Dale W Adams

"Doctor Philastus Hurlbut"
JWHS Journal 20 (2000)

2000 Article   2000 Notes
1995 precursor

Transcriber's comments

Note: Permission has been secured from the
author to reproduce his texts on this web-page.
All other rights reserved by Dale W Adams

See also: "Crisis at Kirtland"   |   D. P. Hurlbut Chronology


 


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_____________________________________________

Doctor Philastus Hurlbut:
Originator of Derogatory Statements
About Joseph Smith, Jr.

DALE W ADAMS
_____________________________________________


Few antagonists have had a more persistent nagging influence on Joseph Smith Jr. and his followers than has Doctor Philastus Hurlbut. He fostered two Spaulding myths that challenged the authorship of the Book of Mormon and also collected statements that tarnished the reputation of Smith and his family. Although the Spaulding myths are now discredited, for more than 160 years a relay of writers have periodically reanimated the anti-Smith testimonials collected by Hurlbut in 1833. 1 Authors critical of the Smiths have usually accepted and reproduced these statements at face value. Those with fairness concerns, however, might wonder about the collector's motives, methods, and character. Was he a respected and objective reporter who assembled facts from a random sample of those who knew the Smith family? Or, was he a person with ulterior motives and a reputation that might lead a neutral observer to wonder if the information he collected was tainted? Aspects of Hurlbut's life provide answers to these questions.


Early Life

The first two decades of Hurlbut's life are cloaked in mystery. He left few details about it other than his birth date and place, and the reason for his given name. He was born in the area around Burlington, Vermont on 3 February 1809, and was given the name Doctor because he was the seventh son. 2 He first appears in Latter-day Saint history in Jamestown, New York where he was baptized in late 1832 or early 1833. 3 While there he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also a lay preacher. 4 Winchester

__________
Dale W Adams taught economics at The Ohio State University for many years and now lives in Park City, Utah. His historical interests focus on the Kirtland period of the Latter-day Saints.

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 77    


claimed that the Methodists expelled Hurlbut because of immoral conduct with women, but no corroborating testimony exists to second this accusation.


To Kirtland

Soon after being baptized Hurlbut left for Kirtland. He stopped in Elk Creek, Erie County, Pennsylvania where a cluster of Latter-day Saints lived, including Benjamin Winchester and his family. 5 Hurlbut soon left Elk Creek and first met Joseph Smith Jr. in Kirtland on 13 March 1833. Smith later recorded that the main subject of their conversation was the Book of Mormon. 6 Like other early converts, Hurlbut perhaps became a Latter-day Saint after reading the book. His limited exposure to the church and its teachings may have resulted in the tome being the main thread tethering his fledgling testimony.

By most accounts Hurlbut was a handsome man, and this may help explain his numerous romances. Joseph Johnson described Hurlbut as being a "man with a fine physique, very pompous, good looking and very ambitious, with some energy, though of poor education." Joseph's younger brother Benjamin provided a less flattering and somewhat contradictory description: "He (Hurlbut) was of a conceited, ambitious and ostentatious turn with a degree of education, but of a low moral status." 7 E. D. Howe described him as, "good sized, fine looking, full of gab, but illiterate." 8 Kennedy, possibly a less biased observer, described Hurlbut as being "of fine address and excellent personal appearance." 9 Even in the twilight of his life Hurlbut was handsome. He was an old man and in precarious health when Ellen Dickinson interviewed him, "He was still a very handsome man, even m his shabby clothing and amid his plain and homely surrounding, having a fine, ruddy complexion, expressive eyes, long abundant gray hair, and a figure of excellent proportions." 10

In addition to seeking religious edification in Kirtland, Hurlbut also capitalized on his good looks by courting Lovina Susan Williams, attractive sixteen-year-old daughter of Joseph Smith's counselor Frederick G. William. He quickly proposed to her saying he had received a revelation that she was to marry him. 11 She replied that marriage would only be possible when she received a confirming revelation. This romance appears to have provoked a rebuke to her father that appears in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, 93:40-43. In the reprimand Williams was criticized for not teaching his children light and truth.

