Mormon History
Spaulding Statements - 1881
Scribner’s Monthly – October 1881
Communications (Letters to the Editor)
The Book of Mormon.
TO THE EDITOR
OF SCRIBNER'S
MONTHLY.
SIR: In the number of this
magazine for August, 1880, appeared an article by myself entitled "The Book of
Mormon." The article contained a statement, together with evidence
substantiating it in part, by Mrs. McKinstry, a daughter of the Rev. Solomon
Spaulding, that the Book of Mormon was derived from a novel called "The
Manuscript Found," written by her father in 1812, and that the manuscript of
this novel was in 1834 delivered to one D. P. Hurlburt.
When the article appeared, there seemed to be no other proof that this
manuscript was delivered to Hurlburt. Believing it to be important to follow up
this clue, I recently visited Hurlburt at his home near Gibsonburg, Sandusky
County, Ohio, in company with Oscar Kellogg, Esq., a well-known lawyer of that
vicinity. As the result of this visit, I have received the following sworn
statement:
"GIBSONBURG, OHIO, January 10th, 1881.
"To all whom it may concern:
In the year eighteen hundred and thirty-four (1834), I went from Geauga County,
Ohio, to Monson, Hampden County, Massachusetts, where I found Mrs. Davison, late
widow of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, late of Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio.
Of her I obtained a manuscript, supposing it to be the manuscript of the romance
written by the said Solomon Spaulding, called the 'Manuscript Found,' which was
reported to be the foundation of the 'Book of Mormon.' I did not examine the
manuscript until I got home, when upon examination I found it to contain nothing
of the kind, but being a manuscript upon an entirely different subject. This
manuscript I left with E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Geauga County, Ohio, now Lake
County, Ohio, with the understanding that when he had examined it, he should
return it to the widow. Said Howe says the manuscript was destroyed by fire, and
further the deponent saith not.
"(Signed) D. P. HURLBURT.
"Sworn to and subscribed before me this 10th
day of January, 1881.
"(Signed) J. Kinniger,
"Mayor of the village of Gibsonburg, Sandusky County, Ohio."
In this statement Hurlburt gives the impression that he procured this manuscript
from Mrs. Davison at Munson, Massachusetts, but Mrs. McKinstry, in her
statement, says he got it by an order addressed to Jerome Clark, at Hartwick,
Otsego County, New York, and this is undoubtedly the truth. In fact, Hurlburt
admitted as much to me before Mr. Kellogg, in the conversation I had with him at
his house in Gibsonburg. This is further confirmed by George Clark, a son of the
above-mentioned Jerome Clark, and his wife, in two letters copied below.
In a former statement signed by Hurlburt, -- the original of which is in my
possession, -- dated August 19th, 1880, he says: "I do not know whether or not
the document I received from Mrs. Davison was Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found,' as
I never read it."
In the conversation I had with Hurlburt at his house, and before Mr. Kellogg, he
admitted that he "just peeped into the manuscript, and saw the names Mormon,
Moroni, Nephi and Lamenite."
The original "Manuscript Found" was in existence at Onondaga Valley, Onondaga
County, New York, in 1818, as appears in the following statement, never before
published. Mrs. Redfield is now living at Syracuse, New York.
"Syracuse, June 17, 1880
In the year 1818 I was principal of the Onondaga Valley Academy, and resided in
the house of William H. Sabine, Esq. I remember Mrs. Spaulding, Mr. Sabine's
sister perfectly, and hearing her and the family talk of a manuscript in her
possession, which her husband, the Rev. Mr. Spaulding, had written somewhere in
the West. I did not read the manuscript, but its substance was so often
mentioned, and the peculiarity of the story, that years afterward, when the
Mormon Bible was published, I procured a copy, and at once recognized the
resemblance between
it and Mrs. Spaulding's account of 'The Manuscript Found.' I remember also to
have heard Mr. Sabine talk of the romance, and that he and Mrs. Spaulding said
it had been written in the leisure hours of an invalid, who read it to his
neighbors for their amusement. Mrs. Spaulding believed that Sidney Rigdon had
copied the manuscript while it was in Patterson's printing office, in
Pittsburgh. She spoke of it with regret. I never saw her after her marriage to
Mr. Davison of Hartwick.
"(Signed) Ann Treadwell Redfield."
The original "Manuscript Found" was in existence at Hartwick, N. Y., in 1831, as
appears by the following letters never before published, of George Clark, the
son of the Jerome Clark above referred to:
"Sonoma, Cal., Dec. 30th, 1880.
"Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson.
"DEAR
MADAM:
I remember that Mrs. Davison spent a winter in my father's house nearly fifty
years ago, and left there to go to Munson, Massachusetts. A year or two later
she wrote to my father to sell her effects, bureau, feather-bed, linen, etc.,
and remit the proceeds to her, which he did. The old trunk still remained in the
garret when I sold the farm in 1864, and was given away, to whom I know not. It
was worthless and empty. My wife remembers that Mrs. Davison gave her a
manuscript to read during her stay with us, and that she read a part of it and
returned it to Mrs. Davison, who told her it was written by Mr. Spaulding as a
pastime to while away the days of sickness.
"Respectfully yours,
"GEORGE
CLARK."
Letter No. 2.
"Sonoma, Cal. Jan. 24th, 1881.
Mrs. E. E. Dickinson.
