WAYNE SENTINEL.
Vol. III No. 35.]
Palmyra, (N. Y.) Friday, May 26, 1826.
[Whole No. 139.
__________________________________
printed and published every Friday
AT PALMYRA, WAYNE CO., N. Y. BY
TUCKER & GILBERT.
__________________________________
From the Western Balance.
WONDERFUL
INFATUATION.
Modern
Pilgrims. -- In
the Summer of 1818, a company of people, calling themselves Pilgrims,
appeared descending the Mississippi, in flat boats. By their own account, they
started from Lower Canada, in a company consisting of eight or ten. In Vermont
they recruited twenty or thirty; in the state of New-York several more -- and
when they reached Cincinnati, their numbers amounted to about sixty.
Their leader, a Canadian, by the name of Bullard, (called also by his
followers, the Prophet Elijah,) was of a diminutive stature, with a club foot.
Before he began his mission, he had a severe spell of sickness, when he fasted
40 days, (as he said, and his disciples believed;) after which he recovered
very suddenly, by the special interposition of the Divine Spirit, and being
filled with enthusiasm, he declared that he was commanded to plant the church
of the Redeemer in the wilderness, and among the heathen. -- From these
notions, thus imbibed, and which he instilled into his followers, they believed
themselves capable of fasting 40 days; accordingly when they committed
themselves to the current, the Prophet enjoined a 40 days' fast. The people
becoming sick and in great distress from hunger, this severe commander found it
necessary to remit, in some degree, the rigor of his injunction, and he
permitted the taking of flour broth through a quill, because he received his
food in this way after his long sickness and fast, when he could not open his
jaws; and which had the vivifying effect taken by him for supernatural power or
inspiration. But as the gruel allowed was very meagre, being simply flour and
cold water, debility, misery, and death attended the experiment. Yet with faith
and hope they persisted.
In this wretched situation, they arrived at Pilgrim's island; which derives its
name from this fact; at which place they were fallen in with by a barge
belonging to Nashville, whose crew, detesting the conduct of the prophet and
his seconds, who watched and governed the timorous multitude, gave two or three
of the leaders a sound drubbing with the pliant cotton wood switch.
They next landed at the Little Prairie. The prophet's staff, which by the
direction of its fall had hitherto pointed out the way, now stood still; and he
declared that here he was commanded to settle and build a church; but Mr.
Walker, who owned the soil, and resided in this solitary spot, forbid the
undertaking. This was accounted persecution -- yet they continued seven days,
during which, several died, among whom were children, which were placed on the
beach by their parents, at the command of Elijah, when, exposed to the
scorching sun, they wallowed holes in the sand while they struggled away the
agonies of death. While here laboring under sickness and persecution, it seems
they began to suspect that they were forsaken by the divine spirit, and that no
more miracles could be wrought for them. Hence they commenced the cry of
"Oh, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" when, by assisting each
other, the vociferating cry was not intermitted for three days and nights.
They stopped further down at a desert place, when six or eight more died, whose
bones still lie on the shore uncovered; and all who remained, when they arrived
at Helana, were objects of terror and compassion. The hospitable inhabitants
furnished them a plentiful supply of milk and more nourishing gruel, for taking
which every one was provided with a piece of reed cane.
Their boat next struck upon a sand-bar near the mouth of the Arkansas. The
prophet, his brother, and other leaders being dead, the remnant dispersed into
the settlements, and down the river in the passing boards.
From the time the party entered the Mississippi, their numbers decreased daily
by death or desertion. And when they made their final landing, only about 15
remained. One disciple eloped at the Little Prairie, with all the cash
belonging to the company. One child was rescued and here raised. Several
individuals who were dispersed in various directions, are now comfortably
settled, but it is supposed that more than half their number died on the
pilgrimage.
This fete of folly and delusion, is perhaps worthy of notice, as furnishing a
striking instance of the blindness of credulity -- the wilderness of
fanaticism, and the miserable propensity of the mind, to believe itself
possessed of powers which do not belong to humanity.
Note 1: The above article must have originally appeared in the Western
Balance (of Franklin, TN?), in about late April of 1826. See the New York
City Telescope of May, 6, 1826
for another reprint. For
more on Isaac Bullard and his "Pilgrims" in retrospective accounts,
see the articles,
"The Pilgrims" in the Oct. 5, 1822
issue of the Saturday Evening Post, "The Mormon Delusion" in
the June 24,
1831 issue of the Vermont Chronicle, and Zadock Thompson's
"Fanatical Sects," in his 1842 History of Vermont, (summarized
in the notes attached to an 1817 article.)
