History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 111

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 111

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The theory hitherto most widely published and per- haps generally accepted has been that Rigdon was a printer in Patterson's printing-office when the Spauld- ing manuscript was brought there in 1812-14, and that he either copied or purloined it. Having it thus in his possession, the use made of it was an after- thought suggested by circumstances many years later. More recently another theory has been advanced, that Rigdon obtained possession of the Spaulding

manuscript during his pastorate of the First Baptist Church, or soon thereafter, 1822-24, without any ne- cessary impropriety on his part, but rather through the courtesy of some friend, in whose possession it re- mained unclaimed, and who regarded it as a literary curiosity. The friends of Rigdon, in response to the first charge, deny that he ever resided in Pittsburgh previous to 1822, or that he ever was a printer, and in general answer to both charges affirm that he never at any time had access to Spaulding's manuscript. Taking up for convenience their statement first, we find the following evidence in its support :

1. Rigdon's relatives at Library, Pa., Carvil Rigdon (his brother) and Peter Boyer (his brother-in-law), in a written statement dated Jan. 27, 1843, certify to the facts and dates as above stated in regard to his birth, schooling, uniting with the church, licensure, ordina- tion, and settlement in Pittsburgh in 1822. Mr. Boyer also in a personal interview with the present writer in 1879 positively affirmed that Rigdon had never lived in Pittsburgh previous to 1822, adding that "they were boys together and he ought to know." Mr. Boyer had for a short time embraced Mormonism, but became convinced that it was a delusion and re- turned to his membership in the Baptist Church.

2. Isaac King, a highly-respected citizen of Library, Pa., and an old neighbor of Rigdon, states in a letter to the present writer, dated June 14, 1879, that Sidney lived on the farm of his father until the death of the latter in May, 1810, and for a number of years after- wards, farming with very indifferent success ; "it was said he was too lazy and proud to make a good farmer;" received his education in a log school-house in the vicinity ; " began to talk in public on religion soon after his admission to the church, probably at his own instance, as there is no record of his licensure ;" went to Sharon, Pa., for a time, and was there ordained as a preacher, but soon returned to his farm, which he sold (June 28, 1823) to James Means, and about the time of the sale removed to Pittsburgh.

3. Samuel Cooper, of Saltsburg, Pa., a veteran of three wars, in a letter to the present writer, dated June 14, 1879, stated as follows: "I was acquainted with Mr. Lambdin, was often in the printing-office ; was acquainted with Silas Engles, the foreman of the printing-office ; he'never mentioned Sidney Rigdon's name to me, so I am satisfied he was never engaged there as a printer. I was introduced to Sidney Rigdon in 1843; he stated to me that he was a Mormon preacher or lecturer ; I was acquainted with him dur- ing 1843-45 ; never knew him before, and never knew him as a printer ; never saw him in the book-store or printing-office ; your father's office was in the cele- brated Molly Murphy's Row."

4. Rev. Robert P. Du Bois, of New London, Pa., under date of Jan. 9, 1879, writes: "I entered the ·book-store of R. Patterson & Lambdin in March, 1818, when about twelve years old, and remained there until the summer of 1820. The firm had under

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

its control the book-store on Fourth Street, a book- bindery, a printing-office (not newspaper, but job- ) office, under the name of Butler & Lambdin), en- trance on Diamond Alley, and a steam paper-mill on the Allegheny (under the name of R. & J. Patterson). I knew nothing of Spaulding (then dead) or of his book, or of Sidney Rigdon."

5. Mrs. R. W. Lambdin, of Irvington, N. Y., widow of the late J. Harrison Lambdin, in response to some inquiries as to her recollections of Rigdon and others, writes under date of Jan. 15, 1882: "I am sorry to say I shall not be able to give you any information relative to the persons you name. They certainly could not have been friends of Mr. Lambdin." Mrs. Lambdin resided in Pittsburgh from her marriage in 1819 to the death of her husband, Aug. 1, 1825. Mr. Lambdin was born Sept. 1, 1798.

