From the TIMES, a London Paper.

We have already published several notices of a Mr. Brothers,
who is called in the London Papers a Prophet --
the following is a more particular account of him.
_______

The GREAT PROPHET of Paddington Street:
NEPHEW OF GOD.

Great political convulsions have always been either preceded or accompanied by moral revolutions, of which the factions of all countries avail themselves, to ingratiate their revolutionary systems with those classes of society, that lay most open to seduction and imposture.

Thus the French Revolution was preceded by a number of sects more or less absurd, but all equally extravagant, which prepared the public mind for all sorts of changes. -- Such were the Constitutionists, who played off their tricks with great adroitness; the Martinists, who pretended to penetrate into most hidden mysteries of the Divinity; the Mesmerists, who invited all France to their banquets; the Somnambulists, &c. &c. When the French Revolution was begun, the Prophet of Don Gerle, a Carthusian Monk, and a Member of the Constituent Assembly, made her appearance; and under Robespierre, there sprang up at Paris a number of other visionary dreamers. It seems that there are men in this country, who propote to employ the same means to attain their end. As a man of the name of BROTHERS, appears to be selected to act a prominent part in these scenes, we have been induced to communicate to our readers the following account of his printed prophecies, and the public conferences held at his house, No. 27 Paddington street.

Mr. Brothers introduces himself as a prophet, the friend of God, his own nephew, the chosen Chief of the Jews, and the Sovereign of the Universe. His daily and nightly apparitions amount to about 600, and in all and in every one of them, God reveals to him. that within a fixed time, which is to begin on the 1st of June 1795 and to end in 1798, all Sovereigns shall be struck down and destroyed forever.

Mr. Brothers, born at Newfoundland, is sent from the new, to overthrow the ancient world. At first he was an officer in the navy. "Considering that voluntary swearing which he was obliged to comply with, as a qualification to receive his pay, was unjust, he requested permission to receive it without it. The Earl of Chatham was so good, as to erase in his favor, the word Voluntary from the form of swearing. But soon after Mr. Brothers requested from the Admiralty, a dispensing order, that he might receive his pay but without taking any oath; but they would not grant it. As it was evident that Brothers was put of his senses, he was some time after taken to a workhouse," -- The very next night, God informed him in an apparition, "That he will shake the English Admiralty, as a man would do bread in a basket."

Brothers having heard that a friend of his had his ship seized in the West Indies, by an undersigned infringement of the navigation act, wrote to the Earl of Chatham to procure an indemnification for the poor man but was refused. Therefore the Lord God told him at night, that he would truly enable him to indemnify his friend, for he should be President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer."

Brothers having for some time been confined in Newgate, complains "that a small penny loaf of bread was allowed him for the whole day to live upon," and states that therefore God revealed to him that, since prisoners were so very uncomfortably situated in Newgate, London must be a Sodom and Babylon, and would be destroyed by fire and sword."

All the extravagant visions were anterior to the present. Brothers mind being revolutionary exalted, he found himself, of course, in 1792, at the height of the French Revolution. For this reason he wrote several letters to the King, the Queen and Mr. Pitt, with a view of dissuading them from war against France, because this war would be carried on against righteous people, chosen to execute the plan which God had revealed to him. Since the beginnings of hostilities, Brothers has written several other letters to the King and the Ministers, to induce them to make peace, but his advice has been slighted, and therefore, the King, the Queen, the Royal Family, the Ministers of Parliament, the town of London, and every kingdom of Europe, are to be devoted to unavoidable ruin. This destruction would have been delayed from a regard to his prayers; but as he has been treated like a madman, and moreover Government persists in its perverse intention of continuing the war, that universal destruction is to begin on the 1st of next June. At that period Mr. Brothers will be recognized as the Sovereign of the Universe, the nephew of God, and the Chief and King of the Jews. All the worldly powers are to bow before him, &c. &c. -- "Yet Isabella Wake, who brought him a threepenny loaf every Monday, when he was in Newgate, shall always have an apartment in his palace, and a seat at his table."

Mr. Brothers enjoys the greatest variety of visions and apparitions. In 1792, he was transferred, to Stockholm, where he held several conferences with the ghost of the famous Swedenborg, the chief of the Somnambulists. He there saw through a window, a man walking round an empty elbow chair; and God told him, that this man should murder the king. He would have informed that Monarch of his impending assassination; but knowing that the king of Sweden was to take upon himself the command of the armies destined to act against France, and that it was his intention to penetrate thro' Normandy, and to burn the French fleet at Brest, he abandoned him to his fate.

At the same time the Empress of Russia would have been assassinated, but for the Prophet having been allowed by God to acquaint her with it. Her death is however only delayed; and Mr. Brothers relates all the circumstances under which it is to happen, which no doubt will afford much pleasure to the Conductor of one of our Jacobin prints, who lately assured the Public, that the death of that Princess would be a most fortunate event for humanity.

We forbear to enlarge any further on the visions of the Prophet BROTHERS, and beg only leave to add, that he is daily visited by ladies and gentlemen, who want him to have their fortunes told; by indignant French Emigrants, to whom he professes his protection through his interest with God; and by different descriptions of people, who delight in hearing, even from the mouth of a madman, invectives against the present administration.


Note: Solomon Spalding was married to Matilda Sabin on February 21, 1795, probably in New England. At about the same time the couple moved to Cherry Valley, NY to take up residence near Solomon's brother Josiah, who operated a retail store in that village. Solomon and his bride probably arrived in Cherry Valley a few weeks before Elihu Phinney began publication of his Otsego Herald in the county seat of Cooperstown (boyhood home of James Fenimore Cooper). The literate and curious Spalding would have doubtless read the new little weekly paper with great interest. What he may have thought of accounts of the Canadian "Israelite Prophet," Richard Brothers is any body's guess, but a few dryly humorous pastiches of prophetic impostors may be found in Spalding's Oberlin manuscript -- Brothers' public image may have served as a caricature for those fraudulent oracles of Spalding's imagination.

The following gentlemen are appointed Justices of the Peace, for the County of Otsego.

... SOLOMON SPALDING, C. Valley ...

Note: Unfortunately Solomon Spalding's Docket Book is not extant and it is now impossible to determine just how long he served in office, what cases were brought before him, what judgments he rendered, etc. Presumably his brief legal training in Connecticut proved sufficient for his qualification as a judge on the then western frontier of New York.

WHEREAS, Joshua Tucker of Cherry Valley, in the county of Otsego, and state of New York, yeoman, did on the sixth day January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, seven hundred and ninety eight, for securing the payment of two hundred and ninety-three dollars and sixty cents, with lawful interest by the first day of March, then next ensuing, mortgage and convey unto the subscribers all that certain piece or parcel of :AND, situate lying and being in Cherry Valley, aforesaid; beginning at the north east corner of a tract of land, formerly the property of Daniel Campbell, Esq... containing one hundred and one half acre of land... And whereas default has here been made in the payment as aforesaid: Notice is therefore hereby given, that by virtue of a power contained in the said mortgage, and in pursuance of the statute made and provided, the said mortgaged premises will be sold at public vendue on the fifteenth day of May next, at the house of John Walton, Innkeeper in Cherry Valley aforesaid, at one o'clock in the afternoon of same day, to the highest bidder.

Dated the 12th day of November, 1798.
                            SOLOMON SPALDING,
                            JOSIAH SPALDING.


Note: Since the above notice makes no mention of the Spalding brothers being residents of Richfield, it is probable that they did not move their residences and retail business out of Cherry Valley, to neighboring Richfield, until 1799.

OTSEGO  COUNTY.

At a respectable Meeting of the ELECTORS of Otsego County, held at the house of Major Joseph Griffin, in Cooperstown on the 24th March, 1801, the following Resolutions were adopted...

... Resolved, that the Chairman and Secretary, together with the following persons, be a committee to promote the election [of certain candidates for Otsego representatives to the State Legislature]...

Richfield.

Solomon Spalding, Obediah Beardsley, Nathan Jeffers, Elias Wright, Doraltus Hatch...

Note: The above notice contains one of the very few substantial mentions of Solomon Spalding in the Otsego public press, after his 1799 removal from Cherry Valley to Richfield. This circumstantial evidence tends to support the conclusion that he left his former positions in Cherry Valley (Presbyterian Minister and Academy Headmaster) under some kind of social cloud.

Letters in the Post Office, Cooperstown.

...William Green,
Solomon & Josiah Spalding, Richfield...

