SURVEYORS.
David Risdon was appointed in 1824, reappointed from time to time and served until 1836.
James Durbin was appointed in 1837.
Jonas Harshbager was elected in 1839.
Thomas Heming was eletced in 1842, and re-elected in 1845.
- Schuyler was elected in 1847, and re-elected in 1850.
George Holts was elected in 1853.
George Heming was elected in 1856, and re-elected in 1859.
Dennis Maloy was elected. in 1862, and re-elected in 1871.
Patrick H. Ryan was elected in 1871, and re-elected in 1874.
Samuel Nighswander was electedin 1877.
CORONERS.
By the laws of Ohio, the office of a coroner is a sinecure, and the officer
OFFICERS OF SENECA COUNTY - 637
performs the office of a sheriff only when the sheriff dies, or is himself made defendant in a suit.
At the death, removal or resignation of a sheriff, then the coroner discharges the duties of that
officer and becomes sheriff, ex-officio, a thing that never came to pass in this county.
Christopher Stone was appointed in 1824, and elected in 1826.
William Toll was elected in 1828, and re-elected in 1830.
George Flack was elected in 1832.
Eli Norris was elected in 1834.
Levi Keller was elected in 1836.
Henry McCartney was elected in 1838.
Daniel Brown was elected in 1840.
George H. Shaw was elected in 1842, and re-elected in 1844.
Samuel Herrin was elected in 1846, and re-elected for many years in succession.
Sylvester B. Clark was elected in 1866, and re-elected until 1872.
James Van Fleet was elected in 1872.
Charles Mutschler was appointed in 1873.
George Willow was elected in 1873, and re-elected in 1875.
William Smith was elected in 1877, and re-elected in 1879.
ASSESSORS.
David Risdon was elected in 1827, and re-elected in 1829.
John Wright was elected in 1831.
Reuben Williams was elected in 1833.
John Webb was elected in 1835.
John W. Eastman was elected in 1836.
Robert Holley was elected in 1837.
Samuel S. Martin was elected in 1838.
Benjamin Carpenter was elected in 1840.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
These officers were elected by the legislature for seven years, as already stated in the chapters on
" Bench and Bar." Of all these, Judge Benjamin Pittenger is the only survivor.
William Cornell, Jaques Hulburt and Mathew Clark were elected in 1824.
Agreen Ingraham, Benjamin Pittenger and Selden Graves were elected in 1831.
Henry C. Brish, Andrew Lugenbeel and Lowell Robinson were elected hi 1838.
Andrew Lugenbeel, William Toll and Henry Ebert were elected in 1845.
Thomas Lloyd was also elected to frll a vacancy.
The constitution of 1850 removed the office.
It may be well to say, here, that the office of county assessor expired about 840, when a law was
passed creating the office of township assessors. The county assessor, in early days, had no more
work to perform than a. township assessor has now. It should be remembered, also, that the land
bought at the government land offices was exempt from taxation for five years from the date of
the sale. At the
638 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
duration of these five years, the land was put upon the duplicate. To do this correctly, was the
principal, work of the county assessors.
CONCLUSION.
In conformity with the plan I had laid out in the beginning of this work, as to the manner and
order of introducing subjects, where to begin and where to stop, I. am admonished that this is a
very good place to close. I have described a great number of old settlers of Seneca county, and I
am fully aware of the fact, that very many distinguished men and women of the old pioneers have
not been mentioned and were overlooked. I had very little aid in that line.
Nearly all my pen-pictures of persons are from my best recollections. The editors of the
newspapers of Tiffin were so kind as to call upon the people of Seneca county during last fall and
winter very frequently, to furnish me with such material as might aid in this enterprise. A few
have responded Others saw proper to ignore the call. It would have been a very easy task to have
told me of some worthy ancestor, who drove his stake in these Seneca woods for a home, and
where he came from, what family he had, who his neighbors were, when he died and how he had
lived.
I described those I could remember. If others have not been noticed, will you just be so kind as to
blame yourself ? My purpose was history more than biography, and I picked out such characters
as connected history with their lives. In writing of these, it was a pleasure, and like living again
with friends I loved, and whose memory I am still left to cherish.
