wars along the shores of Lake Erie, written on one or two quires of paper. He did not know what became of it, he supposed it was destroyed when the newspaper office was burned. The files of the Telegraph, Howe's paper, of 1836-7-8, were burned. Mr. Howe said they contained much about Jo Smith's bank and Mormon affairs. I advertised for numbers of those years, but received no reply. When Mr. Howe informed me about the "Conneaut Creek" Manuscript, word had not been received in America that it was in the possession of Mr. L. L. Rice, at Honolulu, S. I. [ pg. 1 col. 7 ] SPRINGFIELD, Pa., Dec. 9. 1884 After taking the above statement from Mrs. Derby, the writer returned to Conneaut on the Nickel Plate Railroad and called on Postmaster Keyes, son of General Keyes, who owned the iron furnace and requested that if he obtained any information of interest about Spaulding's history to inform me. I left the same evening and the next morning received a letter at Painesville, O., which was written by Rev. W. H. Rice, of Addison, N.Y., to the postmaster, of Conneaut, O., stating that his father had in his possession the Spaulding manuscript from which the "Book of Mormon" was made. I have not the letter with me and do not remember the exact words. He desired to know if Aaron Wright, Henry Lake and D. P. Hurlbut resided in Conneaut. I was reading the letter in the Temperance Reading room in Painesville, O., when Deacon Crane, of the Baptist Church, aged eighty-five, passed the door. I ran to him and inquired if he ever was acquainted with L. L. Rice. He replied, "He used to edit the Painesville Telegraph about 1839-40, and his sister taught school in our district." I immediately wrote the following letter, which Mr. Rice sent to his father at Honolulu, S. I., and his daughter, at my request, returned to me. PAINESVILLE, O., Dec. 10, 1884. |
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[ pg. 2 col. 1 ] p. 2. V. I. N. 1.] HIGHLY IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT MORMONISM. [Jan. 1888.
I wrote several letters to L. L. Rice of Honolulu, S. I., and informed him that I had taken statements from fifteen persons who had heard Hurlbut lecture on the "Origin of Mormonism," and read from the Spaulding "Manuscript Found" and the same from the "Book of Mormon." Mr. Rice did not receive my letter until he had committed himself somewhat favorably to Mormon theories, I told Mr. E. D. Howe that word had been received from the Sandwich Islands that Spaulding's manuscript from which the "Book of Mormon" was made, had been found there, without mentioning Rice's name. Mr. Howe trembled and became greatly excited. I told a clergyman in the town that he could not have been much more so if the Sheriff had read his death warrant. A few days later he said he was failing and wanted to die. I finally read to him W. H. Rice's letter and that relieved his fears, for he said Rice used to edit the Telegraph and he probably [had] Conneaut story, which proved to be correct. I have not the slightest doubt but that Howe and Hurlbut sold to the Mormon leaders the copy of "Manuscript Found" which Hurlbut had when he lectured on "Mormonism," that the Mormons agreed to pay a [large] amount for it by installments and obtained possession of the "Manuscript Found" and probably destroyed it; [and] they never paid but the first installment, and that was the reason Howe was so bitter against them, and they called him the Mormon eater. Mr. Howe was a man of superior mind and intelligence and universally respected by those who knew him. He would converse with the utmost freedom on all subjects but Mormonism, when he became guarded in his expressions and refused to talk on the subject. He told me his sister Harriet was a Mormon and stock in the ledger of Jo Smith's bank stands in her name. [Mrs.] Howe was originally a Baptist and followed Rigdon (whom she greatly admired) into Disciple doctrine and [then] Mormonism. Mr. Howe said after prophet Jo Smith's back-house scrape, she lost confidence in him and in Mormonism. I was at Mr. Howe's [some] fifty or sixty times from five minutes to six hours each time and became much attached to himself and [her?]. I inquired if the Mormons did not try to prevent the publication of "Mormonism Unveiled." He said W. W. Phelps, who formerly published an anti-Masonic paper at Canandaigua, N. Y., called, but that he looked at him pretty sharp and he did not stay long. Howe's paper was anti-Masonic. I shall have more to say of Mr. Howe when I take notice of his book and Hurlbut.
