The Permanency of
Republics, is Secured by the Virtue, Intelligence and Patriotism of the People.
Vol. III. No. ?
Painesville, Ohio, Tuesday, May
17?, 1831. Whole No. 134.
Infatuation.
-- Almost every
week brings new reports of the fatal infatuation of the Mormonites. It will be recollected that when they made their appearance
here, they declared themselves immortal. Death, however, has paid
them no respect, other than by frequent visits. In defiance of repeated
instances of mortality they [still] profess the
power of healing, refuse to call medical assistance, and many fall the
miserable victims of their faith. The latest reports are, that a few
days since, the wife of a Mr. Murdock, daughter of Judge Clapp, of Mentor, and
a believer in Mormonism, died among them in child bed for want of professional
assistance. The wife of the prophet Joseph Smith
hardly escaped the same fate; she was in labor three days, during which time
they tried their spells in vain, at last they called an accoucheur, and she was
delivered of the dead bodies of two fine boys. The mother barely survived.
Fresh Arrival. -- Within the last week there have arrived from
the state of New-York, some by the lake and others by land, at least 200 Mormonites.
They brought with them their household furniture entire, [bag] and [baggage],
and roots, and herbs and plants ready for the soil. They passed on to the
"holy land," and we understand are scattered about in the common
stock families. We are told that the wife of the prophet Harris refused to be a
Mormonite, and he has left her among "the Gentiles." She it was who
purloined several pages of the first revelation, and which by the direction of
the Angel have never been supplied. Another fellow had left his wife and
children, and openly declared they never should live with him until they
embrace the new faith.
Every breeze wafts to us some new rumour from this prolific source of fanatics
[sic - fantasies?], some of which proved true and some false. Fame now whispers
in sly and obscure hints, something about a miraculous conception, from which
we conclude the Mormon public mind is being prepared for the nativity of
some wonderful personage.
Note 1: These two articles were evidently published in the May 17th (or
possibly May 24th) issue of the Geauga Gazette. The text is taken
primarily from a reprint which appeared in the June 4, 1831
issue of the New York City Working Man's Advocate. -- The New York
Mormons mentioned by the writer arrived at Fairport, on a steamer from Buffalo,
about May 13-14, 1831. This would correspond to "within the last
week" for a writer preparing the article for the May 17th number.
Catherine Smith Salisbury provided her recollection of the lake voyage in the July 3, 1886
issue of the Saints' Herald.
Note 2: Julia Clapp Murdock died on April 30, 1831 at Warrenville, Ohio, while
giving birth to twins: Julia and Joseph Murdock. At practically the same time,
in Kirtland, Emma Hale Smith lost her two newly born twins, perhaps due to lack
of proper medical care. A few days later the convalescing Emma took the Murdock
infants into her keeping; the boy died young but the girl, Julia, grew up in
the Smith family and did not realize she was adopted until past her childhood.
The passing of Julia Clapp Murdock must have been doubly difficult for the
anti-Mormon "Judge" Orris Clapp -- not only did he lose a daughter to
death but a granddaughter to his enemy, Joseph Smith, Jr. One of Judge Clapp's
sons married the sister of the Disciples of Christ founder/leader, Alexander
Campbell, putting Rev. Campbell in the uncomfortable position of being a
shirt-tail in-law of "Joe Smith," whom Campbell despised.
Note 3: Joseph Smith, Jr. apparently learned something
personally "revelatory" from his wife Emma's near brush with death in
1831. The following year, when Emma give birth to Joseph Smith III, on Nov. 6,
1832, the Mormon leader disobeyed his own religious tenets and called in the
Gentile physician, Dr. George W. Card of Willoughby, to attend to the delivery.
Note 4: The "miraculous conception" referred to so obliquely by
Editor Perkins, was almost certainly the unexpected/unexplained pregnancy of
Miss Catherine (or Katherine) Smith, a daughter of Joseph, Sr. and Lucy Mack
Smith. Catherine married William Jenkins Salisbury at Fayette, New York, on
Jan. 8, 1831, with the visiting Rev. Sidney Rigdon probably attending the
ceremony. In fact, Catherine's nephew, Joseph Smith III claimed
that Rev. Rigdon was the officiating minister: "Sidney Rigdon was not
known to the Smith family, until he came to [sic - from?] Kirtland; that soon
after his coming he performed the ceremony of marriage for Mr. Jenkins
Salisbury and herself." Catherine's first child of record was
Elizabeth Salisbury, born on Apr. 12, 1832, in Ohio. The matter of this lady's
previous experience with conception has long been considered a subject too
delicate for polite discussion among students of early Mormon history -- Dan
Vogel, in his Early Mormon Documents series, dismisses the rumors as
being unfounded, despite the fact that Palmyra residents recalled hearing that
the Smith house was a "perfect brothel," that Catherine's reputation
for virtue was poor, that she was impregnated by Sidney Rigdon, and that she
was delivered of a stillborn infant just prior to her arrival at Kirtland.
Accusations that Sidney Rigdon was a hopeful father, in connection with one of
the young Smith girls, were made openly during the early years of the Mormon
experience. See the May 26, 1831
issue of the Ravenna, Ohio Western Courier for more on these anticipated
"miraculous births" among the Ohio Mormonites. Clark Braden refers
to this maternal infamy in these words: "One of Joe's unmarried sisters
proving to be enciente, it was declared to be an immaculate conception,
and a new Messiah would be given to the world." Pomeroy Tucker is more
direct in his
accusations: "[In 1830, Martin] Harris ... spoke unreservedly of an
'immaculate conception in our day and generation.' The ample shrewdness of the
prophet had probably been called in requisition to allay some unfavorable
surmises on the part of his observing disciple... Rigdon had been an occasional
sojourner at Smith's for a year or more... The upshot of the story
is, that soon after the family started for Ohio, the miracle eventuated
somewhere on the route, in the birth of a lifeless female child!"
Burlington Sentinel.
Vol. XXXI.
Burlington, Vt., Friday, March 23, 1832.
No. 12.
Death
of a Mormon Preacher. -- Died, in Pomfret, Vt., on Saturday, 7th inst. Joseph H.
Brackenbury, a 'Mormon Preacher.' He recently came to this town from Ohio,
in company with one or two individuals of the same society. -- They preached,
exhorted, and with great zeal and apparent humility, attempted to
propagate their doctrines. Two or three embraced their sentiments so far as to
be baptized -- one a Free Will Baptist, the other a Presbyterian.
In confirmation of their doctrine and divine mission, they professed to have power to heal the sick, and
raise the dead. It is credibly reported that they attempted twice without
effect, to heal a Miss Nancy Johnson, made a cripple by falling from a horse.
She was not healed for lack of faith; but started for Ohio with the
Mormons, to obtain more. The company of Brackenbury also
attempted also to heal him, and since his decease, to raise him from the dead.
Note: The above article was copied from an issue of the New York Fredonia
Censor printed shortly after Elder Brackenbury's death in nearby Pomfret, New
York, on Jan. 7, 1831. The Burlington Sentinel added the faulty
information saying that Brackenbury's death occurred in Pomfret, Vermont.
The Palmyra Wayne Sentinel of Apr. 11,
1832 passed the garbled report from the the Burlington Sentinel, as
did Lewis L. Rice's Ohio Star of Apr. 12, 1832. The reprint by the Wayne
Sentinel is particularly unjustifiable -- since the same newspaper had
already printed the correct version of the story on Feb. 14,
1832