 


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Hurlbut's whirlwind romance with Lovina prompted Joseph Smith to send him on a mission soon after Hurlbut was ordained an elder on 18 March 1833 by Sidney Rigdon. 12 The new elder attended a conference the next day where he was called on a mission to western Pennsylvania. Daniel Copley, a young priest, was named his companion during the same meeting. 13


Mission in Western Pennsylvania

Hurlbut and Copley soon left for western Pennsylvania and worked in the area south and west of Erie. Orson Hyde reported doing missionary work with them around Elk Creek in April 1833. 14 While there, Hurlbut met Lyman Jackson, a staunch Methodist, a revolutionary war soldier, an early settler of Albion, and an old friend of Solomon Spaulding. After listening to the missionaries talk about the Book of Mormon, Jackson remarked that the story in the book sounded similar to an Indian yarn that Solomon Spaulding had written two decades earlier. 15 This comment piqued Hurlbut's interest and he pressed Jackson for proof. Jackson likely responded that Hurlbut could clarify the issue by talking with Spaulding's brother John who lived just twenty-five miles south of Albion in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. 16

Winchester reported that Hurlbut later did missionary work in Crawford County where he made several converts. While in the area he interviewed John Spaulding and his wife who lived a mile northeast of Linesville. John was a staunch closed-communion Baptist. As the Spauldings claimed in undated letters prepared for Hurlbut, they were certain that a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding was plagiarized by the author(s) of the Book of Mormon. 17 This assertion cut the thin thread that anchored Hurlbut's testimony and destroyed Copley's weak testimony as well. Winchester stated that soon after Hurlbut began his mission he exhibited the spirit of big I and little u, a smug attitude he assumed after uncovering information he thought proved Joseph Smith Jr. was a fraud. 18

After interviewing the Spauldings, Hurlbut abandoned his mission and left to court his future wife Maria Woodbury who was then teaching school in Jefferson, Ohio. This perhaps was the genesis for later accusations by Hyde, Winchester, Pratt, Rigdon, and others that Hurlbut was guilty of moral transgressions while on his mission. 19


Trials in Kirtland

Before returning to Kirtland, Hurlbut was tried by a bishops' council of

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 79    


high priests that met on 3 June 1833 in Kirtland, with Sidney Rigdon officiating. Hurlbut was accused of unchristian conduct with women while on his mission. "It was decided that his commission be taken from him and that he no longer be a member of the Church of Christ." 20

Hurlbut returned to Kirtland several weeks later and on 21 June 1833 he appealed the court's decision in person, saying he was absent during the first hearing and that a strict justice was not done him. His appeal was heard by the Presidents' Council of High Priests, with Joseph Smith Jr. presiding. Orson Hyde and Hyrum Smith gave testimony against Hurlbut but it was decided he should be forgiven because of his liberal confession. 21 The council tactfully concluded that the Bishops' Council decided correctly before, and that Hurlbut's crime was sufficient to cut him off from the church, but after his confession his membership was restored." 22 If Hurlbut had gone public with a Spaulding myth before this second trial, his church membership certainly would not have been restored so quickly.

Winchester stated that immediately after reinstatement on 21 June, Hurlbut left Kirtland to return east via Thompson, Ohio where it was alleged he attempted to seduce a woman. It was for this reason that Hurlbut was again excommunicated in Kirtland by trial only two days later on 23 June. 23 Solomon Gee and a Brother Hodges, both Latter-day Saints from Thompson, gave testimony against Hurlbut in this third trial. George A. Smith, who attended the trial, supplemented the reasons for Hurlbut's final excommunication by saying Hurlbut stated to church members in Thompson "that he had deceived Joseph Smith's God or the spirit by which he is actuated, I have proved that Council has no wisdom, I told them I was sorry, I confessed and they believed it to be an honest confession, I deceived the whole of them and made them restore me to the Church." 24

Conflict failed to dampen Hurlbut's ardor. Benjamin Johnson stated that after Hurlbut was severed from the church he became enamored with Electra Sherman, sister of E. R. Sherman, who was Johnson's brother-in-law. Electra rejected Hurlbut's advances because of his character and Johnson claimed this stoked Hurlbut's anger toward the Latter-day Saints. 25


To Massachusetts

Soon after being excommunicated a second time, Hurlbut began presenting anti-Mormon lectures in which he outlined his first Spaulding myth. One meeting was in the Presbyterian Church in Kirtland that William Hine

 


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proposed to travel east to gather evidence to support his assertion that Joseph Smith plagiarized Spaulding's manuscript. Hurlbut also solicited financial support for his efforts.

Based on his visit with John Spaulding, Hurlbut knew that Solomon Spaulding's widow had a manuscript that might confirm the Spaulding myth. The former Mrs. Spaulding, Matilda Sabine Spaulding Davison, was then living in Monson, Massachusetts with her daughter, and John undoubtedly gave Hurlbut directions for contacting her, or at least how to contact her brother who lived near Syracuse, New York. With this information, it was easy for Hurlbut to convince Grandison Newell and other anti-Mormons to support a trip east. Newell contributed most of the cash, possibly $300, to finance the venture. 27

To supplement the money he collected in Mentor and Kirtland, and to also assemble testimonies to support the Spaulding myth, Hurlbut next went to New Salem (Conneaut), Ohio, in late July or early August 1833, where Solomon Spaulding lived until 1813. Hurlbut held at least one meeting there and collected additional funds to further his inquiry into the Spaulding manuscript. John Spaulding attended these meetings and seconded Hurlbut's assertions. During his stay in New Salem Hurlbut gathered five written statements supporting the Spaulding myth from residents of New Salem who had known Solomon Spaulding twenty years earlier. These statements along with the two by John and Martha Spaulding were later published in E. D. Howe's book Mormonism Unveiled.