SEVERAL COPIES OF "MANUSCRIPT FOUND"
S. S. OSBORN'S STATEMENT. Mr. A, B. Deming, Esq. -- Dear Sir:According to your request I hand you a statement of my recollections of the Mormons, and of the "Manuscript" I saw in Vermont. When the Mormons came to Kirtland, Ohio, I was residing in Chardon, the county seat of Geauga County, Ohio, and Kirtland was then in the same county. I knew Sydney Rigdon while a Baptist, and also after he became a Disciple or Campbellite preacher. I visited Kirtland to satisfy my curiosity, found the Mormons living in improvised quarters and having all things in common. So far as I could gauge they seemed, with a few exceptions, ignorant, credulous and superstitous. I procured a copy of their "Book of Mormon." and read it enough to satisfy me as of its character. A notice was sometime afterwards posted up that one of them would preach at the Court House in Chardon. The town was small then, and with a book in my hand I visited most, if not all, of the Gentiles in the village, the result being that the Mormon preacher had no hearers. That I believe was the only attempt ever made by any of them to preach there, I afterward moved to Painesville, then in the same county, and which by division became the County town of Lake County, and Kirtland also became part of Lake; it was about the same distance from [ pg. 2 col. 2: Salmon S. Osborn continued, etc. ] Painesville as from Chardon. I knew the Smiths, Joseph Jr., his father, and his brother Hyrum slightly, and many of the Mormons; but having satisfied myself as to their pretensions, had little to do with them excepting in efforts to collect debts from them.I withhold his residence for the following reasons: -- Mr. Osborn is eighty-three years of age and unusually active for his years. His social standing is excellent. He strongly objected to making a statement. I called at his home five or six times and when I informed him I had obtained statements from Senator Payne, of Ohio, Lawyer Tinker and many other of his old friends, also Hon. E. B. Washburnes, he reluctantly produced the above statement. When I called for it, and his daughter learned that he had given me one, she demanded it in such a determined manner, I feared I would be compelled to surrender it to her. I hesitated and she turned to her father with earnest remonstrance. I skipped the length of the hall, grasped my hat, overcoat and Arctics, and ran nearly a block before putting them on, so she could not call me back, and have not called since. Wealthy and aristocratic people usually refuse to aid our Government to suppress its enemies, when it requires signed statements as to what they know about Mormonism. There are many people who are prominent in every relation in life whose parents were once Mormons, and they very much dislike to admit the fact. A retired Government officer could make a valuable statement but has refused to. I called on a man in Southern California who was a well-to-do business man in London, England. In 1852 be became a Mormon and intrusted most of his property to Mormon Elders and could not regain possession. He finally left Salt Lake City for Southern California and acquired much property. He said he would not for the world have his neighbors know that he had been a Mormon. He said he considered it a stain upon a man that could not be effaced. CAREER OF SIDNEY RIGDON. [ pg. 2 col. 3 ] House of Pittsburgh until the summer of 1824. Engaged in tanning in the fall of 1823, and sent his family to Warren in the fall of 1825. He joined them in the winter. Moved to Bainbridge, Ohio, April 1826. Preached Rev. W. Goodall's funeral sermon in MNentor in August, 1826. Was hired by the Baptist Church of Mentor and Kirtland, and removed to Mentor in the spring of 1827. Was seen by Lorenzo Saunders at the Smith's in Manchester, N. Y., in the spring of 1827, and again in the fall of 1827. Preached Mormonism in Rochester, N. Y., in the spring of 1830. Was connected to the Mormons November, 1830. Moved to Kirtland in the fall of 1830, November. Again visited Smiths' at Manchester, N. Y., December, 1830. HARVEY BALDWIN, of Aurora, Portage County, Ohio, says that over thirty years ago he heard his father say that he belonged to the Baptist Church in Bainbridge, Portage County, Ohio, when Sidney Rigdon preached there, and that several times when he called to see Rigdon he found him in a room by himself, and that he each time hurriedly put away books and papers he had as though he did not wish him to see them. Deacon Clapp, of the church Garfield attended in Mentor, says he was eighteen years old when Rigdon came to Mentor to live, and that he had a large chair with a leaf on the arm to write on with a drawer underneath with a lock and key. The chair was covered with spots of ink. Rigdon told him he had much use for it.
