The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1851-08-21

'~~S'o''
is one of the most remarkable and Iamenta.
ble facts Of the present time.-T Rochester
Extracts from TURNER'S forthcoming History of
ih'lps and Gorhams Purchase"
Gold
As we are now nt the home Of the Smith
family-in sight Of " Mormon Hili'-a
brief pioneer history will he looked for, of
the strange, and singulariy successful relig-
ious sect-the Mornons aud brief it must
be, merely starting it in its career, and leav.
ing II 10 their especial historians to trace
them TO Kiltland and Nauvoo, Beaver Is
land. and Utah or the Salt Lake.
Joseph Smith, the father of the prophet
Joseph Smith, Jr., was from Merrirnack
river, New Hampshire. He first settled IN
or near Palmyra village, but as early as
1919, was occupant Of some new land on
"Strafiord street," in the town Of Manches-
ter, near the line of Palmyra. Mormon
Hip is near the plank road about halfway
between the villages of Palmyra and Man
chester. The elder Smith had been Uni
versalist, and subsequently Methodist :;
was good deal of a srnat,e,er in scrptural
know ledge, but the seed Of revelation was
sown on weak ground; he was great bab-
bier, cre'iuious, not especially industrious,
a money digger, prone To the marvellous :;
and withai, little given to difficulties with
neighbors, and petty law suits. Nota very
propitious account of the father of PrOph-
ct,-the fOnnder of State but there was
Il "wonan in the case" How ever present
in matters Of good and evil ! In the gar
den of Eden, in the siege Of Troy, on the
Enl,I e FL he. ~
formation, in the Palace of ST. Peters
bursh, and Kre,nlin of Moscow, in Eng
lands history, and SPAIN. proutlest era -
and here upon this continent, in the persons
of Ann Lee, Jemima Wilkinson, and as we
are about TO add, Mrs. Joseph Smith A
mothers influence in the worlds history, in
the history Of men, how distinct Is the inn
press In heroes, in statesmen, in poets,
in all good or bad aspirations, or distinc-
tons, that single men out from the mass,
and give them notoriety how often, almost
invariably, are we led back 10 the nfuen-
ces of a mother, to find the germ that has
sprouted in the offspring.
The reader will excuse this interruption
of the narrative, and be told that Mrs.
Smith was woman of strong uncultis ated
intellect; artlul and cunning; imhued with
an lily regulated religious enthusiasm. / he
lncipent hints, the first givings out that a
Prophet was to spring from her humble
household, came from her; and " hen mat
ters were maturing for denouement, she
gave out that such and such ones--always
fixing upon those who had money and cred
uiity--were to he instruments in some great
work 0! new revolution. The old man was
rather her faithful cO-wOrker, or executive
exponent. Their son, .Alvah, was original
Iy intended, or designated, 10y firesde con-
situations, and solemn and mysterious out
door hints, as The forthcoming Prophet.
The mother and the father said he was the
chosen one, Eut Alvah, however spiritual he
may have been, had a carnal appetite; ate
too many green turnips. sckened and died.
Thus the world lost Prophet, aud Nor
monism leader; the designs impiously and
wickedly attributed to Providence defeated; /;
and all In consequence Of surfeit Of raw
turnips. Who will talk Of the cackliug
geese of Rome, or any other small and IN
nocent causes of mighty events, after this!
The mantle of the Prophet which Mrs and
Mr.. Joseph Smith and one Oliver Cowdry,
had woven of hemseves-every thread of
it-fell upon their next oldest son, Joseph
Smith, Jr.
And most unprOmising recipient Of such
a trust, was the same Joseph Smith, Jr. , af-
terwards "Jo Smith, He was idle, loung-
ing, (not to say vicious,) and possessed Of
less than ordinary intellect. The authors
own recollections Of him are distinct. He
used TO come into the village of Palmyra
with little jags of wood, from his backwoods
home; sometimes patronzing q village gro
cery too freely, sometimes finding an odd
job TO do about the store Of Seymour Sco-
veil; and once u week he would stroll into
the office Of the old Palmyra Register, for
his fathers paper. How impious, in US
young s'dare Depiis," to once in while
blacken the face Of the then meddiing in
quisitve lounger-but afterwards Prophet
with the old fashioned balls, when he
us to put himself in the way of the working
Of the old fashioned Ramage press ! The
editor Of the Cultivator at Albany, esteem
ed as he may justly consider himself, for
his subsequent enterprise AMI usefulness,
may think of it with contrition and repen-
tance, that he once helped, thus to disigure
the face OF Prophet, and remotely, the
founder Of State.
But Jose ph had little ambition and
some very laudable aspirations the moth
er's intellect occasionally shone out IN him
feebIy, especially when he used TO help us
to solve some portentous questions Of NOR
al or political ethics, in our juvenile debat.
ing club, which we moved down to the old
red school house on Durfee street, to get
rid Of the annoyance Of critics that used to
drop in upon US in the village; and subss-
quently, after catching q spark Of Mctho-