Footnotes
Historical Introduction to Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837.
Vilate Murray Kimball, Kirtland, OH, to Heber C. Kimball, Preston, England, 19–24 Jan. 1838, Heber C. Kimball, Collection, CHL; Thomas B. Marsh, Far West, MO, to Wilford Woodruff, [ca. Apr. 1838], in Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 36–38.
Kimball, Heber C. Collection, 1837–1898. CHL. MS 12476.
Minutes, Elders’ Journal, Nov. 1837, 17; Minutes, 17 Sept. 1837–A; Minutes, 17 Sept. 1837–B.
Sidney Rigdon, Terre Haute, IN, to Don Carlos Smith, [Kirtland, OH], 13 Oct. 1837, in Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837, 7–8; Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.
JS’s editorial in the November Elders’ Journal may have included information from more than one meeting in Far West, but it certainly incorporated information from Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.
Though JS’s report names the members of the committee and indicates when they began their work, the composition of the committee subsequently changed. In minutes of a 7 December 1837 meeting held in Far West, Cowdery, Wight, and David W. Patten are noted as being members of the committee, while Whitmer and Corrill are not mentioned. Frederick G. Williams was added to the committee on that day. (Minute Book 2, 7 Dec. 1837.)
Written to convince the public that JS was an imposter and to warn “those who are yet liable . . . to be enclosed within its [Mormonism’s] fetters,” Howe’s book featured a series of affidavits collected by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut from individuals who claimed to have been acquainted with JS and his family when they lived in New York. Following its publication, JS defended his and his family’s reputations, stating that he had never “been guilty of wronging or injuring any man or society of men” and that he was only guilty of having, in his youth, “a light, and too often, vain mind.” Howe’s book received a favorable review in Alexander Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger and was available for purchase throughout Ohio, western New York, and Pennsylvania. (Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, ix; JS to Oliver Cowdery, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1834, 1:40; “Mormonism Unveiled,” Millennial Harbinger, Jan. 1835, 44–45; “Mormonism Unveiled,” Fredonia [NY] Censor, 25 Mar. 1835, [3]; News Item, Naked Truths about Mormonism [Oakland, CA], Apr. 1888, 4.)
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: 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 Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
Millennial Harbinger. Bethany, VA. Jan. 1830–Dec. 1870.
Fredonia Censor. Fredonia, NY. 1824–1932.
Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.
See Questions and Answers, Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 42–44. In late December 1837 or early January 1838, the Geauga County sheriff seized the printing office, along with its contents, in response to a legal judgment rendered against JS. The office was destroyed by fire on 16 January 1838. (“Sheriff Sale,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 5 Jan. 1838, [3]; Hepzibah Richards, Kirtland, OH, to Willard Richards, Bedford, England, 18–19 Jan. 1838, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL; John Smith, Kirtland, OH, to George A. Smith, Shinnston, VA, 15–17 Jan. 1838, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL.)
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490.
Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.
JS’s reputation as a treasure seer, or someone who used a seer stone to locate gold or other valuable objects buried in the earth, likely prompted this question. (Historical Introduction to Agreement of Josiah Stowell and Others, 1 Nov. 1825; Isaac Hale, Affidavit, Harmony, PA, 20 Mar. 1834, in “Mormonism,” Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian [Montrose, PA], 1 May 1834, [1]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 234.)
Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian. Montrose, PA. 1831–1836.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: 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 Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
This query may have arisen from statements made by Emma Smith’s father, Isaac Hale, as well as an affidavit published in Mormonism Unvailed. Twenty-two-year-old Emma Hale married JS in January 1827. Isaac Hale opposed the union and alleged in 1834 that JS had “carried off my daughter” and married her “without my approbation or consent.” (Isaac Hale, Affidavit, Harmony, PA, 20 Mar. 1834, in “Mormonism,” Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian [Montrose, PA], 1 May 1834, [1]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 234.)
Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian. Montrose, PA. 1831–1836.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: 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 Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
On this issue, see Historical Introduction to Letter to Oliver Cowdery, ca. 9 Apr. 1836.
This question may have been informed by allegations that, as early as 1831, Latter-day Saint missionaries were seeking to convert American Indians and incite them to attack non-Mormons. These claims were based on interpretations of Book of Mormon prophecies stating that converted Indians would be—echoing language from the biblical book of Micah—“as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he goeth through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.”a In 1832, fearing that non-Mormons would believe that the Latter-day Saints were “putting up the Indians to slay” whites—thereby endangering “the lives of the Saints evry where”—JS cautioned church members against discussing these prophecies.b Fears that the Saints were “tampering” with American Indians contributed to opposition of Mormon settlements in Jackson County in 1833 and Clay County in 1836, leading church leaders to deny having any connection with the Indians and to state that the Saints feared “the barbarous cruelty of rude savages” like other frontier whites.c Similar allegations were made in Eber D. Howe’s 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed.d
(a“Mormonism—No. VI,” Ohio Star [Ravenna], 17 Nov. 1831, [3]; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 496–497, 500 [3 Nephi 20:15–16; 21:11–12]; Micah 5:8. bLetter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832. cIsaac McCoy, “The Disturbances in Jackson County,” Missouri Republican [St. Louis], 20 Dec. 1833, [2]–[3]; “Public Meeting,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Aug. 1836, 2:359–360; Letter to John Thornton and Others, 25 July 1836. dHowe, Mormonism Unvailed, 145–146, 196–197.)Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Daily Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1869.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: 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 Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
JS had previously defended the idea of modern-day revelation in an 1833 letter to his uncle Silas Smith and in a circa March 1834 letter to the church. The latter was published in The Evening and the Morning Star in March 1834. (Historical Introduction to Letter to Silas Smith, 26 Sept. 1833; Letter to the Church, ca. Mar. 1824.)