Note: The above is merely a sample out of several different notices of letters waiting for the Spalding brothers to pick up at Cooperstown prior to Solomon's departure in 1809. Richfield was then rather remote from Cooperstown and its residents probably called upon friends and travelers to obtain their mail at the post office there on an occasional basis.

William Campbell,

PRESENTS his compliments to all those who are indebted to him, and especially to those whose accounts have been of long standing, and would inform them that he "wants Cash, and must have it." He also hereby informs the Public (meaning, and intending thereby that portion of the public who shall attend punctually to the requisitions of the above billet, or such as may cash in hand" present themselves to him in his Store, and shall then and there manifest to him a disposition, propensity, inclination or desire to divest themselves of a part of their said Cash, and to invest it in commodities for sale by the said William) that, in addition to his extensive assortment of

Drugs & Medicines, Paints, Window-Glass, Dye-Woods, Hard-Ware, &c. &c. &c.

he has on hand a general assortment of
                        GROCERIES.
Cherry Valley, Oct. 23, 1812.

Note: Among the accounts listed in Dr. William Campbell's Cherry Valley store's ledger-book are those of Solomon Spalding (p. 100) and his brother Josiah Spalding (p. 49). Solomon moved away from Otsego Co. in 1809, but Josiah remained in Richfield for a few years thereafter, apparently managing the brothers' retail store in that village. Since Solomon and Josiah purchased various items from Dr. Campbell, (even after their relocating from Cherry Valley to Richfield in about 1799) it seems likely that Campbell supplied the brothers' store with some wholesale goods (see entries for 1801-02 under Solomon's name, below). Campbell's advertisements from the days before Solomon Spalding left the area for Ohio unfortunately have not survived. His old account book is on file with the Cherry Valley Historical Association.

N O T I C E.

JOHN RUDD, Junior, of the town of Richfield, having on the 12th day of December, 1801, for securing payment of one hundred dollars and interest convey by mortgage to Abraham Ten Broneck, Esq. a part of lot No. 37, in Scuyler's Patent, in the town of Richfield and county of Otsego, bounded as follows: -- Beginning at a stake and stones, standing at an angel of J. & S. Spalding's land, near a spring, thence north 55 degrees, west eight chains & ten links to Willis Howland, at a stake and stones, thence 5 chains and 25 links, to the highway that leads from C. Green's to O. Beardslyey's, at a stake and stones, standing northerly 5 chains and 17 links from the first mentioned corner, thence to the first mentioned bounds, containing two acres one half & twenty rods of land. Defaults having been made in the payment of said sum of money -- Notice is given, that in pursuance of a power contained in said mortgage, and of the Statute in such case provided, said premises will be sold at public vendue at the house on said premises at two o'clock in the afternoon, of the 17th day of July next.

                    ABRAHAM TEN BROECK.
By his Attorney,
          FARRAND STRANAHAM.
January 12, 1812.


Note: The above notice ran in the newspaper all through the first half of 1813, so John Rudd, Jr. must have lost his mortgaged property that July. The notice is useful in helping to determine where the Rudd family and the Spalding (Solomon, Josiah & John) families lived in 1801. John Rudd, Jr., his widowed mother, and two brothers became Mormons in 1832 in Springfield twp., Erie Co., PA. Their land holdings in PA (as had also been the case in Otsego Co., NY) were close to the residence of their old friend (then in New Salem), Solomon Spalding.

                      Sussex, N. J. Sept. 15.
Uncommon  Sect.

Passed through this town, on Wednesday last, ten pilgrims (six men and four women) from Woodstock, in the state of Vermont, on their way to the southward, possessed of very singular appearance and deportment.

They profess to be the only true followers of Jesus Christ, and his gospel, and are in a special manner called of God to go forth into the world to do, and that continually, his will; for which purpose they have forsaken their houses and lands, relatives and friends, and all this world's enjoyments, and after the manner of the Apostles, are travelling from place to place doing good to the children of men.

They have a prophet or leader among them, who occasionally preaches; and most of them exhort in the streets and ways, as they pass by. They seem all devotion and humility, and are continually engaged in the service of Christ; holding forth the power of his holy spirit, as communicated unto them, saying that the Millenium is near at hand, and that the lost tribe of Judah is now beginning to be gathered in, and the way is fast opening, when the four quarters of the world will be gathered into one fold of such as will receive the true spirit of faith: not the faith which is received by christians of the present day, but such as is accompanied with holy fire. They have no abiding place in view, but travel as the Lord may direct. They say the people of the world are of the Devil, for they cannot serve the Lord and be Christ's. They ask no charity; move very slow, with a cart yoke of oxen and one horse, and say the Lord will provide of them, for where they go, there is he. Their dress is very singular, long beards, close caps, and bear skins tied around them. The writer believes them to be a set of deluded enthusiasts.

Five families, consisting of twenty-one ot two persons, passed through this village [on] Friday last. In dress, &c. they had the appearance of those above described, and were travelling to Ohio, where they intended to settle.


Note: The band of Vermont Pilgrims that passed through Cooperstown, New York, on Friday, Sept. 26, 1817, were the major portion of the group, which had a few days before split into two separate caravans. The smaller caravan proceeded down the Hudson River valley, passing through northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, before evidently re-joining forces with their brethren in southern Jefferson Co., Ohio. The larger caravan (which included the "Prophet" Isaac Bullard himself) went through Cherry Valley on Sept. 25th (according to the Albany Daily Advertiser of Oct 13th.) About 13 miles separate the two towns, but the "valley" itself extends from the latter village towards Cooperstown, and so the Pilgrims may have actually journeyed a somewhat lesser distance, from that valley to Cooperstown, between Sept. 25th and 26th.

VERMONT  PILGRIMS!

A correspondent informs us that five wagons loaded with the household goods, men, women, and children of this sect, passed through Cherry Valley, Otsego county, on the 25th ult., on their way to the State of Ohio. The men and women were dressed in the same style of those who passed through Sussex, (N. J.) and were, as they alledged, followers of the same prophet. They call themselves the true followers of Christ -- Their pretended prophet came from Canada, a few months since, and is a man of "austere habits," and a great fanatic. His followers are not yet numerous, but it is thought he will increase them. He rejects sirnames [sic], and abolishes marriage and allows his followers to cohabit promiscuously.

The men eat their food in an erect posture, and the women, when they pray, prostrate themselves on the ground, with their faces downward. They frequently do pennance for sins, and seem to make uncleanliness a virtue. They allege that their prophet has not changed his cloaths for seven years. There was with the party above described, a deluded woman, who, it is said, had always sustained a fair character, and who left a husband in affluent circumstances, and a family of children, to follow this prophet. It is probably the object of the leader of this sect, to draw as many after him as possible, and to form in some of the western states a new settlement similar to the one made by Jemima Wilkinson in this state.


Note 1: For more on the "Prophet" Isaac Bullard's "Vermont Pilgrims," see Wisconsin historian F. Gerald Ham's summer, 1973 article,"The Prophet and the Mummyjums..." Backtracking from the Albany Daily Advertiser's article, it appears that Bullard and one caravan of his Pilgrims passed through Cherry Valley, New York, on Sept. 25, 1817. This caravan was seen the next day at Cooperstown. Ham deduces that Bullard's band of followers, before the Prophet's arrival in Cherry Valley, had split into two separate groups, somewhere in the vicinity of the Shaker village of New Lebanon, in Columbia County. One of these caravans "proceeded down the Hudson Valley, across northern New Jersey, and through Pennsylvania." This was the same caravan of "wretched fanaticks" that passed through Pittsburgh on Saturday, Oct. 25, 1817. Bullard's own caravan continued westward, past Ithaca, and was eventually re-united with the travelers of the southern route, probably in Jefferson County, Ohio.

From the North American Review, Nov. 1816.

Indian Antiquities. -- The following account, which we take from the Western Gazetteer, adds something to our former knowledge of those hitherto inexplicable wonders, that are found in such abundance in our western country. We have not room to examine any of the speculations, which have entered the heads of our philosophers and antiquarians on the subject; and if we had, we should hardly expect, where all is conjecture and uncertainty, to afford much amusement or profit to our readers. There is something, however, extremely curious in the inquiry itself; although we cannot hope, that any very important or certain results can be drawn from the few facts, which have as yet been given to the world. We can safely infer from them nothing more, than that this immense tract of country, which has every mark of having been for centuries past a desolate wilderness, has been thickly inhabited at some former period by a warlike people, who had made much greater advances in the arts of civilized life, than any of the aboriginal inhabitants of North America, who have been. known since its discovery by Europeans. The mounds described below are situated in the town ot Harrison, Indiana Territory.

