Posted by:
randyj
(
)
Date: February 16, 2014 09:52PM
A coupla days ago, I posted some documentation which supports the Spalding-Rigdon theory of the BOM's origin. Below are some very early newspaper reports which go a long way towards learning exactly how the whole thing came about.
Like most people, I never knew much about the Spalding theory. I knew that people like Fawn Brodie and the Tanners rejected it because they believed that Joseph Smith could have produced it on his own. Around 1998, I bought a copy of the 1977 book "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?" It documented a lot of the statements of Ohio associates of the late Solomon Spalding who stated in 1832 that the newly-published BOM was similar to a manuscript of Spalding's which they had knowledge of years before. Reading that book piqued my interest.
Then around 2000, I began reading historical documents on Dale Broadhurst's websites and found several very early newspaper articles that told me a lot more. When reading these articles, keep in mind that the church's apologists have asserted, beginning in the 1830s, that the "Spalding theory" was concocted by an apostate named Philastus Hurlburt. The problem with the apologist's assertions is that Hurlburt did not even leave the church, nor begin investigating Joseph Smith's background or the Spaulding connection, until AFTER these newspaper articles were published. So keep that in mind when reading this info.
I had originally written these remarks to Dale in a post on the alt.religion.mormon newsgroup. So there are comments from me interspersed with the articles.
Dale, that's an impressive collection. A few comments--- Your first article, from the Cincinnati Advertiser of June 2, 1830, is quite revealing:
"A fellow by the name of Joseph Smith, who resides in the upper part of
Susquehanna county, has been, for the last two years we are told, employed in
dedicating as he says, by inspiration, a new bible. He pretended that he had
been entrusted by God with a golden bible which had been always hidden from
the
world. Smith would put his face into a hat in which he had a white stone, and
pretend to read from it, while his coadjutor transcribed."
The article corroborates the "stone in the hat" version of the "translation,"
as opposed to Smith's later story of "two stones in silver bows." Considering
the earliness of the article, June 1830, it is closer to the original method
of
the "translation" as told by Smith's first "scribes"----Emma, Harris, Whitmer,
Joseph Knight, etc.---before Cowdery "happened" upon the scene. That makes
it
more obvious that Smith and Cowdery invented the "two stones in silver bows"
story sometime after June, 1830. Of course, we already know that Cowdery
and/or Phelps invented the "Urim and Thummim" story sometime after
that---meaning that the occultic, yet original "peep-stone" story evolved over
time into the "Urim and Thummim" version, in an attempt to give Smith's
practice
a Biblical stamp, and to shed the image of his 1820s "peep-stoning."
Next, the Cleveland Advertiser of August 31, 1831:
"Rigdon was formerly a disciple of Campbell's and who it is said was sent out
to make proselytes, but is probable he thought he should find it more
advantageous to operate on his own capital, and therefore wrote, as it is
believed the Book of Mormon, and commenced his pilgrimage in the town of
Kirtland, which was represented as one of the extreme points of the Holy
Land."
This assertion that Rigdon may have been the BOM's secret producer is the
earliest I've seen. Needless to say, it also dynamites the oft-repeated
Mormon
fallacy that
"Hurlbut invented the Spalding/Rigdon theory," because Hurlbut did not begin
his investigation until fully two years after this article was published.
Next, from the New York Inquirer of August 31, 1831:
"A few years ago the Smith's and others who were influenced by their notions,
caught an idea that money was hid in several of the hills which give variety
to
the country between the Canandaigua Lake and Palmyra on the Erie Canal. Old
Smith had in his pedling excursions picked up many stories of men getting rich
in New England by digging in certain places and stumbling upon chests of
money.
The fellow excited the imagination of his few auditors, and made them all
anxious to lay hold of the bilk axe and the shovel. As yet no fanatical or
religious character had been assumed by the Smith's. They exhibited the simple
and ordinary desire of getting rich by some short cut if possible. With this
view the Smith's and their associates commenced digging, in the numerous hills
which diversify the face of the country in the town of Manchester. The
sensible
country people paid slight attention to them at first. They knew them to be a
thriftless set, more addicted to exerting their wits than their industry,
readier at inventing stories and tales than attending church or engaging in
any
industrious trade. On the sides & in the slopes of several of these hills,
these excavations are still to be seen. They Would occasionally conceal their
purposes, and at other times reveal them by such snatches as might excite
curiosity. They dug these holes by day, and at night talked and dreamed over
the counties' riches they should enjoy, if they could only hit upon an iron
chest full of dollars. In excavating the grounds, they began by taking up the
green sod in the form of a circle of six feet diameter--then would continue to
dig to the depth of ten, twenty, and sometimes thirty feet."