Note 2: For contemporary accounts about Isaac Bullard's "Pilgrims,"
see the Salem Register of Sept. 15, 1817,
the Boston American Baptist Magazine of May 17, 1818,
and the Chillicothe Weekly Recorder of Nov. 5, Nov. 12, and Nov 26, 1817. None of
these reports came late enough to relate Bullard's purported 1818 murder of the
Pilgrims' children on the shore at Little Prairie (now Caruthersville, Pemiscot
Co.), Missouri -- however, in an 1817 report,
Bullard was said to have fled from Quebec province, after having poisoned the
child of one of his followers, "by command of the Lord," rather like
his other followers' children were put in a dire situation, "at the
command of Elijah."
This is a second article about the pilgrims though it predates the first – it has important information and comments about the relation of this Cult with the Cult of Joseph Smith, Solomon Spaulding and Oliver Cowdery and . And demonstrates here Means Motive and Opportunity. I suspect from the later comments of the semblance between the Mormons and Pilgrims that Joseph Smith did not only have his Indian act but he has
Vol. I.
Philadelphia, October 5, 1822.
No. 62.
For
the Saturday Evening Post.
_________
THE PILGRIMS.
In
1817, a group of singular people, called Pilgrims, passed through Pennsylvania
to the westward. They were composed of men, women and children, clad like a
second company of Giveonites, and looked like the fag end of a hurricane. --
Their leader, who was styled a Prophet, it is said was formerly an inhabitant
of Lower Canada. Having been afflicted with a long spell of sickness, he betook
himself to the practice of frequent prayer; and finding by this exercise his
inner man much strengthened, and his health also improved, he began to have, as
he thought, very extraordinary illuminations, which he communicated to his
neighbours who visited him. Some of them were converted to his persuasion; and
when his health was restored, he set out with his followers, to travel in quest
of a land flowing with milk and honey, where he assured them, every thing that
was necessary for their sustenance and convenience, would be amply provided, without
the agency of labour and toil. As they travelled through the country they
availed themselves of the charity of the benevolent, and made use of such
opportunities as were afforded for the promulgation of their doctrines. Some
were converted, joined in the procession, and went with them. At Mount Pleasant
[Liberty twp., Clinton
Co.?] in the state of
Ohio, they tarried several days; a person who had an interview with them there,
enquired why they did not wash themselves and their clothing, and make a more
decent appearance. Their answer was, that they had been as decent in these
respects as other people, but that they were commanded to appear in their
present character, for an outward sign of the inward condition of Christian
professors. One article of their creed was, a literal acception of that passage
in the New Testament which says, "Except ye be as little children, ye
cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." -- In order to fulfil this
doctrine, we are told that they harmonized with each other, and some of the men
in imitation of little boys, were seen riding corn stalks or sticks for horses;
and other childish amusements. The story of the Prophet having borrowed the
wife of one of his followers is not so well authenticated as to be mentioned as
a fact.
The following extract of a letter written by a friend at Waynesville, dated 3d
mo. 9, 1818, furnishes some interesting particulars, concerning these curious
mortals.
"A company of strange people called
Pilgrims, came into Waynesville [Wayne twp., Warren
Co.] on Second-day, the 23d of last month -- got into an empty house,
and in the evening had a meeting in a wheelwright's shop. Several of them
preached; and mnay who went to hear them, seemed to think well of their
doctrine. On Third-day, the town was all in a stir; almost every body going to
see them. Fourth day was our monthly meeting, and after business was gone
through, a request was opened for the Pilgrims to have liberty to hold a
meeting in our meeting house: -- Some were very much opposed to it; finally a
committee was appointed to visit them, and invested with power to grant or
deny, as they should think best, after fathoming their mission. The request was
granted by the committee, and a meeting was accordingly appointed at 3 o'clock
next day. There were about twenty of them altogether, men, women and children.