'We examined from 15 to 20. In some, whose heights was from ten to fifteen feet, we could not find more than four or five skeletons. In one, not the least appearance of a human bone was to be found. Others were so full of bones, as to warrant the belief, that they originally contained at least one hundred dead bodies; children of different ages, and the full grown, appeared to have been piled together promiscuously. We found several scull, leg and thigh hones, which plainly indicated that their possessors were men of gigantic stature. The scull of one skeleton was one fourth of an inch thick; and the teeth remarkably even, sound and handsome, all firmly planted. The fore teeth were very deep, and not so wide as those of the generality of white people. Indeed, there seemed a great degree of regularity in the form of the teeth, in all the mounds. In the progress of our researches, we obtained ample testimony, that these masses of the earth were formed by a savage people. Yet, doubtless possessing a greater degree of civilization than the present race of Indians. We discovered a piece of glass weighing five ounces, resembling the bottom of a tumbler, but concave; several stone axes, with grooves near their heads to receive a withe, which unquestionably served as a helve; arrows formed from flint, almost exactly similar to those in use among the present Indians; several pieces of earthern ware; some appeared to be parts of vessels holding six or eight gallons; others were obviously fragments of jugs, jars, and cups: some were plain, while others were curiously ornamented with figures of birds and beasts, drawn while the clay or material of which they were made was soft, and before the process of glazing was performed. The small vessels were made of pounded or pulverized muscle shells, mixed with an earthern or flinty substance, and the large ones of clay and sand. There was no appearance of iron; one of the sculls was found pierced by an arrow, which was still sticking in it, driven about half way through before its force was spent. It was about six inches long. The subjects of this mound were doubtless killed in battle, and hastily buried. In digging to the bottom of them we invariably came to a stratum of ashes, from six inches to two feet thick, which rests on the original earth. These ashes contain coals, fragments of brands, and pieces of calcined bones. From the quantity of ashes and bones, and the appearance of the earth underneath, it is evident that large fires must have been kept burning for several days previous to commencing the mound.

Almost every building lot in Harrison village contains a small mound; and some as many as three. On the neighbouring hills, northeast of the town, is a number of the remains of stone houses. They were covered with soil, brush, and full grown trees. We cleared away the earth, roots and rubbish from one of them, and found it to have been anciently occupied as a dwelling. It was about twelve feet square; the walls had fallen nearly to the foundation. They appeared to have been built of rough stone, like our stone walls. Not the least trace of any irontools have been employed to smooth the face of them, could be perceived. At one end of the building, we came to a regular hearth, containing ashes and coals; before which we found the bones of eight persons of different ages, from a small child to the heads of the family. The positions of their skeletons clearlyindicated, that their deaths were sudden and simultaneous. They were probably asleep, with their feet towards the fire, when destroyed by an enemy, an earthquake, or pestilence."


Notes: (forthcoming)

APPOINTMENTS.

By the Hon. the Council of Appointment.

Ontario -- Gideon Gates, Elisha Ely, James Parmelee, Jeremy S. Stone, Jared Boughton, Samuel Rawson and Enos Giles, justices.

Stephen G. Austin, Jared Wilson, John Mastick, Timothy Barnard, jun., David Courson, Edward S. Stewart, Jared Boughton, Simon Stone, 2d., Abner Woodworth, Jacob Dox, Byram Green, David Eddy, Ira Selby, Jabez French, Joel Dorman, Elijah Kent, Nathaniel Case, Elisha Johnson, Asa Knowden, William Caranhan, John Van Fossen, Lemuel Chipman, William M'Cartney, Warren A. Cowdery, Joshua Lee and George Hosmer, commissioners...


Note: Dr. Warren A. Cowdery (1788-1851) was an older brother to Oliver Cowdery. He obtained his physician's license from the Medical Society of Vermont on Jan. 11, 1815. The following year Dr. Cowdery moved his wife and young child to Ontario Co., NY. By 1817 Warren was in Groveland, Ontario (in 1821 Livingston) Co., where he was appointed an Ontario County Commissioner (and Town Clerk) in 1818. The following year Dr. Cowdery moved his family to Le Roy, in Genesee Co., where for several years he offered his services as a doctor and an apothecary.

PROPOSAL
BY
FRANKLIN COUDERY.

FOR PUBLISHING A NEWSPAPER AT BATAVIA,
TO BE ENTITLED THE

Batavia Recorder.

Of all publications, a newspaper so conducted as to be a vehicle of general intelligence, will ever be most interesting to all classes of mankind. To what other source does the philanthropist, the statesman, the philosopher, and every man of enterprise look for instruction? No publication is more worthy of encouragement than a well executed newspaper... It is our intention to publish a newspaper, which, in its prominent feature, shall be an Intelligencer. We shall endeavor to maintain a spirit of conciliation, and will not knowingly injure the private character of a single human being. We do not feel willing to accuse any set of men with harbouring hostile views in opposition to the welfare and happiness of the Union; but are so charitably disposed as to believe, that, although the great body of the people may differ in opinion on certain political principles, all have the same ultimate end in view. Therefore, in the words of an illustrious statesmen, "We are all Federalists -- we are all Republicans."

This declaration does not infer that we intend to print a neutral paper -- 'a milk and water journal' -- to flatter two opposite interests, in the hope of obtaining patronage from either. No! -- the Recorder shall be firmly REPUBLICAN; and we shall exert our talent to defend the present administrations of the state and of the United States, so far as their proceedings shall accord with our ideas of Republicanism. -- ('the capacity of mankind to govern themselves,' or 'a government which derives all its powers, directly or indirectly, from the great body of the people, and administered by persons holding their offices, during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behaviour') -- against whatever 'interested opposition' may arise.

We shall make every exertion to cultivate good order in society, and to promote the welfare and happiness of community. Of those who coincide in these sentiments we solicit patronage.


Note: This project, proposed by a cousin of Oliver Cowdery, to start a newspaper at Batavia never materialized. According to B. Franklin Cowdery's 1847 biographical sketch, the first newspaper he edited and published in western New York was the Genesee Farmer and Moscow Advertiser, from 1817-18, followed by the Olean Hamilton Recorder, from June 1819 to June 1820. In between the demise of the Moscow paper and the birth of the Orleans publication, Cowdery tried to establish his Batavia Recorder, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor. It is possible, that in his later newspaper publishing, that Franklin Cowdery was assisted by his younger relative, Oliver; however, conclusive proof of that surmise is lacking.

From the N. Y. Columbian.

Several ancient pieces of aboriginal writing have lately reached New-York from Mexico. They are such as have been described and figured by many of the authors that have treated of the men who were the rulers of that important region of North America at the time of its invasion by the Spaniards -- being partly imitative, by pictures, and partly significant, by hieroglyphics...

---

Indian Jews. -- A Mr. Adair, who prior to the revolutionary war resided 40 years among the Indians of our country, when their manners and customs had not been so much corrupted and changed as they have been since by their intercourse with the whites, published in 1775, a work, in which he adduces twenty-three arguments and observations, to prove that the American Indians are descendants of ancient Jews. The following is their order in the book:

Argument 1. Their division into tribes.
2. Their worship of Jehovah
3. Their notion of a theocracy
4. Their belief in the ministration of angels
5. Their language and dialects
6. Their manner of counting time
7. Their prophets and high priests
8. Their festivals, fasts, and religious rites
9. Their daily sacrifices
10. Their ablutions and anointings
11. Their laws of uncleaness
12. Their abstinence from unclean things
13. Their marriages, divorces, and punishment of adultery
14. Their several punishments
15. Their cities of refuge
16. Their purifications, and ceremonies preparatory to war
17. Their ornaments
18. Their manner of curing the sick
19. Their burial of the dead
20. Their mourning for the dead
21. Their raising seed to a deceased brother
22. Their choice of names adapted to their circumstances and the times
23. Their own traditions, the accounts of the English writers, and the testimonies which the Spanish and other authors have given concerning the primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico.

---

Literary. -- Kirk and Mercein have just issued from the press, "Travels in England, France and Spain, and the Barbary States, in the year 1813-14 and 15, by Mordecai M. Noah, late Consul of the U. S. at Tunis -- Member of the New York Historical Society, &c." -- It consists of an octavo volume of near 500 pages, handsomely printed, and ornamented with engravings. -- We have but glanced at this work just sufficient to form an opinion that it contains much interesting and useful information, and will not be discreditable to the literature of our country. -- N. Y. Col.