6. Impartial justice requires the addition to the above testimony of the very explicit denial of Rigdon himself, addressed to the Boston Journal, dated at Commerce (better known afterwards as Nauvoo, Ill.), May 27, 1839, in reply to the letter of Mrs. Davison, published a few days before, as already mentioned. Another extract from her letter will be found farther on, which provoked the following rejoinder from Rig- don :

"It is only necessary to say, in relation to the whole story about Spaulding's writings being in the hands of Mr. Patterson, who was in Pittsburgh, and who is said to have kept a printing-office, and my say- ing that I was concerned in the said office, etc., etc., is the most base of lies, without even the shadow of truth, There was no man by the name of Patterson during my residence at Pittsburgh who had a printing-office. Mr. Robert Patterson, I was told, had owned a printing-office before I lived in that city. . . . This Mr. Patterson, who was a Presbyterian preacher, I had a very slight acquaintance with during my residence in Pittsburgh. . . . If I were to say that I ever heard of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding and his hopeful wife until Dr. P. Hurlbut wrote his lie about me I should be a liar like unto themselves. Why was not the testimony of Mr. Patterson obtained to give force to this shameful tale of lies? The only reason is that he was not a fit tool for them to work with ; he would not lie for them, for if he were called on he would tes- tify to what I have here said."

A portion of this letter is too coarse for publica- tion. The first sentence of the above extract does not impress one with its author's grammatical attainments. He is certainly incorrect, also, as to there being no Patterson's printing-office in Pittsburgh during his residence there, as his pastorate there began in Janu- ary, 1822, and the firm of R. Patterson & Lambdin was in business until Jan. 1, 1823. But whatever may be thought of his testimony, as that of an interested party, there can be no doubt that the five preceding witnesses on this point have conscientiously stated what they firmly believed to be the facts. No one who knew them would for a moment doubt their veracity. On the other side, however, we have the following :

himself has frequently stated, became acquainted with Mr. Spaulding's manuscript, and copied it. It was a | matter of notoriety and interest to all connected with the printing establishment."

Rigdon's passionate reply to this charge by Mrs. Davison has just been given above; but her impres- sion deserves to be considered in connection with the statements of the four witnesses next following. The question also suggests itself, How could Mrs. Davison have known anything, in her remote Massachusetts home, about Rigdon if he did not come to Pittsburgh until 1822, eight years after her departure ?

2. Joseph Miller, of Amity, Pa., in his evidence, part of which has been already quoted, testified also as follows :

" My recollection is that Mr. Spaulding had left a transcript of the manuscript with Mr. Patterson, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for publication ; that its publication was delayed until Mr. Spaulding would write a preface, and in the mean time the transcript was spirited away, and could not be found. Mr. Spaulding told me that Sidney Rigdon had taken it, or that he was suspicioned for it. Recollect distinctly that Rigdon's name was used in that connection."

On being closely questioned whether he had not possibly confounded subsequent impressions, derived from what he had read and heard, with his personal recollections of what Spaulding had said, he emphati- cally answered "No!" and affirmed positively that " it was Spaulding's own statement."

3. Redick McKee, Esq., already mentioned as an inmate of Spaulding's family at Amity, says in his letter of April 15, 1879,-

" Mr. Spaulding told me that he had submitted the work to Mr. Patter- son for publication, but for some reason it was not printed, and afterwards returned to him. I also understood he was then occasionally re-writing, correcting, and he thought improving some passages descriptive of his supposed battles. In this connection he spoke of the man Rigdon as an employee in the printing or book-binding establishment of Patterson & Lambdin, in Pittsburgh; but about him I made no special inquiries."

Mr. McKee differs from Mr. Miller in his recollec- tion as to the return of the manuscript, but agrees with him as to Rigdon being an employee. These two venerable men are above the suspicion of stating any- thing they did not believe to be true. We are thus confronted with the singular fact to which these wit- nesses testify, that at least fourteen years before the completion of the plagiarism, and some ten years be- fore even the conception of it, the future perpetrator is an object of note, it would seem of suspicion, in the mind of the man he is one day so deeply to wrong. By what mysterious intuition did Spaulding mark the rustic, uneducated youth, innocent as the latter must then have been of any base intent, whose name was destined to be so strangely and sorrowfully blended with his own ?

1. Mrs. Davison, in her letter of May, 1839, had used this language, "Sidney Rigdon, who has figured | tended Mr. Spaulding in his last illness. Of his tes- so largely in the history of the Mormons, was at that time connected with the printing-office of Mr. Patter- son, as is well known in that region, and, as Rigdon

4. Rev. Cephas Dodd, who died Jan. 16, 1858, was long the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Amity, also practiced as a physician, and in this capacity at- timony Mr. George M. French, now in his eighty- third year, residing near Amity, and whose wife was a relative of Sidney Rigdon, retains a vivid impression.