Now, dear reader, you and I are about to part. If the perusal of the preceding pages has instructed,
amused or entertained you, it is well. If I have failed to warm up in your heart a feeling of love or
veneration for your worthy ancestors, who selected the woods of Seneca county to build homes
for themselves and their children; if a glance over Seneca's past and the efforts and struggles of
the frontier settler to redeem and build up this heaven-blessed country, will not wake lip in the
bosom of the living generation, the love and gratitude so nobly earned and so highly due your
ancestors, I shall regret that I have failed in my mission, and will hope that I may never find it
out.
Oh ! that we had the capacity to comprehend the toils, sufferings and hardships, the deprivations
and distresses these pioneers of the new civilization endured, in rescuing this land from the grasp
of the British lion and his savage ally through two bloody wars; could we but recall the manly
strife, the fortitude, the patriotic devotion to country and
CONCLUSION - 639
cause that inspired those men to actions and deeds of noble daring and doing, how much more
than we do, would we revere their memories and carry, within our bosoms, hearts more grateful
for all we enjoy.'
Let me, in conclusion, quote the language of Dr. C. G. Comyges, of Cincinnati, in closing a short
biography of Governor Tiffin.
Scattered here and there in our primitive settlement, a few venerable men and women are found,
the remnants of a glorious race and an heroic age. The wild solitude of nature, the wild animals
they hunted, the savage men who disputed their settlements, the companions of their joys and
sorrows, are all gone, and they appear like strangers from a distant land. What Ohio is to-day in
her majestic .strength; what are her extensive and various benevolent institutions; what is her
superb system of education; what is the sublime patriotism that rallied her sons to the dread
conflict, growing brighter and stronger to the end, giving the great names that shine'brightest in
the dark splendor of war; what she is in conspicuous statesmanship, and in the vastness of her
material forces and moral power, comes from the noble race of pioneers thus passing away.
Crown their deeds with praise; crown their memory with gratitude; let their hardihood, labors,
self-denials and deep piety excite their descendants and those who occupy the fields of their
conquests, to emulate their courage, their toil and their public virtue.
A people, to be truly free, must be both virtuous and intelligent.
APPENDIX.
NO. I.
THE EARTHQUAKE-THE GREAT HURRICANE- THE JERKS-THE MORMONS VAN
BURENITE SALUTATORY-THE OLD STATE HOUSE.
OCCURRENCES of great importance at the time, but seldom, if ever. mentioned in these days,
are recorded here for several reasons : First of all, to add to the general interest of this enterprise,
and secondly, to preserve, as much as possible, records of events that at one time or other
attracted the attention of the entire country, and defied the power of science to account for some
of these wonderful manifestations.
A quantity of other matter is added here for the convenience of the student of history, and for
ready references to the subject embraced ; some of these are statistical, and others are historical
in their nature. These are hoped will prove a benefit as well as a pleasure to the reader, though, in
fact, forming in themselves no part of the history of Seneca county.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PHENOMENA.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE.
On the 15th day of December, 1811, the first great shock of an earthquake occurred, that shook
the whole majestic valley of the Mississippi to the center, and made the Allegheny mountains
tremble beneath its gigantic throes. Its convulsions agitated even the waves of the Atlantic ocean.
The subterranean forces which produced such results must have been of inconceivable
magnitude.
The region on the west bank of the Mississippi and in the southern part of the state of Missouri
seems to have been the center of the most violent shocks. They 'were repeated at intervals of two
or three months. These shocks, in their terrible upheavings of the earth, equal any phenomena of
the kind of which history gives any record. The country was very thinly settled, and there were
but few educated men in the whole region who could philosophically note the phenomena which
Were witnessed. Fortunately, most of the houses were very frail, being built of logs. Such
structures would sway to and fro with the surging of the earth, but they were not easily thrown
down. Vast tracts of land were precipitated into the turbid,
APPENDIX - 641
foaming current of the Mississippi. The graveyard at New Madrid was at one swoop torn away,
and with all its mouldering dead, swept down the stream.