STATEMENT OF H. H. LUSE. I was born in Green County, Pa., March 13, 1810. In 1814 my parents moved to the town of Howland, near Warren, Ohio. I attended the Baptist Church, of which my mother was aÊmember. I occasionally heard Sidney Rigdon preach. I moved his household goods from his father-in-law's, Deacon Brook's house in Warren, with an ox-team, to a brick house in Mentor, Ohio, in March, 1828. Rigdon and his wife rode in a one-horse wagon. I heard Rigdon preach a very pompous sermon at the Austintown yearly meeting in 1829, I think. The audience generally expressed their disgust. Alex Campbell and Scott were present. I moved in October, 1835, to Parkman, Geauga County, Ohio, about twenty five miles from Kirtland. It was generally believed at that time that Sidney Rigdon was the author of Mormonism. The first moment I saw and heard Kalloch preach in Union Hall, I thought of Sidney Rigdon, whom he strongly resembles in every respect.It is quite probable Rigdon obtained additional household goods from Deacon Brook's family, his wife's parents, in Warren Ohio, which Mr. Luse moved; for Rigdon certainly moved from Bainbridge to Mentor in the spring of 1827.
Statement of Lorenzo Saunders.
HILLSDALE COUNTY, State of Michigan. [ pg. 2 col. 4: L. Saunders continued] Cowdery writing, I suppose the "Book of Mormon" with books and manuscript laying on the table before him; that I went to school to said Oliver Cowdery and knew him well. That in the summer of 1830, I heard Sydney Rigdon preach a sermon on Mormonism. This was after the "Book of Mormon" had been published, which took about three years from the time that Joseph Smith claimed to have had his revelation. MRS. S. F. ANDERICK'S STATEMENT. Williard Chase, a Methodist who lived about two miles from uncle's, while digging a well, found a gray smooth stone about the size and shape of an egg. Sallie, Williard's sister, also a Methodist, told me several times that young Jo Smith, who became the Mormon prophet, often came to inquire of her where to dig for treasures. She told me she would place the stone in a hat and hold it to her face, and claimed things would be brought to her view. Sallie let me have it several times, but I never could see anything in or through it. I heard that Jo obtained it and called it a peep-stone, which he used in the place of the witch hazel. Uncle refused to let Jo dig on his farm. I have seen many holes where he dug on other farms. When Jo joined the Presbyterian Church, in Palmyra village, it caused much talk and surprise, as he claimed to receive revelations from the Lord. He also claimed he found some gold plates with characters on them, in a hill between uncle's and father's, which I often crossed. Several times I saw what he claimed were the plates, which were covered with a cloth. They appeared to be six or eight inches square. He frequently carried them with him. I heard they kept them under the brick hearth. He was from home much summers. Sometimes he said he had been to Broome County, New York, and Pennsylvania. Several times while I was visiting Sophronia Smith at old Jo's house, she told me that a stranger who I saw there several times in warm weather and several months apart, was Mr. Rigdon. At other times the Smith children told me that Mr. Rigdon was at their house when I did not see him. I did not read much in the "Book of Mormon" because I had no confidence in Jo. Palmyra people claimed that Jo did not know enough to be the author of the "Book of Mormon," and believed that Rigdon was its author. I was acquainted with most of the people about us, and with Martin Harris. [ pg. 2 col. 5: Sarah Fowler Anderick continued, etc. ] On my way to California I stopped in Salt Lake City from July, 1852, until March, 1853. I received much attention from Mormon ladies because I was acquainted, and had danced with their prophet. [Signed.] MRS. S. F. ANDERICK. [Seal] Witnessed by: MRS. I. A. ROGERS (Daughter) OSCAR G. ROGERS (Grandson). Subscribed and sworn before F. S. Baker, Notary Public for Monterey County, California, June 24, 1887. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal. | Dec. 21, 1887. | A. B. DEMING, Esq., Oakland, Cal. -- Dear Sir: Mrs. S.F. Anderick, of whom you inquire, is a member of my church. She is a most estimable Christian woman, and is possessed of more than average intellectual ability and culture. She is careful in her speech and reliable in judgement; sound inmind and of unimpeachable veracity. Her testimony would be first-class in any court of justice upon any subject with which she might be conversant. Respectfully, G.W. IZER, Pastor Simpson Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, San Francisco, Cal. C. H. FOWLER, Bishop of the M. E. Church.