Notes: (forthcoming)

From the Religious Intelligencer.
_______

AMERICAN  INDIANS.

It has long been the enquiry among people of reading and observation, from what nation the Aborigines of this country descended. Some, who have been well acquainted with the customs and usages observed among them, are of the opinion that they sprang from the ancient Israelites. I have lately been led to think this conjecture is correct; and that the scripture history affords probable evidence, that the North American Indians descended from the tribe of Dan, in particular... [a lengthy list of evidence follows] ...

Hence, when we consider the early excision of the tribe of Dan from the people of Israel, for their idolatry; and their craftiness for enterprise, and their disposition to roam abroad in quest of prey, like lion's whelps; is it not highly probable, that they would be the first among the Asiatic nations, that should find their way to this continent?

And though it has been found that they retain a number of ancient Jewish rituals, such as the offering of animals in sacrifice, which they have done in many instances; and others might be mentioned; yet it is not strange that they retain no more of their rites when we take into view their early separation from God's ancient church.

And though their copper color has been supposed to have been caused in part from climate, and from their manner of living in smoky huts, &c. yet is there not at least a great probability that Bilhah, Rachel's maid, from whom the Danites descended, was a woman of colour? She was not the kindred of Laban or Jacob, as we may suppose.

And it was common in those times, for men who were accustomed to a civilized and regular way of living, to buy or, procure servants of other nations -- Thus the patriarch Abraham had servants born in his house, and bought with his money, among whom was Hagar the Egyptian, the mother of Ishmael. She was unquestionably a woman of colour. Hence the Arabs and the inhabitants of the Barbary States, who are undoubtedly the descendants of Ishmael, retain their swarthy complexion down to this present time. Therefore, granting that Bilhah, the mother of Dan, was a person of colour, the red complexion of the American Indians forms no objection against their being descendants from that tribe, but is accounted for on natural principles.

But I leave the subject, to be resumed by some abler pen.


Note: Perhaps the most striking element of the assumptions made in the above communication is that the ancient, Hebrew speaking people, and their descendants, the Jews, were a fair-skinned, Caucasian, people. In actuality, the physical characteristics of those Jews who did not intermix with Europeans were practically indistinguishable from Arabs or many north Africans. Americans of post-Colonial days generally had very little experience with persons of Middle Eastern ancestry and were content to imagine that such ancient persons as Jesus or King David were men of fair hair and fair skin; thus, when Americans of 200 years ago imagined the predecessors of the Indians, they sometimes thought of an "extinct" race of white people, or of white people whose skin had darkened since their arrival in the ancient Americas.

Franklin Coudery and Benjamin F. Smead,

Propose to publish,
At Olean, Village of Hamilton, N. Y.
A weekley newspaper,
entitled

HAMILTON  RECORDER.

To commence previous to the first of June.

---

"Pledg'd but to truth, to liberty and law. No favor sways us, and no fear shall awe.

---

The terms of publication will be two dollars a year, payable quarterly in advance, or, if payment be delayed to the expiration of the year, two dollars and fifty cents will be charged. Advertisements will be inserted on liberal terms for ready pay.
                            COUDERY & SMEAD.
April 6, 1819.


Note: The Olean Hamilton Recorder, lasted but one year, from June 1819 to June 1820. According to B. Franklin Cowdery's 1847 biographical sketch, the next newspaper he edited and published in western New York was the Angelica Republican, which he began during the summer of 1820 and ended in 1822. After the Angelica Republican's demise, Franklin worked for nearly a year as a job printer at Lockport, making use of the press of fellow pioneer printer, Orsamus Turner. That period of miscellaneous employment ended in January of 1824, when Franklin moved to what is now Albion, in Orleans Co., and established the Newport Patriot there on Feb. 9, 1824.

From the St. Louis Enquirer.

WELCH  INDIANS.

It seems that a society in the state of New-York has sent out persons to ascend the Missouri in search of Welch Indians.

Mr. Stoddart collected some years ago, and embodied in his sketches of Louisiana, many loose reports and disjointed rumors on this subject. He seemed to give credit to the belief of their existence. Since his time, however, the country supposed to be the place of their residence, and in fact every part of the country in which they could reside, has been explored. Every river, creek and branch, issuing from the [Rocky] Mountains, and flowing to the Missisippi or the Pacific Ocean, has been examined from its head to its source. There is no exception, from the confines of Mexico to the arctic circle. British or American traders have explored every part, have visited every tribe of Indians, and have not only ascertained where every nation lives, but also know the tracts of the country which are uninhabited. -- They have found no such people as "Welch Indians;" and to go to the sources of the Missouri at the present day in search of such people, would seem as idle as going to a well known part of South America in search of the Amazons.

The St. Louis Gazette, after giving some account of the testimonies existing in support of the opinion that there is now inhabiting the southern branches of the Missouri a race of men descended from the Welch emigrants, who embarked to the number of 323 persons, in 10 vessels under prince Madoc, in the year 1170, from North Wales, mentions that an expedition is now on foot for a thorough investigation of the fact. The persons engaged in the undertaking are Messrs. Roberts and Parry, Welchmen, who speak the language of North and South Wales. It is said that they are industrious, persevering men, and that they will pursue the search as long as the probability of a discovery exists.

In the years 1795 and 1796, John Thomas Evans and John Mackay ascended the Missouri to the Mandan villages, 1700 miles from St. Louis, in search of these Welch Indians and after an absence of two years returned without success. But it is said these people are located by the most credible authorities 2000 miles from the mouth of the Missouri, and consequently 300 miles from the termination of the journey of Evans and Mackay. -- Their fruitless search therefore is not regarded as furnishing any satisfactory solution of this interesting problem.

(We know not who are the authorities here alluded to: the story of the Madoc is found only in the traditional poetry of the Welch; the travels of Lewis and Clark give no support to the idea that there is such a race, living about the head waters of the Missouri. and we suspect the voyage of these two gentlemen, to discover their countrymen, will fall short of its objects. They are said to be [perservering] men, and the expedition may be of some service in exploring the country about the [southern] branches of the Missouri. -- Philad. Union.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Evacuation of Grand Island. -- The inhabitants of this Island, with few exceptions, have been removed therefrom previous to the day appointed by law for their expulsion. The Island is said to contain about 60 log houses, and more than 100 acres of land cleared, fenced and improved. --Niagara Pat.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MARRIED

In this village on Monday last, by the Rev. Mr. Smith, Mr. John Davidson of Hartwick, to Mrs. Matilda Spalding, of this town.

Note 1: The marriage of the Widow Spalding (Matilda Sabin, 1767-1846) and John Davison (or Davidson) took place on Nov. 22, 1819 in Cooperstown, Otsego Co. NY. Evidently the widow had moved there from her former, temporary residence in Onondaga Hollow earlier that year. It is likley that she brought with her, from Onondaga Co. to her new home in Otsego Co., her belongings, including whatever items she had inherited following the death of her husband, Solomon Spalding, in 1816. After her marriage to John, it is reasonable to assume that Matilda moved to his home at Hartwick, bringing her belongings along with her.

Note 2: The John who married Matilda was the son of another John Davidson (1734-1815), who married Matilda's aunt, Mehitable Sabin, on Jan. 6, 1757, in Pomfret, Windham, CT. Mehitable was evidently living in Hartwick, Otsego, NY when Matilda was married in nearby Cooperstown. Mehitable Sabin Davidson died in Hartwick February 28, 1829. One of her younger relatives, Zeviah Lyon married Jerome Clark, who also lived in Hartwick during that time. The 1820 and 1830 Census reports show a "John Davison" living in Hartwick -- this was John. Jr., whom Matilda parted company with near the end of 1829.

Note 3: Matilda Spalding Davison and her daughter remained with John Davison until 1828 when the daughter, Miss Matilda Spalding, married Dr. Oliver W. McKinstry of Monson, Hampden Co., Massachusetts. The younger Matilda joined the Monson Congregational Church in December 1829 and her mother joined the following year, indicating that she had by then moved away from Hartwick and Mr. John Davison, Jr. permanently. See notes accompanying the 1901 letter of John's grandson, George N. Davison, for further details.