Late in their lives Hurlbut and Spaulding's widow both independently stated they first met in 1834 in Monson. This date is clearly incorrect, however, since an article in the 20 December 1833 issue of the Wayne Sentinel shows Hurlbut had been to, and returned from Monson by late 1833:

The original manuscript of the Book was written some thirty years since, by a respectable clergyman, now deceased, whose name we are not permitted to give. It was designed to be published as a romance, but the work has been superadded by some modern hand -- believed to be the notorious Rigdon. These particulars have been derived by Dr. Hurlbert (sic) from the widow of the author of the original manuscript. 28

Using information provided by John Spaulding, Hurlbut left Ohio in September and traveled east to Onondaga Valley, New York where Matilda Spaulding and her adopted daughter moved after Solomon died in Amity, Pennsylvania on 20 October 1816. They lived in Onondaga for a time with Mrs. Spaulding's brother, William H. Sabine. 29

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 81    


Hurlbut hoped to obtain the manuscript in Onondaga but found that Matilda had remarried a Mr. Davison of Hardwick, New York in 1820 and moved her personal effects to her new husband's residence.

Matilda Davison's second marriage failed, or her husband died, about 1828 and she then moved to Monson, Massachusetts to live with her daughter, whose married name was Matilda McKinstry. Mrs. Davison left much of her furniture and a trunk with a cousin in Hartwick, Jerome Clark. 30 It was this trunk that contained the Spaulding manuscript.

From Onondaga Hurlbut proceeded to Monson carrying a letter of introduction from William Sabine along with the statements prepared by the New Salem residents and by John Spaulding and his wife. 31 Sabine's letter urged Mrs. Davison to cooperate with Hurlbut. In Monson, Hurlbut spent a day convincing her to give him written permission to take the manuscript from the trunk stored in Hartwick. In doing so he promised to have the manuscript published, offered her half of the resulting profits, and also pledged to return the original manuscript to her -- none of which he later did. 32 In an undated statement A. Badlam reports interviewing Mrs. Davison before her death in 1844 about Hurlbut's visit to Monson. 33 In the interview she mentioned receiving a letter sometime after Hurlbut's visit saying the manuscript did not read as he expected and he was not going to print it. This letter likely was written by E. D. Howe rather than by Hurlbut.

After obtaining written permission from Mrs. Davison to take the manuscript, Hurlbut hurried to Hartwick. In a letter prepared for Ellen Dickinson on 10 January 1881, Hurlbut claimed he did not read the manuscript he obtained in Hartwick until he returned to Kirtland. 34 This conflicts with the information that Hurlbut gave to Dickinson during her interview with him at his home in Gibsonburg, Ohio on 13 November 1880. She quotes him as saying that he "peeped into it (the manuscript) here and there and I thought it was all nonsense, but I just gave it to Howe because it was of no account." 35 Both descriptions of Hurlbut's cavalier treatment of the manuscript after his eager quest for it undoubtedly shaded the truth. It is difficult to imagine that Hurlbut did not immediately sit down upon obtaining the manuscript and read it. He must have been disappointed when he saw that Spaulding's short story had scant resemblance to the complex Book of Mormon and also realized it would not support the boasts and promises he had made to his anti-Mormon backers.

 


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To Palmyra

If the manuscript that Hurlbut found had been the basis for the Book of Mormon it would have been unnecessary for him to go out of his way to gather derogatory statements about the Smiths. If he could have shown that Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon, it would have demolished Smith's fledgling church. In desperation, Hurlbut stopped in Palmyra on his return to Kirtland after failing to substantiate his first Spaulding myth. He hoped to salvage something from his trip by collecting damaging testimonials about the Smiths.

Hurlbut spent a month or more in Palmyra giving anti-Mormon lectures and securing anti-Smith statements. A reading of these statements suggests that most of them were collected at lectures given by Hurlbut, supplemented by talks given by local ministers who were critical of Joseph Smith, Jr. and his new religion.

In evaluating these statements it must be recognized they were not assembled from a random sample of people who knew the Smith family. It would not have been in Hurlbut's interests to seek statements that were neutral or complimentary to the Smiths. His rhetoric and the histrionics of the local ministers who helped him certainly fostered, or at least reinforced, negative testimonials by those who attended the anti-Smith meetings organized by Hurlbut in Palmyra.

