Mormon History
Interview With Original Book of Mormon Pressman - 1877
Detroit Post & Tribune – December 3, 1877
JOE SMITH.
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Something About the Early Life of the Mormon Prophet.
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Story of the Mormon Bible From the Man Who First Printed It.
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The Men Who Figured in its Production and Publication
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Maj. J. H.
Gilbert, of Palmyra, N. Y., is in the city on a visit to his son, Charles T.
Gilbert, of Nevin & Mills. He is a printer; was formerly proprietor of the Wayne
(Palmyra) Sentinel, and is the man who set up the Mormon Bible from the
original manuscript. It was the custom of the printers as the sheets were run
through the press to take one of each form for preservation. Maj. Gilbert did
this, and now has with him in this city the unbound sheets of the Mormon Bible
as he then took them from the press. These he cheerfully exhibits to any person
who has a curiosity to look at them. The book was a quarto of 580 pages. The
contents were sub-divided into chapters broken into frequent paragraphs, but the
verses were not numbered as they are in later editions. Upon the title page
appears the name of Joseph Smith as "Author and Proprietor." In all subsequent
editions he appears simply as "Translator." This change was rendered necessary
to carry out the theory afterward adopted that Smith dug up these writings and
translated them from "reformed Egyptian" by means of a pair of supernatural
spectacles.
A reporter of THE POST AND TRIBUNE met Maj. Gilbert on Saturday, and had a very
pleasant chat with him about the early days of Mormondom in Wayne county, N. Y.,
in which that modern religion started. He found the veteran printer, though now
75 years of age, remarkably well preserved, and hale and vigorous as a man of
50. It was more than half a century ago that he learned the printer's trade, of
Chauncey Morse, now a resident of this city, and had just established himself in
business at Palmyra, when, after a short newspaper experience, he sold out to
E. P. Grandin, and continued in his employment as a journeyman printer.
One pleasant day in the summer of 1829, Hiram Smith, Joe's brother, came to the
office to negotiate for the printing of a book. The arrangements were completed.
Five thousand copies of the book were to be printed for $3,000. A well-to-do
farmer named Martin Harris, living in the neighborhood, agreed to become
security for the payment of the money, and the work was at once put in hand.
Maj. Gilbert set up all the type of the book, except some 20 or 30 pages, and
did nearly all the press work. It was all worked off on a hand press.
The copy was brought to the office by Hiram Smith. It was written on foolscap
paper in a good, clear hand. The handwriting was Oliver Cowdery's. There was not
a punctuation mark in the whole manuscript. The sentences were all run in
without capitals, or other marks to designate where one left off and another
began, and it was no easy task to straighten out the stuff. Maj. Gilbert,
perceiving that large portions were stolen verbatim from the Bible, used to have
a copy of that book on his case to aid him in deciphering the manuscript and
putting in the proper punctuation marks.
At first Smith used to come to the office every morning with just enough
manuscript to last through the day. But it was so much bother to put in the
punctuation that Gilbert said: "Bring me around a quantity of copy at a time,
and I can go through it and fix it up evenings, and so get along faster with
it."
Smith replied: "This is pretty important business, young man, and I don't know
as we can trust this manuscript in your possession."
Finally his scruples were overcome, and he consented to the arrangement. Then he
would bring around a quire of paper, or 48 pages, at a time, and this would last
several days. When the matter had been set all the copy was carefully taken away
again by Smith. It took eight months to set up the book and run it through the
press.
Maj. Gilbert was not much interested in the book, thought it rather dry and
prosy, and to this day has never thought it worth his while to read it a second
time.
Of course, nobody then dreamed that the "Book of Mormon" was destined to achieve
the notoriety which it has gained, or that it was to cut such a figure in the
history of this country. It did not find a very ready sale at the outset, and
Harris, who had mortgaged his farm to pay the printer's bill, was cleaned out
financially. He was an intimate friend of the Smiths, and afterwards became an
adherent to the doctrines they taught. He did not follow them Westward, however,
but remained near his own home, [sic] where he died two years ago.
With this book as the basis of his teaching, Joe Smith began to preach, and soon
formed a congregation of followers in Palmyra and the neighboring village of
Manchester, where the Smiths resided. A year later he, with thirty of his
followers, removed to Kirtland, Ohio. His subsequent history is well known.
There were nine children in the Smith family. Joe was then about 23 years of
age. He was a lazy, good-for-nothing lout, chiefly noted for his capacity to
hang around a corner grocery and punish poor whisky. He had good physical
strength, but he never put it to any use in the way of mowing grass or sawing
wood. He could wrestle pretty well, but was not given to exerting his muscles in
any practical way. He had evidently made up his mind that there was an easier
way of getting a living than by honest industry.
He was the discoverer of a magic stone which he used to carry around in his hat.
Holding it carefully laid in the bottom of his hat he would bring his eye to
bear on it at an angle of about 45 degrees and forthwith discover the
whereabouts of hidden treasures. He would draw a circle on the ground and say to
the awe struck bystanders, "dig deep enough within this circle and you will find
a pot of gold." But he never dug himself. He had a good share of the rising
generation of Palmyra out digging in the suburbs, and to this day traces of the
pits thus dug are pointed out to curious visitors.
As he claimed to be the author of the "Book of Mormon" his story was that by the
aid of his wonderful stone he found gold plates on which were inscribed the
writings in hieroglyphics. He translated them by means of a pair of magic
spectacles which the Lord delivered to him at the same time that the golden
tablets were turned up. But nobody but Joe himself ever saw the golden tablets
or the far-seeing spectacles. He dictated the book, concealed behind a curtain,
and it was written down by Cowdery. This course seemed to be rendered necessary
by the fact that Joe did not know how to write. Otherwise the book might have
gone to the printer in the handwriting of Old Mormon himself.
It is now pretty well established that the "Book of Mormon" was written in 1812
by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, of Ohio, as a popular romance. He could not find
any one to print it. The manuscript was sent to Pittsburg, where it lay in a
printing office several years. Spalding was never able to raise the money to
secure the printing of the story, and after his death in 1824 [sic] it was
returned to his wife. By some means, exactly how is not known, it fell into the
hands of one Sidney Rigdon, who, with Joe Smith, concocted the scheme by which
it was subsequently brought out as the work of Smith.
The dealings with the outside world in respect to it were manipulated by Hiram
Smith, an elder brother of Joe.
Maj. Gilbert's recollection of all these persons and events is fresh and vivid,
and he has a fund of anecdote and incident relating to them.
Note: This is thought to be printer John H. Gilbert's first published reference
to the story of early Mormonism in Palmyra, since he supplied some information
for Pomeroy Tucker's 1867 book. The
Gilbert interview appeared in the press not long after the well publicized death
of Brigham Young and naturally attracted the interest of the readers of that
period. The article was reprinted in various newspapers and by the The
American Bookseller of
Dec. 15, 1877. See the weekly Deseret News of
Jan. 16, 1878 for a censorious review of the Gilbert interview.