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Chapter 2
The Advent of Mormonism into the Western Reserve
IN 1826 SIDNEY RIGDON received an invitation to preach the funeral sermon of the Reverend Warner Goodall, Baptist minister of Mentor, Ohio, a small community near Cleveland. [[l Amos S. Hayden, "Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio: With Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement" (Cincinnati, 1876), 187. end1]] The congregation was so impressed with Rigdon's eloquence, personality, and reputation that it invited him to become their pastor. [[2 J. M. Kennedy, "Early Days of Mormonism: Palmyra, Kirtland, and Nauvoo (New York, 1888), 66. end2]] He happily accepted the offer because in 1824 the officials of the Redstone Baptist Association had forced him to resign his position as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. However, the Mentor congregation belonged to the more liberal Mahoning Baptist Association in which his friend, Alexander Campbell, and his brother-in-law, Adamson Bentley, were influential ministers.
Rigdon had been a member of the Mahoning Baptist Association from 1820 to 1822; thus he was returning to Baptist Congregations which appreciated both his preaching ability and his support of Campbell's doctrines. The Mahoning Association sheltered Campbell's reformers until it was dissolved in 1830, when most of the members joined the newly-formed Disciples of Christ Church. [[3 Daryl Chase, "Sidney Rigdon - Early Mormon" (MA thesis, University of Chicago, 1931), 19. end3]] At this time, however, Rigdon left the Campbellites and embraced the Mormons, a new sect which had sent missionaries into the Western Reserve. Rigdon's ability and reputation enabled Mormonism to grow rapidly in the areas surrounding Mentor.
In 1826 Sidney Rigdon had added his congregation at Mentor to the churches which followed the teaching of Alexander Campbell. The previous year there had been only three congregations which accepted Campbell's idea of the restoration of the "ancient order of things"; these were in Brush Run, Wellsburg, and Pittsburgh. [[4 Ibid., 22.]] In 1824 Rigdon had established a reformed Baptist church at Pittsburgh with the aid of a young school teacher named Waiter Scott. Rigdon, Campbell, and Scott differed in personality and ability, but were united in their desire to restore Christ's New Testament church in the nineteenth century.
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Campbell was tall, well-built, and athletic, but his features were irregular and his nose slanted to the right. Scott was of medium height with a dark complexion, deep dark eyes, and a fine-featured face with a slim nose. [[5 Waiter Wilson Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ with Special Reference to the Period Between 1809 and 1835" (Urbana, 1918). end5]]
Campbell's general disposition was lively and cheerful, while Scott was meditative with a touch of melancholy [[6 Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 101-102.]] Rigdon "was always either in the bottom of the cellar or up in the garret window", [[7 "Journal History," September 8, 1844.]] he was usually ecstatically enthusiastic about something or totally depressed with the situation in which he found himself. Campbell was fearless, firm, and self-reliant, while Scott was timid and yielding. Rigdon, once he chose a certain course of action, stood behind his convictions at all costs [[8 Chase, "Sidney Rigdon," 15.]] Campbell was calm, persevering, and prudent, while both Rigdon and Scott were excitable and impetuous. Campbell was usually logical but often a dull public speaker, while Scott's sermons were erratic in quality. The ability to persuade an audience to accept his point of view was Rigdon's greatest talent; all his associates, including Campbell, recognized his influence as an orator [[9 David E. Harrell, Jr., Quest for a Christian America: A Social History of the Disciples of Christ (Nashville, 1966), 82.]] Campbell was a successful man of practical affairs; he had been a farmer, a business man, and an editor who was also a skillful organizer and executive. [[10 Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 102. end10]] Both Rigdon and Scott were somewhat deficient in executive power and lacked business organizing ability. [[11 Rigdon's economic activities in Kirtland in 1837, Nauvoo in 1842, and Pennsylvania in 1846 all ended in failure.]] Campbell was predominantly a teacher in his approach to his followers, but Scott was an evangelist and at times a magnetic orator. [[12 Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 102. end12] Rigdon combined the best qualities of both evangelist and teacher with a dramatic flair which made him one of the most effective speakers on the frontier [[13 "Missouri Intelligencer and the Boon 's Lick Advertiser," April 13, 1833.]]
