Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-12-29
"THE BOOK OF MORrov :,
Written as a Novel Eight Va. A..
and Used to Oeluds the In. ears Ago


Written as Novel Eth, -.
and Used :, It to Dsluds the Incr sd,S ago
STEUBENvILLE, o, Oct n
beautiful valley Of Ter Nh IN the
southern part Of Washinsto. III Lne
Pennsylvania, lives Mr.. Josa c SSiny'
Sr.. now in his 92d year ,1ist nai uI,
The Times correspondent ~. .'n WHO'LL
an interview. Mr.. Miller a. Just nao
in the Cumberland Presbyterian church S-
and a man of unimpeac6able vs -.vu'
In answer TO the question ~ ba 49,,
Rev. solomon Spauldin0 a. 10 o, n.eM
of the Book of Mormon ~ aIsn1I
turned, and his face briebtenoS =" ~
mind ran back to the EVENT. - th ,o
past. and he said, with cons;do u tue
emphasis, 81 most certainlv 40 - 'e
work? ?" NY Vi LILO
YES. Some years ago. ba ron.
tinued, "Rev. j. w. Hamilton d..
byterian minister, now living IN Stem
benville, o., presented me with a cow
which / read very CAREFULLY
"Is II your opinion that Won avor
read or heard read any portion of It be
foreY
Eyes, 1 am quite positive that 1
He then referred to a passage ON
page l48, which, he said. was so
strange that, at the time Mr.. SnanI.
ding read II to him from his MANN
script, it fixed itself upon his memory
and that he had never forgotten M He
said that about 1872 Spaulding came
to Amity, n small village about five
miles from his present home. where he
kept a hotel; that Spauldin0 was in
delicate health, and that he (Miller)
often spent his evenings at his home.
"While there, upon several occasions.
Mr.. Spaulding would bring out large
roll of papers, and read select portions
Of their contents to amuse us of even
ings. He told me that he wrote il for
a novel and intended to have IL pub
lished as a means of support for his
family. He called it The Lost Manu-
script Found and said that he wrote
it TO pass away the time when he was
feeling unwell. / am confident" said
Mr.. Miller. "from what I knoyn of
Mr.. Spaulding's manuscript, and the
Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith.
by some means got possession of the
novel, and made some changes in il.
and issued it under the name by which
il is know to-day"
Mr.. Miller said that Spaulding was
an enthusiastic archeologist, and that
he often INDUCED himself in the belief
that the American continent was at
one time peOpled by colony of ancient
Israelites, and that his manuscript was
only a fictitious history of the race
which had built the mounds. Mr.. Miller
is the only man living at this time
who was acquainted with Spaulding-
at least. the only person who has any
knowledge Of the correct origin of the
"BOOk Of Mormon" or who ever heard
IL rea1 from the lips of the author.
He said to the correspondent during
his stay that, as he neared the grave,
with but one breath between him and
heaven, he hoped that last breath
might carry message that would
prevent people FROM being lied into
Mormonism, that most seductive de-
fusion of the devil. "Spaulding was a
good man." said Mr.. Miller, "and
would not cast a shadow upon his
memory, for it never was his intention
to create false religion by anything
that he wrote. attended him through
his last illness, and when death called
him from earth. 1, with my own hands
made the coffin that contained his sleep
ing ashes. He was buried in the
churchyard of the village, and his grave
remains unmarked, while the work Of
his idle hours eighty years ago ma.
grown i'm the country he dearly loved
until the eyes of the nation are turned
with horror upon its magnitude"