THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  MORMON  BIBLE.

Eccentric Solomon Spaulding Who Wrote "The Manuscript Found."
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DIED AT AMITY IN 1816
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Sidney Rigdon, a Pittsburgh Printer, Had Manuscript ans
It Reached Joseph Smith.
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MORMONS OF COURSE DENY IT.
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BY A. S. JESSOP -- Staff Correspondent

SCENERY HILL, PA. March 12 -- Standing in the little grave yard in the town of Amity, on Ten Mile creek, but a short distance over the hills from the town is a little mound and the remains of what was at one time a headstone that bore this inscription:
      In Memory of
SOLOMON SPALDING
Who Departed this Life
October 20, A. D. 1816.

    Kind cherubs guard the sleeping clay.
      Until the great decision day.
    And saints complete in glory rise,
      To share the triumph of the skies. "Poor, unfortunate, somewhat unbalanced, yet honest, and well-meaning Solomon Spaulding," speaks Thomas Gregg in his book, "The Prophet of Palmyra," of the man whose bones lie in the little grave yard, and of the man who never knew when he wrote for amusement, that his writings would be distorted into being the foundation of a creed.

Solomon Spaulding was a native of the state of New York. He was highly educated and a graduate of Dartmouth college. He was a Presbyterian preacher, but after his marriage in Cherry Valley, N. Y., nothing is known of his ocupying a pulpit. He went to New Salem, Ashtabula county, O., where he obtained a large tract of land and built a forge. The town is now Conneaut.

In 1812 he broke, both financially and in health. For recreation he investigated the mounds in that locality, and started a story that he would read to his friends and neighbors from time to time as he would add a chapter. The matter was written as if from a departed race, and assumed the name of the "Manuscript Found." It was the opinion of the people that Spaulding read to them as fast as he deciphered the manuscript. Spaulding's acquaintance with the classics and ancient history enabled him to introduce names never before heard of.

Spaulding moved to Pittsburgh, where he kept a little store. He became acquainted with the [--------- of?] Pittsburgh [and? with? Rev. Robert Patterson] [editor?] of the Presbyterian Banner, then published by Patterson & Lambdin. He submitted his manuscript to Mr. Patterson, who told him to trim it a little and prepare a title page, and that he would publish it. In some way, perhaps through carelessness on both the part of Patterson and Spaulding, it was in the office for two years.

Employed in the office as a printer was a man named Sidney Rigdon, who was also pastor of the First Baptist Church. He read the manuscript, and is known to have had the manuscript in his possession for a time. Spaulding had hard work to make a living in Pittsburgh, so, with his family, he went to Amity, Washington county, where he conducted the tavern. He was a man who never laughed and seldom smiled, yet is described to have been pleasant. He was full 6 feet in height, slender, dark, slow in speech and never trifling.

He had the manuscript with him at Amity and used to amuse the frequenters at the tavern by reading it to them. Because of the expressions in it he was known as "Old Come-to-Pass." [He died?] and [was soon?] forgotten [------- ---] his widow went soon after to her people in Massachusetts and married again. She died in Hamden county Mass., in 1844.

It was on September 21, 1823 that Joseph Smith claimed that he had his "revelations," and was commanded by the angel to let the plates of gold lie buried for four years. Rev. John Winter, one of the early ministers of the Baptist Church in western Pennsylvania and Ohio, stated that in the winter of 1822-23 he saw in Rigdon's house in Pittsburgh, a copy of Spaulding's "Manuscript Found." It is also known that Rigdon was at Palmyra, N. Y. as early as 1827.

Smith's four years was up on September 27, 1827, and he claimed that he dug up the plates which, being interpreted, gave the "New Revelation, or the Book of Mormon," out of the side of a hill near Manchester, Ontario county, N. Y. Rigdon was seen in the neighborhood several times.