This August, 1831 documentation of the Smith's money-digging practices is
important for at least two major reasons: One, it corroborates the affidavits
of the 1833 Palmyra and Harmony testators of the Smith's treasure-digging, yet
they were published two years before Hurlbut even went to NY to interview
Smith's neighbors; that again destroys the Mormon apologetic line that
Hurlbut
either invented his testators' stories or coached them.
Secondly, this article fleshes out both the intent and the extent of the
Smiths' money-digging band. Today's Mormon apologists trust Smith's story
that
he only treasure-hunted because Stowell talked him into looking for a "Spanish
silver mine," and that he only did it for about a month, and that Smith
advised
Stowell to
drop it. This article reveals that the Smiths' involvement was extensive,
well-known, and long-lasting, rather than the downplayed "about a month" story
Smith told in 1838. It gives high credibility to the accounts from Willard
Chase & Co. that the Smiths had been peep-stoning and/or treasure-digging
since
at least 1822. The 1831 article could not have come from Hurlbut; the news
had
to have come from people who actually knew the Smiths intimately in the late
1820s.
Of course, we already know all of this from other pre-Hurlbut sources,
including Cole's 1830 "Palmyra Reflector" articles and A. W. Benton's 1831
relating of Smith's 1826 and 1830 peep-stoning trials. The benefit of all
these articles is that they both pre-date, and are independent of Hurlbut, yet
they corroborate Hurlbut's findings; thus, it's disingenuous for Mormons
to
claim that Hurlbut invented it all.
It's one thing for Mormons to try to discredit Hurlbut's findings, or W. D.
Purple's or Emily Pearsall's much-later publications of the 1826 Bainbridge
trial account; it's quite another for Mormons to explain how numerous
articles
published in 1830
and 1831 could corroborate those from Hurlbut, Purple, and Pearsall, if the
latter three were false.
"At last some person who joined them spoke of a person in Ohio near
Painesville, who had a particular felicity in finding out the spots of ground
where money is hid and riches obtained. He related long stories how this
person
had been along shore in the east--how he had much experience in money digging
-- how he dreamt of the very spots where it could be found. "Can we get that
man here?" asked the enthusiastic Smiths. "Why," said the other, "I guess as
how we could by going for him." "How far off?" "I guess some two hundred miles
-- I would go for him myself but I want a little change to bear my expenses."
To work the whole money-digging crew went to get some money to pay the
expenses
of bringing on a man who could dream out the exact and particular spots where
money in iron chests was hid under ground. Old Smith returned to his
gingerbread factory -- young Smith to his financing faculties, and after some
time, by hook or by crook, they contrived to scrape together a little "change"
sufficient to fetch on the money dreamer from Ohio."
This "person from Ohio near Painesville---money dreamer from Ohio"---Who could
that have been?
"After the lapse of some weeks the expedition was completed, and the famous
Ohio man made his appearance among them. This recruit was the most cunning,
intelligent, and odd of the whole. He had been a preacher of almost every
religion -- a teacher of all sorts of morals. -- He was perfectly au fait with
every species of prejudice, folly or fanaticism, which governs the mass of
enthusiasts. In the course of his experience, he had attended all sorts of
camp-meetings, prayer meetings, anxious meetings, and revival meetings. He
knew
every turn of the human mind in relation to these matters. He had a superior
knowledge of human nature, considerable talent, great plausibility, and knew
how to work the passions as exactly as a Cape Cod sailor knows how to work a
whale ship. His name I believe is Henry Rangdon or Ringdon, or some such
word."
Yep, there it is---none other than Sidney Rigdon, of Ohio. Rigdon swore that
he had never met Smith before late 1830; yet, here's a newspaper article from
August 1831 naming him, and installing him into the Smith's circle of
occultists, before Smith
ever published the BOM or founded his church, and two years before Hurlbut
interviewed Smith's neighbors.