Hurlbut muted his original claims about the Spaulding manuscript in Palmyra because of what he found in the Hartwick trunk. Instead, he outlined a second Spaulding myth. He did this by drawing on the earlier statement by John Spaulding about the similarities between his brother's manuscript and the Book of Mormon. Hurlbut may have provided a tepid justification for this claim by displaying the Hartwick manuscript and then asserting it was Spaulding's first draft of a novel that he later supposedly expanded into a longer and substantially revised novel. He then alleged that Sidney Rigdon stole this second manuscript and then shared it with Joseph Smith, Jr.

The supposed connection between Smith, Rigdon, and the writing of the Book of Mormon was embellished in Palmyra by Hurlbut. 36 This was accomplished by imagining a longer manuscript written by Spaulding and then assuming that a twenty-two-year-old Rigdon was clever enough to steal the manuscript in about 1815 while both Rigdon and Spaulding lived near Pittsburgh. 37 Since the only purpose of Hurlbut's stay in Palmyra was to show that the Smiths were disreputable, reinforcing the assertion that Rigdon was the primary author of the complex Book of Mormon became a

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 83    


necessity. Hurlbut failed to explain why a proud man such as Rigdon would seek a lightly-schooled lad to front for him in the publication of a stolen manuscript by an author who failed to sell a single copy of any of his writings.


Back in Kirtland

Despite failing to substantiate his initial Spaulding myth, Hurlbut returned to Kirtland about the middle of December and began attacking Joseph Smith. Understandably, Smith and his supporters lashed back and this involved issuing allegations about Hurlbut's indiscretions with women. Whatever was said, possibly including statements that threatened Hurlbut's budding romance with his future wife, Hurlbut reacted violently. The mud slinging on both sides quickly escalated until Hurlbut threatened Joseph Smith Jr. This caused Smith to file a complaint on 21 December 1833 against Hurlbut before the Justice of the Peace in Kirtland, J. C. Dowen.

A warrant for Hurlbut's arrest was issued and William Holbrook who was the constable for Kirtland Township served the warrant. Hurlbut appeared before the Justice of the Peace in Painesville Township on 4 January 1834 and requested a continuance. It was not until 13 and 14 January 1834 that the case was heard. The finding of the judge was that Joseph Smith Jr. had reason to fear Hurlbut would kill, wound, or beat him and that he might do damage to Smith's property. Hurlbut was forced to post bond for good behavior and was then remanded to have a final judgment made on his case at the next session of the Court of Common Pleas in Chardon in late March.

The presiding judge in the Chardon trial, which was held on 31 March 1834, was Judge Birchard, and after hearing testimony, he required Hurlbut to post a good-behavior bond of $200, pay court costs of $112.50, and to also have two individuals provide additional sureties for his behavior. Charles A. Holmes and Elijah Smith posted bonds guaranteeing Hurlbut's good behavior in general, and especially toward Joseph Smith for a period of six months. 38 This judgment likely absorbed most of the funds that Hurlbut had assembled from backers of the first Spaulding myth, plus what he had collected in giving anti-Mormon lectures.

Hurlbut accomplished something positive that spring, nonetheless, by marrying Maria Sheldon Woodbury on 29 April 1834 in Ashtabula County, Ohio, only a month after losing his court case. They soon returned to Mentor so Hurlbut could continue his anti-Mormon lectures.

 


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A rancorous letter dated 27 May 1839 to the Boston Journal written by Sidney Rigdon states that Hurlbut and his wife lived for a time with Orris Clapp in Mentor. 39 Clapp and his sons Matthew and Thomas were Campbellite ministers. They were leaders of the Mentor congregation of Campbellites, and they were close to another minister by the name of Adamson Bentley who was an estranged brother-in-law of Sidney Rigdon. Grandison Newell, the Clapps, Bentley, Elias Randall, and Warren Corning were the nucleus of the vigilante group centered in Mentor that eventually drove many Latter-day Saints from Kirtland in 1837-38.

In his letter, Rigdon alleges that Hurlbut returned from a trip to find his wife and Deacon/Judge Orris Clapp in the same bed. Ridgon further alleges that after a threatened court case Clapp paid Hurlbut $100 and also gave him a span of oxen to drop the case. 40 This story rings hollow, however. In 1834 Orris was sixty-four and a respected deacon and judge, while Maria was a new bride of twenty-seven, hardly the characters one expects to find as principals in a steamy romance. The Clapps were well regarded by members of their church. A more plausible explanation for this might be that Clapp gave Hurlbut and his wife a span of oxen and money as a wedding gift. At least in part, this may have been to underwrite some of the expenses Hurlbut incurred in collecting anti-Smith statements. It may have also involved buying some of the copies that Hurlbut was promised for his contribution to an anti-Mormon book.