Soon after the publication of the book Rigdon was with Smith continually. The people about Amity and those in Pittsburgh and also New Salem, O., who had heard Spaulding read his work, the "Manuscript Found," recognized it immediately when they heard read the "New Revelation, or the Book of Mormon." The only differenc between the two was, Spaulding claimed that the first was a romance, while Smith claimed that the letter was a revelation from God. Both begin with the Lost Tribes of Israel, and the same peculiar names are used in both books. The general impression at the time was that Rigdon had copied Spaulding's manuscript and given it to Smith. Nothing has since come up in history to disprove this opinion. Much ha[s] been added to prove this conclusion.

In 1830 Rigdon was at Mentor, O., and after that continually with Smith. In 1836 Rigdon was president of the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, with a capital of "not less than $4,000,000. In July 1837, the bank failed. In 1838 Rigdon and Smith organized the "Danites, or Destroying Angels," at Far West, Caldwell county, Mo., because they did not like the way the church at that place was being conducted. It was the "Danites" that were responsible for the Mountain Meadows massacre in 1843 [sic] and numerous other crimes. Rigdon was one of the founders of Nauvoo in 1839.

On February 15, 1844, the Mormon newspapers presented the names of "Gen. Joseph Smith for president and Sidney Rigdon for vice president of the Ubited States." The names remained at the head of the papers until the office of the Nauvoo Expositor was destroyed on June 10, 1844. Smith was killed in jail on June 27.

Then Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young each wanted to be head of the Church. Rigdon had told some of his friends that if he was elected president that he would lead the "hosts" to Pittsburgh and there start a new "Zion." This did not suit the faithful, who wanted to go west, and when it came to a vote "only about ten" were in favor of Rigdon. He was then kicked out of the church and returned to Pittsburgh, where he died in the early 70s.

Probably 50 persons have sworn to statements that Spaulding's romance was the basis of the Mormon Bible, although of course, it has always been denied by Mormons. The widow of Spaulding said it was, and so did his brother and his daughter. In 1880 Mrs. M. S. McKinstry, Spaulding's daughter, in a sworn statement, said the original manuscript was obtained from her in 1834, by a man named Hurlburt, who represented to her that he wanted to compare it with the Mormon Bible. He was a Mormon and all evidence is that he wanted to secure the manuscript to remove it for the advance of the Church.


Note: The above article fits in with those others published in the Pennsylvania press during the 1860-1899 time-span (as a sort of a summary of their combined expression of the Spalding authorship claims) and is retained here as the final item in that series. Its content is riddled with factual and conceptual errors and cannot be trusted in most of the details it relates. However, the article stands as a fair example of those abating reports, still being written around the turn of the century, the content of which had not yet been impacted by the discovery of the Spalding manuscript in Hawaii, nor by a growing consensus among several scholars of that period -- that Joseph Smith, Jr. had the ability to write the Book of Mormon by himself.

WILL  LECTURE
ON  MORMONISM.

Hon. Frank J. Cannon, who is to lecture here, was the first United States senator from Utah, was organizer of the Republican party in Utah and is a world traveler, author and orator. Recently he resigned from his position on the editorial staff of the Rocky Mountain News of Denver that he might give all his time to the Lyceum and Chautauqua platform.

As is alreaddy well known Senator Cannon from the platform and in magazine articles is enlightening the American people on "Mormonism." The subject of his lecture is "The Modern Mormon Kingdom." His articles on "Mormonism" have been appearing in Everybody's Magazine.

Hon. Frank L. Cannon was reared in the seclusion of the Salt Lake valley in the environment of Mormon circles a thousand miles from any other civilization. Racially a Mormon and proud of their achievements in many ways, he never avowed himself ecclesiatically a Mormon.

For years he has been fighting polygamy in the Mormon church. When the Mormons pledged themselves to do better, he interceded for them at a time when they were threatened with disfranchisement. He took a prominent part in all the public affairs of the Mormons, all the time depending on their promises of reform. His antagonism to some of their practices, however, which they persisted in despite their promises, finally resulted in his excommunication from the church.

He opposed the election of Apostle Reed Smmot to the senate, and when Smoot was finally steated Cannon withdrew from Utah, believing that little more could be done, at least for some time.