Rigdon's reputation as a reform Baptist preacher spread throughout the Western Reserve as a result of the revival meetings he held in Mentor and neighboring communities. In 1827 he held a series of preaching services at New Lisbon and Mantua, Ohio, at which he declared the gospel of the restoration [[14 "History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" (4 vols., Independence, 1951), I, 150. end14]] He was so successful in March, 1828, that Amos S. Hayden, the Campbellite historian who was an associate of Rigdon, described his efforts as "the great religious awakening in Mentor." [[15 Hayden, "Early History of the Disciples," 204.]] In the following year Rigdon held revivals in Kirtland, Ferry, and Pleasant Hill, as well as another at Mentor. [[l6 "History of the Reorganized Church," I, 150-151. end16]]
By 1830 Sidney Rigdon had developed a personal theology which, although similar to the teachings of Alexander Campbell in many respects, rejected some of his ideas. Rigdon agreed with Campbell in the rejection of religious creeds, although for a different reason. According to Campbell, a creed was an "ecclesiastical document dictated by a
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synod or council as a term of communion, by which persons or opinions are to be tested, approbated or reprobated." [[l7 "Campbell-Rice Debates" (Lexington, 1844), 762.]] Campbell objected to creeds because he thought they caused schism and unnecessary contention among church members. [[l8 Ibid., 383-384. Campbell had rejected the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians for this reason. end18]] Rigdon rejected creeds because he considered them unscriptural. Both Rigdon and Campbell accepted baptism by immersion as the Biblical form by which Christ was baptized and which all men should follow. Rigdon disagreed" with Campbell over whether the so-called "manifestations of Spiritual Gifts" and miracles had a place in the restoration. The gifts of the spirit were the speaking and interpretation of foreign tongues, prophecy, visions, spiritual dreams, and the discernment of evil spirits. [[l9 First Corinthians 12a.]] Campbell declared that the miraculous work of the Holy Ghost was "confined to the apostolic age, and to only a portion of the saints who lived in that age." [[20 Alexander Campbell is quoted in Joseph W. White, "The Influence of Sidney Rigdon Upon the Theology of Mormonism" (MA thesis, University of Southern California, 1947), 127. end20]] Rigdon, however, sought "to convince influential persons that, along with the primitive gospel, supernatural gifts and miracles ought to be restored." [[21 Alexander Campbell, "Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Embracing a view of the Origin, Progress, and Principles of the Religious Reformation Which He Advocated," Robert Richardson, ed. (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1868), II, 346. end21]] Rigdon wanted to incorporate into Campbell's restoration every belief or practice which was a part of the New Testament church.
Rigdon differed from Campbell on the issue of a communal society and the doctrine of the millennium. The former wanted to establish a community in which all property was held in common, as he believed was the practice of the early Jerusalem church: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." [[22 Acts of the Apostles, 2:44-45.]] Campbell wanted no economic experiments which involved communal life within his religious sect. Despite the name "Millennial Harbinger" for the Disciples' periodical, Campbell claimed that he was not committed to any of the theories of his day on the nature and coming of the millennium [[23 White, "The Influence of Sidney Rigdon," 129. end23]] However, the millennium, which included the second-coming of Christ, the destruction of the world by fire, eternal judgment, and the thousand-year reign of the righteous with Christ on earth, became Rigdon's most fundamental belief. He seized upon the doctrine and heralded it everywhere. [[24 Hayden, "Early History of the Disciples," 186.]]
Rigdon's and Campbell's differences in theology caused friction between them which grew steadily more abrasive until a complete break occurred in 1830. At the annual ministers' meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Rigdon "introduced an argument to show that our pretensions to follow the apostles in all their New Testament teachings, required a community of goods; that as they established their order in the model church at Jerusalem, we were bound to imitate their
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example." [[25 Ibid., 298-299.]] Because of Rigdon's prestige and his persuasive ability, Campbell, who dominated the Association, was most concerned with the effect such a message might have among his followers. He opposed Rigdon's community system because he believed it would result in ruin and confusion when practiced by large multitudes of converts. [[26. Ibid., 298.]] He believed individuals would join such an experiment to avoid the responsibilities of making their own living.
When Rigdon would not change his mind and rescind his proposal, "there occurred at this meeting a passage at arms between Mr. Campbell and Mr. Rigdon." Campbell, who had often stated that his restoration represented the New Testament church, was forced to argue that Rigdon's proposal did not represent the practices of the primitive church at Jerusalem. He declared that the apostasy of Ananias and Sappria, who were struck dead for lying to the apostles, put an end to the common economic system of the Jerusalem church. He also claimed that "sundry passages in Corinthians and elsewhere, calling for contributions for benevolent object shows that no such system prevailed in the primitive churches." [[27. Ibid., 299.]]
Campbell's strength in the Mahoning Baptist Association lay not in the arguments he gave but in the fact that he commanded the support of the members. Campbell regarded Rigdon's proposal for an experimental economic community as a clear challenge to his leadership in the reform movement, and he crushed it with a bitter, scathing attack on Rigdon. [[28 Harrell, "Quest for a Christian America," 82. end28]] The latter left the Association meeting "chafed and chagrined, and never met with the Disciples in a general meeting afterward." [[29 Hayden, "Early History of the Disciples," 299.]] On his way home he commented in disgust, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor." [[30 Ibid., 299.]] Disciples of Christ historians have credited Scott with Rigdon's accomplishments in the early reformation and have generally omitted Rigdon from their history. [[31. See for example, Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 101-102. Harrell, "Quest for a Christian America," mentions Rigdon briefly three times within a negative context: 36, 82-83. Hayden, "Early History of the Disciples," has a negative treatment of Rigdon. However, Hayden gives Rigdon credit for playing an important part in the early reformation: see for example pages 35, 56, 47, 92, 191, 196, 204, 238-240, 298-299, 192. end31]] Some of Rigdon's former friends in the Mahoning Association became his bitter enemies. Adamson Bentley frequently denounced him in public and succeeded in influencing Mrs. Rigdon's father to exclude her from a share in the family estate. [[32 "Messenger and Advocate," June, 1836.]]