"DEAR
MADAM:
My wife does not remember the words 'Mormon, Maroni,' etc., nor anything else of
the contents of the Spaulding manuscript in question. She remembers perfectly
that it looked soiled and worn on the outside. She thought it dry reading, and,
after reading a few pages, laid it aside. She remembers perfectly, too, what
Mrs. Davison said about it as being the origin of the Mormon Bible, and she
thought it would die out in a few years. It was in 1831 Mrs. Davison left our
house for Munson, Massachusetts.
"GEORGE
CLARK."
(My interview with Hurlbut is too long to be inserted here. The gist of it is
that he admitted before Mr. Kellogg and myself that he obtained a manuscript at
Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, through an order from Mrs. Davison, in 1834,
which he believes was written by Solomon Spaulding, that it was called
"Manuscript Found," etc., that he peeped into it and saw the words Mormon,
Maroni, Nephi, Lamanite, etc.)
What is the fair conclusion from these new facts? Is it not that Hurlburt got
the original "Manuscript Found" in 1834? It has probably disappeared. It was
obviously of value to the Mormons. They have probably had it in their control,
and the fate of it will never be known.
That this "Manuscript Found" was the basis of
the "Book of Mormon" still further appears from
the following statements, never before published.
"Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio, "December 23, 1880.
"I have resided in the neighborhood of Conneaut, Ashtabula Co., Ohio. sixty-six
years. During all that period I have known Hiram Lake, whose statement, dated
December 23d, 1880, I have read. This statement I believe to be true. I was
acquainted with Henry Lake, Aaron Wright, John N. Miller, and Nathan Howard, the
persons named in Hiram Lake's statement, and about 1834-5, the time of the
excitement concerning Mormonism, I heard them all say that the Book of Mormon
was undoubtedly taken from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding, which they
had heard Spaulding read in 1811 or 1812, called 'The Manuscript Found, or, the
Lost Tribes.' "LORIN GOULD."
Conneaut, "Ashtabula County, Ohio, "Dec. 23, 1880.
"I am sixty-nine years of age, and have lived all my life in Conneaut, Ashtabula
County, Ohio. My father, Henry Lake, was partner with Solomon Spaulding in 1811
and '12, in a forge in Conneaut (then Salem). About 1834, when I was about
twenty-three years of age, I remember that there was a great excitement
concerning Mormonism in Conneaut. My father read the Book of Mormon, or heard it
read, and was familiar with its contents, and he told me it was unquestionably
derived from a manuscript written by his former partnerm, Solomon Spaulding,
called 'Manuscript Found. or, the Lost Tribes.' I believe my father, about this
time, made an affidavit to the same effect, which was published. Since 1834 I
have conversed with Aaron Wright, John N. Miller, and Nathan Howard, old
residents here, now deceased, all of whom lived here in 1811 and '12, and who
had heard Spaulding's manuscript read, and they told me they believed the Book
of Mormon was derived from Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found.' Some or all these
persons made affidavits to this effect, which were published in a book called
'Mormonism Unveiled,' edited by E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio.
"HIRAM LAKE."
These two gentlemen are highly respected residents of Conneaut, where the writer
saw them in November last. E. D. Howe, above referred to, in conversation with
me at Painesville, Ohio (the same month), gave it as his opinion that the Book
of Mormon was derived from Spaulding's manuscript, and that this manuscript was
of too much value to the Mormons, when it was in their possession, to allow it
to escape them. The theory he advanced was that Hurlbut got the real Spaulding
manuscript, but what disposition he made of it has not been told, and that the
one given by Hurlburt to him was something else.
It may be interesting to state that on my trip to Ohio, I called on General
Garfield at Mentor, and conversed with him on this subject. I found that he was
much interested in Mormonism. The first Mormon settlement was at Mentor, which
is only three miles from Kirtland, where the first Mormon temple was built, a
structure which is still in tolerable preservation. President Garfield's farm at
Mentor was purchased from a Mormon. Mrs. Garfield told me that her father
studied Latin and Greek with Sidney Rigdon; that she and her husband remember to
have heard Rigdon preach. She also said that her father told her that Rigdon, in
his youth, lived in that neighborhood, and made mysterious journeys to
Pittsburgh. From my conversation with General and Mrs. Garfield, I gathered that
they believed that Rigdon was the prime author of the Book of Mormon, and that
Joe Smith was merely his tool in that matter.
From a statement made by John Spaulding, the brother of Solomon Spaulding,
printed in a memorial or genealogy of the Spaulding family, I have learned that
he (John Spaulding) believed that Rigdon, then a printer, when a very young man,
was familiar with the contents of "Manuscript Found," as he resided in the
neighborhood of Conneaut, and is said to have been familiar with Mr. Spaulding's
writings, and that he secretly followed him to Pittsburgh, worked at his trade
with Patterson, and suggested to his employer to borrow the curious romance
written by Mr. Spaulding, withthe possible idea of publishing it. Many facts
seem to confirm this statement.
During my recent visit to Conneaut, the locality of the earth-mound which so
fired Solomon Spaulding's imagination was pointed out to me, as well as the site
of his foundry and dwelling house. Last year some curious evidences of a
prehistoric civilization, such as personal ornaments, cooking utensils,
fragments of pottery, etc., were found near the old mound, and a number of
families in that vicinity possess souvenirs of this kind.
ELLEN E. DICKINSON.