---

A Spendid Lecture Course.

The lecture course under the auspices of the Sewickley Home and School Association will begin at the Auditorium next Thursday evening with a lecture on "Mormonism" by Hon. Frank J. Cannon, at one time an elder in the Mormon Church and a member of the United States Senate. Mr. Cannon has recently written a book on Mormonism, which is said to be a terrible arraignment of the form of religious belief and practice. His knowledge of the subject at first hand gives him a grasp on it which will make the lecture well worth hearing.

The succcess attending the splendid course of lectures given last winter has given the lecture course committee of the association courage to attempt even better things this year, and they have arranged a splendid program....


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MODERN
MORMON  KINGDOM.

A splendid lecture was given on this subject in the Auditorium last Thursday evening by Frank J. Cannon, before a large and appreciative audience. It was the first in the lecture course of the Home and School Association, and in this initial success, the Association scored a great success.

The speaker was introduced by Judge W. A. Way. In his prelude, Judge Way recited a story of surprising interest concerning the local features relating to the first publication of the "Book of Mormonism." The story was a long one and was listened to with intense interest. He then introduced the speaker of the evening.

Mr. Cannon startled his hearers with the question, "What are you going to do about it anyway?" asked in a vehement manner, went on to explain that this question was asked before the Senatorial Investigating Committee at Washington, by Joseph [F.] Smith, the acknowledged head of the Mormon Church when he was on trial for violating their solemn treatise made between this church and the United States Government, to which charges he plead guilty. He denied the right of the Senators to interrogate him, and declared he was not amendable to the government.

After some preliminaries the speaker launched into his subject: He said the people of this nation did not fully appreciate the gravity of the issue. He narrated the incidents of the war made by this government on the Mormon Church, a quarter of a century ago; that driven to desperation by their sufferings, they had appealed to the government, and as a result of the pledges made at that time, the givernment had made concessions to them that were unparalled in the history of nations. They were restored to their land, to statehood, and to citizenship; millions of dollars worth of property were taken from the schools and given to the chiefs: 100,000 of their children were legitimized" and many more concessions were given to them. In spite of all this, the leaders of the church refused to honor the treaties which they had ratified.

Mr. Cannon said the Mormon Church was an empire within itself, and that Joseph Smith was an absolute despot, with 100,000 priests subservient to his will, that the leader is entirely sincere in his appreciation of himself, and that his followers are as fanatical as any Mohamedon, that the absolute devotion of the people to the hierarchy is due to their belief in the doctrine that "sin on earth is sanctity in heaven."

He accused the church as being treasonable in doctrine and practice, with sanctioning the "oath of blood" in vengeance, using millions of money for the purpose of operating free institutions, and with teaching and practicing polygamy. He said that seven states were under its power and that its influence was greater than that of the government, [in] twenty-two years it had passed from a condition of outlawry to its present powerful position, and if this ratio was continued for two decades, its long arm would reach around the civilized world.

The remainder of the address was an exploitation of the specific charges and an impassioned appeal to the people of this land to arouse themselves against this subtle and powerful "invisible empire."


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Origin of the "Book of Mormon."

The following extremely interesting narrative relating to the origin of the first "Book of Mormon" was related by Judge W. A. Way as a prelude to the lecture given on "The Modern Mormon Kingdom," by Hon. Frank J. Cannon, under the auspices of the Home and School Association on Thursday evening of last week. The authenticity of the narrative, the local coloring attached to it, and the nature of the occasion, made its rendition peculiarly appropriate, and we deem it a pleasure to be able to present it to our readers"