After the autumn of 1830 Campbell became an aggressive persecutor of Rigdon and his religious beliefs [[33 Max H. Parkin, "The Nature and Cause of Internal and External Conflict of the Mormons in Ohio Between 1830 and 1838" (MB thesis, Brigham Young University, 1966), see 226-248 passim, entitled "The Campbellite Persecution." end33]] The latter retaliated by detaching from Campbell's movement all the members he could take with him. The first large group to leave Campbell was Rigdon's congregation at Mentor, Ohio. A portion of this church had accepted Rigdon's ideas for a common stock community, but other members of
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the congregation did not join because they did not wish to risk their businesses and farms. The two leaders who implemented Rigdon's concept of the New Testament economic community were Isaac Morley and Lyman Wight. Morley was a farmer who lived at Kirtland, Ohio, about two miles from Mentor on the east branch of the Chagrin River in Geauga County. Morley, who accepted the idea of a literal restoration of the primitive Christian church, and who had seen the Shaker communities in the Western Reserve, offered his farm to support Rigdon's proposed community. Lyman Wight was a dynamic gospel preacher whom Rigdon had converted in 1829 [[34 "History of the Reorganized Church," I, 151-152.]] a rugged and fearless man who was as willing to smite the wicked as to proclaim the gospel. Morley possessed a more fatherly and kindly personality. [[35 James H. Hunt, "A History of the Mormon War: With a Prefix, Embracing the Rise, Progress, and Peculiar Tenets of Mormon Doctrine with an Examination of the Book of Mormon also, the Trial of the Prophet Joe Smith, and his Brethren for High Treason, Murder, &c., with the Motions of the Counsel and Decisions of the Court in Each Case: Together with an Account of the Attempted Assassination of Ex-Governor Boggs" (St. Louis, 1844), 184-185. end35]]
In February, 1830, Rigdon persuaded Lyman Wight to move in with Morley on his farm; they established a covenant with each other denouncing private property and declaring that all of their goods would be shared in common. By October, 1830, the Morley "family," as the experiment was called, numbered more than 100 individuals [[36 "History of Geauga and Lake Counties" (Philadelphia, 1878), 46. end36]] Wight had converted five families at Mayfield about seven miles up the Chagrin River; each of these families owned good farms and mills, so a second community was established at Mayfield [[37 Lyman Wight, "Personal Sketch of Lyman Wight," enclosed with a letter written to Wilford Woodruff, dated at Mountain Valley, Texas, August 24, 1854, located in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's office in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was cited in Parkin, "The Nature and Cause of Internal and External Conflict of the Mormons in Ohio," 36. end37]] Wight was the pastor of the Mayfield Community and Morley led the "family" at Kirtland. Both groups took spiritual direction from Rigdon. Although he never became a member of either community group, Rigdon visited them frequently and was concerned with their economic and spiritual welfare. The reason he never joined Morley's "family" has not been recorded, but possibly it was to keep harmony among the portion of his Mentor congregation which was not committed to the communal goal.
In the fall of 1830 Rigdon was faced with the important question of whether his congregation should become affiliated with a religious denomination or remain independent, and he spent many sleepless nights over the problem of God's will for his congregation. [[38 Fredric G. Mather, "The Early Days of Mormonism," Lippincotts Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, XXVI (August, 1880), 206-207. end38]] At this time Rigdon was visited by four young men -- Parley Parker Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Peterson -- who represented a newly-formed religious sect, commonly called Mormons after their belief in the Book of Mormon. Pratt was a close friend of Sidney Rigdon; in 1829, while preaching about thirty miles west of Cleveland, Rigdon had converted Pratt, who was a solidly-built young man of tremendous energy. Pratt soon became a missionary for the reformed Baptists, and while preaching his way through western New York, came
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in contact with the Mormons. The Book of Mormon contained answers for many of the problems which had plagued him. [[39 Parley P. Pratt, "The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts in Prose and Verse from his Miscellaneous Writings" (New York, 1876), 32. Pratt believed that in Campbell's teachings, "Still one great link was wanting to complete the chain of the ancient order of things; that was, the authority to minister in holy things -- the apostleship, the power which would accompany the form." When Pratt discovered that the Book of Mormon commissioned men to preach, baptize, and ordain to the ministry, he claimed that he had found the religious authority which was absent in his former religion. end39]] With the zeal of a convert who believed he had just found Christ's true gospel, Pratt came to Mentor to share the good news with Sidney Rigdon.
