An undamaged Book of Mormon First Edition sells for anywhere between $70,000 to $90,000 on the collector's market.

Maybe for any of you with a collection, not be so hasty in throwing away your memorabilia ! I threw away my copies of the BoM, but I know they were not that old. :)

Yet another Mormon con artist trying to make a buck off of artifacts from LDS collections he is alleged to have stolen.

Kevin Mark Ronald Schuwer is awaiting trial in Utah on felony charges related to his trafficking in Mormon historical items, some of which authorities say were stolen from libraries and archives at Brigham Young University in Provo and at Utah State University in Logan, some 125 miles away.

Schuwer is alleged to have stolen a signed photo of Orson F. Whitney, a onetime church historian who rose to the governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1906 to 1931. It is alleged that Schuwer sold the Whitney photo twice — the second sale taking place after the initial buyer discovered the image was purloined and that Schuwer wasn’t the rightful owner.

Sgt. Jeff Long of the Brigham Young University Police Department, in an affidavit, said Schuwer has admitted the theft of a photo of Porter Rockwell, one of the first baptized members of the LDS church and a personal bodyguard to founder Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, from the school’s library. Three of six missing rare books were found at Schuwer’s home in Orem, according to the complaint.

Long’s statement also says Schuwer is being investigated by the Utah Highway Patrol after the disappearance of another Porter Rockwell photo from the Daughters of the Pioneers museum in Salt Lake City. Long alleges Schuwer sold this second Rockwell photo for
$11,500 to a collector."

He's in debt to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for past judgments to creditors, which is the likely motive behind the thefts. Schuwer was active LDS at the time of his arrest.

https://religionnews.com/2018/12/12/stolen-mormon-memorabilia-spotlight-lds-devotion-to-church-artifacts/

I wanted to buy one in 1993 for $10,000 but wasn't allowed to by the trustee i had to deal with at the time. See what my investment would have turned into? God she was useless.

I have my great-great grandfather's mormon book collection though. None of it is worth anything, really.

I would still like to get my hands on an original copy though. I would separate it into individual pages and sell them to the flock at a grand a piece. They'll buy it too, there's an individual who did just that - lots of blow back too, which I, personally, would enjoy.

Several of my ancestors were bodyguards to Joseph Smith and close friends of his and family.

I imagine they being among the earliest of the converts would have had access to those first editions.

Albeit by now they've been passed down among the posterity and in the hands of the luckier descendants because I know of no one in my immediate family circle or extended family that has inherited any original texts.

I have so many relatives on the Mormon side that I feel I'm related to a lot more out there than I'll ever begin to fully comprehend.

Speaking of mormon family members.

The book of mormon that my gggrandfather had, and that this apostate now has, was printed in 1888 around the time he was baptized as a kid. The first two people in our family that joined this farkakte cult were brothers. One became my ancestor, the other one became the grandfather of Gordon BS Hinckley (I like to say that because his dad was Bryant S. Hinckley and everybody [neighbors and such] called him BS).

I also have gggranmothers quilt she made herself.

How many, how countless many people would KILL to have these items? I have grandpas entire library of mormon books and I know they're his because he signed them. Graffiti.

That is some pretty cool history there. Add a handmade quilt by a gggrandma is an heirloom treasure to cherish for years to come. :)

I'm expecting some mail today from a local genealogist who is gathering documentation for me on my family tree to become a Daughter of the American Revolution. The ancestors who are my Revolutionary War patriots are the fathers of three early Mormon converts to TSCC.

She called me over the weekend to tell me what to be expecting. (It has taken over three+ years for me to get this far in the process of becoming a member, because of so much red tape in verifying ancestry!) She was reading me history from pages she found on Ancestry.com about one of my pioneer ancestors to Utah who was personal friends of Orson Hyde.

I can't wait to see that when it turns up in my mailbox. She's working on two lines of patriots for me. I don't know what I'd do without her. Even when I was undergoing breast cancer treatment last year I'd given up on becoming a member of DAR because of all the red tape. She doesn't give up however. And then she sent me a huge packet at Christmas to let me know that i'm almost there. It was the bestest Christmas present I could've asked for - and a complete surprise to boot!

When she told me she's a 25 year breast cancer survivor, that was even nicer. :)

Some of the best and most diligent genealogists I've met in my lifetime are not Mormon. Thankfully she doesn't hold it against me that I have a Mormon heritage. If anything she respects the fact that the early Mormon pioneers were persecuted for their beliefs. Much more than anything we've ever had to endure.

I understand that the DAR is a tough one to join.

Back in the day I remember that my mom always WANTED to go to the DUP meetings, but they were held during the week and she was a working mom, so one of the few things she could have enjoyed, she was denied.