The subject of Mormonism has an especial interest for a Sewickley audience. Few, probably, of those here tonight know that the origin of the Mormon Bible, the "Book of Mormon," is intimately associated with the history of a family that has resided in this vicinity for two generations. Many of you remember well our former neighbor, Mr. Robert Patterson, one of the editors and proprietors of the "Presbyterian Banner," who for many years lived on the river bank near Glen Osborn station, and all of you know his son, Thomas Patterson, Esq., the lawyer. Now, Mr. Robert Patterson's father was a printer and a book publisher in the city of Pittsburgh. In 1812 he was visited by an ex-clergyman named Solomon Spaulding, who desired Mr. Patterson to publish a book. This book had been written by Mr. Spaulding as a religious novel and was based based on the idea that the North American Indians were the descendants of the lost Ten Tribes of Israel. It gave an imaginary detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem by land and sea until they arrived in America under command of "Nephi" and "Lehi," and made mention of a tribe of people called the "Lamanites." Two of the principal characters in the book were "Mormon" and his son, "Moroni," and the title of the book was "The Manuscript Found." As Mr. Spaulding was unable to make satisfactory financial arrangements for the publication of this work the manuscript remained in Mr. Patterson's printing office for several years and was finally, after Mr. Spaulding's death, returned to his widow. While the manuscript was in Mr. Patterson's office it came under the notice of a man by the name of Sidney Rigdon, who was employed there. Rigdon was also a preacher. He took a great interest in this manuscript, to which he had free access, and it is thought that he made a complete copy of it. In any event there is no question but that he became thoroughly familiar with it, and without doubt made extracts from it. He subsequently left Mr. Patterson's office and formed an acquaintance with Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, about a year before the appearance in print of the Mormon Bible. It is also noteworthy that after Mrs. Spaulding received the manuscript of her husband's novel she left it for several years at her brother's, who resided in New York State in Smith's vicinity.

What actually became of the manuscript nobody now knows and nobody knows whether Smith secured the original manuscript entire or gained a knowledge of its contents from Rigdon, but one thing is certain; and that is that when the Mormon Bible was published its narrative followed precisely the lones of Spaulding's novel. The plot was the same, the names of "Mormon," "Moroni," "Nephi." "Lehi," "the Lamanites" were the same, the exact language was, in many instances, accorsing to the recollection of those who read Spaulding's manuscript, the same, and the only noticeable change was the addition of scriptural passages and religious matter which did not appear in Spaulding's original work. This coincidence was so remarkable as to challenge the attention of all those who had seen the Spaulding story, and it appeares to leave no room for reasonable doubt that this "bible," the foundation stone of the now world-famous sect, was, in a large measure, copied from Solomon Spaulding's attempt at a religious novel.

It may not be out of place, in this connection, to recount the story given by Joseph Smith of the origin of the "Book of Mormon." It is in effect that he saw in a vision an angel named Moroni, who explained to him that the Indian tribes were a remnant of Israel and that a sacred history of their wanderings had been preserved and was desposited on a hill near Palmyra, N. Y.

After having repeated communications with the angel for several years Smith finally, in 1827, when he was about twenty-two years old, is said to have disinterred these "records," which were engraved on plates which had the appearance of gold. The plates were about as thick as ordinary tin and some eight inches long and seven inches broad. They were covered on both sides with engravings in Egyptian characters, and bound together at one edge by three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness and was accompanied by an instrument consisting of two transparent stones set in the rims of a bow, like the glasses in a pair of spectacles. Although entirely uneducated Smith was enabled by use of these spectacles to translate the characters on the plates which he read aloud from a place of concealment behind a curtain, and what he read was taken down by amanuenses. What finally became of the plates and spectacles does not clearly appear -- certain it is that they are not now in existence. One account has it, I believe, that the angel reappeared and took them away.

No one seems to have seen them except some members of Smith's own and of a neighboring family, and the three original "witnesses" subsequently renounced Mormonism and avowed the falsity of their testimony.