The men had long beards, and the women short hair. The greater part of both
sexes were intollerably ragged, dirty and greasy, and some had their coats on
wrong side out. They wore wollen caps on their heads, a strip of coarse linen
on the back, reaching from the shoulder to the wrist, and round the waist a
belt of sheepskin, or some other sort of raw hide with the hair on. In this
kind of rigging, five men and two women marched to the meeting house, and up
into the high gallery. Three of the men, and both of the women preached. While
one was preaching, another made a long humming sound, beginning with wo--
and ending in the sound of a double o, nearly resembling the cry of a
great number of locusts at a distance. They declared
themselves to be the forerunners of a second coming of Christ; that the greater
part of professors had fallen, and they were sent to gather the elect.
One of the men, we are told, had been a methodist minister; he preached loud
and fast, and hammered it in with both hand and foot. I appregended its
equal seldom, if ever, graced a Quaker gallery before. On Seventh-day morning,
they left the town, and a Friend accompanied them to Lebanon. He tells us, they
were joined there, by another company of the same sect, and that that they had
a meeting next day, the greatest he was ever at."
A gentleman who saw the Pilgrims at Cincinnati, informed the writer of this
sketch, that their number amounted to 70 or 80 persons. He says they were not
deranged in their intellects -- they preached well and appeared to be a
harmless people. One peculiarity he observed among them, they always took their
drink through a quill; but he could not ascertain their reasons for it, only
that it was their order. Some rude people abused the Prophet, by taking
him on the river Ohio, and setting him adrift in an old boat; but he was
brought on shore again by others who were more humane. The same gentleman
informs, that the whole company pursued their journey down the Ohio, in search
of the good country which the Prophet had taught
them to believe, they should certainly find: -- he said that Providence
directed their steps, and he should infallibly know the place when they arrived
at it. At length their pilgrimage came to an end; for the Prophet took sick and
died some distance below Cincinnati; and his followers dispersed;
some of them returned to Lebanon and joined the Society of Shakers, and others
went elsewhere. The story of the Prophet getting possession of all the money
belonging to the company, and making his escape with it, appears to have been a
fabrication.
This system of religion, as far as we are acquainetd with it, exhibits various
traits of singularity, and yet perhaps not more than might be found in some
other eccentricities of the human mind on the same subject. He dates his
revelation, like some other founders of religious sects, to a spell of bodily
indisposition. And how often do we see that fevers and other disorders produce
a partial delirium in the mind, and it appears probable that from such a
disorganization, may arise many strange ideas, which being mixed and blended by
a considerable share of rational understanding yet remaining, result in
practices different from those of mankind in general. These people, like
Nebuchadnezzar's image are partly sound and partly broken -- where the former
quality seems to have the preponderance, it exhibits many excellent and
incontestible truths, how liable are weak minds to be dazzled with these, and instead
of making a discrimination between the truth at one time and error at another,
the whole is swallowed without hestitation. Hence it is, that every system of
religion, however strange, has its followers, and when we consider that many
strange doctrines and tenets, are the result of minds that are partially
deranged, and of ignorance in those who become converts to such doctrines and
tenets, we think ourselves justified in extending over them the mantle of
charity, so long as they behave with civility and do not encroach upon the
harmony pf civil society and the good of the commonwealth. LUCAS.
Note 1: See the New Jerusalem Repository of Oct., 1817 for an
earlier telling of a part of the above story.
This
is the smoking Gun between Sidney Rigdon, a renowned Baptist Preacher of the
day, Pastor of the 1st Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Rigdon was a student of the Pentecostal revivals
of his era, and he was a Campbellite.
Elsewhere in these articles I have read
that this announcement by Rigdon As
the Woodstock, Vermont Chronicle of June 24, 1831
said, when Mormonism was yet making its initial
appearance: "From
the resemblance between the Pilgrims and the Mormonites in manners and
pretensions, we should think Old Isaac had re-appeared in the person of Joe
Smith, This announcement was regarded
with great suspicion as Rigdon supposedly did this feigning to still be a
Baptist to draw Baptists interest before he formally switching over to being a
Mormon Elder.
Note 2: By October 5, 1822, the Rev. Sidney Rigdon
was well ensconced in the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, as its new pastor
-- a position he moved from Ohio to accept at the beginning of that same year.
Since the major Philadelphia papers circulated as far west as Pittsburgh, there
is good reason to think that Rigdon read the above account of the Prophet Isaac
Bullard's "Pilgrims," either in its original source or as a reprint
in a local newspaper. As the Woodstock, Vermont Chronicle
of June 24, 1831
said, when Mormonism was yet making its initial
appearance: "From
the resemblance between the Pilgrims and the Mormonites in manners and
pretensions, we should think Old Isaac had re-appeared in the person of Joe
Smith, and was intending to make another speculation."