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RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

Shortly after Mr. French's removal from Fayette County, Pa., to Amity in 1832, when the Mormon de- lusion was beginning to excite remark, Dr. Dodd took Mr. French to Spaulding's grave, and there told him his positive belief that Rigdon was the agent in trans- forming Spaulding's manuscript into the Book of Mormon. The conviction thus expressed within two years after the publication of the Book of Mormon, and three years before the appearance of Mr. Howe's book, which attributed the plagiarism to Rigdon, shows that Dr. Dodd's judgment was formed inde- pendently of any of the testimonies cited above. As to the plagiarism, it must have been based on his own knowledge of Spaulding's romance and comparing it with the Book of Mormon ; and as to the agent, his at- tention, like Mr. Miller's, may first have been directed to Rigdon by Spaulding himself. Mr. French has no personal knowledge of Rigdon's connection with the printing-office.

5. Mrs. R. J. Eichbaum, of Pittsburgh, now in her ninetieth year, with a memory marvelously tenacious of even the minutest incidents, with the vivacity of a maiden in her teens, with health, until recently, ex- ceptionally good for one of her years, with a still keen enjoyment of the humorous, a clear mind, a kindly heart, and the Christian's hope of a better ex- istence, seems to realize Wordsworth's picture

" Of an old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night."1

We give her reminiscence in full, dated Pittsburgh, Sept. 18, 1879, only remarking that one who could hear her relate the incidents of her youth, and specify her reasons for fixing names and dates with unusual distinctness, would find it difficult to resist a convic- tion of the accuracy of her memory. She says,-

"My father, John Johnston, was postmaster of Pittsburgh for about eighteen years, from 1804 to 1822. My husband, William Eichbaum, succeeded him, and was postmaster for about eleven years, from 1822 to 1833. I was born Aug. 25, 1792, and when I became old enough I assisted my father in attending to the post-office, and became familiar with its duties. From 1811 to 1816 I was the regular clerk in the office, assorting, making up, dispatching, opening, and distributing the mails. Pittsburgh was then a small town, and I was well acquainted with all the stated visitors at the office who called regularly for their mails. So meagre at that time were the mails that I could generally tell without looking whether or not there was anything for such persons, though I would usually look in order to satisfy them. I was married in 1815, and the next year my connection with the office ceased, except during the absences of my husband. I knew and distinctly remember Rob- ert and Joseph Patterson, J. Harrison Lambdin, Silas Engles, and Sidney Rigdon. { I remember Rev. Mr. Spaulding, but simply as one who occasionally called

to inquire for letters. I remember that there was an evident intimacy between Lambdin and Rigdon. They very often came to the office together. I par- ticularly remember that they would thus come during the hour on Sabbath afternoon when the office was required to be open, and I remember feeling sure that Rev. Mr. Patterson knew nothing of this, or he would have put a stop to it. I do not know what position, if any, Rigdon filled in Patterson's store or printing- office, but am well assured he was frequently, if not constantly, there for a large part of the time when I was clerk in the post-office. I recall Mr. Engles say- ing that 'Rigdon was always hanging around the printing-office.' He was connected with the tannery before he became a preacher, though he may have continued the business whilst preaching."

These witnesses are all whom we can find after inquiries 'extending through some three years who can testify at all to Rigdon's residence in Pittsburgh before 1816, and to his possible employment in Pat- terson's printing-office or bindery. Of this employ- ment none of them speak from personal knowledge. In making inquiries among two or three score of the oldest residents of Pittsburgh and vicinity, those who had any opinion on the subject invariably, so far as now remembered, repeated the story of Rigdon's em- ployment in Patterson's office, as if it were a well- known and admitted fact; they " could tell all about it," but when pressed as to their personal knowledge of it or their authority for the conviction they had none.2

The remaining testimony which now claims con- sideration is independent of any connection of Rig- don as an employee with Patterson, and it necessitates no charge of Rigdon's dishonorably acquiring the Spaulding manuscript, and no suggestion of such an improbability, as that a young man, not noted for industry or application, would perform the arduous task of transcribing so large a document, clandes- tinely too, when he had at that time certainly no ulterior object in view.