Most of the houses in New Madrid were destroyed. Large regions of forest, miles in extent,
suddenly sank out of sight, while the waters rushed in forming, upon the spot, almost fathomless
lakes. Other lakes were drained, leaving only vast basins of mud, where, apparently for centuries,
in the solitudes of the forest, the waves had rolled.
The whole wilderness of territory extending from the mouth of the Ohio, three hundred miles, to
the St. Francis, was so convulsed as to create lakes and islands, ravines and marshes, whose
numbers. never can be fully known. Some of the effects produced were very difficult to account
for. Large trees were split through the heart of the tough wood. The trees were inclined in every
direction, and were lodged in every angle towards the earth or the horizon. The undulations of the
earth resembled the surges of a tempest-tossed ocean, the billows ever increasing in magnitude.
At the greatest elevation these earth billows would burst open, and water, sand and coal would be
ejected as high as the loftiest trees. Some of the chasms thus created were very. deep.
Wide districts were covered by. a shower of small white sand, like the ground after a snow storm.
This spread of desolation rendered the region around quite uninhabitable for a long time. Other
immense tracts were flooded with water from a few inches to a few feet deep. As the water
subsided a coating of barren sand was left behind.
Indeed, it must have been a scene of horror in these deep forests, and in the gloom of the darkest
night, and by wading in the water to the middle to fly from those concussions, which were
occurring every few hours, with a noise equally terrible to beasts and birds and to man. The birds
themselves lost all power and disposition to fly. and retreated to the bosoms of men—their fellow
sufferers—in this general convulsion. A few persons sank in these chasms, and were
providentially extricated. A number perished who sank with their boats in the Mississippi. A
bursting of the earth just below the village of New Madrid arrested the mighty Mississippi in its
course, and caused a reflux of its waters, by which, in a little time, a great number of boats were
swept by the ascending current into the mouth of the bayou, carried out and left upon the dry
earth when the accumulating waters of the river had again cleared the current.
The following is from "The Great West." There were a number of severe shocks, but the two
series of concussions were particularly terrible, far more so than the rest. The shocks were clearly
distinguished into two classes—those in which the motion was horizontal, and those in which it
was perpendicular. The latter were attended with explosions, and the terrible mixture of noises
that preceded and accompanied the earthquakes in a louder degree, but were by no means so
desolating and destructive as the other. The houses crumbled, the trees weaved together, the
ground sunk, while ever and anon vivid flashes of lightning, gleaming through the troubled
clouds of night, rendered the darkness doubly horrible. After the severest shocks, a dense, black
cloud of vapor overshadowed the land, through which no struggling sunbeam found its way to
cheer the heart of man. 'The sulphur-
- 41 -
642 - HISTORY Of SENECA COUNTY.
ated gases that were discharged during the shocks tainted the air with their noxious effluvia, and
so impregnated the water of the river for one hundred and fifty miles as to render it unfit for use.
In the intervals of the earthquake there was one evening, and that a brilliant and cloudless one, in
which the western sky was a continued glare of repeated peals of subterranean thunder, seeming
to proceed, as the flashes did, from below the horizon. The night, which was so conspicuous for
subterranean thunder, was the same period in which the fatal earthquake's at Caracas, in South
America, occurred, and it is supposed that these flashes and those events were part of the same
scene.
One result from these terrible phenomena was very obvious. The people in this region had been
noted for their profligacy and impiety. In the midst of these scenes of terror,. all, Catholics and
Protestants, the prayerful and the profane, became one religion, and partook of one feeling. Two
hundred people, speaking English, French and Spanish, crowded together, their faces pale, the
mothers embracing their children. As soon as the omen which preceded the earthquake became
visible, as soon as the air became a little obscured, as soon as a certain mist arose from the east,
all in their different languages and forms, but all deeply in earnest, betook themselves to the
voice of prayer. Tire cattle, much terrified, crowded about the people, seeking to demand
protection or community of danger.