Hurlbut and Howe

In late January 1834 Hurlbut and his backers met in Kirtland to discuss the publication of a book. A report of this meeting, including names of some prominent supporters, was published in the Painesville Telegraph on 31 January 1834. It states that D. P. Hurlbut had been employed by the group to "ascertain the real origin of the Book of Mormon, and to examine the validity of Joseph Smith's claims to the character of a Prophet." The tone of the report is misleading, since most of the collecting of information by Hurlbut had already occurred. Aside from a possible trip to Pittsburgh to seek information to support the second-manuscript theory, Hurlbut did little more information collecting during 1834.

There is controversy over who authored Mormonism Unveiled. Although it listed E. D. Howe as author -- the publisher of the Painesville Telegraph -- most contemporary Latter-day Saints who recorded an opinion thought Hurlbut was the primary author. Others felt that Hurlbut was not listed as

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 85    


the author because of his checkered reputation and because of the stain on his reputation after he lost the trial with Smith in March 1834.

Looking at other things that Howe and Hurlbut wrote before and after, and checking later statements by them lead me to conclude that Howe wrote most of the book. 41 In his last recorded interview Hurlbut credited Howe with authoring the book. 42 Hurlbut certainly collected most of the anti-Smith statements and letters supporting the Spaulding myths included in the volume. 43 He was also the creator of these two myths. He collected the material that gave the book a persistent bite, but Howe is the more logical choice for the person who did the actual writing. He was a professional writer, while Hurlbut was not. Aside from a handful of letters to the editor of the Religious Telescope and a poem that he wrote later in life, there are no other writings by Hurlbut. Howe, in turn, wrote numerous columns for his paper and a lengthy and interesting autobiography.

Instead of being listed as co-author, Hurlbut was given four or five hundred copies of the book by Howe as payment for his efforts. Howe and Hurlbut, however, crossed swords when it came time to sell the book. Prior to publication in late 1834 Hurlbut collected subscriptions at one dollar each from people who agreed to purchase the volume. Many years later, George A. Smith claimed that Howe obtained Hurlbut's subscription list and sold copies of the book to those on the list before Hurlbut recontacted them. 44 Since Hurlbut depended on book sales for most of his income during 1834 and 1835, this soured Hurlbut's relationship with Howe.


Gerard, Pennsylvania

In late 1834 or early 1835 Hurlbut and his wife moved to a twenty acre parcel in the Miller Settlement in Gerard township in Erie County, Pennsylvania, a few miles northeast of Elk Creek. His move may have been prompted by the earlier success he had in causing turmoil among Latter-day Saints in this part of Pennsylvania. His allegations about the Smiths caused a number of church members to apostatize in late 1833 and early 1834 in Elk Creek. Numerous members were excommunicated in late 1833 and Joseph Smith and Sidney Ridgon visited Elk Creek in October 1833 to repair damage done by Hurlbut. 45 Hurlbut may have thought this would be a fertile area to continue his anti-Mormon lectures and sale of his allotment of Howe's book.

Hurlbut moved from Pennsylvania to his final home in Gibsonburg, Ohio in late 1836 or in early 1837. Without corroboration, Winchester claims that Hurlbut "became a confirmed drunkard, spent every cent of his inglorious

 


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gain, was reduced to beggary, took to stealing for a livelihood, was detected in stealing a log chain, (and) fled the country to escape justice. 46

How many, if any, of these accusations are true is unverifiable. Winchester wrote his smear of Hurlbut at a time when various authors were propagating the Spaulding myth and Winchester perhaps exaggerated the events in Hurlbut's life in Gerard, much as Hurlbut and his collaborators in Palmyra may have exaggerated allegations against Joseph Smith and his family.


Gibsonburg, Ohio

In Gibsonburg Hurlbut joined the Salem United Brethren Church (UBC) and later became an ordained minister. The first meeting of the UBC near Gibsonburg was in 1837. 47 Hurlbut gave land south of town to the church on which the first log meeting house was built in 1845.

Hurlbut was called to be a circuit preacher on 28 April 1843. 48 He was ordained a UBC elder three years later. 49 The high point of Hurlbut's UBC career came in 1847 when he was appointed a member of the first board of trustees of Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.

As was the case earlier with the Latter-day Saints, Hurlbut's UBC ministry was laced with strife. In 1848, for example, he dashed with John Davis, the local bishop. They filed cross complaints and three arbitrators were chosen to mediate the dispute. 50 Hurlbut accused Davis of refusing to abide by contracts and advice of conference, of stealing money, and of slandering him. Davis accused Hurlbut of imprudent conduct towards women, of clubbing other denominations from the pulpit, and of trifling conversations. The arbitrators concluded that Davis had slandered Hurlbut, but that Hurlbut had participated in trifling conversations. The other accusations were glossed over. 51

Hurlbut had a more serious problem in 1851 when he was suspended from his calling as a minister. This was based on three vague charges: taking advantage of his fellow men, making aspirations that he later contradicted, and making use of light and unchristian conversation and thereby lessening his usefulness as a gospel minister. 52 In 1852 he was suspended permanently from the ministry and spent the rest of his life earning a modest living from farming. It is unknown if he retained his membership in the UBC or if he sustained any involvement in religion.