Note 4: The probable locations of Solomon Spalding's writings, in the midst of his widow's various relocations after his death, are as follows: early 1817 to late 1819: in the home of William H. Sabin, at Onondaga Hollow; late 1819 to mid 1828: in the home of John Davison at Hartwick; late 1828 (or 1829) to late 1833: in the home of Jerome Clark at Hartwick. In the late fall of 1833 D. P. Hurlbut called at the Clark residence and removed an unknown quantity of Spading's writings to Geauga Co., Ohio. The frequently encountered claim, that Joseph Smith, Jr. had access to Spalding's writings while he was an employee of William H. Sabin, appears to present the practically impossible scenerio of a fourteen year old Joseph working for Mr. Sabin, before the removal of Spalding's papers from Sabin's place, at about the end of 1819.

From the Pittsburgh Mercury

MORE  OF  JEMIMA  WILKINSON.

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Moses Manassah Noah, Esq. has presented a petition to the Legislature, praying that the state would authorize the sale to him of Grand Island, lying in the Niagara river, for the purpose of "causing a town or city to be erected thereon, to be inhabited by s community of Jewish emigrants." When built, Mr. Noah will doubtless transfer his "National Advocate" to this new city of moonshine, for the instruction of his Jewish brethren.


Note: The name of the petitioneer should read "Mordecai Manuel Noah."

Kid's long-secreted Money found! -- Died -- In the city of New York, J____ D____, one of the crew of the noted Captain Kid. He was supposed to be at the time of his death, one hundred and three years of age. His general occupation for the last 30 years or more, was stowing away vegetables... Having no relations, he willed to a woman who attended him, the whole of his property, amounting from 12 to 18,000 dollars. (Here's a discovery of Kid's hidden money, so much the object of search and research for many years.) -- Columbian.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Grand Island. -- The house went into committee of the whole on the bill granting Grand Island to Mordecai M. Noah, Mr. M. in the chair, A short debate took place -- in which the speaker[s], Messrs. Fox, Ruggles, Tibbits and Williams took part, & opposed the passage of the bill. Mr. Ulshoeffer defended it, and advocated its passage -- Mr. Crolius said a few words in answer to Mr. Fox; when a motion to strike out the first clause, or in other words to reject the bill, was made and carried by a large majority. -- Alb. Adv.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Effects of Drunkenness. -- DIED at the hourse of Mr. Robert M'Collum, in this town, on the 26th inst., James Couser, aged about forty years. The deceased, we are informed, arrived at Mr. M'Collum's house the evening preceding, from a camp-meeting which was held in this vicinity, in a state of intoxication. He, with his companion who was also in the same debasing condition, called for supper, which was granted. Both stayed all night -- called for breakfast next morning -- when notified that it was ready, the deceased was found wrestling with his companion, whom he flung down with the greatest ease, -- he suddenly sunk down upon a bench, -- was taken with an epileptic fit, and immediately expired. -- It is supposed he obtained his liquor, which was no doubt the cause of his death, at the Camp-ground, where, it is a notorious fact, the intemperate, the lewd and dissolute part of the community too frequently resort for no better objewct, than to gratify their base propensities.

The deceased, who was an Irishman, we understand has left a family, living at Catskill, this state.


Note: LDS writer Gordon B. Hinkley has argued that a massive religious excitement was occuring in the immediate vicinity of Palmyra, at this time: "In 1820 it [the great Kentucky Revival] reached western New York. The ministers of the various denominations united in their efforts, and many conversions were made among the scattered settlers. One week a Rochester paper noted: 'More than two hundred souls have become hopeful subjects of divine grace in Palmyra, Macedon, Manchester, Lyons, and Ontario since the later revival commenced.' The week following it was able to report 'that in Palmyra and Macedon... more than four hundred souls have already confessed that the Lord is good.'" (Truth Restored, page 2). The presence of an occasional "camp-meeting" and a "camp-ground" near Palmyra, in 1820, is no sort of evidence of a great revival at all. The Methodists, to cite one example, held regular "camp-meetings" as part of annual (or semi-annual, or quarterly) mini-conferences. A traveling preacher would stay at one location for a week or two, and representatives from a few neighboring congregations would congregate to hear his preaching, transact church business, and perhaps celebrate a wedding or some other group activity. These sorts of occasional "camp-meetings" are not evidence of mass revivals, where "more than two hundred souls" were persuaded to "get religion." See notes accompanying the Register of July 5, 1820 and various transcribed newspaper articles for the fall of 1824 through the first half of 1825 (below on this web-page) for more discussion of this subject.

"Plain Truth" is received. By this communication, as well as by the remarks of some of our neighbors who belong to the Society of Methodists, we perceive that our remarks accompanying the notice of the unhappy death of James Couser, contained in our last, have not been correctly understood. "Plain truth" says, we committed "an error in point of fact," in saying that Couser "obtained his liquor at the camp-ground." By this expression we did not mean to insinuate, that he obtained it within the enclosure of their place of worship, or that he procured it of them, but at the grog-shops that were established at, or near if you please, their camp-ground. It was far from our intention to charge the Methodists with retailing ardent spirits while professedly met for the worship of their God. Neither did we intend to implicate them by saying that "the intemperate, the dissolute, &c. resort to their meetings." -- And if so we have been understood by any one of that society, we assure them they have altogether mistaken our meaning.


Note 1: By this report it is made clear that the account of "death of James Couser," published in the Register of June 28th was linked by the paper's editor not to just any "camp-meeting which was held in this vicinity," but to out-of-doors services at or near a local Methodist (Methodist Episcopal?) congregation's place of worship. The two news reports do not make it clear whether these "Methodists" had built their chapel in the vicinity of the camp-ground, but evidently some "grog-shops" existed in that place. This fact probably indicates that the "camp-ground" was near a well-traveled road, or possibly an intersection of roads, where there was some continual traffic of potential customers.

Note 2: See also Rev. George Lane's letter of Jan. 25, 1825, as published in the NYC Methodist Magazine. There Rev. Lane makes mention of fellow Methodist minister Rev. J. B. Alverson having recently held "a watch night in Vienna." Possibly this refers to an all-night meeting held at a Vienna Methodist chapel or camp-ground. Vienna (a few miles east of Palmyra) emerges from old reporting as one place where Ontario County Methodists held camp-meetings. In his 1851 article, "Origin of the Mormon Imposture," Palmyra resident Orsmaus Turner wrote of the young Joseph Smith, Jr.: "Joseph had a little ambition, and some very laudable aspirations... after catching a spark of Methodism in the camp-meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road, he was a very passable exhorter in evening meetings." It is quite possible that the "camp meeting" the Smith youth attended was the same "watch night" held in Vienna in early January 1825, that the Methodist Rev. J. B. Alverson makes mention of. However, since Orsamus Turner had left Palmyra prior to 1825, it is equally possible that he was recalling a Methodist camp-meeting held in the general area of Palmyra, as early as 1817-18. There is some evidence of increased religious enthusiasm in that region at that time -- though Joseph Smith, Jr. would have been barely a teenager then. Turner speaks of Smith as participating "in our juvenile debating club," as though that attendance occurred prior to Turner's departure for Lockport. However, he does not make it entirely clear whether or not Smith's visit to "the camp-meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road" transpired before or after Turner's departure -- Lockport was not far from Palmyra and Turner may have maintained close ties with associates or correspondents in the Palmyra area as late as 1826-28, when Turner himself had reason to periodically return to Ontario County, in relation to the ongoing "William Morgan" legal proceedings.

M. M. Noah, Esq., the patriotic editor of the N. Y. National Advocate, having failed in his attempt to obtain Grand Island for a company of European Jews, now recommends Rhode Island to their attention. He says the Jewish bankers can transmit to this country specie enough to pay our national debt.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Note Lost.

LOST in the town of Ontario sometime in the month of January, a note of hand, of two hundred dollars, payable in horses, signed by Abraham Cook, and given to the subscriber, dated November 6th, 1820. The maker of said note is hereby forbid paying paying the amount to any person but the subscriber. Whoever will return said Note to the subscriber, shall be handsomely rewarded.
                                                JOSEPH SMITH, Jun.
Ontario, June 12th, 1821.


Note: The "Joseph Smith, jr." listed as the head of a household in the 1820 Census returns for Ontario township, Ontario County, New York was not the scurrilous youth of the same name who then resided with his father in nearby Farmington township. The Farmington Smith reportedly could peer into a seer stone and locate such "lost" items as "a note of hand" with considerable facility. This same notice ran for the next two weeks in the Palmyra paper.