Levi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I understand that the DAR is a tough one to join.
>
> Back in the day I remember that my mom always
> WANTED to go to the DUP meetings, but they were
> held during the week and she was a working mom, so
> one of the few things she could have enjoyed, she
> was denied.


My Idaho cousin, now retired English teacher (in her 80's,) joined DUP. She told me you don't need to live in Utah to belong - all that's required is to be a descendant of a Utah pioneer. Same goes for DAR. Once I am admitted I can go anywhere and be a member. I'll likely keep my membership where I joined because I'm loyal that way. Then when I retire and relocate back west I'll be a "member at large." :)

My registrar who is helping with the genealogy sources also belongs to "Children of the American Revolution," which I wasn't aware there was one. She's a renowned genealogist for both groups. Then there's the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of the Utah Pioneers etc.

She told me once you do the paperwork to join it makes it easier for your posterity to join. Because of new more difficult red tape out of Washington DC in receent past however, she told me that last year alone DAR lost more than 4,000 of its members. If it continues making it harder to join then in the future it will dwindle down to nothing and there won't be a DAR left!

According to Wikipedia, it's getting easier and easier to join the DAR. And there is no mention of any growing restrictions, as mentioned to you by your Registrar.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughters_of_the_American_Revolution

Tell that to D.C.

There was racial discrimination in its past. But it has worked hard to overcome that bias. Blacks and other minorities are no longer discriminated to join.

It's the red tape across the board that has gotten harder for anyone to join, according to the local chapter and registrar.

Once you have established the relationship with the ancestral links it makes it easier for descendants of posterity who follow to join because it's already been covered.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2019 01:43PM by Amyjo.

If and when I get to become a member I'll finally feel like it was worth it. It's been a long time coming.

I've been wanting to become a DAR since fourth grade when our history teacher spent a class discussing DAR with her students. I went home wondering about it, years before I learned I was a descendant of patriots who fought in that war.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2019 02:08PM by Amyjo.

The most valuable is the Kirtland edition. Fewer were publishrd AND it contains the Majority of the revisions.

Some time ago an enterprising person was selling a boxed Porter Rockwell set. A REPLICA first edition and a working black powder pistol along with a few other modern replicas of memorabilia.

One person had their set stolen and the news said a first edition Book of Mormon was stolen along with an antique pistol. The poor newscaster had no idea both were modern replicas.

A modern replica, advertised as a replica, of an 1830 book of mormon is currently listed on ebay for $975.00 plus shipping.

Makes me wonder how many fakes are out there, hidden away as family treasures.

That's pretty intriguing.

Among my Jewish book printing ancestors there is a collectible prayer set of books for the high holy days (it's 4-volumes,) that is highly sought after among collectors of Judaica. I was pricing it online some years back when I learned there are knockoffs for those items too. So it's hard unless one is an expert authenticator IMO to know whether one is real or counterfeit.

The set of prayer books is over 200 years old. I figured even if I could afford to buy one, and it was for real, I wouldn't be able to read it anyway lol. It's written in Hebrew and German. :)

I've got some old dishes from England brought to Utah on the Railroad (1890s). And giant sea shells from Long Island. Back in the day before New York was a big city full of immigrants there were all kinds of interesting things on the beach. Somewhere around Elis Island I suppose. I've also got an old book called Life of Sheridan, 1820, that my grandfather stole. And a few other odds and ends.

My great uncles were grave robbers and had quite a collection back in the day when Shoshone roamed the Bear River. I've heard tell that there are still arrow heads to be found out around Snowville.

That could make for an interesting scavenger hunt of sorts to go on! :)

I can’t help but suspect that early Mormon memorabilia/publications/family documents are drawing big price tags because a certain corporate entity with headquarters prominently located in Salt Lake City is buying them up at any price asked and hiding them away from historians who may publish historic facts that may negatively affect the financial assets of said corporation...

I have an old family hand written patriarchal "blessing" that for historical reasons, wanted to donate it to the cult (this was years before I found out it was a total fraud) and a friend of mine said "don't, because you'll never see it again." and I didn't. Now I have no idea where it is.

Wonder who else made off with it?

I've kept my patriarchal blessing I rec'd when I was 12 years old. That's when postage stamps were still a nickel. :)

I still have the envelope it came in.

Don't think I've ever seen a handwritten one though.

yeah, this one is from the Nauvoo days, but I don't know who's it was. I need to get some archival boxes made. This next move, I think I will. Everytime I want to look something up, it's a PITA going through boxes.

I wasn't around and those new ones aren't worth a s***