The general impulse, when the shocks commenced, was to run. And yet, when they were at the
severest points of their motion, the people were thrown upon the ground at almost every step. A
French gentleman told me that in escaping from his house, the largest in the- village, he found
that he had left an infant behind, and he attempted to mount up the raised piazza to recover the
child, and was thrown down a dozen times in succession. The venerable lady in whose dwelling
we lodged, was extricated from the ruins of her house, having lost everything that appertained to
her establishment which could be broken or destroyed. The people at the Little Prairie who
suffered Most, had their settlement, which consisted of a hundred families, and which was
located in a rich and fertile bottom, broken up. When I passed it and stopped to contemplate the
traces of the catastrophe, which remained after several years, the crevices, where the earth had
burst, were suffrciently manifest, and the whole region was covered with sand to the depth of two
or three feet. The surface was red with oxydized pyrites of iron, and the sand.blows, as they were
called, were abundantly mixed with this kind of earth and with pieces of pit coal. But two
families remarned of the whole settlement. The object seems to have been in the first paroxysms
of alarm to escape to the hills. The depth of water that soon covered the surface precluded
escape.
The people, without exception, were unlettered backwoodsmen, of the class least addicted to
reasoning. And yet it is remarkable how ingeniously and conclusively they reasoned, from
apprehension sharpened by fear. They observed that the chasms in the earth were in the direction
from southwest to northeast, and they were of an extent to swallow up not only men, but houses,
down deep into the pit. And these chasms occurred frequently, within intervals of half a mile.
They felled the tallest trees at right angles to the chasm;• and stationed themselves upon the
felled trees. Meantime
APPENDIX - 643
their cattle and harvests, both there and at New Madrid, principally perished.
The people no longer dared to dwell in houses. They passed that winter and the succeeding one in
bark booths and camps, like those of the Indians, of so light a texture as not to expose the
inhabitants to danger in case of their being thrown down. Such numbers of laden boats were
wrecked above the Mississippi and the lading driven into the eddy at the mouth of the bayou at
the village, which makes the harbor, that the people were amply provided with provisions of
every kind. Flour, beef, park, bacon, butter, cheese, apples, in short everything that is carried
down the river, was in such abundance as scarcely to be matters of sale. Many of the boats that
came safely into the bayou were disposed of by the affrighted owners for a trifle, for the shocks
continued daily, and the owners deeming the country below sunk, were glad to return to the
upper country as fast as possible. In effect, a great many islands were sunk, new ones raised, and
the bed of the river very much changed in every respect.
After the earthquake had moderated in violence, the country exhibited a melancholy aspect of
chasms, of sand covering the earth, of trees thrown down or lying at an angle of forty-five
degrees, a split in the middle. The Little Prairie settlement was broken up. The Great Prairie
settlement, one of the most flourishing before, on the west bank of the Mississippi, was much
diminished. New Madrid dwindled into insignificance and decay, the people trembling in their
miserable hovels at the distant and melancholy rumbling of the approaching shocks.
The general government passed an act allowing ,the inhabitants of the country to locate the same
quantity of land that they possessed here in any part of the territory where the lands were not yet
covered by any claim. These claims passed into the hands of speculators, and were never of any
substantial value to the possessor. When I resided there, this district, formerly so level, rich and
beautiful, had the most melancholy of all aspects of decay. The tokens of former cultivation and
habitancy were now mementos of desolation and desertion. Large and beautiful orchards were
left uninclosed, homes were deserted, and deep chasms in the earth were obvious at frequent
intervals. Such was the face of the country, although the peo¬ple had for years become so
accustomed to frequent and small shocks, which did no essential injury, that the lands were
gradually rising again in value, and New Madrid was slowly rebuilding with frail buildings
adapted to the apprehensions of the people."
THE GREAT HURRICANE.
Another very wonderful phenomenon that occurred a few years after the great earthquake is also
worthy of special record.
On the 18th of. May, 1825, and after quite a number of new-comers had settled in Seneca, there
occurred one of the most violent tornadoes of which, history gives any account. It has usually
been called the " Burlington storm," because its greatest severity was experienced' in that
township. It commenced between one and two o'clock in the afternoon in Delaware county, upon
the upper waters of the Scioto, and in the very heart of the state. It seemed for a time to sweep the
surface of the earth with indescrib-
644 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
able fury. It then apparently rose in the air, rushing along above the tops of the highest trees.