This brief statement is given here in order that those of you who are unfamiliar with the Mormon account of the origin of their Bible may be in a position to form an intelligent opinion as to the probability of its truth and to judge whether this "bible" had a miraculous origin or was, in the main, a copy of Spaulding's novel. Those of you who knew Mr. Robert Patterson can vouch for his absolute fairness and accuracy. While the events I have recounted happened before he was born, the matters pertaining to the Spaulding manuscript and Sidney Rigdon were frequently discussed in the Patterson family, and Mr. Patterson was in a better position than probably any living man to determine accurately as to the identity of these documents. He gave this matter the most painstaking attention and exhaustive research, and always proclaimed it as his unhestitating conviction that Spaulding's story and the Mormon bible were practically one and the same.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Three Religions Starting Here,
Are Briefly Sketched
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How Mormonism, the Christian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian church had their real beginnings from Washington county, or were started by men from this section, was told in a most interesting manner last evening by Attorney Joseph F. McFarland, at the February meeting of the Washington County Historical Society, which was held in the public meeting room of the court house. An interesting feature of the evening was old-fashioned music of 100 years ago played by William Cummins of Washington...

Mr. McFarland began with his history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church; then followed with the Christian Church and finally told of the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, better known as the Mormons, showing how each probably grew out of the other. He also spoke of the general belief that the story written by Rev. Solomon Spaulding gave Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith their idea for their "Book of Mormon."

It is interesting to note in this connection that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding lived during the last years of his life at Amity, this county. The house in which he died is still standing there and is a source of great interest for all travelers through this section. During the past three quarters of a century, it has been visited by thousands. Spaulding is buried in the church yard nearby. His grave was first marked by a plain sandstone slab; but this was carried off piece by piece by relic hunters over half a century ago, and the location of the grave was known to only a few of the old residents of Amity. Before they died, and it would have been lost forever, a granite monument was erected by popular subscription of the people in that section. This was 15 years ago. Alexander Bolton was one of the main contributors to its erection and still lives in Amity.

In telling the beginning of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Mr. McFarland told how James McGeehan, a pupil of the Rev. John McMillan, Rev. Joseph Smith, and the Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, who belonging to that coterie of frontier ministers who made Washington county famous as a seat of Presbyterianism a century and a quarter ago, began preaching in the Cumberland mountains of the south. His revival methods were not approved by the Presbyterian Church, but in spite of this opposition he started the great religious movement of 1787, which swept through the south, up through Pennsylvania to the vicinity of Palmyra, New York, the home of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. This was the beginning of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

He then told how Thomas Campbell was refused admission by the Seceder Church and afterwards by the Presbyterian Church. The point in dispute between them was his refusal to subscribe to the confession of faith. Finally he got into the Baptist Church, but this same confession of faith came between them. Campbell's sermons did not conform to the Baptist faith.

In 1821, Alexander Campbell became acquainted with Sidney Rigdon and secured a Baptist pulpit for him near [sic] Pittsburg. In 1823 he was turned out by the congregation because of his teachings, and in 1827 both he and Alexander Campbell were turned out of the Baptist Association of Western Pennsylvania. They formed the Mahoning Association in Ohio, but in 1830 Campbell and Rigdon fell out over the question of having every thing in common.

Prior to 1830 Rigdon met Joseph Smith and shortly afterwards the "Golden Bible" or Book of Mormon was published by Smith. Prior to that time both had been teaching the ancient religion. He then told how Smith and Rigdon worked together in starting their new religion, on the idea of "community of goods." It is known that Joseph Smith was at Harmony, Pa. at times and Rigdon's church was near [sic] that place. The speaker advanced the idea that they got their first idea of a Mormon hierarchy from the teachings and contract of the Harmonites or Economy Society.

It is claimed that Rigdon was the man who stole Spaulding's manuscript from the Patterson printing office in Pittsburg; and he never [sic] denied this, although he lived until 1876, and was driven out of fellowship with the Mormons.

Years later a manuscript of Spaulding's was found in the Hawaiian Islands, in the hands of an American printer there. This is now at Oberlin College, and it is claimed by the Mormons to be Spaulding's manuscript. There is no denying the fact that it was written by Spaulding, for it was learned that it was secured from his widow by E. D. Howe, in 1834, who wrote "Mormonism Exposed," but it bears no resemblance to the Book of Mormon. This has been published by the Mormons, and a copy is in the possession of the local historical society. Those who claim that Solomon Spaulding's revised and completed story of "The Manuscript Found" is the basis for the Book of Mormon claim that it disappeared and was probably stolen by the originators of the Book of Mormon. But this has never been proven. At any rate, the original manuscript, if another did exist, has disappeared utterly, although circumstantial evidence is overwhelming that the revised story of Solomon Spaulding is the origin and foundation of the Book of Mormon.


