BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES AWARD, JOHN WHITMER HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

In this series:
Volume 1: Smith family and Vermont
Volume 2: Palmyra and environs
Volume 3: Palmyra and environs cont.
Volume 4: Colesville, S. Bainbridge, & Harmony
Volume 5: Fayette

In Volume Four:

FOR COLESVILLE AND
SOUTH BAINBRIDGE, NEW YORK:

FOR HARMONY, PENNSYLVANIA:

• Bainbridge court record, 1826.
• Sidney Rigdon interview, 1831
• Jared Carter reminiscence, 1832
• Joseph Knight reminiscence, ca. 1835
• Justice Joel K. Noble letter, 1842
• Josiah Stowell Jr. letter, 1843
• Attorney John S. Reed reminiscence, 1844
• Emily Colburn Austin autobiography, 1882
• And thirty-seven other documents

• Articles of Agreement, 1825
• Anthon Transcript, 1827
• Tax assessment record, 1828-31
• Joseph Smith mortgage, 1830
• Headmistress Hupman's ledger, 1830
• Isaac Hale statement, 1834
• Charles Anthon letter, 1834
• Emily Blackman history, 1873
• And twenty-nine other documents

Today when we think of Joseph Smith as a young man, we tend to picture him in a Palmyra, New York, setting. He also spent three years in Harmony, Pennsylvania. When he first arrived there, he boarded with Isaac Hale and worked for Josiah Stowell. Later, after he married Hale's daughter Emma, he became a permanent resident and property owner. He also spent about six months across the border in South Bainbridge, New York, where Stowell lived, and in neighboring Colesville, where he was employed by Joseph Knight. During this period, he made brief visits back to Palmyra and Fayette to monitor the typesetting and printing of the Book of Mormon and to organize the Church of Christ. In September 1830 he and Emma left Hamony for good, moving first to Fayette, then to Ohio.

The documentary record relating to the Smiths' experiences in Harmony, Colesville, and South Bainbridge is fairly extensive. From tax assessments, we learn that the young couple owned thirteen acres of land, a cow worth ten dollars, and a house worth ten dollars. The small house, an outbuilding provided by Emma's father, was where her brother Jesse lived when the house was not being used to dress deer skins. Joseph and Emma tried to make it habitable. Neighbors commented on the "beautiful hardwood" floors and the "nice fireplace." The bulk of the Book of Mormon was dictated there

In addition, editor Dan Vogel has assembled court documents relating to Joseph's money-digging adventures and statements by Joseph's acquaintances, letters, diary entries, reminiscences, and news articles that shed considerable light on the family's circumstances and activities, including the dictation of the Book of Mormon and the first sermons and baptisms of the new church.

Perspectives contained within these documents are varied. When Joseph was brought to trial in South Bainbridge, his supporters considered it a nuisance suit and agreed with attorney John S. Reed who hoped the "Boy Joseph," whose "cheeks blossomed with the beauty of youth, and ... eyes sparkled with innocence," would be "deliver[ed] from them wicked sons of bitc[h]es". The community, for their part, agreed with Josiah Stowell's sons who thought their father was being tricked and cheated and that Reed was an opportunist—an "old pettyfogger," as they phrased it.

Also interesting is that Joseph's famous hat, used for stone gazing, was a white stovepipe. Neighbors knew Joseph as "the peeker," and some spoke with respect for his gift of "second sight" and for the seer stone, which they called the "All-Seeing Eye."

Finally is the enthusiasm with which people embraced the new gospel. Newell Knight described the first church conference: "Much good instruction was given, and the Holy Ghost was poured out upon us in a marvelous manner. Many prophesied, while others had the heavens opened to their view. It was a scene long to be remembered. I felt my heart filled with love, with golory, and with pleasure unspeakable."

Excerpt:
"I will give you a Short history of what I know about Joseph Smith Jr. I have binn Intemetely acquainted with him about 2 years[.] he then was about 20 years old or there about[.] I also went to schoal [school] with him one winter[.] he was a fine likely young man & at that time did not Profess religion[.] he was not a profain man although I did once in a while hear him sware[.] he never gambled to my knowledge[.] I Do not believe he Ever did[.] I well know he was no Hoars [horse] Jocky for he was no Judge of Hoarses[.] I Sold him one[;] that is all I ever knewd he dealt in the kind[.] I never new him to git drunk [although] I believe he would now and then take a glass[.] he never Pretended to Play the Slight [sleight] of hand nor Black leg [horse betting.] it was fashionable at that time to drink Liquor[.] I do not Believe in any religion & there fore am friendly to all[.] I Believe that there is a heaven & hell & those that do not right here through there lives will be damned but still I believe I do right myself[.] I State this for facts that any thing [different] from waht I have Said about Joseph Smith that is wors[e] than I say is fals & untrue." —Josiah Stowell Jr. (son of Joseph Smith's employer) to Elder John S. Fullmer, 17 February 1843

Dan Vogel is the author of several books on Mormon history including Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, and Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism. Volume 1 of this series (Early Mormon Documents) won the Best Documentary Book Award from the Mormon History Association. He is the editor of The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture, coeditor of American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet and a contributor to Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine, New Approaches to the Book of Mormon, and The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith. His historical essays have appeared in Dialogue, the John Whitmer Historical Journal, Journal of Mormon History, and elsewhere; he has delivered papers at the annual Mormon History Association meetings, Sunstone Symposium, and other conferences. Currently he is writing a biography of Joseph Smith's early years. He and his wife live in Westerville, Ohio.