 


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A Second Companion

Hurlbut and his family are listed in both the 1850 and the 1860 federal census. Maria and seven children were living with him when the census was done on 1 October 1850. In the 1860 census, however, Hurlbut was clearly recorded as living with a woman by the name of Diana who was fifty at the time the census was done in June 1860. 53 Hurlbut's sons Wheeler, George, and John were living with them and apparently three of Diana's children were also in the household: Melinda (18), Clarissa (12), and Deterick (8). Hurlbut listed himself as a farmer in the census.

How long Hurlbut lived with Diana and whether or not they were married are unknown, but he reconciled later with his wife Maria and was living with her at the time of the 1870 federal census.


His Last Interview

Hurlbut's health was delicate for several years before his death on 18 June 1883. Before going to Gibsonburg in 1880 for an interview, Ellen Dickinson solicited a letter of introduction from Hurlbut's physician Dr. John B. Rice who lived in Fremont. He cautioned Dickinson that she should interview Hurlbut immediately because his health was precarious. Hurlbut's frail health led him to make his last will and testament on 7 January 1878. In it he left all his worldly belongings, mainly seventy-two acres of land and a house on the south edge of Gibsonburg, to his beloved wife Maria.

With Rice's letter in hand, Dickinson, accompanied by her cousin's husband Oscar Kellogg, arrived unannounced in Gibsonburg on 13 November 1880. It was a cold and cheerless day when they knocked on the door of Hurlbut's small white cottage. Before Dickinson had finished reading Rice's letter of introduction, Hurlbut "was shaking violently, as with palsy, and very greatly agitated." 54

Because Hurlbut did not fulfill his promises to the former Mrs. Spaulding, Dickinson's great aunt, Dickinson held negative views of the old man before her interview. During the interview she felt he was trying to hide something, but this may have been his awkward family history -- and the fact that she barged in unannounced at lunch time -- rather than due to his dealings with the Spaulding manuscript.

Before leaving, Dickinson took Hurlbut's wife aside and ask her several questions, including, "if she was Hurlburt's only wife when he was a Mormon." Dickinson goes on to say that, "A little flush came into her pale cheeks, and she replied: "Well, he wa'n't a Mormon long; and I was his first

 


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wife." 55 Phrasing her answer this way allowed Maria to tell the truth, but avoid saying that Hurlbut had thrown her over for another woman for a time.


Conclusions

With the passage of time it is impossible to test the veracity of the derogatory statements that Hurlbut collected about Joseph Smith Jr. and his family. His motives for collecting these testimonials and the methods he used, however, ought to lead objective observers to discount what he collected. Hurlbut did not seek a balanced assessment of the Smiths. His aims were to discredit Smith and to destroy the church he founded. When Hurlbut failed to substantiate his first Spaulding myth, he shifted to an ad hominem attack by collecting negative statements about the Smiths. These statements were written in highly charged meetings around Palmyra that more resembled a verbal tar and feathering of the Smiths, rather than a court of law where accusations are open to cross examination.

Since Hurlbut raised the question of character in his attacks on Smith, it may be fair to evaluate Hurlbut's integrity in turn. If his life before and after his encounter with the Latter-day Saints in 1833-34 was praiseworthy, an objective observer might worry less about the veracity of the statements he collected, even though there were doubts about his motives and methods.

Judging Hurlbut's character encounters the same problems found in evaluating the statements collected about the Smiths. Many of the negative statements about Hurlbut were made by Smith's supporters, particularly Winchester and Rigdon, when they were counterattacking accusations made by Hurlbut. If it were possible to clean the mud from accusations that Hurlbut flung at Smith and that Smith's supporters tossed back, it would likely show that hyperbole was involved on both sides. The accusation that Hurlbut lost his membership in the Methodist Church because of immorality and similar charges that led to his later excommunication by the Latter-day Saints were all made by Smith's supporters. These accusations might be discounted because they came from biased sources, except that Hurlbut had similar charges leveled against him later by non-Mormons while he was a preacher in the United Brethren Church. Critics might also question his fitness to judge others, given his treatment of his wife: moving her out while he lived with another women for awhile.

Hurlbut's truthfulness was also suspect. He promoted his second Spaulding myth when there was no supporting evidence of an additional

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 89    


manuscript, he bragged about lying when he regained church membership in 1833 after being excommunicated, and he was dishonest in his dealings with the widow of Solomon Spaulding. The fact that a legal system, which was generally hostile to Smith and his followers, sanctioned Hurlbut in the case Smith brought against him in 1834, further tarnished Hurlbut's reputation.

