unOFFICIAL JOSEPH SMITH HOME PAGE
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SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSLYVANIA,
ALONG WITH REPORTS FROM
BROOME & CHENANGO COUNTIES, N. Y.
Periodical Articles: 1820-1829 | 1830-1849 | 1850-1879 | 1880-1899 | 1900-1999
Books with substantial relevant information
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THE GREAT BEND
1824: May 21 Susquehanna Democrat (Oliver Harper Murder) 1824: Jun 9 Sandusky Clarion (Oliver Harper Murder) 1824: Aug ?? Ovid Gazette (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Sep 10 Broome Republican (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Sep 17 Susquehanna Democrat (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Sep 17 Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Sep 22 Adams Centinel (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Oct 7 Ohio Respository (Treadwell Trial) 1824: Dec 10 Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Execution) 1825: Jan 1 Sat. Eve. Post (Treadwell Execution) 1825: Jan 7 Ohio Respository (Treadwell Execution) 1825: Jan 7 Ohio Repository (Treadwell Execution) 1825: Jan 14 Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Execution) |
Joseph Smith and Isaac Hale Houses at Harmony (click image to enlarge)
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Periodicals
1830: Nov 20 Brattleboro Messenger (Colesville Branch) 1831: Apr 9 Evangelical Magazine (Smith Trials) 1831: Apr 27 Ithaca Journal (Colesville Branch) 1831: Dec 29 Broome County Courier (Joseph Smith) 1832: Nov 7 Boston Christian Herald (Smith Trials) 1832: Dec 19 Herald of Gospel Truth (Book of Mormon) 1832: Dec ?? Susquehanna Register (Mormons) 1834: May 1 Susquehanna Register (Smith Marriage) 1843: Jan ?? Methodist Quarterly Review (Joseph Smith) 1844: Jun 1 Times & Seasons (Smith Trials) |
Artist's Depiction of Joseph and Emma Hale Smith's Old Home at Harmony
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Periodicals
1870: Aug. ?? Montrose Republican (Money-Digging) 1873: Feb ?? Fraser's Magazine (Smith Trials) 1875: Dec 2 Syracuse Journal (Money-Digging) 1877: Apr 4 Broome Republican (Money-Digging) 1877: Apr 12 Chenango Union (Money-Digging) 1877: May 3 Chenango Union (Money-Digging) 1877: Aug 23 Bainbridge Republican (Money-Digging) 1878: May 3 Roman Citizen (Josiah Stowell) 1879: Apr 23 Amboy Journal (Money-Digging) 1879: Apr 30 Amboy Journal (Money-Digging) 1879: May 21 Amboy Journal (Money-Digging) 1879: Jun 4 Amboy Journal (Joseph Smith) 1879: Jun 11 Amboy Journal (Money-Digging) 1879: Jun 15 Saints' Herald (Book of Mormon) 1879: Jul 9 Amboy Journal (Money-Digging) 1879: Jul ?? Philadelphia Times (Money-Digging) 1879: Aug 2 Evening Gazette (Money-Digging) 1879: Aug 6 Amboy Journal (Joseph Smith) 1879: Sep 7 Salt Lake Tribune (Joseph Smith) 1879: Oct 1 Saints' Herald (Joseph Smith) 1879: Oct 3 Salt Lake Tribune (Book of Mormon) 1879: Oct 17 Salt Lake Tribune (Money-Digging) |
Martin Harris Works as Smith's Scribe (Harmony, 1828)
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Periodicals
1880: Jul 28 Broome Republican (Money-Digging) 1880: Aug ?? Lippincott's Magazine (Money-Digging) 1881: Jul ?? The Interior (Money-Digging) 1882: Dec 08 Wilkes-Barre Record (Harmony Temple) 1888: Jan ?? Naked Truths (W. R. Hine Statement) 1888: Jan ?? Naked Truths (K. A. Bell Statement) 1888: Jan ?? Naked Truths (H. A. Sayer Statement) 1888: Feb 26 New York Times (Money-Digging) 1888: Aug 16 Bainbridge Enterprise (Colesville branch) 1888: Nov 14 Syracuse Express (Isaac Hale) 1890: Jan 19 Elmira Telegram (Money-Digging) 1890: Nov 14 Otsego Farmer (Money-Digging) 1891: Feb 17 Syracuse Journal (Money-Digging) 1891: Apr 18 Saints' Herald (Money-Digging) 1895: Dec 18 Binghampton Weekly Herald (Joseph Smith) 1899: Jul 7 Philadelphia Inquirer (Smith Home) 1899: Nov 25 Rockford Daily Register (Money-Digging) |
Oliver Cowdery Arrives at Harmony to Work as Smith's Scribe (April 1829)
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Periodicals
1901: Sep 13 Philadelphia Inquirer (Smith Home Photo) 1901: Sep 25 Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Joseph Smith) 1903: Apr 25 Geneva Daily Times (Money-Digging) 1904: Feb ?? Homiletic Review (Smith Trials) 1904: Mar 20 Elmira Telegram (Smith Home Photo) 1904: Apr 14 Binghampton Press (Money-Digging) 1904: May 20 Binghampton Press (Money-Digging) 1904: Jun 4 Broome Republican (Joseph Smith) 1904: Dec 12 Binghampton Press (Smith Home) 1905: Jun 29 Montrose Democrat (Hale family) 1907: Jun 21 Binghampton Press (Money-Digging) 1908: Sep 13 Philadelphia Inquirer (Money-Digging) 1909: Mar 14 ??? (Money-Digging) 1909: Jun 6 Syracuse Herald (Money-Digging) 1912: Feb 16 Binghampton Press (Isaac Hale) 1918: Aug 11 Binghampton Press (Money-Digging) 1919: Jul 8 Ogden Standard (Smith Home) 1936: Jul 18 Deseret News (Isaac Hale) 1960: Jul 17 Binghampton Press (Isaac Hale) 1985: Jul 14 Syracuse Herald Journal (Money-Digging) |
Joseph Smith's 1829 Baptism of Oliver Cowdery at Harmony
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Unsourced newspaper clipping, dated March 14, 1909