A Curiosity. -- Among the additions just made to Dr. Mitchell's collection is a letter from the Chippewa tribe of Indians, to the Sioux, with the answer of the Sioux to the Chippewas, done during the summer of 1820. Both are executed with the point of a knife or some other hard body upon the bark of the birth tree. They are examples of picture writing, bordering upon the symbolic or hieroglyphic, and show the manner in which the aborigines of North America communicate their ideas at the present day. After having served the purpose for which they were produced by Capt. Douglass from the Mississippi, where they had been placed by their authors and brought home by that gentleman as specimen of the way pursued by those people to transact their public business.

---

TAKEN UP.

On the 3d inst. in the town of Ontario, a dark bay Mare, formerly owned by the subscriber, and sold to a Mr. Peck, a preacher on the Methodist circuit; she is a natural trotter -- has a wart in her right ear, -- was 9 years old the last Spring. The owner of said Mare is requested to prove property, pay charges and take her away.
                                                JOSEPH SMITH.
Ontario, July 14th, 1821.


Note: As with the "Note Lost" notice in the previous week's issue of the Farmer, the mentioned "Joseph Smith," of Ontario twp., Ontario Co., New York was not the scurrilous youth of the same name who then resided with his father in nearby Farmington township. The "Mr. Peck" who bought Smith's mare was most likely the Rev. George Smith of the Methodist Genesee Conference. Rev. Peck later wrote an account of these early times, entitled Early Methodism. That book furnishes some biographical information on the Rev. George Lane, who oversaw the 1824 Methodist revival in and around Palmyra, New York.

DISCOVERIES  ON  THE  CANAL.

The operations on the eastern section of the grand canal have advanced to Schenectady flats, within about two miles of the city. The work is progressing with remarkable spirit, and promises completion much sooner than its warmest friends had originally expected.

At a point 11 miles west of Schenectady, in the town of Florida, several curious things have been discovered; partly aboriginal and partly European... Under the latter head may be classed certain other things recently found, such as.

1. The blade of a large knife.

2. A stout nail whose point is bent up as it by driving against a hard and resisting body.

3. Several plates of brass, which probably belonged to cartouch boxes...

These disclosures of the materials that are concealed under ground, furnish the Antiquarian and the naturalist, interesting materials for speculation as to the operations of art and of nature in past time.   Nat. Adv.

---

Natural Curiosity. -- A stone about eight inches in length and five in breadth was lately found on the residence of the Rev. H. R. Powell, in the town of William in this County, with four or five pieces of Iron or Steel appearing on its surface, similar to the heads of large spike nails. -- On breaking the stone, they were found to be small cubic locks of steel, penetrating from the surface about half an inch in depth. In interior surfaces of the blocks, appear to have been polished smooth with indentings where the blocks lay, as smooth as marble, although the stone itself was rough and gritty. But the greatest curiosity is, that one of the blocks was completely buried in the stone, about a quarter of an inch or more below its surface. The only conclusion that can be made, respecting which, is. that the stone has frown over it.  Communicated.


Note: Probably the "cartouch boxes" alluded to were antique cartridge boxes carried by infantry soldiers during the War of 1812 and before. Discarded empty boxes would have disintegrated over time, dislodging their protective metal plates. A set of brass plates, assembled from such sources, might have appeared as quite a curiosity to civilian villagers of the 1820s.

Our  Village

... we have been led to these hasty reflections, by witnessing the happy change that has recently taken place among the inhabitants of this village. Science and religion are beginning to claim their tention, and to receive that support which they so richly merit at their hands. Our school has already become an ornament in our village. Our youth begin to vie with each other in the improvement of their minds, and to requite their parents for their exertions to render them useful members of society [and] an honor to their connexions. But this is not all -- Instead of strutting up and down our streets on the Sabbath, going from one tavern to another, twirling the rattan and puffing the cigar, those necessary appendages of a dandie, Our young gentlemen are set in the sanctuary, attentively listening to that [Word]. which can make them wise unto salvation. And instead of riding out in parties of giddy, unmeaning and unsatisfying pleasure, the young ladies are seen to grace the church with their presence, on this holy day... Such a change we could not forbear publishing to the world


Note: The editor (Timothy C. Strong) reflects upon a recent change in public morality and piety in Palmyra in 1821, but he does not attribute the social transformation to the effects of any particular species of religious excitement, camp meetings, revivals. etc. Neither do local church records of this time indicate any significant increase in baptisms and admissions to denominational membership lists. Perhaps a portion of the religious transformation had its root in increased attendance at Ontario county Methodist class meetings, where no life-changing salvation "experience" was required for participation and attendees did not have to become full-fledged Methodists to go to church.

NOTICE. -- The young people of the village of Palmyra and its vicinity are requested to attend a Debating school at the school house near Mr. Billings' on Friday next.

Palmyra, Jan. 19, 1822.

Note: In the dead of winter, with little agricultural work to be done, the "young people of the village of Palmyra" were free to attend a few weeks of school, visit with their friends, or even emulate their elders in carrying on some public debate. Orsamus Turner, who worked on the local paper at this time, later recalled that Joseph Smith, jr. "used to help us to solve some portentous questions of moral or political ethics, in our juvenile debating club, which we moved down to the old red school-house on Durfee street." Turner's interaction with the Smith boy in this particular "debating club" was perhaps of short duration, since the young printer moved away from Palmyra during the summer of 1822.

A most extraordinary change within two or three weeks past, has taken place in regard to the religious state of this village... [Lyons, east of Palmyra] This change from one extreme to another, has been so powerful, and universal as scarcely to admit of a precedent in all this western region. Such hath been and is still the manifest power of God, through the overwhelming influence of the Divine Spirit, that the whole place exhibits the aspect of a house of mourning. Large collections assemble every evening in the week at the house of God for worship and various religious exercises. These meetings are solemn beyond description. Persons who had formerly opposed awakenings, and persons of every other character are struck with amazement -- and exclaim, this must be the work of God. A large number of [hopeful] converts are now rejoicing in the Saviour, and scarcely an individual can now be found in the place whose mind is not, in a considerable degree, solemnized."


Note: Dale Morgan, who first transcribed the above excerpt, says that the Western Farmer "Reprints from the Lyons Republican of December 7 an account of a Revival of Religion at Lyons... Although the Register and Western Farmer from 1818 had chronicled revivals in Mass., Vermont, and N. Y., this is the first one recorded near Palmyra

"Let the best course of life your choice invite,
  For custom soon will turn it to delight."

In presenting the first number of PLAIN TRUTH to the public, we will remark, that the work is undertaken merely to expose the many errors now existing in the Christian world which are passed off on the undiscerning, for "pure and undefiled religion."

No man, conversant with the under handed manaeuvres used by many of the most zealous professors, can candidly discountenance so desirable a work. We shall not presume to point out those impositions which are placed to the credit of the Christian Religion, but our columns shall be ever open to plain truth, let it hit whom it may. No Christian can deny that the Gospel of our blessed Saviour, since the Apostolic days, has been clouded by Popish superstition, even to the present time. In what manner are the clouds to be dispersed, that we may behold the brightness of the "Son of Righteousness" -- that we may behold the transcedent purity of the "Gospel of peace?" --

There is no way to do this but by a public and fair investigation of what is supposed to be anti-Christian. We are fully aware that we shall be eyed with suspicion by the craftsmen, but trusting to the purity of our motives, we shall not be awed into silence by this party or that,

We would, however, particularly caution the public against the hue and cry too often raised in opposition to similar works. The practice of hanging a man and then trying him is frequently resorted to, to prejudice public opinion. Therefore, if those against whom we testify should brand us with the name of Atheist, Deist, Arian, Socinian, &c. &c. we believe them not, for we are not the least hampered by the chains of sectarian bigotry.


Note: The above introductory remarks provides a fair specimen of the anti-clerical tone of the bi-weekly religious journal, "Plain Truth," edited and published by Lyman A. Spalding and Thomas B. Barnum of Canandiagua, Ontario Co., New York. For more comments on this unusual publication, see the notes accompanying the Feb. 12, 1823 issue of the Wayne Sentinel.

SIX  CENTS  REWARD. 

DESERTED my employment, an apprentice BOY, by the name of Hervey Newcomb, between 18 and 19 years of age, and somewhat fickle and high minded. This notice is given, not to injure the boy -- but to forbid all persons harbouring or trusting him on my account; and to caution PRINTERS not to employ him; as he left me, a week since, under pretence of going to visit his parents, in Almond, and has since, by letter, refused to return -- thereby, without provocation, violating a most solemn engagement,   F. COUDERY.
Record office, Angelica, Feb. 22. 1822.