Pratt persuaded his companions to travel an extra two hundred miles on their way to Independence, Missouri, in order to visit Rigdon. Their sect's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., who called himself a prophet, had sent these missionaries to Independence, which was the edge of western settlement of the United States, to take the gospel of the Book of Mormon to the Indians [[40 The first great mission of the Mormon church was Joseph Smith's solution to a serious internal problem in his sect. Hiram Page found a "peep-stone" through which he also gave revelations and Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer believed him. Page, who had been previously just another convert to Mormonism, faced Smith with the problem of having another so-called Prophet within his infant religious movement. This mission to the borders of civilization to convert the Indians dwarfed the significance of the Page controversy; all differences in opinion were soon dropped in Smith's favor over the excitement of converting the heathen descendants of the Book of Mormon. The missionaries failed in their purpose to baptize the Indians because of resistance on the part of Protestant ministers who regarded themselves as protectors of the Indians' souls, but their mission was an unexpected success in Ohio. end40]] The Mormons called the Indians Lamanites and claimed that the Book of Mormon contained the history of God's dealing with the forefathers of the Indians on the American continent before the voyages of Columbus. Pratt and his companions brought to Rigdon and his congregation the claims of a latter-day prophet, a new religion, and a new scripture. "They professed to be special messengers of the Living God, sent to preach the Gospel in its purity, as it was anciently preached by the Apostles." [[41 John Corrill, "Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (Commonly Called Mormons) Including an Account of their Doctrine and the Discipline with the Reasons of the Author for Leaving the Church" (St. Louis, 1839), 7. end41]] This claim greatly excited Rigdon, as he had constantly tried and failed to establish the "ancient order of things" in Alexander Campbell's religious movement. However, Rigdon was very skeptical of Mormonism because "they had with them a new revelation, which they said had been translated from certain gold plates that had been deposited in a hill." [[42 Ibid., 7.]] Pratt offered to debate the matter, but Rigdon refused; he preferred to learn about the young man who claimed to be a prophet and to read the Book of Mormon. He believed that if this religious body really contained the New Testament gospel in its purity, he would know it through inspiration.
When Rigdon first heard of Joseph Smith, the latter was twenty- four years old and had established his own religious organization on April 6, 1830, at Fayette, Seneca County, western New York. Smith claimed to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator [[43 Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, 1835), sec. 46:1. end43]] who had been chosen by God to restore His gospel in its fullness. He was tall and well built, about six feet two inches in height and weighed around 205 pounds. He was strong and athletic, with a light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and very little beard. The Prophet was a handsome man whose facial features were slightly marred only by a long nose. Pratt described the effect of Smith's gaze upon his followers: "There was something connected with the serene and steady penetrating glance of his eye, as if he would penetrate the deepest abyss of the human heart, gaze into eternity, penetrate the heavens and comprehend all worlds." [[44 Pratt, Autobiography, 47.]]
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Joseph Smith had personal qualities which persuaded his followers to give him an allegiance greater than loyalty to family, community, or their country's government. The faithful Mormons followed Smith through severe persecution, economic privation, incarceration, and constant threat of death; they remained steadfast even in the face of his personal rebukes. Pratt declared that Smith possessed "a noble boldness and independence of character; his manner was easy and familiar; his rebuke terrible as a lion; his benevolence unbounded as the ocean." [[45 Ibid., 47.]] Smith was not an educated man; Nancy Towle, a free-lance evangelist who visited him in 1831, described him as "a good-natured, low-bred, sort of chap." [[46 Nancy Towle, "Vicissitudes Illustrated" (Charleston, 1832), 145.]] Yet Smith was a complex man who accomplished several outstanding secular as well as religious achievements during the thirty-nine years of his life. Pratt declared that "his intelligence [was] universal, and his language abounding in original eloquence peculiar to himself -- not polished -- not studied -- not smoothed and softened by education and refined by art." [[47 Pratt, Autobiography, 47.]]
Born in Vermont in 1805, at the age of ten Joseph Smith moved with his family to Palmyra in western New York. The family had suffered economic reverses in Vermont, where each of the business ventures of Joseph Smith, Sr. left the family poorer than before. However, the Smiths could not be considered uncommon in the westering horde who wanted to improve their lot by moving to new land bordering the Erie Canal [[48 Whitney R, Cross, "The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850" (New York, 1950), 140. end48]] The thing which set Joseph Smith, Jr. apart from other farm boys in western New York was his claim to unusual religious experiences. His family attended a community revival in 1820 in which the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists participated. His mother Lucy, his brothers Hyrum and Samuel, and his sister Sophronia had joined the Presbyterians. Joseph was "partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them." [[49 Times and Seasons, March 15, 1842.]] But he became confused as to what church to join when the ministers who had participated in the revival quarreled over which sect should have what group of converts.
Pratt told Rigdon how Joseph Smith had sought the answer to his problem of what church he should join through scripture and prayer. Smith had written of his experience:
"While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties, caused by the contest of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads, 'if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth unto all men
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liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.' Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine." [[50 Ibid., March 15, 1842.]]
Smith took this scripture literally and went behind his father's house to a grove of trees to pray. He came back with the solution, which was to join none of the churches. This farm boy claimed he had a vision in which he came face to face with God and Christ, and they told him that he was going to be instrumental in restoring Christ's true church to the earth. Smith claimed that after he knelt to pray, a pillar of light descended upon him. "I saw two personages (whose brightness and glory defy all description) stand above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other),'This is my beloved Son, hear him'." [[51 Ibid., April 1, 1842. One of the major historiographical questions in Mormon history today concerns Smith's conflicting interpretations concerning the first vision. See BYU Studies (Spring, 1969), passim, and Marvin S. Hill, "The Role of Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom 1830-1844" (PhD. dissertation. University of Chicago, 196 8), 52. end51]] When Smith told his experience to his local Methodist minister, the latter informed him that he had had a vision from the Devil, but Joseph's family accepted the experience he related as being from God.
