The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-09-14
A NTRgERY FOR NOTABLES,

Ashtabula has been called
ANURsERY. FOB HorABLEs, q
because SO many famous men have been
reared within her borders. But 1t has
not only been q nursery for famous men,
but nursery for famous ideas also; Il
haA been a propagatiDg house Tor all oil
the piety, thrift, reforms, and fanaticlSms
for which the 6Western Reserve" Of Ohio
has been noted; for, being the Oldest sell
lied county on the Reseryefit stood for
many years IS godmOther TO all the set
Elements along the lake shore and IN Cen
tral Ohio. Abolillonism, grew here, un-
der the fostering influence Of Elisha
Whittlesly and Joshua 3. Giddings, as i
grew no where else in the nation. Old
0ssawatamie Brown lived under the shad-
ow OF its borders, and kept q supply
store" in Summit county, where he saved
The money and reared the family oil sons
that were sacrificed in Kansas aud Of
Harperjs Ferry. And they were not the
only martyrs that Ashtabula county fur
nished for this great cause. The Love-
toys once livedIltefe, and many others
whose bodies lay dead on the skirmish
line Of the irrepressible conflict.
MoRMosIsM KNEW IIs FIRST osGASlzA'
r.Hl, TONI HERE. t'yrls 80.
Solomon Spaulding, the real author o.
1.-THE Book OF Mormon" moved into this
county from Central New York, and in a
little house, still standing, near the vii.
Iage of Conneaut, wrote tbis famous 70.
nance, accounting for the peoplingr o.
America by deriving the Indians from
The lost tribes Of Israel, in accoEdapce
with an absurd notion then prevalent
This work contained a new translation
Of the Book OF Mormon, and was entitled
@Manuscript Found;" spaulding claiming
that II was merely u translation OF huge
parchment volume Of hieroglyphics
which he had discovered in a cave near
Cohneaut. This "cave," which is near
the shore Of Lake Erie merely a ehasm
oveihung with rocks-was frequently
visited Tor many years after by rev.
ercntiul pilgrims Of the Mormon faith.
Mrs. SpauIding, after her husbands
death, attempted to undo the damage o.
his deception, and made explanations II
the Boston Journal in 1889, and at pub
lie meeting at Conneaut about the same
date, in. which She declared that her hns
band had no intention Of having his book
used in the way il had been; that 1t wa
announced as having been discovered II
cave merely to increase its sale; and
that this fact, together. with the air o.
antiquity which her husband. had given
Il, suggested the idea to Rigdon, Smith
and others Of converting it to'the purpo
ses Of delusion. Said she: ''' 5'''
"Thus a historical romance, q pure
fiction, containing a few pious expres-
sions and extracts from the sacred Scrip
lures, has been construed into a. new
Bible, and palmed OF upon a company o.
poor dsluded fanatics as Divine" i,
All THE MoRMoSs Ii ONO. t,
In 1880, Joseph Smith receiyeda visior
from the Lord declaring that thu
seat OF the New Jerusalem wa
10 be at Kirtland,- near the bor-
der Of Ashtabula county, and soor
after there gathered there all the widel!
scattered converts to the Mormon faith
A temple was erected, the remains Q
which are still standing; bank wa
established and q magnificent swindlt
inaugurated by Smith, .Rigdon, Brigham
Young and others, who filed the coun
try with. a worthless wildcat currency
But the honest settlers OF the district
who had all the time distrusted the sin
cerity 81 the Mormon leaders, determin
ed to purge the fair Reserve Of them, ant
there began what is known in the an
mails Of the Mormon Church as "the per,
,ecntion Of the Saints" Rigdon ant
Smith were dragged from their beds q
night, and tarred and feathered; yigi
lantes paroled the country 10 prevent the
freduent theits and murders oil which
they we're suspected, and finally, in, 1888
after seven years sojourn at. this New
Jerusalem, Smith, Rigdon, and the 9th
er leaders left secretly one night to avoid
the Indignation Of the citizens, and tool
refuge al Nauvoo, III, where they were
soon after followed by the "Latter Day
saints"in a body. 49, .'l
THE ROMANCE OF AsnrADuLk COUNTY.
Judge Riddle, Of Washington, former
" a resident Of Ashtabula, and, early in
the war, q member OF Congress from an
adjoining district, has written noyelen'
titled ':Bart Ridgeley,n supposed to be, e
a certain extent, autobioesaphical, .ttt
scene OF which is laid around Kirkland
in Mormon times, and the plot Of which
involves, with great interest the eccen.
tricities OF the Mormon leaders and the
incidents OF their stay ut Krtland.
Longfellow says in the preface TO, one
OF his stories that romance, Like lichens
and moss, needs ruins to make it grow
but in Northern Ohio, where there are no
ruins, where everything sfresh and thrift
", where the farm houses are always
newly painted and the barns as clean and
neat as pantries, there have been ro.
mances a. tragic as any that ever grew
along the ruins Of the Rhine. Y ~ "
HISTORICAL FAMILIES, ,rf i,