Note 1: In his 1847 reminiscences B. Franklin Cowdery (an older second cousin of Oliver Cowdery) recalls his printing business experience at Angelica, in these words: "In October [1819], two wagons conveyed our household goods, printing apparatus, and family, then numbering but two back to Angelica; where in a new little brick house east from the square, we soon began the Angelica Republican, the first press in Allegany county, which we continued just two years and one week. For several weeks we had no other help at case than the wife, as apprentice... This subjected us sometimes to inconvenience.... January, 1823, found us abiding in Lockport... The 'Lockport Observatory' was the paper then published by our friend Orsamus Turner, whom we sometimes assisted and in whose office we printed a pamphlet edition of the New Militia Law, and late in autumn, printed our prospectus, with borrowed head lines from the two Batavia offices, for the 'Newport Patriot,' in the northern part of Genesee County."

Note 2: Apparently the untimely departure of Hervey "Harvey" Newcomb (1803-1863), in February of 1822, so crippled B. Franklin Cowdery's printing operations as to force him to cease publication of the Angelica Republican about eight months later. In his published writings, B. Franklin Cowdery does not indicate who eventually filled the vacant apprentice position in his mobile publishing ventures, but one set of historical researchers speculate that he called upon the services of Oliver Cowdery for this work -- probably around the beginning of 1823, when B. Franklin Cowdery moved his little family to the village of Lockport. In the CD-ROM version of their book, The Spalding Enigma, the authors say: "In his autobiographical essay, 'Forty Years a Typo,' Franklin Cowdery speaks of having commenced his operation in Angelica 'in autumn, 1820, without a partner and alone, except the wife, who had learned the boxes.' While there however, he acquired two young apprentices, one of whom 'staid contentedly the term out,' and another who 'left [in 1822] at the end of a year, and... [eventually] became a preacher of righteousness.' Later, during 1824-25, he had another apprentice to whom he gave 'his first two years instructions in printing... in the Newport office.' ... Of the two who were with Franklin at Angelica, the first... remains unidentified. The other, who ran away in 1822 after only a year and went on to 'become a preacher of righteousness,' was Harvey Newcomb... [who was] was born on 2 Sep. 1803 at Thetford, VT... In 1818, his family moved to Alfred, Allegany Co., NY... In 1821... he was apprenticed to Franklin Cowdery at Angelica... In 1826, Harvey Newcomb moved to Westfield, Chautauqua Co., NY, where he worked as printer on the Western Star... In 1828 it appears that Harvey, his brother George Washington, and James Hull purchased the Star and changed its name to the Chautauqua Phoenix. Harvey remained with this paper only about a year, and then went to Buffalo where he edited the Buffalo Patriot..."

Note 3: Hervey "Harvy" Newcomb probably began his apprenticeship with B. Franklin Cowdery, at Angelica, Allegany Co., New York, during the late fall of 1820. His family lived nearby, in Alfred (or in the adjoining township of Almond), Allegany Co., New York. Hervey's mother was Hannah Curtis, who married his father, Simon Newcomb, in 1790 at Thetford, Orange Co. Vermont. "Hervey" is a surname, and when used as a child's personal name, that application often indicates the occurence of the same surname in the mother's ancestry. For example, Jabez Cowdery (1796-1864) had a son named Hervey (or Hervy), by Betsey Smith of Tunbridge, Vermont, in 1819. "Hervey" was thus Dr. Jabez Cowdery's first great-grandchild born on a male line -- indicating the probability of Hervey ancestry among Betsey Smith's relatives. Oliver Cowdery's brother had a son, named Lyman Hervy Cowdery, born Nov. 23, 1821 at Le Roy, Genesee Co., New York who was a descendant of Betsey Smith of Tunbridge. The authors of The Spalding Enigma speculate that the Hervey (or Hervy) name popped up again, in the case of Oliver himself. They say:"Oliver's middle initials, 'H. P.' probably stood for 'Hervy Pliny,' both of which names appear several times in Oliver's family tree. For example, two of the sons of Oliver's eldest brother, Warren, bore the names "Lyman Hervy" (b.23 Nov. 1821) and "Oliver Pliny" (b.15 Jan. 1827). Both were born at LeRoy, Genesee Co., NY. In addition, Oliver Pliny, in turn, had a son, "Charles Hervy" (b. in Ohio, 1868); and "Hervy Cowdery" (b.1819) was the name of the first great-grandson born on a male line to Oliver's grand-uncle, Dr. Jabez Cowdery of Tunbridge, VT." --- Thus, it is not unlikely that there was some distant family connection between the Newcombs of Allegany Co., New York and the extended Cowdery family.

A very extraordinary discovery was a few years since made in Guatimala, (Mexican Isthmus) of the ruins of an extensive city, which had for ages been covered with herbage and underwood. It has been accurately surveyed by a learned Spaniard, & drawings made of curiosities. The originals of them have arrived in London, and will soon be presented to the world.


Note 1: The "extraordinary discovery" alluded to above, was not so much any contemporary uncovering "of the ruins of an extensive city," as it was the propitious recovery of Captain Del Rio's 1787 report on the Mayan ruins located near Palenque, in what is now Mexico. A copy of this manuscript report, accompanied by illustrations, was sent from Guatamala to London for publication by Henry Berthoud in 1822. The publication of this and of subsequent reports of interesting ancient ruins in the jungles of Central America prompted The Geographical Society of Paris in 1825 to offer substantial cash prizes for the best accounts of various subjects pertaining to American antiquities, written and submitted to the Society for study and publication. The next twenty years would see a great expansion in European and American interest in pre-Conquest Latin American civilizations, culminating with the publication of John L. Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America in 1842 and William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico in 1843.

Note 2: This same news item appeared in various American newspapers during the summer of 1822, and was eventually picked up and reprinted by The Times of London, on Sept. 7, 1822. As already mentioned, the 1822 discovery made a noticeable impact among European "antiquarians;" the publication of the old Del Rio report also had some effect upon certain American historians, as can be seen in John V. Yates and Joseph W. Moulton's 1824 publication of their first volume of the History of the State of New York, in which the writers devote several pages to PreColumbian civilizations and make prominent mention of the 1822 Del Rio booklet on pp. 73-77. The Yates and Moulton history was sold in New York book shops during the mid 1820s and would have been readily available in places like Palmyra. The frequent assertions made in some quarters, that persons like the young Joseph Smith, Jr., during the 1820s, had no possible access to descriptions and illustrations of advanced American Indian societies and their respective "civilizations" are absurd. An illustrated example of what was then available, in regard to ancient Meso-American civilizations, may also be seen on pp. 46-60 of Josiah Priest's 1825 book. The Wonders of Nature... Yates and Moulton speculated, in their 1824 volume, that the ancient civilizations of Latin America extended, in somewhat diminished form, all the way to the southern shores of the Great Lakes, and thus accounted for the old mounds and earthen fortifications of that region.

Note 3: While it is unlikely that copies of the 1822 Del Rio publication, with its fascinating engravings of the Palenque ruins and ancient Mayan inscriptions, circulated in such out of the way corners of civilization as Manchester New York and the "Great Bend" region of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, copies of the widely distributed Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post no doubt occasionally turned up in such places. During the last half of the 1820s, probably the only description of the Palenque "glyphs" published in the United States, was in Prof. C. S. Rafinesque's letter of Jan. 1, 1827, which appeared in the Post on Jan. 13, 1827. In his letter Rafinesque describes in some detail the "curvilinear elements" of what he called "the Otolum characters" of the Palenque ruins -- explaining how they corresponded with "the Old Lybian, or primitive Alphabet of North Africa." The 1827 Post report was updated and expanded to form the basis for an article on "Philology," published in the second issue of Prof. Rafinesque's Atlantic Journal, issued in the middle of 1832. That article was accompanied by an engraving of Rafinesque's fanciful tabulation of ancient Lybian characters and Mayan glyphs. This article and its engraved table were partly reprinted in Josiah Priest's 1833-4 book, American Antiquities, and from there frequently quoted or cited by Mormon writers as a demonstration that Book of Mormon "characters" matched the form of native American glyphs.

From the Montpelier (Vt.) Watchman.

MONEY  DIGGERS.