Soon it descended with increased violence, and tore its destructive way through Licking, Knox
and Coshocton counties. Its general course was a little north of past.
The force and violence of the wind, which accompanied this tempest, have probably never been
equalled in a northern latitude. Gigantic forests were instantly uprooted, and enormous trees were
hurled like feathers through the air. Some were carried several miles. There was no strength of
trunk or root which for a single instant could withstand the assault. Cows, oxen, and horses were
lifted bodily from the ground and carried to the distance of one or two hundred rods. There was a
creek, flooded with recent rains, over which the tornado passed. The gale so emptied it of its
flood that in a few minutes there was only a small, trickling stream to be seen in its bed.
There had been so much rain that the roads were very muddy, and the fields were like sponges
saturated with water. The tornado seemed to dispel every particle of moisture, and both roads and
fields were left dry and almost dusty. The track of the tornado through Licking county was about
two-thirds of a mile in breadth, gradually increasing as the blast advanced. The air was so filled
with trees, buildings, and every kind of debris, whirled as high of the clouds, that the spectacles
resembled immense birds pressing along in hurried flight.
The very ground trembled beneath the gigantic tread of this terrific storm. Many persons who
were at a distance of more than a mile from the track of the tornado, testified that they distinctly
felt the earth to vibrate beneath their feet. Those who experienced the fury of the tempest state
that the roar of the wind, the darkened sky, the trembling of the earth, the crash of falling timbers,
and the air filled with trees, fragments of houses and cattle, presented a spectacle awful in the
extreme.
The cloud from which this terrific power seemed to emerge, was black as midnight. It was
thought by some careful observers that it rushed along at the rate of about a mile a minute. It
sometimes seemed to sink low to the ground, and again to rise some distance above the surface.
Tremendous as was the velocity of the storm, sweeping in .one continuous course, it is
remarkable that no one could tell from the fallen timber in which direction the wind had blown,
for the trees were spread in every way.
There were well authenticated incidents which seem almost incredible. An iron chain about four
feet long, and of the size of a common plow chain, was lifted from the ground and hurled through
the air with almost the velocity of a shot from a gun, for the distance of half a mile, and was there
lodged in the topmost branches of a maple tree. A large ox was carried eighty rods and was then
so buried beneath a mass of fallen trees that it required several hours' chopping to extricate the
animal, which, strange to say, was not materially injured. From the same field with the ox, a cow
was carried forty rods and was lodged in the thick branch of a tree. The tree was blown down,
and the cow was killed. An ox cart was carried through the air forty rods, and was then dashed to
the ground with such violence as to break the axle and to entirely demolish one of the wheels.
Colonel Wright had a house strongly Wilt of heavy logs. His son was standing in the doorway
when the gale struck him, and hurled him across
APPENDIX - 645
the room with such violence as to kill him instantly. The house was torn to pieces. A coat, which
was hanging up in the same house, was found six months afterward in Coshocton county, more
than forty miles from the demolished building. It was taken back to Colonel Wright's, and was
clearly identified. Many light articles such as shingles, books and pieces of furniture were carried
twenty and thirty miles. A little girl, Sarah Robb, twelve years of age, was taken from her father's
house, lifted several feet from the earth, and carried more than an eighth of a mile, when she was
gently deposited upon the ground, unharmed as the gale left her. Fortunately, the tornado passed
over a wilderness region very sparcely settled, and but three lives were lost.
THE JERKS.
Having thus alluded to remarkable physical phenomena, we ought not pass in silence a mental
phenomenon, totally inexplicable upon any known principles of intellectual philosophy, and yet
thoroughly attested by competent witnesses.