Smith's second religious experience concerned the Book of Mormon, a copy of which Pratt had given Rigdon to read. On September 21, 1823, Smith claimed he was visited by a heavenly messenger at his bedside; this angel supposedly revealed to him the existence of a long-hidden record of an ancient people who inhabited the North American continent before the discoveries of the Spaniards. This record was allegedly transcribed on a set of golden plates in a strange foreign language; "he (the angel) also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior (Jesus Christ) to the ancient inhabitants." [[52 Ibid., April 15, 1842.]] These plates were translated by what Smith termed inspiration; he sat behind a screen and translated while a scribe wrote down what he said. Oliver Cowdery, one of the missionaries to the Lamanites, had served as one of Smith's scribes. [[53 Stanley R. Gunn, "Oliver Cowdery: Second Elder and Scribe" (Salt Lake City, 1962), 35. end53]] Besides being translator of the Book of Mormon, Smith was an organizer as well as a dreamer, who would before his death create a major American religious movement, plan a series of community systems, speculate in economics on a vast scale, influence the politics of the states of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and would be the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, one of the largest cities in the West.
Both Smith and Rigdon were popular speakers. Rigdon was the more polished, more logical, and more effective of the two; Smith recognized this, and for a decade Rigdon was the Prophet's spokesman.
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However, Smith was unique in that his people believed that he was God's latter-day Prophet. Joseph Smith became a direct link between God and the lives of the Mormon people. Pratt wrote, "I have even known him to retain a congregation of willing and anxious listeners for many hours together, in midst of cold or sunshine, rain or wind, while they were laughing at one moment and weeping the next." [[54 Pratt, "Autobiography," 32.]] However, everywhere the Mormons established their communities or sent their missionaries, there were groups of men who hated Joseph Smith and his Mormons. Some, like the Campbellites for instance, hated Smith for the Book of Mormon and for the religion it represented. Others, such as the residents of Carthage and Warsaw, Illinois, hated and feared the Mormons because of their numbers and success in economics or politics. Smith' was the focal point of this hatred, which became so violent that he was beaten, incarcerated, and finally murdered. Many of his followers, including Rigdon, shared the animosity and wrath of the anti-Mormons.
The Book of Mormon was published in March, 1830; it contained fifteen individual books supposedly written by early-American prophets. The historical narrative can be condensed into a few paragraphs, and since its publication Mormons have considered it scripture. It has been quoted at marriages and funerals and has been the text for numerous sermons. In short, the Book of Mormon has been used among its believers in a fashion similar to the Bible. Sidney Rigdon spent a fortnight of steady reading to complete the book. He read it as scripture, pondering every passage.
Rigdon read in the Book of Mormon about the religious adventures of a Jewish patriarch named Lehi who, with his wife Sarah and their four sons -- Laman, Lemuel, Nephi, and Sam -- lived in Jerusalem [[during]] the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah about 600 years before Christ. [[55 Book of Mormon (Palmyra, 1830), 5-6.]] Lehi became aware of the future destruction of Jerusalem through a vision and fled with his family into the wilderness. However, he forgot to bring with him the records of his family and of the Jews; but Nephi, the most righteous of the family, succeeded in getting a set of brass plates on which the history of the Jews had been recorded from the time of creation until the reign of Zedekiah. This record gave the refugees their history and the mosaic law. Nephi also persuaded a Jew named Ishmael to accompany him, and Lehi's sons married Ishmael's daughters. These pilgrims traveled in the wilderness for eight years until they came to what they designated as the Great Sea. Nephi constructed a ship by divine revelation, and after many hardships they
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arrived safely in the "Land of Promise." After Lehi's death Laman and Lemuel, the oldest sons, rebelled against Nephi and Sam, and their descendants formed two nations -- the Nephites and the Lamanites [[56 Ibid., 72.]]
According to the Book of Mormon, God cursed the Lamanites with a dark skin because of their wickedness; they were generally a savage, ignorant, nomadic people who dwelt in sin. The Nephites remained fair-skinned, highly civilized, and usually more righteous than their enemies. The history of the Nephites was preserved by prophets, who handed down their sacred task of recording God's dealings with their people. The Nephites also found the records of two groups of people -- the Jaredites and the Mulekites -- who had landed on the American continent earlier than Lehi and his people. [[57 Ibid., 538-573. The people called Jaredites had their own records, which were placed in the Book of Mormon under the title of the book of Ether. end57]] The history of the Nephites and the other peoples on the continent was one of wars and strife. Generally the Nephites won the conflicts, but, according to the story, whenever they waxed strong in iniquity God allowed the Lamanites to chasten them.
The Book of Mormon claimed that Christ visited the Nephites after his crucifixion. The Savior commissioned twelve disciples to baptize in his name; He healed the sick, blessed little children, and delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The inhabitants of America, both Lamanites and Nephites, lived in peace and prosperity for two hundred years after Christ established His church there. However, the Nephites became proud and stiff-necked; thus, they were exterminated by the Lamanites. Among the last generation of Nephites were two prophet-generals, Mormon and his son Moroni. Mormon abridged the records of his people on a set of golden plates. [[58 Ibid., 518.]] Moroni made the last entry into the book which bore his father's name and buried them in a hill before he was killed.
Although Rigdon was always fascinated with history, his main concern was to search for evidence which would substantiate Pratt's claim that the Book of Mormon contained the fullness of the New Testament gospel [[59 Corrill, "Brief History of the Church," 7.]] for which he had been searching since 1821. Rigdon judged the Book of Mormon the same way he evaluated all material which purported to contain religious truth -- that is, by comparing it with the Bible.