The stereotyped story that has found its way into the current biographies of Smith and his Latter Day Saints, differs very materially from the Susquehanna traditions regarding his search for a mysterious revelation. Smith's followers have it that on the night of September 21, 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to him three times. Each time the angel informed Smith that God had a work for him to do. There had been written upon gold plates a record giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America, and God's dealings with them, which was deposited in a particular place in the earth, a hill in Manchester, Ontario county, New York. Two transparent stones in silver bows, like spectacles, were with the record. These the angel Moroni informed him, were anciently called the Urim and Thummim. On looking through these, the golden plates would become intelligible. Now it transpires, according to the Susquehanna story, that the angel that appeared to Smith was a straggling Indian. In passing through this part of the country the Indian informed Smith that he could find near the highest point of Turkey hill, three quarters of a mile distant from Susquehanna, in Oakland township, rich treasure, and Smith at once, assisted by Oliver Harper, began digging for the buried treasure, which they did not find. The two spent, however, $2,000 in cash, before they were through. Four excavations were made. The largest was located a quarter mile north of the Susquehanna river, and about 120 yards southeast of the house [which] Smith made his home. It was in the year 1825 that Smith first arrived in Harmony, and he appeared and reappeared at intervals until 1829. In 1830 the Book of Mormon was published. Tradition has it that one of the seeing stones by which Smith professed to translate the golden plates was purchased of Jack Belcher, of Gibson, Susquehanna county. It was a green stone, about the size of a goose egg with brown irregular spots, and was seen by a number of the early residents of Susquehanna county. Smith's Book of Mormon and his Church of the Latter Day Saints, so Susquehanna folks believe, were after-thoughts, which were suggested by his failure to find the hidden treasures which he had sought at such an expense. It was between Susquehanna and Great Bend, and near Capt. Buck's sawmill, that Smith made his first excavation in Susquehanna county, but he soon abandoned that place and commenced digging in Oakland township, where he professed to find the plates from which his Book of Mormon was translated. Smith, early in his career, assumed the air of a prophet, one of the marks of his calling showing itself in blessing his neighbor's crops, but not, however, without a consideration. Old settlers declare that he could not in every instance discriminate between a blessing and a curse, as the following instance goes to show. Smith was employed on one occasion, to bless a piece of corn planted rather late, its owner feeling doubtful about its ripening. When, as it turned out, that this was the only corn killed in that section by frost, Smith [said], on having his attention called to the fact, that he must have made a mistake. Instead of blessing [it, he] must have put a curse upon it. So far as [his ----- ----- ----] goes, at the time [----- ----- ----] in Pennsylvania, [Smith is said] to have been a careless young fellow with a markedly insolent [tongue]. The rear of the [property is] occupied by Mrs. Jasper, who is a relative of the original owner of the part of the building where the Book of Mormon was written. Smith hung a blanket across the room to keep the sacred records from profane eyes, stationing a secretary on the opposite side of the blanket, to whom he [pretended] to read the narrative from the plates which he had unearthed by his digging, the stone spectacles Urim and Thummim aiding him in the process. At the time three witnesses vouched for the truth of Smith's statement, Oliver Cowdery, his secretary, David Whitmer and Martin Harris. But several years afterwards, the settlers say, they all quarreled with Smith, and renouncing Mormonism, admitted that their signatures swore falsely, and that Smith's revelations were all a fraud. Then it was that the other story came out, [Using] the title of "Manuscript Found," Solomon Spalding had written a novel about the tale, and in trying to get it published in Pittsburg, it fell into the hands of a printer, who afterward became associated with Smith [took the] manuscript, after being edited in the biblical style and interlarded with several hundred scriptural quotations without credit [---- ----- ---- the] Book of Mormon [----- ------- -----]. The fact that [------ -------- --------- ---------- --------- ------ and who] doubtless is responsible for the story that the plates were dug up in the hill there. Susquehanna county, in Pennsylvania, however, is the birthplace of the Book of Mormon. And the old house of the prophet and four half-filled excavations, made by Smith himself, and his digging associates, in Oakland township, bear out the proof of the claim. |
Old McKune House Lot and Cemetery, Prior to LDS Restoration Efforts of 2012-13
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THE GREAT BEND
1853: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith (under constr.) 1870-2012 1870: Early Times on the Susquehanna (under constr.)1872: Atlas of Susquehanna County (under constr.) 1873: History of Susquehanna County (Mormon section) 1882: Life Among the Mormons (Colesville, etc.) 2000: Origins in New York & Pennsylvania (under constr.) |
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