Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-06-12
ANCESTORS OF
PROPHET JOSEPH.
Elder B. H. Roberts Discovers.
important Documentary Evil
dence Of Early Days.
IS WORKING ON NEW HISTORY,
Finds Proof That Lucy Smith Came
From Family OF Consequence and
Stability in Community.
lspecInl 10 No .News..1

New York, June r. Elder Brigham
Ii. Roberts. who is here In connection
with the publication OF q new history
Of the Mormon Church, in tie American
Historical Magazine. has made dis
coveiy III the Boston public library of
important documentary evidence relat-
ing to the ch,mchfs early history
The evidence deals With the history
of the Mack family, from whom Lucy
Smith, mother of the Prophet Joseph,
was descended Three important recent
books. attacking Ntormonisnl. charge
that his line of descent was through
incorsequcntial people afflicted with
epilepsy and insanity. Elder Roberts
has found indisputable evidence that
the antecedents of the prophets mother
We're among the hest known residents of
New Hampshire, and one near rela-
tive. n brother. rose TO the grade of
brigadier-general of the state troops
that turned out during the Revolution
airy war
Since the abandonment of the Spaid-
ing theory In accounting for the Rock
of Mormon. and of the theories that
Joseph Smith, the prophet, apractised de-
Migrate fraud, the attack on the book
lis now concentrating on pathological
study OF the prophet and his family
with the view of showing that mentally
the prophet was defective, and was Civ
EN- to epileptic fits and to seeing visions
due to mental decisions.
Tucker, who wrote iii 1867. original ed
this theory and 1t has lately been seized
upon by a writer named Reilly. and
by Lynn in his "Storyaof Mormonisr5.
alexander stephens, In a History ofthe
United States, repeats 1t. and so far
the most acknowledgements in meeting
the attacks. has heen the absence of
definite Information concerning the an
scestry Of Lucy Smith.
Elder Roberts, while at work IN the
Boston library found in the genealogi-
History of Gilsum., by Silvanus Hay
ward, NJ A. Gilsum was the town
from Which the prophets mother came.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
In running through the volume it
was found, that biographical notes were
included on the life of Lucy Smiths
father, Solomon Mack, and also of
three of her brothers, Solomon. Jason
and Stephen. All three of these citi-
.zens Of Gilsum, it is noted, fought
through the Revolutionary war. Jason
afterWards became; a Christian minis
ter white Stephen rose to be a brig
adler general. These boys owned tS-
tensive areas of land, and We're the
builders of the -four mills8on which the
towns prosperity rested Also they
built the first dams ever erected In the
| Connecticut river. and Solomon became
the inventor of a diving suit used in
working under the water on these
dams. 8
This information, establishing the
NIaclis as people of consequence and
stability in their community. will fur
nish definite data with which to meet
the oft repeated ISLANDERS that the
Smiths in Palmyra We're class OF
cake peddling," singer-beer selling
mendicants who peddled such wares
from push carts rather than participant
ing in the active pioneering work that
occupied the brain and Drawn OF the
best class&uf citizens.
Heretofore the only definite know
ledge of the Mack family in the possess
sion of the Church, has been brief al
fusion to them In the history Of the
Prophet written by Lucy Smith, his
mother.