What, if any, role the Rev. Sidney Rigdon played in getting up that
"speculation" remains an unanswered question.
Note 3: It was obviously not by sheer
accident, that two or more of Bullard's Pilgrim bands met at Lebanon, Warren
Co., Ohio, in March of 1818. That place had already been the scene of a spin-off of the Great
Kentucky Revival, the establishment of the Stoneite "New Light"
movement, the founding of the earliest and largest Shaker community in the
west, a gathering place for Swedenborgians, and a point of attraction for a
remnant of the Rev. Able M. Sargent's millenarian "Halcyon Church."
Just as Bullard had previously found likely converts on the fringes of the
Prophet John Taylor's "Johnites" near Ithaca,New York, in 1817, so also, he must have hoped to convert
cast-offs from among the followers of the Prophetess Ann Lee and the Prophet
Sargent, in Warren Co., Ohio. As events turned out, however, it was the church
of Ann Lee that eventually recruited Bullard's starving cast-offs.
This is the connection with Joseph Smith – these are the people he was acquainted with and these followers scattered all over the countryside were his ready made audience – but what happened after that was something that he never would have dreamed – that Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians came to his movement by the droves
Note 3: The story of Bullard and his followers' 1817 stop-over at Woodstock,
Vermont is summarized in David M. Ludlum's 1939 book, Social Ferment in
Vermont, pp.
242-244. Although the Joseph Smith, Sr. family had departed Vermont by the
time the Bullard Pilgrims arrived on the scene, Oliver Cowdery's Grandfather, (William Cowdery, Sr.)
then lived in Woodstock and Oliver himself lived in an adjoining county (see area map). It is not
unlikely that members of the Cowdery family had some first-hand knowledge of
Bullard's cult.
Note 4: In a
1997 article entitled "Joseph Smith's Testimony: The First Vision and
Book of Mormon Evidence," Mark Stepherson has this to say about the cult
and its possible influence on early Mormonism: "Isaac Bullard was noticed
and had the public mind excited against him. He wore nothing but a bearskin
girdle and a beard. He
gathered his "pilgrims" into a community near the Smith's old home in
Vermont. When the community
moved west, they likely followed the same road the Smith family used when
moving to New York. Isaac Bullard taught free love, but I wonder how many
members were women willing to practice free love with their leader, a man who
regarded washing as a sin and bragged that he had not changed clothes in seven
years?"
These are
some notes after an article about captain Morgan’s abduction we see here that Oliver Cowdery was Morgan’s
scribe for a novel
In
1881 William Bryant, a
former neighbor of Oliver Cowdery, told two high-ranking RLDS officials that
Cowdery had once served as William Morgan's scribe -- or, that Cowdery had at
least "helped to write Morgan's book."
Note 2: Support for Mr. Bryant's vague assertion -- that Cowdery worked with
Morgan -- is to be had only in a few insubstantial bits and pieces of evidence.
Oliver Cowdery's brother Warren had lived near Batavia during the
early 1820s and Oliver himself may have frequented the Le Roy-Batavia area,
c.1825-26. Lucinda Morgan (Captain
Morgan’s wife) later became one of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s
secret concubines or "spiritual wives" and her second husband, George
W. Harris, seems to have personally known Oliver Cowdery (who was a visitor in
Mr. and Mrs. Harris' house at Far West in 1838).
Harris was the high level Mormon official who shepherded
Cowdery's Oct. 1848 application for re-admission to the LDS Church at Council
Bluffs, Iowa. Louisa Beaman, the daughter of "Father Beaman," the
"rodsman," reportedly was acquainted with her fellow
"plural," Lucinda Morgan, well before either of the two girls was
betrothed to Joseph Smith, Jr. However, firm evidence is lacking in the
documentation of how far back in time (and in western New York geography) the
two first became friends. Finally, Rob Morris, a Masonic historian, in 1883,
quoted John Whitney, as
having confessed that William Morgan "had been a half way convert of Joe
Smith, the Mormon, and had learned from him to see visions and
dream dreams." If
William Morgan, Lucinda Morgan, or George W. Harris knew either Oliver Cowdery
or Joseph Smith, Jr. during the 1820s, then they probably knew both of these
future Mormon leaders at that early date.