Joseph Smith claimed that the angel (called Moroni) who had appeared to him in 1823 had given him the location of the golden plates. This record was supposedly buried in a hill called Cumorah near Smith's home in Palmyra, New York. Oliver Cowdery declared to
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Rigdon that he had been one of three witnesses to whom an angel had shown the golden plates [[60 The three men who were called the "three witnesses" were Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Cowdery was a school-teacher and scribe to Smith. David Whitmer's family sheltered Smith while he was translating the golden plates, and David served as a scribe. Martin Harris supplied the necessary funds to support the Smith family and publish the Book of Mormon. All three men were excommunicated from the Mormon church, but they remained faithful on their deathbeds to the following testimony: "Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety, that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shewn unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes, nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen." Book of Mormon (Independence, 1955), preface. end60]] Rigdon knew that the Bible said angels had appeared to such Old Testament prophets as Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Daniel; angels had also appeared to the New Testament disciples Phillip, Paul and Cornelius. Thus, if God were going to restore His gospel, it would be reasonable that an angel should assist Him.
To Rigdon, the doctrine which he found in the Book of Mormon compared favorably with that in the Bible. The book of Moroni asked the question which had plagued Rigdon while a disciple of Campbell: whether miracles ceased because Christ had ascended into heaven. The Book of Mormon declared, "Nay, neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." [[61 Ibid., (Palmyra, 1830), 570.]] The Book of Mormon also contained the idea that one must be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins. "And whoso believeth in me and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God, and Whoso believeth not in me and is not baptized, shall be damned." The Nephites were instructed concerning the form of Baptism that "behold, ye shall go down and stand in the water ...and then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water." [[62 Ibid., 478.]] The book of Moroni mentioned the gifts of the spirit, which were wisdom, knowledge, healings, miracles, prophecy, speaking and interpretation of tongues, and the discernment of spirits. [[63 Ibid., 586.]] Rigdon had been unhappy because these things were not present among the followers of Campbell. Rigdon believed in the literal return of the Jews to their homeland, and the second book of Nephi prophesied, "And it shall come to pass that my people, which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possession." [[64 John Jaques, "Life and Labors of Sidney Rigdon," Improvement Era, III (1899-1900), III (1899-1900), 100. See also Book of Mormon. end64]] The Book of Mormon also bore witness that Jesus was the Christ, and that he established a church in the new world with twelve disciples who were to carry on the work of the gospel when Christ ascended into heaven. [[65 Ibid., 479.]]
When Rigdon finished reading the Book of Mormon, he claimed that Mormonism was truly the apostolic church divinely restored to the earth. Rigdon told his wife of his conviction about the new religion and asked if she would follow him in accepting it. Realizing that this religious change might bring economic reverses as had his removal from the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh in 1824, he asked his wife, "My dear, you have followed me once into poverty, are you willing to do the same again?" There was no indication at this time that Mormonism would be acceptable to his congregation, and they were in the act of building Rigdon a new house. Phebe Rigdon replied, "I have weighed
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the matter, I have contemplated on the circumstances in which we may be placed, I have counted the cost, and I am perfectly satisfied to follow you; it is my desire to do the will of God, come life or come death." [[66 Jaques, "Life and Labors of Sidney Rigdon," 101.]]
Sheriff John Barr, a non-Mormon, of Cuyahoga County, was present when Rigdon informed his congregation of his decision to embrace Mormonism. Rigdon told the church that "he had not been satisfied in his religious yearnings until now." Previously, "at night he had often been unable to sleep, walking and praying for more light and comfort in religion." While in the midst of this soul-searching, "he heard of the revelation of Joe Smith . . . under this his soul suddenly found peace." The Mormon message "filled all his aspirations." According to Barr the audience was very much affected by Rigdon's testimony that he had found religious truth. [[67 Mather, "The Early Days of Mormonism," 206-207.]]
The congregation at Mentor, as well as the common stock community, once again followed Rigdon's leadership, this time embracing Mormonism. Although some members of traditional religious denominations bitterly opposed the principles which the Mormons taught, the missionaries had an opportunity to preach their new gospel in the towns of Medina, Kirtland, Painesville, and Mayfield, where Rigdon's reputation was known. [[68 Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 295. end68]] Pratt, who was spreading the word of Rigdon's conversion to the Book of Mormon, declared that "the interest and excitement now became general in Kirtland, and in all the region round about." Pratt and his companions were so busily engaged in preaching Mormonism that "the people thronged to us night and day, insomuch that we had no time for rest and retirement." Mormon missionary activity in the Western Reserve was such a great success that "in two or three weeks from our arrival in the neighborhood with the news, we had baptized one hundred and twenty-seven souls, and this number soon increased to one thousand." [[69 Pratt, "Autobiography," 65-66.]]