Note 1: The rival newspaper in town, the Washington Observer, published a similar summary of Joseph F. McFarland's lecture in its edition of the same day -- Feb. 7, 1922. The two paper's respective reports are practically identical in their major features.

Note 2: The idea that two prior religions helped give rise to Mormonism was not original with Mr. McFarland. A few years before the Rev. William A. Stanton delivered a similar lecture in Pittsburgh. However, he cited the region's Baptists, rather than the Cumberland Presbterians, as having provided some early influences in the development of Mormonism. Stanton further developed his "three churches" ideas in an article published in the Chicago Standard of July 22, 1899 and in his 1907 book, Three Important Movements: Campbellism, Mormonism, and Spiritualism. Both Rigdon and the Campbells had brief careers as Baptist ministers, of course. The Campbells sprang from Presbyterian roots and functioned in that denomination before associating with the Baptists. As for Rigdon, he is not known to have ever been a member of any Presbyterian congregation -- but, according to an early source, Rigdon once had some ties to the Cumberland Presbyterians. One of Rev. Rigdon's early auditors mentioned that the first time he heard the fiery minister preach, it was in a Cumberland Presbyterian church. Perhaps the young Rigdon merely had a knack for obtaining the chapels of this religious group for his own preaching services, when he was working as a traveling evangelist.

Note 3: Mr. McFarland's reference to George Rapp's Harmonists as having inadvertently supplied the "idea of a Mormon hierarchy" is an intriguing one. It seems quite possible that Rapp's plan for the old Harmony communal colony served as a sort of bluepeint for Rigdon and Smith's planned "City of Zion." Rapp established two different sites for his communal experiments in Pennsylvania, and both were within a day's walk of the northern limits of Washington county. The earlier colony (Harmony) existed when Solomon Spalding first came to the Pittsburgh area, while the later establishment (Economy) was contemporary with Rigdon's brief career as an independent preacher in Pittsburgh between 1823 and 1826. Solomon Spalding arrived in the area in time to become acquainted with all three of the supposed "foundations" of Mormonism -- the Harmonists, the early Campbellites, and the Cumberland Presbyterians. For more on Rigdon's possible ties with the Harmonist movement see the notes attached to the article "The Town of Harmony" in the Nov. 2, 1814 issue of the Pittsburgh Mercury.

New Light Shed On Old Cult
And "Halcyon One" In County
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The report from Waynesburg of a plan to open a supposed grave of a "halcyon individual" on the John Parkinson farm, Morris township, this [Washington] county, brings to light a curious bit of almost forgotten religious history of Washington county of more than a century ago. No doubt the "halcyon undividual" referred to was a member of either the Halcyonites, Rhodanites, [or] the New Light sects that flourished nearly a century ago in old Finley and Morris townships. The grave referred to, if a grave it really is, is probably that of a member of one of the above sects.

The Halyconites were organized about 1807 in Finley township by a man named Sergeant, who, as he maintained, had received a revelation from heaven in which, he declared, an angel had informed him that there was no hell. He preached throughout that section for three years, and had many followers, who were given the name of Halcyonites. The sect came to its death when Sergeant was arrested in Cumberland, Md., for forgery.

One of his followers was an old woman named Rhoda Fordyce, who now assumed the leadership and in addition to the old doctrine that there was no hell, she declared that it was possible for people to live on parched corn, sassafras buds and other vegetables and herbs, for a certain number of days, after which they would be translated bodily to heaven. This sect received the name of Rhodianites after the new leader.

It is reported that a man named Parker attempted to carry out the doctrine, and starved to death in the Fordyce woman's house. According to the old story she kept the body for three days and three nights, after which neighbors, who had missed him, broke into the house and found the body. It may be that his is the grave referred to in the news story from Waynesburg.