At the end of the day there is no way to vet the statements that Hurlbut collected about Joseph Smith Jr. and his family. Authors who wish to diminish Smith will likely continue to recycle periodically these derogatory statements. Those concerned about fairness, nonetheless, might expect these authors to also republish the accusations made against the collector of the statements, and then let readers draw their own conclusions. This might lead objective readers to dismiss unverifiable negative statements made more than 160 years ago about both Smith and Hurlbut and, instead, concentrate on the accomplishments of both men. Smith helped to establish a church that has millions of members, while Hurlbut is remembered solely for his attacks on the Smiths. Hurlbut Street in Gibsonburg and his grave marker are his only memorials. His death was ignored by local newspapers and by the UBC's Religious Telescope. Those who believe in retribution might view the lime quarry that consumed his homestead and a large part of his farm in Gibsonburg as divine judgment on a person who so eagerly collected derogatory statements about others.
 

Notes

1. A recent example is Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 2:13-80.

2. In contemporary folklore a seventh son had special powers, including the ability to heal.

3. Benjamin Winchester, The Origin of the Spaulding Story, Concerning The Manuscript Found: With a Short Biography of Dr. P. Hulbert (sic) (Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking and Guilpert Printers, 1840), 6; and George Reynolds, The Myth of The Manuscript Found, Or the Absurdities of the Spaulding Story (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), 14. Without citing a source, Reynolds mentions Hurlbut became a Latter-day Saint in 1832.

4, Winchester, 5.

5. Ibid., 4. Hurlbut may have fled from smallpox. Helen Grace McMahon,

 


90   THE JOHN WHITMER HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL


Chautauqua County: A History (Buffalo: Henry Stewart Inc., 1958),141, mentions that smallpox afflicted the Latter-day Saints in Jamestown.

6. Smith notes in his diary that Hurlbut said during the interview that "if he ever became convinced that the Book of Mormon was false, he would be the cause of my destruction." See [Faulring], Scott H., ed., An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 20.

7. Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life's Review (Mesa: 21st Century Printing, 1992), 25.

8. See Howe's statement in Arthur B. Deming, Naked Truths about Mormonism, vol. 2 [sic, Howe's Apr. 8, 1885 statement is in the Arthur B. Deming Papers at the Chicago Historical Society] (Oakland: published by the author, 1888 [sic, published in Naked Truths about Mormonism, II:1, Berkeley: A. B. Deming Society, Dec. 1988]).

9. J. D. Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism: Palmyra, Kirtland, and Nauvoo (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1888), 145.

10. Ellen E. Dickinson, New Light on Mormonism (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1885), 64.

11. Hine claimed that Hurlbut became disaffected with the church because of his rejection by Lovina. See Rodger I. Anderson, Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), 155-60. [quotes William R. Hine's 1885 statement in Naked Truths about Mormonism, I:1, Jan. 1888]

12. Joseph Smith Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, vol. 1 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1974), 334.

13. Kirtland High Council Minute Book, 14. LDS Church Archives, LDS Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

14. Francis W. Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America: The Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Utah Printing Co., 1959), 2:333-36 [sic, 1:333-36].

15. Winchester, 6. In the 1790s Jackson and Solomon Spaulding lived near each other in Richfield, Otsego Country, New York and may have soldiered together during the Revolutionary War. For more detail on the connection between Jackson and Spaulding see Abner Jackson's statement in Thomas Gregg, The Prophet of Palmyra (New York: John B. Alden Publisher, 1890), 444-50.

16. The fact that Lyman Jackson later refused to provide a letter to Hurlbut and Howe supporting the allegation that Spaulding's novel was similar to the Book of Mormon suggests that someone else sold Hurlbut on the first Spaulding myth, probably John Spaulding. See Kirkham, A New Witness, [2:] 277-279; Reynolds, The Myth of the Manuscript Found, 19; and Winchester, The Origin of the Spaulding Story, 6.

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 91    


17. Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unveiled (Painesville: Published by the author, 1834), 278-81.

18. Winchester, 6.

19. Winchester stated that Hurlbut was involved with women on his mission, stating: "some other organ, not of a moral mould, was unduly developed." See Winchester, 6). Because Winchester was only fifteen in 1833, his statement was likely based on hearsay and was undoubtedly embellished to counter the attacks that Hurlbut and his backers made on the Smiths.

20. Kirtland High Council Minute Book, 12. In a letter to the Boston Journal, dated 27 May 1839, Sidney Ridgon stated, "Hurlbut was excommunicated from the church for using obscene language to a young lady, who was a member of the church, who resented his insult with indignation, which became both her character and profession." See Henry Mayhew, History of the Mormons: A Contemporary History (London: Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1851), 33-36. When or where this happened is not clear, but it might have been the result of Electra Sherman's rejections of Hurlbut's overtures mentioned later, and this probably occurred in Thompson, Ohio.