Rigdon's conversion and the missionary aftermath which followed transformed Mormonism from a sect of about a hundred members to one which was a major threat to Protestantism in the Western Reserve. "One thing has been done by the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It has puked the Campbellites effectually; no emetic could have done half as well." [[70 William Lynn, "The Story of the Mormons" (New York, 1902), 62.]] Many important Mormon missionaries were formerly Disciples of Christ; among these were Orson Hyde, Parley Pratt, Orson Pratt, Lyman Wight, Edward Partridge, Fredric G. Williams. Thomas Campbell, the father of the founder of the Disciples, spent the winter of 1830-31 in Mentor, Ohio, and vicinity, in combat against
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Mormonism. [[71 Jennings, "Origin and Early History of the Disciples," 295.]] The Mormons were more than willing to baptize members of any minister's congregation. They encountered vigorous opposition from the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, as well as the Campbellites. [[72 In 1831 the Mormons of the Western Reserve sent a religious colony of their members to Jackson County, Missouri, where in 1833 mobs led by Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian ministers drove them from the community of Independence. History of the Reorganized Church, I, 352. end72]]
In 1834 the enemies of Mormonism in the Western Reserve circulated a rumor that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from the manuscript of a romantic novel called "Manuscript Found," written by the Reverend Solomon Spaulding. The anti-Mormons claimed that Sidney Rigdon gave this manuscript to Joseph Smith, making Rigdon the true founder of Mormonism. This lie has been an important part of anti-Mormon propaganda for over a century. The perpetrators of the so-called "Spaulding theory" were Doctor Philastus Hurlbut and Eber D. Howe, the anti-Mormon editor of the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph (Painesville was a small town near Kirtland). Howe hated the Mormons because his wife had joined their church, and he had been having a feud in the Telegraph with the Mormon leaders, including Rigdon, since 1831. [[73 Chase, "Sidney Rigdon," 38.]] Hurlbut was excommunicated and became so enraged that he publicly threatened the life of Joseph Smith. After Hurlbut was convicted of disturbing the peace, the judge admonished him that "he be of good behavior to all of the citizens of the state of Ohio, and to the said Joseph Smith, Jr., in particular." [[74 Ibid., 39.]]
In 1833 some of Spaulding's friends in Hurlbut's home town of Conneaut in northeast Ohio read the Book of Mormon and claimed that it was really Solomon Spaulding's manuscript. Spaulding, who lived from 1761 to 1816, was a failure all his life. He became a Christian minister who lost his faith, a merchant whose trade failed, an industrialist whose iron foundry went bankrupt, and an author whose works were rejected for publication. He wrote a romantic novel called "Manuscript Found," which purported to be a record of the original inhabitants of America, their habits and customs, their migration from the Mediterranean, and their numerous wars. In Mormonism Unvailed (sic) Howe produced the testimony of eight witnesses who had known Spaulding and swore that the Book of Mormon was a fraud. John Spaulding, a brother of the author, claimed,
"The book was entitled The Manuscript Found, of which he read to me many passages. It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the lost tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived in
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America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions and separated into distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain." [[75 Eber D. Howe, "Mormonism Unveiled or a Faithful Account of that Singular Imposition and DELUSION from its Rise to the Present Time with Sketches of the Characters of its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible was Brought Before the World to Which Are Added Inquiries into the Probability that the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spaulding More Than Twenty Years Ago, and By Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance" (Painesville, 1834), 277-179. end75]]
John Spaulding claimed, "I have recently read the Book of Mormon, and to my great surprise, I find nearly the same historical matter, names, etc., as they were in my brother's writing." He testified that "to the best of my recollections and belief, it is the same as my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the religious matter." Howe's seven other witnesses gave similar testimony that "Manuscript Found" was the basis of the Book of Mormon. [[76 Ibid., 279-180.]] Howe accused Smith and Pratt as conspirators in fraud, and stated "that Rigdon has been the Iago, the prime mover, of the whole conspiracy." [[77 Ibid., 100.]]
Hurlbut and Howe contacted Mrs. Matilda Davison, Spaulding's widow, and obtained the "Manuscript Found," which they discovered, to their disappointment, had no relationship to the Book of Mormon. However, Howe continued to propagate the "Spaulding theory," and the "Manuscript Found" disappeared, not to be rediscovered until 1885 in Hawaii. [[78 Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" was discovered in a trunk in Hawaii among the papers of Lewis L. Rice, an anti-slavery editor and the state printer of Ohio, and it was given to Oberlin College. "Mr. Rice probably came into possession of the manuscript in 1839, when he succeeded Mr. Howe in the Printing Office at Painesville." Saints' Herald, August 21, 1918. end78]] After 1834 the "Spaulding theory" became a tenet of anti-Mormonism, and as Mormonism became stronger, Rigdon's participation in the affair grew. The Boston Recorder of November 25, [sic] 1839 printed an article under the signature of Mrs. Matilda Davison claiming that "Sidney Rigdon was connected in the printing office of Mr. Patterson," who was the Pittsburgh printer to whom Spaulding supposedly had submitted a copy of his manuscript. According to the article, Rigdon took the manuscript from the printer's office. [[79 Times and Seasons, January, 1840.]] Rigdon wrote a denial which was published in the "Boston Journal." [sic]
"It is only necessary to say, in relation to the whole story about Spaulding's writings being in the hands of Mr. Patterson, who was at Pittsburgh, and who is said to have kept a printing office, etc., etc., is the most base of lies, without even the shadow of truth... If I were to say that I ever heard of the Reverend Solomon Spaulding and his hopeful wife until D. P. Hurlbut wrote his lie about me, I should be a liar like unto themselves." [[80 Quoted in the Saints' Herald, August 21, 1918.]]