The New Light sect, made up of converts of the Halcyonites and Rhodianites, grew very strong in that section of the county after the downfall of Mrs. Fordyce. They believed in immersion as the true mode of baptism. They also believed in the foot-washing ceremony at their communion service. This sect flourished in southwestern Washington County for several years.


Note: Most of the above text was copied from Earle R. Forrest's 1926 book, History of Washington County. For more information on the Rev. Abel Morgan Sargent, Sr., see the "Halycon Inspiration" episode of the on-line Spalding Saga.

WANDERING

with Walter Jack

"Book of Mormon

By William A, White
Press Staff Writer

Amity, Pa. -- Was the famous "Book of Mormon" written under another title by Rev. Solomon Spaulding, who died here in 1816? Innumerable arguments have failed to settle this question.

The story is that a printer in Pittsburgh copied a story written by Rev. Spaulding entitled "The Manuscript Found." And with the guidance of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, it reportedly was revised, called "The Book of Mormon" and published as the translation of inscribed gold plates dug from the earth near [sic] New York City.

Dr. Spaulding, graduate of Dartmouth, came here several years before his death. He was an antiquarian who traveled far to investigate Indian mounds and trace aborigines.

Style Resembled Old Testament

While living near Ashtabula, Ohio, he investigated mounds and found traces of forts there supposedly built by an extinct race and conceived the idea of a fictional sketch of this race. According to his widow, his object in writing it was to amuse himself and entertain his neighbors.

Written in a style resembling that of the Old Testament, he read the story to neighbors as it progressed. The report got abroad that he was writing from his deciphering of hieroglyphics on stone in the strange places he visited. Actually it was a fabulous historical romance stemming from his own imagination which he never intended to publish. An editor was permitted to read it and offered the minister a contract for publication.

Mrs. Spaulding, in a letter published in 1839, said her husband refused to permit its publication, but historians do not agree on this point. It was while the editor had the manuscript Sidney Rigdon, a printer, reportedly got possession of it long enough to copy it.

Book Published in 1830

About 1830 Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church, claiming that he had received his "revelation" seven years before and had been "led" by an "angel" to the burial place of some inscribed golden plates. In 1827 he said the "records" were delivered to him and translated into "The Book of Mormon." The book was published in 1830 at Palmyra, N. Y. and not too long afterward Smith was joined by printer Rigdon in Kirtland, Ohio, where the first Mormon Temple was built.

Persons who heard Rev. Spaulding read chapters of his fiction tale claimed immediately [that] the "Book of Mormon" appeared to be what they had heard from Rev. Spaulding's lips, with some revisions.

According to the Minister's widow the original manuscript was sent to the Ohio town and compared paragraph by paragraph with the text of the "Book of Mormon" and it was identical except for "a few pious expressions and extracts from Sacred Scriptures," which had been inserted. The author was denounced as having "palmed it off on deluded fanatics as divine" and "should be exposed to the contempt and execration he so justly deserved."

Strangely, the Spaulding manuscript disappeared after that and some historians are of the opinion there never was such a manuscript, though they have no explanation for how the story of it became so widespread and so controversial.

Rev. Spaulding's burial place in the Lower Ten Mile Presbyterian Cemetery here is marked by a modern granite stone.


Note: The writer of the above article appears to have merely paraphrased the 1839 statement of Spalding's widow, carrying over from it certain allegations which require careful explanation, if they are to be advanced as part of the Spalding authorship claims (i. e. Rigdon being a printer, Spalding being "an antiquarian who traveled far," etc.). The writer appears to be unaware of the Spalding manuscript discovered in Hawaii and the subsequent attempts by LDS and RLDS leaders to describe that document as Mr. Spalding's only attempt at writing historical fiction. The above article is somewhat unusual in its promotion of the Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship as late as 1952. By that time most writers for the public press had followed the lead of Fawn M. Brodie and had dropped the "Spalding theory" from their telling of Mormon origins.