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to the Personal Info Page for Dale R. Broadhurst Web-Host of SidneyRigdon.com OliverCowdery.com SolomonSpalding.com |
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Please Make Yourself at Home If you've browsed the web, looking for some specialized material on American religious history or obscure fantasy fiction, you may have come across a few of the many web-pages I've created or contributed to. The one you are looking at now is my personal information space -- a place where I can present a few odds and ends about myself in an informal sort of way.My first venture into web-publishing had a very humble beginning. In 1981 I was visiting with the late Vernal Holley, of Roy Utah, and discussing ways of placing our respective Mormon historical research before the public. An early model personal computer was in the room and it occurred to me that we might store our notes, papers, pre-publication texts, etc. as word processor files on the then unfamiliar new machine. A decade later, while living on the island of Saipan, I began to convert a few dozen of those typed files into hyper-text on a couple of networked Macintosh computers. When internet service arrived in that remote part of the Pacific, I already had a hundred such texts prepared, with accompanying graphics -- all of which were easily translated into web-documents. Thus began a little "after work" hobby which has metastasized today into hundreds of web-pages, with contents ranging from investigations of Egyptian goddesses, to illustrations for the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, to early nineteenth century news articles on Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois. These days I am retired and live on the Big Island of Hawaii. Due to hampering disabilities I nowadays do very little research and writing -- unfortunately. The good news is that I still have two file cabinets full of interesting old stuff that I haven't even begun to prepare for web presentation. I only spend an hour or two at the computer each day; so, at the rate I'm now proceeding, I probably have sufficient material on hand to keep my hobby going for another ten years.
More Information About My Web Work I've put together my collection of web-pages with a certain amount of trepidation -- not so much because of the nature of their subject matter, but because I value my privacy and have always had an aversion to calling much attention to myself.Perhaps this reluctant feeling comes from my having grown up as an outsider in the very close-knit society of small-town Idaho during the second half of the 1900's. Though not a member of the locally predominant church myself, I was always interested in the stories those Mormons told of my ancestor, Samuel Thomas Winegar, who joined their ranks near Kirtland, Ohio in 1833. He and his family lived in the mission field frequented by Elder D. Philatus Hurlbut, the Mormon missionary who discovered and first publicized the "Spalding Story." Samuel's brother-in-law, Andrews Tyler (father of Elder Daniel Tyler), was the first member to leave the Mormon Church over the Spalding authorship claims for the origin of the Book of Mormon. Samuel was also a neighbor of Elder Benjamin Winchester, the first Latter Day Saint author to write extensively on those authorship claims. Since they came from the same area where Spalding wrote his tales, and from the same time and place where the Spalding authorship claims first appeared, some members of my family have always held an interest in this historical oddity -- myself included. In 1979 I entered the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and became the second RLDS (Reorganized Latter Day Saint) ever to attend the seminary and the first to graduate from that fine institution with a Masters degree (in 1981). While at "Methesco" I spent a good deal of time at nearby Oberlin College and was able to examine the old Spalding romance manuscript on file in the Oberlin Archives. My initial "Mormon origins" research at Oberlin eventually developed into my Masters' project at Methesco. In lieu of a thesis I wrote a dozen graduate papers on the "Spalding Theory" and I later presented some of my findings in professional papers devoted to the textual similarities between the Oberlin romance and the Book of Mormon, the apostasy of Elder D. Philatus Hurlbut, etc.
Putting my research notes and papers aside, I left the USA in 1983 to serve a non-proselytizing "mission" as an educational volunteer in South Asia & the Pacific. While working in Nepal, I completed the donation process to have my research papers put on file at the Marriott Library in Utah. Following my adventures in the Himalayas I spent a short time with the RLDS Mission in Osaka, Japan -- then moved on with one of the Osaka elders to do educational volunteer work in Taipei, Taiwan. This endeavor expanded into a college level position and eventually extended into educational research and development work in Micronesia. My overseas contributions continued until 1997, when I retired from my duties as an academic researcher on a small Pacific island and moved to Hawaii. I now live with my wife, Elizabeth, in the town of Hilo, a half-hour away from my grandchildren and light years away from the hectic world of 21st century life. Although I'm disabled and no longer gainfully employed, I'm happy that I now have the time and resources to put my old research papers in proper order. I continue to make some of the more interesting bits and pieces of that collection available for viewing on the web. The pace I've set in managing and updating such virtual undertakings as the Spalding Studies Home Page, "Uncle Dale's" Old Mormon News Articles, etc. is decidedly relaxed. Some of may many web-pages will no doubt gather dust, for many months, while I pursue whatever new venture has currently caught my fancy. Much of what I offer on-line are merely preliminary postings -- in time they will evolve, expand, be moved about, and perhaps even disappear. It is my expectation that one day I can turn the whole set of sites over to other hands. Given my current progressive health deterioration, I hope that can happen in the near future -- then I'll just sit back and see what others can develop, without having to write the papers and hack out the html myself. Dale June 24, 1998 -- (updated Sept. 15, 2004) ps: Here's an old photo taken during my research days, as a seminarian in Ohio. -- Some Bio-Data --
-- A Few Links to Interesting Things -- The following links access more web-pages featuring various aspects of my creations, studies, and personal views. Please take the time to browse through the listing provided below -- if you are interested in such things. Many of the more interesting "goodies" at my sites are stashed away in unpublicized sub-directories. Perhaps one day I'll summon up enough vigor to create a few site maps. Until then, if you are looking for some Broadhurstian tidbit not easily located on the web, please contact me for personal assistance. I may not respond immediately, but I'll try to answer all messages sent my way.
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-- Dale's Web-Sites --
Uncle Dale's Old Mormon Articles | SidneyRigdon.Com | OliverCowdery.Com | SolomonSpalding.Com
Smith's History Vault | Mormon Classics | Oliver's Bookshelf | Restoring the Gospel | Dale's Home Page
lst revised: Apr. 29, 2006