Every country has its money-diggers, who are full in the belief that vast treasures lie concealed in the earth. So far from being a new project, it dates its origin with the first man who ever weilded a spade. 'Tis as old as Adam. Even in these latter days, we find men so much in love with the "root of all evil," and so firm in the belief that it may be dug up, that they will traverse hill and dale, climb the loftiest mountain, and even work their way into the bowels of the earth in search of it. Indeed, digging for money hid in the earth, is a very common thing; and in this state it is even considered an honorable and profitable employment. We could name, if we pleased, at least five hundred respectable men, who do, in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts, verily believe that immense treasures lie concealed upon our Green Mountains; many of whom have been for a number of years, most industriously and perserveringly engaged in digging it up. Some of them have succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations. One gentleman in Parkerstown, on the summit of the mountain, after digging with unyielding confidence and untiring diligence, for ten or twelve years, found a sufficient quantity of money to build him a comodious house for his own convenience, and to fill it with comforts for weary travellers. On stopping lately to refresh, we were delighted with the view of an anchor on the sign, emblematical of his hope of success, while we left him industriously digging for more. Another gentleman on the east shore of Lake Champlain, we are credibly informed, has actually dug up the enormous sum of fifty thousand dollars! The incredulous and unbelieving may stare at this assertion, but it is nevertheless true, and we do not hesitate to declare our belief that digging for money is a most certain way of obtaining it. Much, however, depends on the skillful use of the genuine mineral rod. Don't dig too deep, is an appropriate maxim, with all who are versed in the art. Wood's Iron Plough, skillfully guided, is sure to break the enchantment, and turn up the glittering dust in every furrow. Countless treasures yet remain hid in the earth. Speed the plough -- ply the hoe -- 'twill all come to light.

P. S. The best time for digging money is early in the morning, while the dew is on.


Note 1: The 1820s was a great time for seeking buried treasure, it seems. The Philadelphia National Gazette publicized the delusion in an article it reprinted from the Hallowell Gazette on Mar. 27, 1822. The Montpelier Watchman article was reprinted in several "yankee" papers, including the May 4, 1822 issue of the New Hampshire Sentinel. Certain avaricious New Englanders spread their money-digging propensities and methods westward to New York, where the novelty took a strong hold. See the Rochester Gem of May 15, 1830 for a story of a family of local money-diggers named Smith and the Wayne Sentinel of Feb. 16, 1825 and Dec. 27, 1825 for accounts of similar clandestine proceedings, including one such episode in nearby Orleans Co.

Note 2: Despite the Montpelier Watchman's tongue-in-cheek reporting of the "skillful use of the genuine mineral rod" and the need "to break the enchantment" guarding buried treasures, such beliefs associated with 1820s money-digging were taken seriously by the practitioners of that dubious trade. The 1822 article from the Watchman was also reprinted as "Money Diggers" in the Palmyra Herald and Canal Advertiser on July 24, 1822. It was subsequently reprinted in the Farmer's Diary or Ontario Almanac for 1823, published by James D. Bemis & Co., in Canandiagua. So, it appears that the subject of money digging was of as much interest to people in Ontario Co., NY during this period as it was to their relatives back in New England.

Note 3: For even more Vermont money-digging and mineral-rod lore, see the Middlebury Vermont American of May 27, 1828, Barnes Frisbie's 1867 book, History of Middletown, and the Rev. Daniel Dorchester's 1879 article, "St. John's Rod."

From the Montpelier (Vt.) Watchman.

MONEY  DIGGERS.

(same article as in Palmyra Herald, July 24)

 


Notes (forthcoming)

A Mound, of extraordinary dimensions, has been recently discovered & opened in the southeast part of this county. It is about fifty feet in length and eighteen in breadth at one extremity, and gradually terminating to a complete point at the other. Within this space large quantities of human bones have been dug up, apparently of all ages. Some of the skull bones are very large, and one thigh bone in particular is said to be much too large for the present race of men. The bodies appear to have been thrown in without any order or regularity, as the bones are found cross-wise and in every form. No relics of utensils or implements have been found with them, and whether they were the victims of a battle, or from what cause they were disposed of in this manner, we pretend not to say, but from the works in the vicinity of the mound resembling fortifications, we should judge that to have been the case. Large trees have grown directly over the mound, and the bones on being exposed to the air soon become calcareous. After giving this statement, we leave it to the curious, and those better skilled on this subject, to make such speculations as these facts render deductible.

(A large number of human bones in the last stage of decay, were lately found in the town of Nunda -- Allegany Co. -- promiscuously covered over in a field; near which, on the top of a hill, were the remains of an old fort, inaccessible on every side but one, which appears to have been the work of a civilized people; but tradition even does not point to the time about which it was erected.)


Note: This article was reprinted in the Aug. 14, 1822 issue of the Palmyra Herald and Canal Advertiser.

                                  Circleville, O., Aug. 20.
Our Antiquities. -- A few days since while some mechanics were digging near the north west corner of the "square fort" in this place, they came to a strata of earth, differing in quality and color from that which composed the wall generally -- on which reposed the skeleton of a human being which had probably been mouldering there for centuries. The skeleton was discovered about ten feet from the summit of the wall, and four from its base, or common level of the adjacent earth. The bones are said by those who first discovered them, to have extended nine or ten feet, from head to foot! They immediately crumbled on exposure to the air. The wall is composed of clay, which is readily converted into bricks -- for which purpose it is rapidly disappearing before the devouring hand of man. The layer of earth on which the skeleton was found, was composed of dark fine sand, much resembling alluvial soil; it extended three or four rods in length, and is totally unfit for the purposes for which the remainder of the wall is using. -- Olive Branch.


Notes: (forthcoming)

List of Letters
remaining in the Post-Office at
Palmyra, Sept. 30, 1822.

...
Joseph Smith
... Persons calling for the above, are requested to say, that they are advertised.

                    W. A. M'LEAN, P. M.


Notes: (forthcoming)

AMERICAN  ANTIQUITIES.

To the editors of the Louisiana Republican.                        

Gentlemen: --
  In the course of my observation & travels through several parts of the United States, I have kept minutes of the most remarkable events which have occurred under my own observation, extracts from which I design, occasionally, to submit to you, and if you think them worthy of insertion in your useful paper, you are at liberty to use them accordingly.

All accounts extant, relative to the size of the ancient settlers of our country, agree that this race of beings must have been larger than the present; but none that I have seen give any evidence of this fact. From my own observation, I have evidence at least of one person of gigantic stature.

In the year 1810, I opened, with several other persons who accompanied me for the purpose, one of the flat mounds common in the western country. It was built of regular layers of flat stones, and covered lightly with earth. This was 4 miles west of the town of Worthington, in Ohio, and within a few rods of the banks of the river Scioto. -- In this mound we found the skeletons of a number of bodies, some of a very large size, they were deposited directly due east and west, the heads to the west; precisely as is the practice in Christian burials.

After several hours fatigue in opening & examining this mound, we retired to a house of a Mr. Miller, about 200 yards from the spot, who informed us that he had taken a skeleton from the mound adjoining the one we had examined, which was supposed to be, when living, a man of at least 7 feet 4 inches. He stated that such was the opinion of all who had seen the bones in his possession -- that the bone of the leg, which had lost a little at each end, was then longer than the bone of the tallest man in the settlement, measuring from the heel to the cap of the knee.

Mr. Miller stated that he had also in his possession, the jaw bone of this skeleton, which he said, would cover loosely the face of any of his neighbors; and that, when he found the skeleton, he picked from one of the joints of the neck bone, (which was also much larger than any he had seen before,) a stone arrow point; from which circumstances, it was thought his death had been occasioned. I made many inquiries of Mr. Miller, who seemed to be a very intelligent man. He informed me that he had been living at his residence on the Scioto, for many years; -- that when he first settled there, he was told by all the old Indians that these mounds existed at a period beyond the recollection of the oldest of them, and that the tribe of Indians before them could give no account of the mounds, other than that they were burying places before they inhabited the country.

From these circumstances, together with some others, which have come under my observation, I have been of opinion, that the bones frequently found in these mounds, must have been the skeletons of a race of beings inhabiting the country, of whom the Indians had no knowledge. The most remarkable circumstance stated by Mr. Miller was, that when ploughing his field, he traced plainly the remains of an ancient building in the form of a house, as there was a manifest difference in the appearance of the earth; and pointing at the same time to the hearth stone in his fire-place, he observed "the hearth-stone which you see there, I took myself from the place where I suppose the fire-place was in the ancient building of which I speak." The Indians, he added, gave him the same account of the appearance of this old building as they had of the mounds; that it existed before their time. During the war, and while on my way to Detroit, I intended calling on Mr. Miller, for more particular information, but upon my arrival at Worthington, I learned that he was dead.

Every information tending to prove the existence of a vast ancient population of any part of our country, ought to be preserved -- but few