"About the time that this person appeared among them, a splendid excavation
was
begun in a long narrow hill, between Manchester and Palmyra. This hill has
since been called by some, the Golden Bible Hill. The road from Canandaigua to
Palmyra, runs along its western base. At the northern extremity the hill is
quite abrupt and narrow. It runs to the south for a half mile and then spreads
out into a piece of broad table land, covered with beautiful orchards and
wheat
fields. On the east, the Canandaigua outlet runs past it on its way to the
beautiful village of Vienna in Phelps. It is profusely covered to the top with
Beech, Maple, Bass, and White-wood -- the northern extremity is quite bare of
trees. In the face of this hill, the money diggers renewed their work with
fresh ardour, Ringdon partly uniting with them in their operations."
And here the article places Rigdon smack-dab in the middle of the diggings on
"Gold Bible Hill", known to Mormons as the "Hill Cumorah."
Now, how and why did this band of occult treasure diggers transform themselves
into a religious enterprise?
"It was during this state of public feeling in which the money diggers of
Ontario county, by the suggestions of the Ex-Preacher from Ohio, thought of
turning their digging concern into a religious plot, and thereby have a better
chance of working upon the credulity and ignorance of the [their] associates
and the neighborhood. Money and a good living might be got in this way. It was
given out that visions had appeared to Joe Smith -- that a set of golden
plates
on which was engraved the "Book of Mormon," enclosed in an iron chest, was
deposited somewhere in the hill I have mentioned. People laughed at the first
intimation of the story, but the Smiths and Rangdon persisted in its truth.
They began also to talk very seriously, to quote scripture, to read the bible,
to be contemplative, and to assume that grave studied character, which so
easily imposes on ignorant and superstitious people. Hints were given out that
young Joe Smith was the chosen one of God to reveal this new mystery to the
world; and Joe from being an idle young fellow, lounging about the villages,
jumped up into a very grave parsonlike man, who felt he had on his shoulders
the salvation of the world, besides a respectable looking sort of a blackcoat.
Old Joe, the ex-preacher, and several others, were the believers of the new
faith, which they admitted was an improvement in christianity, foretold word
for word in the bible. They treated their own invention with the utmost
religious respect. By the special interposition of God, the golden plates, on
which was engraved the Book of Mormon, and other works, had been buried for
ages in the hill by a wandering tribe of the children of Israel, who had found
their way to western New York, before the birth of christianity itself. Joe
Smith is discovered to be the second Messiah who was to reveal this word to
the
world and to reform it anew.
In relation to the finding of the plates and the taking the engraving, a
number
of ridiculous stories are told.--Some unsanctified fellow looked out the other
side of the hill. They had to follow it with humility and found it embedded
beneath a beautiful grove of maples. Smith's wife, who had a little of the
curiosity of her sex, peeped into the large chest in which he kept the
engravings taken from the golden plates, and straightway one half the new
Bible
vanished, and has not been recovered to this day. Such were the effects of the
unbelievers on the sacred treasure.
There is no doubt but the ex-parson from Ohio is the author of the book which
was recently printed and published in Palmyra and passes for the new Bible. It
is full of strange narratives--in the style of the scriptures, and bearing on
its face the marks of some ingenuity, and familiar acquaintance with the
Bible.
It is probable that Joe Smith is well acquainted with the trick, but Harris
the
farmer and the recent converts, are true believers."
Next:
"They were called translaters, but in fact and in truth they are believed to
be
the work of the Ex-Preacher from Ohio, who stood in the background and put
forward Joe to father the new bible and the new faith."
Once again, this article from August of 1831 asserts that Rigdon was the
actual
producer of what became the "Gold Bible."
It predates Hurlbut's investigation by two years, yet tells the same story.
That should effectively end, for intellectually honest people at least, the
Mormon contention that "Hurlbut invented the stories because he was a
'bitter apostate.' " Because of that, it gives even more credence to
Hurlbut's Ohio witnesses who testified of the Spalding/Rigdon connection.
Such published reports certainly sped Joseph Smith's removal from New York to
Ohio; his 1820's occultic activities were simply too well-known for him to
succeed as a "prophet" in his own country. Once he settled in Ohio, he began
downplaying his money-digging and "peep-stoning," and re-invented himself into
a Biblical-style "prophet" that was more conducive to drawing a following on
the frontier. It was during that same period that he penned the first version
of his "first vision," and the evidence indicates that he wrote that to
replace
his occultic past with a religious one, and to counter published reports of
his
1820's activities.