ISAAC BUTTS [Signed.] ISAAC BUTTS. South Newbury, Geauga Co, O.
W. R. HINE'S STATEMENT. My nephew now owns the land he dug on. Asa Stowel furnished the means for Jo to dig for silver ore, on Monument Hill. He dug over one year without success. Jo dug next for Kidd's money, on the west bank of the Susquehanna, half a mile from the river, and three miles from his salt wells. He dug for a cannon the Indians had buried, until driven away by the owner of the land. He dug for many things and many parties, I never knew him to find anything of value. He and his workmen lived in a shanty while digging for salt. When it rained hard, my wife has often made beds for them on the floor in our house. Jo became known all over New York and Pennsylvania. Sometimes his brothers were with him. Isaac Hale, a good Methodist, lived seven miles below me on the river. I often stopped with him [ pg. 2 col. 6: William Riley Hine continued ] when rafting. I have attended many prayer-meetings at his house, evenings. Emma was fine looking, smart, a good singer, and she often got the power. Jo stole his wife, Sunday, while Hale was at church. My wife and I saw him on an old horse with Emma on behind as they passed our house on their way to Bainbridge, N.Y., where they were married. [ pg. 2 col. 7: William Riley Hine continued, etc. ] few of the large ones which came from Russell's quarry. Prophet Jo and his father frequently talked over with me their experience along the Susquehanna. Jo could scarcely read or write when he lived in New York. He had a private teacher in Kirtland and obtained a fair education. While the temple was building the workmen lived in temporary buildings. Prayer meetings were held mornings by the workmen for the success of the work before beginning their labors. One day while I was at the Flats, a meeting was held in which the Spiritual Wife Doctrine was discussed. Rigdon said if he had got to go into it he might as well begin. He put Emma, Jo Smith's wife, on the bed and got on himself. Jo became angry. It was in everybody's mouth for miles about Kirtland.Mr. W. R. Hine resided on his farm in Munson, Geauga County, Ohio, forty years and all his neighbors know him to an honest man. His wife having died he lives with his daughter, Mrs. Parker, at Chester Cross Roads seven miles south of the Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio. His right arm is paralyzed and he was compelled to sign with an X His mind is strong and memory very good. In the statement at Chicago, he stated that the Kelley's, Mormon elders from Kirtland, called on him the day of the Ohio State election in Oct., 1884, and asked him questions and he replied. They wrote down something; but did not read it to him and he does not know that it is correct. |
p. 4. V. I. N. 1.] HIGHLY IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT MORMONISM. [Jan. 1888.
He said he had been much persecuted by Mormons, but more by their sympathisers, and he feared them. He said it would be just like them to burn his barns. He said Prophet Jo Smith's private secretary, after he left them, told him that they would kill any man who knew the secrets of Mormonism, if they thought he would expose them. He much feared his life would be taken. He no doubt kept quiet, for his daughter wrote me she did not know that her father, who became a Baptist minister, ever was a Mormon. I have secured one interesting statement he made, by diligent search I told Mr. Whitney that nearly all persons who knew about the early history of Mormonism were dead, and it was of the greatest importance that he should make a sworn statement of what he knew. I used various arguments and after inquired, what reply he would make when the Master demanded his reasons for not doing his duty, at the great Judgment. He then consented. I spent two days and evenings asking him questions, hearing his replies and conversation, and taking notes, and then wrote out his statement. He was disappointed in not obtaining one of two men he had engaged to rake and put his hay in the barn, so I pitched on and off several loads for him. Mr. Whitney, who weighed near three hundred pounds, had recently fallen and broken several ribs, and walked with crutches. He told me when he was commander of a vessel, while unloading scrap iron, two of his men would make hard work carrying one bundle weighing 200 pounds. To shame them he carried three bundles weighing 600 pounds several rods on shore, and laid them down. When in his prime he had no fears of personal violence from the Mormons. He stated that one of the party who tarred and feathered Sydney Rigdon and Jo Smith at John Johnson's, in Hiram, O., informed him that Rigdon said to their assailants he presumed they were gentlemen, but Jo Smith fought until overpowered. A doctor present offered to castrate Jo and said he would warrant him to live. It was not done. Several of Johnson's sons were of the party. They were angry because their father was urged by Jo and Rigdon to let them have his property. He finally did give them some of it, and moved to Kirtland and kept tavern, and his son Luke became one of the first Mormon Twelve Apostles. He left them and said it was the fault of the Mormons that they were driven from Missouri. Rev. S. F. Whitney was in the Methodist ministry over fifty years, and voted for Douglas for President in 1860.
