The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1894-03-14
MORMONS IN MISSOURI
RISE AND FALL OF JOE SMITH
AND HIS DANTE BAND
Establishment Of the New Je.
ruSalem---G0 BOggs Pro-
claims War and Drives
Mormons Away.
THE "pooK or MORMON


WIN r. swit,ier, in st. Louis Republic
IL is the boast of statesmen and
economists of both hemispheres that
no period of the worlds history can
compare IN education, culture and
material progress with the Nineteenth
| Century.
Internationally one of the most
striking ouigrowths of modern fanati-
cism is the progress aud pretensions OF
Mormonism in the United States That
one Joe Smith, an uueducated youth,
without wealth or social standing, or,
indeed, OF common morality, and, in
fact, notorious only for vagrant and
dissolute life, should excite II revolu-
tionary movement in the religious
world and show himself able to operate
on public credulity by the most absurd
pretensions to the divine and prophetic
character, and that, too, in a century
boastful Of its intelligence. are para
doxes difficult TO be accounted for on
any known laws of the human race.
"The Book of Mormon" a copy of
| which | have and which was once the
property Of Joe Smiths mother, con-
tains a history so.called OF the ancient
aborigines of the country, from whom,
1t is claimed, the modern tribes de
scended. From the pages of this blum
dering fiction the red man was to be
taught of his high origin; Of an ances-
try which had peopled a vast continent,
and established a civilization superior
| to that OF their European enemies, who
had robbed them of their homes and
their hunting grounds.
There is something 10 remarkable
about this strange infa.uation as 10 MS
tify brief reference to the history of
Joe Smith and of the origin of Nor
monism, or "The Book of Mormon"
file was born at Sharon, Windsor
county, VT, December %, 1905, and in
1919 removed, with his father aud fami-
ly, TO Palmyra, Wayne county, n. Y.
A few years after, Smith protested TO
be seriously concerned on the subj ect
of religion.
In April, lS2O, while engaged in
prayer IN the woods adjacent to his
home, he pretended to have received
his first Is@aLkahle vision. aud reyel.
alton. asserting that God appeared to
| h,., -, tha ,,,,I anI Ill, Mnhap m a 4 q
Gabriel, informed him liis sins were
forgiven; that all the denominations of
| Christians we're in error and enemies
Of the covenant OF grace, and that he
was the chosen of God to reintroduce
His gospel and re-establish His king
dom on earth
Three years afterwards the pretended
prophet fearfully backslid and relapsed
into his old habits Of swearing, swim
ding and drunkenness. Nevertheless,
he pretends that on Septem Der 81, 1923,
an angel visited him while in bed and
revealed TO him the existence and loca-
ton of plates of gold on which we're
engraved the history of the ancient III
habitants of the American Continent
and the true doctrines of salvation.
Next day, obeying the angelic injunc-
ton, he went to "Comorah. a hill be-
tween Manchester and Palmyra, n. Y,
and found the plates in stone box,
buried in the side of the hill. After a
conflict with the devil and his angels,
the angel of the Lord safely delivered
to him the plates of gold, bell-shaped,
by 8 inches in size and inches thick,
and fastened through the ends with
rings.
These plates had engraved on them
all sorts of hieroglyphic writing, and
numerous figures of half moons and
stars, ending with rude representa-
ton of the Mexican zodiac.
In 1881 Smith, with a number of his
converts, moved to Kirkland, o., and
the year after located "Zion" or 1.-THE
New Jerusalem" atIndopendence, Mo-,
and settled here with "A host of follow
ers. They entered large body of land
and professed to own everything in
common.
The new Mormon town was called
ear West" and Joe Smith and his
"apostles" located there and assured
their followers that it would soon be-
come one of the mighty cities of the
world in population, wealth and power.
None of the prophesies of the great
prophet were verified, for in few
years after its foundations were laid
the site was occupied by a cornfeld
about eight miles southwest of Hamil'
ton and the same distance south east OF
Cameron, both hourishing towns on the
Hannibal and ST. Joseph railroad.
Far West was laid off on grand