6. The earliest published intimation we have seen that Rigdon had obtained the Spaulding manuscript occurs in Howe's book, issued in 1835, where it is advanced as "the strongest presumption," "and is based on Rigdon's residence in Pittsburgh in 1823-24, on the probability that the manuscript had remained in the printing-office until then, and on Mr. Lamb- din's friendship for Rigdon, Says Howe, "We have been credibly informed that he was on terms of inti- macy with Lambdin, being seen frequently in his shop." The name of his informant is not given, as it

1 Since above was written Mrs. Eichbaum has died, May 4, 1882.

" If any one would learn an impressive lesson upon the transitory na- ture of man's hold upon the remembrance of his fellow-men, let him en- gage in an investigation into some matter of local or personal history dating back a half-century ago. So rapidly, in the very places where a man has lived and labored, does the recollection of him fade into rumor, or myth, or oblivion. The candid reader will doubtless suspend bis judgment on this hitherto accepted theory of Rigdon's printership, or set it down as at most only probable, but certainly not yet proved.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

should have been. In support of the " presumption" of Rigdon's connection with the Book of Mormon, Mr. Howe states that " some new points of doctrine" which Rigdon had commenced preaching "were afterward found to be inculcated in the Mormon Bible." Also his frequent protracted absences from his home during the year or two preceding the publi- cation of the Book of Mormon are cited as circum- stantial evidence pointing to his co-operation with Smith.

7. Rev. Samuel Williams, of Castle Shannon, Al- legheny Co., Pa., a successor of Rigdon in the pastor- ate of the First Baptist Church, Pittsburgh, published in 1842, as already stated, a pamphlet entitled " Mor- monism Exposed." On page 4 he says, "In 1818, and for some years afterwards, Patterson & Lambdin were the principal firm engaged in printing and pub- lishing books. The widow of Mr. Spaulding states that it [her husband's romance] was taken to that be confidently vouched for by all who know them; printing-office, and Mr. Patterson and many others and Dr. Winter's evidence, thus attested, is of itself 1822-23, had possession of Spaulding's manuscript. of this city knew that Mr. Rigdon and Mr. Lambdin, | sufficient to establish the certainty that Rigdon, in who superintended the printing-office, were very inti- mate during Rigdon's residence here." On page 16, 9. Mrs. Amos Dunlap, of Warren, Ohio, in answer to inquiries, writes Dec. 7, 1879, --- Mr. Williams expresses his conviction "that the manuscript remained in the office with others from 1814 until Sidney Rigdon came to this place and ob- tained it from Lambdin."

8. Rev. John Winter, M.D., was one of the early ministers of the Baptist Church, laboring in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. During a portion of the time when Sidney Rigdon was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Dr. Winter was teaching a school in the same city, and was well ac- quainted with Rigdon. Upon one occasion during 10. Mr. Z. Rudolph, father of Mrs. Gen. Garfield, this period, 1822-23, Dr. Winter was in Rigdon's ; knew Sidney Rigdon very well, and has stated that study, when the latter took from his desk a large manuscript, and said in substance, “ A Presbyterian minister, Spaulding, whose health had failed, brought this to the printer to see if it would pay to publish it. It is a romance of the Bible." Dr. Winter did not read any part of it, and paid no more attention to it until after the Book of Mormon appeared, when he heard that Mr. Spaulding's widow recognized in it the writings of her husband.

The authority for the above important statement is Rev. A. G. Kirk, to whom Dr. Winter communicated it in conversation at New Brighton, Pa., in 1870-71. Dr. Winter died at Sharon, Pa., in 1878. Mr. Kirk conveyed this information to the present writer by letter, March 23, 1879. Mrs. Mary W. Irvine, a daugh- ter of Dr. Winter, writes from Sharon, Pa., April 5, 1881, as follows :

" I have frequently heard my father speak of Rigdon having Spaul- ding's manuscript, and that he had gotten it from the printers to read it 1 as a curiosity ; as such he showed it to father; and that at that time Rigdon had no intention of making the use of it that he afterwards did ; for father always said Rigdon helped Smith in his scheme by revising and making the Mormon Bible out of Rev. Spaulding's manuscript."

thorizes the statement that he repeatedly heard Dr. Winter say that Rigdon had shown him the Spaulding manuscript romance, purporting to be the history of the American Indians, which manuscript he had received from the printers.