SALT LAKE CITY CORPORATION TREASURER'S OFFICE, I was informed by a creditable party while last in Salt Lake City that Bishop N. K. Whitney's second wife confessed on her death bed to Bishop Tuttle, of the Episcopal Church, that Bishop Whitney's first wife gave him poison in a whisky sling she made for him. The first time it made him very sick and the next evening she gave him another, which caused his death. She made three each time, for herself and the second wife without poison. The above letter was written by the City Treasurer, Bishop Whitney, who is a grandson of the Bishop, whose first wife poisoned him. Persons as well born as Treasurer Whitney, who is an unusually bright and attractive gentleman, ought not to be engaged in promulgating a religion which caused his grandfather's death [ pg. 4 col. 2 ] without cause. In May I received a letter from Rev. S. F. Whitney's widow, informing me that he died March 22 in the triumph of a living faith. I have concluded to publish the letter and send it to the executor, together with sufficient copies of my paper to supply each of the relatives and friends named in the Treasurer's letter.
Statement of Mrs. Sophia Munson. My parents settled on Mentor Road, four miles west of Painesville, Ohio, in 1810, when I was six weeks old. I well remember when Elder Rigdon came and lived opposite our house in 1827. He was very poor, and when he had much company would send his children to he neighbors to borrow knives, forks, dishes and also for provisions. Father kept his horse and cow gratis.
FUTURE ARTICLES. Jo Smith said he established the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Co.,by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, and it would eventually swallow up all other banks. Capital, $4,000,000. Brigham Young was credited with $7.00 paid for $100,000 stock which stood in his name. The stock ledger was secreted from 1837 till 1884, when I purchased it. A list of the principal stockholders, together with its history will be given; the killing of Jo and Hyrum Smith, in Carthage jail, who commanded the 150 men; the names of some of the leaders who are now dead; the oaths taken and particulars by one of the party who stood within 50 feet of the jail and saw the Mormon prophet shot and counted the bullet holes in him; Mormonism in Missouri and Illinois, and the Danites. When I treat on Utah affairs, the facts will be more naked and startling than any that have been puvlished, except the Mountain Meadow Massacre. I may publish a partial diary of the travels and circumstances attending the collection of my evidence, which probably would be very interesting, amusing and entertaining to most readers, which would contain many facts that I did not include in statements signed by the parties. The complete history of the acts of the Mormons never can be written, so many who best knew its history are dead, and many are ashamed of their connection with it, and others for fear of being persecuted or killed, dare not tell what they know about Mormonism. An old acquaintance abd personal friend of Brigham Young told me that Brigham said to him in Salt Lake City, in 1852, to show him a man from Clay County, Mo., and he would show him his head in twelve hours. He had a man who would do it. My informant said Brigham was responsible for the Mountain Meadow Massacre, that it was for plunder, and Brigham had and used some of it. He said he knew of lots of things they did. He said he was well acquainted with Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, in Ohio, and that he was a d----d thief. He refused to sign a statement, as he did not want to be hunted down by them. Mrs. Stenhouse, who is now in England, told me that she did not tell it all, her husband would not let her. He struck out much she had written. She said there were many things about Mormonism which could not be written, or much less spoken. [ pg. 4 col. 3 ]
MORMON FORGERY
Joseph Smith . . . . . . Editor. W. W. Blair . . . Associate Editor. Lamoni, Iowa, April 3. 1886. We publish the following letter from Mr. L. L. Rice, who in the providence of God, unknowingly held the notorious "Manuscript Found" for nearly fifty years just as it came into his hands, with the printing office he purchased from the Mormon-eater, E. D. Howe. It will be seen he indorses the printed copy as being correct, "and well preserving the character of the original." His views in respect to the labors of President Joseph Smith in Utah and Idaho last year are just and sensible. |