Rigdon's brothers testified that he had never been a printer and had not lived in Pittsburgh until 1822; Spaulding had left the city in 1814. [[81 Ibid., August 21, 1918.]]
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Pratt, who defended Rigdon in the Times and Seasons, claimed that the article in the Boston Recorder was not written by Spaulding's widow but by a priest named Stoors [sic] of Hollinston [sic], Massachusetts, who wanted to discredit Mormonism because it had converted several important members of his congregation. [[82 "Times and Seasons," January, 1840.]] However, the association of Rigdon with Patterson and the manuscript appeared in anti-Mormon books, such as "The Mormons," written by Daniel Kidders and printed in 1842. Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson, a grand-niece of Mrs. Solomon Spaulding, furthered the myth by incorporating more inaccuracies in her New Light on Mormonism:
"At an early age he (Rigdon) was a printer by trade, and is known to have been in Conneaut, Ohio, at the time Spaulding read his 'Manuscript Found' to his neighbors . . . and it is easy to believe in the report that he followed or preceded Spaulding to Pittsburgh, knowing all his plans, in order to obtain his manuscript, or copy it, while it was in Patterson's printing house -- an easy thing to do, as the fact of the manuscript being left carelessly in the office for months, is not questionable. [[83 Ellen E. Dickinson, "New Light on Mormonism" (New York, 1885), 47. end83]]
In 1885 James H. Fairchild, President of Oberlin College, received Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" for his institution's library; he wrote an historiographical article for the Western Reserve Historical Society concerning the manuscript. [[84 Fairchild, who had no connection with Mormonism, claimed that "this manuscript [Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found' clearly was not the basis of the book (Book of Mormon)." He also affirmed that the Book of Mormon was not written by Rigdon, "nor could the blundering syntax of the Book of Mormon
have come from Rigdon's hand. He had a gift of speech which would have made the style distasteful and impossible to him." James H. Fairchild, "Manuscript of Solomon Spaulding and the Book of Mormon: A Paper Read Before the Western Reserve Historical Society, March 23, 1886," Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 77," 185-200. Quoted in the Saints' Herald, August 21, 1918. end84]] When compared, the Book of Mormon and Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" were not compatible in style, length, content, or purpose. There was no relationship at all between the two books. "Manuscript Found" was a narrative of a tribe of people who came from Rome in the days of Emperor Constantine. [[85 Reverend Solomon Spaulding, "The Manuscript Story of 'Manuscript Found' from a Verbatim Copy of the Original Now in the Library of Oberlin College" (Lamoni, Iowa, 1908), [sic] 14. end 85]] The manuscript concerned itself with the wars and strifes of several tribes -- the Delawares, the Ohions, the Kentucks, the Sciotons, and the Chiaugans; the names, instead of being Nephi and Lehi, as John Spaulding had claimed, were Bombal, Kadocam, Lomaska, Hamboom, Ulippon, and Lamesa. [[86 Ibid., 154.]] When published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1908 [sic] to prove there was no connection between it and the Book of Mormon, "Manuscript Found" was 158 pages long compared to 588 pages of the Book of Mormon. The purpose of the Book of Mormon was to be a second witness that Jesus was the Christ, whereas "Manuscript" was written as a historical romance. The style of the Book of Mormon was similar to that of the King lames version of the Bible, although the latter's grace of language.
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"Manuscript Found" was written in the style of a nineteenth century romance. The fact that these two books have been published and publicly compared should have eliminated the belief that there was any correlation between them. However, the Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon and Rigdon's alleged implication in it has been printed in many anti-Mormon books since 1885. [[87 Several important anti-Mormon sources have claimed since 1885 that the Spaulding theory still applies to the origin of the Book of Mormon. They either claimed without any proof that Spaulding had another manuscript on which Rigdon based the Book of Mormon or continued to use the same old arguments as if the manuscript had never been published. These anti-Mormon sources are William H. Whitsitt, "Sidney Rigdon the Founder of Mormonism" whose manuscript of over a thousand pages was written in 1908 and is in the Library of Congress, see 101-109; Charles A. Shook, "Cumorah Revisited or the Book of Mormon and the Claims of the Mormons Re-examined from the Viewpoint of American Archaeology and Ethnology" (Cincinnati, 1910), 25-47, borrowed Howe's and Kidder's arguments; George B. Arbaugh, "Revelation in Mormonism: Its Character and Changing Forms" (Chicago, 1932), 9-10; Joseph W. White, "The Influence of Sidney Rigdon Upon the Theology of Mormonism" (MA thesis, University of Southern California, 1947), 75-80. However, not all sources hostile to Mormonism and Sidney Rigdon have accepted the "Spaulding theory." Alexander Campbell, who knew Rigdon's writing style and his activities between 1821 and 1830, declared that Smith was the author of the Book of Mormon in his "Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon; with an Examination of its Internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of its Pretences to Divine Authority" (Boston, 1832), 11. Fawn M. Brodie rejected the "Spaulding theory" in "No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet" (New York, 1945), 420-428. end87]] The myth of Sidney Rigdon as the founder of Mormonism has been most difficult to destroy.
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