It was the impression of these three witnesses that Dr. Winter had himself committed his recollections of his above-mentioned interview with Rigdon to writing, as he intended to do, and was even under- stood to say he had done, but a careful search among his papers has thus far proved unavailing to find it. Dr. Winter was noted for his retentive memory and for his scrupulous accuracy in treasuring up conver- sations with brethren in the ministry and incidents in their history, many of which he contributed to the press in the form of sketches of Western church his- tory. The reliability of the persons who have, in the interest of truth, related his statement to them will

" When I was quite a child I visited Mr. Rigdon's family. He mar- ried my aunt. They at that time lived in Bainbridge, Ohio. During my visit Mr. Rigdon went to his bedroom and took from a trunk which he kept locked a certain manuscript. He came out into the other room and seated himself by the fireplace and commenced reading it. His wife at that moment came into the room and exclaimed, 'What ! you're studying that thing again ?' or something to that effect. She then added, ' I mean to burn that paper.' He said, 'No, indeed, you will not. This will be a great thing some day !' Whenever he was reading this he was so completely occupied that he seemed entirely unconscious of anything passing around him."

" during the winter previous to the appearance of the Book of Mormon, Rigdon was in the habit of spend- ing weeks away from his home, going no one knew where; and that he often appeared very preoccupied, and would indulge in dreamy, imaginative talks, which puzzled those who listened. When the Book of Mormon appeared and Rigdon joined in the ad- vocacy of the new religion, the suspicion was at once aroused that he was one of the framers of the . new doctrines, and probably was not ignorant of the authorship of the Book of Mormon."

11. Pomeroy Tucker, Esq., a native of Palmyra, N. Y., and well acquainted with all the Smith family from their coming to Palmyra in 1816 from Vermont, was the editor of the paper-the Wayne Sentinel-in the office of which at Palmyra, in 1830, the Book of Mormon was printed. He performed much of the proof-reading, and had frequent familiar interviews with Smith. In 1867, Mr. Tucker published a volume entitled the "Origin and Progress of Mormonism," of which he was so well qualified to write. The facts which he records as having occurred in his own vicin- ity may be accepted as either personally known to

Rev. A. J. Bonsall, pastor of the Baptist Church at Rochester, Pa., and a step-son of Dr. Winter, au- ! him, or as stated upon reliable and convincing testi-

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RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

mony. After narrating Smith's vicious and vagrant life down to the summer of 1827, he states (p. 28),-

" A mysterious stranger now appears at Smith's residence, and holds private interviews with the far-famed money-digger. For a considerable length of time no intimation of the name or purpose of this personage transpired to the public, nor even to Smith's nearest neighbors. It was observed by some of them that his visita were frequently repeated. The sequel of these private interviews between the stranger and the money- digger will sufficiently appear hereafter." [Great consternation was oc- casioned by the theft of one hundred and sixteen pages of Smith's trans- lation from the golden plates, as it seems to have been impossible to retranslate the stolen portion. Wherupon (p. 46)] "The reappearance of the mysterious stranger at Smith's was again the subject of inquiry and conjecture by observers, from whom was withheld all explanation of his identity or purpose." [At last the Book of Mormon was printed, Rigdon was among the first converts, and Mr. Tucker says (p. 75) :] " Up to this time Sidney Rigdon had played his part in the background, and his occasional visits at Smith's residence had been noticed by uninitiated observers as those of the mysterious stranger. It had been his policy to remain in concealment until all things should be in readiness for blow- ing the trumpet of the new gospel. . . . This man Rigdon now appeared as the first regular Mormon preacher in Palmyra." ... "Who can doubt that he and Smith had become confederates in a grand scheme of cupidity and imposture ? They had surreptitiously possessed themselves of a fabulous composition peculiarly adapted to their design. Secrecy and falsehood were necessary to the success of such a scheme, and to these, it is self-evident, they were mutually sworn." (P. 121.)

12. Mrs. Dr. Horace Eaton, for the last thirty-two years a resident of Palmyra, N. Y., has published a brief sketch of the " Origin of Mormonism," in which, after careful and thorough study of the subject, she concurs with Mr. Tucker. She says, "Early in the summer of 1827 a ' mysterious stranger' seeks admit- tance to Joe Smith's cabin. The conferences of the two are most private. This person, whose coming immediately preceded a new departure in the faith, was Sidney Rigdon, a backsliding clergyman, at this time a Campbellite preacher in Mentor, Ohio." Mrs. Eaton also mentions a theory, which has a strong probability sustaining it, that Parley P. Pratt, a ped- dler who " knew everybody in Western New York and Northern Ohio," and who was a member of Rigdon's church, was the medium through whom Rigdon made the acquaintance of Smith when seeking a suitable tool for his purpose. Pratt became, of course, an im- mediate convert to Mormonism, and one of its most famous and successful missionaries. Through his persuasive powers, we are told, Rigdon himself became a Mormon !

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 111

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216