The Rev. Joseph Badger was the first missionary on the western reserve. He graduated at Yale
college about the year 1785, and was the highly esteemed pastor of the Congregational church in
Blanford, Massachusetts, for fourteen years. He was a man of enterprising spirit as well as
fervent piety, and became deeply interested in the religious welfare of the Indians in northern
Ohio. Aided by a missionary society, he visited the country, and was so well satisfied that a field
of usefulness was opened before him there, that he returned for his family and took up his
residence among the Wyandots of Upper Sandusky, extending his labors to the tribes on the
Maumee.
His work amongst the Indians and the scattered inhabitants of the reserve, was very arduous, but
interesting and valuable. He was appointed by Governor Meigs, chaplain in the northern army as
war broke out with England. He was in Fort Meigs during the memorable seige of 1813, and was
afterwards attached to General Harrison's command. Mr. Badger had a high reputation for sound
judgment, energy of character and superior intellectual endowments. He died in 1846, at the age
of eighty-nine.
Quite a powerful revival of religion commenced under his preaching in the towns of
Austinburgh, Morgan and Harpersfield, where, at that time (1803), he was alternately preaching.
The revival was attended by a strange bodily agitation called the jerks. We find in " The
Historical Collections of Ohio" a very graphic account of this strange occurrence.
It was familiarly called jerks, and the first recorded instance of its occurrence was at a sacrament
in East Tennessee, when several hundred of both sexes were seized with this strange and
involuntary contortion. The subject was instantaneously seized with spasms or convulsions in
every muscle, nerve and tendon. His head was thrown backward and forward and from side to
side with inconceivable rapidity. So swift was the motion that the features could no more be
discerned than the spokes of a wheel can be seen when revolving with the greatest velocity. No
man could voluntarily accomplish the movement. Great fears were often awakened lest the neck
should be dislocated.
646 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
The whole body was often similarly affected, and the individual was driven, notwithstanding all
his efforts to prevent it, in the church over pews and bences, and in the open air over stones and
the trunks of fallen trees, so that his escape from bruised and mangled limbs seemed almost
miraculous. It was of no avail to attempt to hold or restrain one thus affected. The paroxysm
continued until it gradually exhausted itself. Moreover, all were impressed with the conviction
that there was something supernatural in these convulsions and that it was opposing the 'spirit of
God to attempt, by violence to resist them.
These spasmodic convulsions commenced with a simple jerking of the fore-arm, from the elbow
to the hand, violent, and as ungoverned by the will as what is called the shaking palsy would be.
The jerks were very sudden, following each other at short intervals. Gradually and resistlessly
they extended through the arms to the muscles of the neck. the legs and all other parts of the
body. The convulsions of the neck were the more frightful to behold. The bosom heaved, the
features were greatly distorted and so violent were the spasms that it seemed impossible but that
the neck must be broken. When the hair was long, as was frequently the case with these
backwoodsmen, it was often thrown backward and forward with such velocity that it would
actually snap like a whip-lash. We are not informed whether the victim suffered pain under these
circumstances or not.
An eye-witness gives the following graphic description of the inexplicable phenomena: "
Nothing in nature could better represent this strange and unaccountable operation than for me to
goad another alternately on one side with a piece of red hot iron. The exercise commonly began
in the head, which would fly backward and forward and from side to, side with a quick jolt,
which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain; and the more any one labored to
stay himself and be sober, the more he staggered and the more his twitches increased. He must
necessarily go as he was inclined, whether with a violent dash on the ground and bounce from
place to place like a foot-ball, or hop around with head, limbs and trunk twitching and jolting in
every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder. And how such could escape without
injury, was no small wonder amongst spectators.
" By these strange operations the human frame was commonly so transformed and disfigured as
to lose every trace of its natural appearance. Sometimes the head would be twitched right and left
to a half round, with such velocity that no feature could be discovered, but the face appeared as
much behind as before; and in the quick, progressive jerk, it would seem as if the person was
transmuted into some other species of creature.
"Head-dresses were of little account among the female jerkers. Even handkerchiefs, bound tight
round the head, would be flirted off almost with the first twitch, and the hair, put into the utmost
confusion. This was a very great inconvenience, to redress which, the generality were shorn,
though contrary to their confessions of faith. Such as were seized with jerks, were wrested at
once, not only from their own government, but that of every one else, so that it was dangerous to
attempt confining them or touching them in any manner, to whatever danger they were exposed.
Yet few were hurt, except it were such as rebelled against the operation through
APPENDIX - 647
wilful and deliberate enmity, and refused to comply with the injunctions which it came to
enforce.
" All who witnessed this unaccountable movement, agree in the declaration that the convulsions
were not only involuntary, but resistless.. Stout, burly, wicked men, would come to the meetings
to scorn and to revile. Suddenly the paroxysms would seize them, and they would be whirled
about and tossed in every direction, though cursing at every jerk. Travelers passing by, and who,
from curiosity, looked in upon the religious meetings, would be thus seized.' These facts are
apparently as well authenticated as any facts can be from human testimony. There is no
philosophy which can explain them. The faithful historian can only give them record, and leave
'them there."—[Abbott's Ohio, 683.
THE MORMONS.
A short history of the Mormons is added to these pages here; not because Seneca county has in
any wise been connected with them, but because a distinguished character, who was once
identified with the order, was for several years a respected citizen of Tiffin. A man, also, who
now holds a high position among the Mormons at Salt Lake City, is a native of Tiffin.
Mormonism is about to undergo a great change. Public sentiment is opposed to it. The Mormons
have but this alternative, viz: either to abandon polygamy, or remove beyond the boundaries of
the United States, as they did once before. While, therefore; the sect is in this transitory
condition, a sketch of their past history may be found of interest to the reader:
MORMONISM.
New England fanaticism always found a large field of familiar spirits on the western reserve, and
the jerks were followed by a movement for a new religion in Ashtabula county.
Mr. Solomon Spaulding moved to Conneaut in 1809. He preached sometimes, but with very little
success. He was regarded as a worthy man, however, and having turned his attention to the
mercantile business for a while, he also failed in that. Some people at that time advocated the
idea, that the American Indians were the lost tribe of Israel. Spaulding being a man of eccentric
tastes and habits, and of considerable antiquarian lore, became quite interested in the subject of
the origin of our country's aborigines.
Conneaut was rich in monuments, mounds and fortifications of a past race ; and as the past was
buried entirely in obscurity, he undertook to write an imaginary narrative of the wanderings of
the lost tribes. The book was intended as a historical romance, written in the style of the Bible,
and founded upon the supposition that the American Indians were descendants of the Jews. Mr.
Spaulding's brother, John, visited him while he was writing the book, which he entitled, "
Manuscript Found." John writes :
" It gave a detailed account of the journey of the Jews from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they
arrived in America. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct
nations. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They buried their
dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds so common in this
648 - HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY:
country. Their arts, sciences and civilization were brought into view, in order to account for all
the curious antiquities found in various parts of North and South America."
Mr. John Spaulding testifies that the Mormon Bible, so called, is essentially this book. Mr. Henry
Lake, of Conneaut, also corroborates this testimony in the following emphatic words :
" I left the state of New York late in the year 1810, and arrived at Conneaut the 1st of January
following. Soon , after my arrival, I formed a copartnership with Solomon Spaulding for the
purpose of rebuilding a forge, which he had commenced a year or two before. He very frequently
read to me a manuscript which he was writing, which he entitled the " Manuscript Found," and
which he represented as being found in this town. I spent many hours hearing him read said
writings, and became well acquainted with their contents. He wished me to assist him in getting
his productions printed, alleging that a book of that kind would meet with a rapid sale. I designed
doing so, but the forge not meeting our anticipations, we failed in business, when I declined
having anything to do with the publication of the book.
" This book represented the American Indians as the descendants of the lost tribes ; gave an
account of their leaving Jerusalem, their contentions and wars, which were many and great. One
time when he was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to him what I
considered an inconsistency, which he promised to correct. But by referring to the Book of
Mormon, I find to my surprise, that it stands there just as he read it to me then. Some months ago
I borrowed the Mormon Bible, put it into my pocket, carried it home and thought no more about
it.
" About a week after, my wife found the book in my coat pocket as it hung up, and commenced
reading it aloud, as I lay upon the bed: She had read but a few minutes till I was astonished to
find the same passages in it that Spaulding had read to me more than twenty years before from
the " Manucript Found." Since then I have more fully examined the Mormon Bible, and have no
hesitancy in saying that the historical part of it is principally, if not wholly, taken from the
"Manuscript Found." I well recollect telling Mr. Spaulding that the so frequent use of the words :
' And it came to pass,' rendered it ridiculous. Spauding left here in 1812, and I furnished him
means to carry him to Pittsburgh, where he said he would get the book printed and pay me. I
heard nothing more from him."
The testimony of six other witnesses is equally clear on this point. Spaulding was vain of his
writings and was continually reading them to his neighbors. It is much easier to write such a book
than to get any one to publish it. It is not known what use he made of the manuscript. He
remained in Pittsburgh two or three years and died in Amity in 1816.
Several years afterwards, when this manuscript, with sundry additions and alterations, appeared
as the Mormon Bible, Spaulding's widow testified that it was her impression that her husband
took the manuscript to the publishing house of Messrs. Patterson & Lambdin, but that she did not
know that it was ever returned. Lambdin died. The establishment was broken up. Patterson had
no recollection of the manuscript.
About the year 1823, a man by the name of Sidney Rigdon came to Pitts-
APPENDIX - 649
burgh. He was a very eccentric character, with an unbalanced mind and somewhat of a
mono-maniac on the Bible. He had been a wandering preacher without any ecclesiastical
affiliation. He became very intimate with Lambdin and was often in the office where the
manuscripts were kept. He quit preaching for three years to study the Bible. He was fond of
disputations and was a sort of religious Ishmaelite. Here in Lambdin's office Rigdon found
Spaulding's manuscript and read it with great interest. His crazy mind absorbed it all. He copied
the whole thing and claimed the authorship in himself.
In his wanderings, he made the acquaintance of another singular man, named Joe Smith, who
professed to possess the art of divination, by which were revealed to him treasures hidden in the
ground. Smith was at that time digging for money on the banks of the Susquehanna. He is
represented by those opposed to his pretentions as a man of low associates, averse to all regular
industry, very voluble in speech, having great self confidence, and with unusual power of duping
others. He had some seer-stones, by which he could look into futurity as well as into the bowels
of the earth.
Smith lodged around the country, from place to, place, sometimes attending revival meetings,
praying and exhorting with great exuberance of words. It was hard to tell whether Joe was a
hypocrite or a fanatic, or a mixture of both. Smith and Rigdon just suited for company. These
monomaniacs took the " Manuscript Found " for their guide, and originated Mormonism. No
doubt they, felt themselves guided by the Holy Ghost to form a new religion. Smith was cunning
and versatile and had the seer-stone, in which the illiterate had faith. Sidney was a printer and a
preacher, full of words and full of Spaulding's manuscript. Smith had brass and self-confidence
that knew no blush. He took the lead.
Writes Mr. Ferris : "A portion of mankind have been looking for the last days for the past
eighteen hundred years, and at the period in question were ready to run into Millerism or any
other " ism,” where their notions could be accommodated in this respect. A prophet, therefore,
who could super-add to the discovery of the golden Bible a proclamation of a Speedy destruction
of all mundane things, a power of attorney for the restoration of an, authorized priesthood and the
gathering of the saints, and make a formidable display of miraculous powers, was the most
acceptable gift which could be made to popular superstition. Here, then, would seem to have
been combined the elements of an atmosphere, which has since branched out and gathered
strength, until it has become the most noted instance in modern times of the development and
growth of religious fanaticism."
Joe Smith's story is as follows : He says, in the year 1820, as he, in a retired place, was earnestly
engaged in prayer, two angels appeared to him. They informed him that God had forgiven all his
sins, and that he was the chosen instrument to introduce a new dispensation ; that all the then
religious denominations were in error ; that the Indians were the descendants of the lost tribes ;
that they had brought with them to this country, inspired writings ; that these writings were safely
deposited in a secret place, and that he was selected by God to receive them, and translate them
into the English tongue.
There was considerable negotiation before the angel condescended to put
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