21. In his testimony Hyde accused Hurlbut of "seduction and crime." Kirkham, [1:] 333-36.

22. Kirtland High Council Minute Book, 21.

23. Winchester, 6.

24. George A. Smith, "Testimony," Journal of Discourses, (London: Latter-day Saints Depot, 1864), 7:8. It is unlikely that Hurlbut could travel to Thompson, attempt to seduce a woman there, give a lecture to the Thompson Branch, and then have the word get back with witnesses to Kirtland in only two days. Thompson is about 20 miles east of Kirtland. The events reported by Gee and Hodges may have occurred in a different time sequence, some of it occurring before Hurlbut returned to Kirtland to ask for reinstatement of his church membership. Something untoward must have occurred in Thompson because of the testimony given, but the alleged sexually-related incident may have happened before Hurlbut returned to Kirtland. Gee and Hodges may have been slower than Hurlbut in going to Kirtland with their testimonies about events that may have occurred prior to Hurlbut's reinstatement on 21 June. Hurlbut's boasting must have occurred after his retrial and may have been the primary reason the council cut Hurlbut off from the church a second time on 23 June.

 


92   THE JOHN WHITMER HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL



25. Johnson, 25.

26. Anderson, 160.

27. Kirkham, [2:] 278. [Kirkham simply quotes Winchester, p. 9]

28. This article was reprinted in the Chardon (Ohio) Spectator, 18 January 1834.

29. Sabine was the grandfather of Ellen E. Dickinson who did the last recorded interview of Hurlbut in 1880 [sic, Dickinson's Nov. 13, 1880 interview with D. P. Hurlbut was followed by a statement provided her by Hurlbut on Jan. 10, 1881].

30. Dickinson, 22.

31. Ibid., 25; Mayhew, 33.

32. Reynolds, 22. In a statement written on 19 August 1879 Hurlbut denied promising Spaulding's widow any profits from the publication of the Spaulding manuscript. Robert Patterson, "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon," Illustrated History of Washington County (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), 14.

33. Reynolds, 22.

34. Dickinson, 245.

35. Dickinson, 67.

36. The rumors about Rigdon being the author of the Book of Mormon began to circulate immediately after he made a trip in late 1830 to New York State to meet Smith. Newspaper accounts making this claim came out as early as September 1831 in New York State and [Feb. 15, 1831] in Ohio. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 133.

37. Spaulding was crippled by a hernia and he died from tuberculosis in his mid-fifties. Although some authors overcome the disappointment of not publishing their first manuscript and continue writing, I doubt Spaulding had the energy to attempt a second manuscript as long and complex as the Book of Mormon. If Spaulding had written sudh a second manuscript, Hurlbut or Howe would most certainly have sought a statement from the former Mrs. Spaulding to support the second-manuscript thesis after finding the Hartwick manuscript was not the source of the Book of Mormon.

38. Chardon Spectator and Gazette, 12 April 1834, 3.

39. Mayhew, 33-36.

40. Benjamin Johnson, 25-26 provides a story that weakly corroborates some of Rigdon's allegations. This story was told him by his father Ezekiel, a non-Mormon, who lived in Mentor and was a friend of the Clapps and other anti-Mormons. Benjamin states that Hurlbut and his wife lived

 


                DR. PHILASTUS HURLBUT 93    


with Elias Randall in Mentor near Ezekiel's home. Johnson alleges that Randall became disgusted with Hurlbut and that this caused Hurlbut "with his wife, [to] put up a job on the old man [Randall], and drew him into a women snare, from which they would not release him until after payment of $500. Johnson may have transposed Randall for Clapp in his story.

41. For examples of Hurlbut's writing see his letters to the editor of the Religious Telescope, 3 December 1845, 150; 4 February 1846; 29 July 1846, 67; 16 June 1847, 368; 23 August 1848 (poem); 20 September 1848, 59.

42. Dickinson, 66.

43. George A. Smith, [J. D. VII (1860)] 113. Howe may not have trusted the statements collected by Hurlbut since Howe recontacted in 1834 some of the people interviewed by Hurlbut -- Isaac Hale and residents of New Salem, for example.

44. There was additional strain between Hurlbut and Howe because of friction between Howe's wife, Sophia Hull Howe, and Hurlbut. Much to Howe's distress, Sophia and his sister became Latter-day Saints.

45. Paul Zilch Rosenbaum, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Pennsylvania, 1830-1854"(masters thesis, East Stroudsburg State College, 1982) 64.

46. Winchester, 9.

47. Basil Meek, ed., Yearbook of the Sandusky County Pioneer and Historical Association (Fremont: Sandusky County Pioneer and Historical Association, 1915), 327.

48. Religious Telescope 2: 22, (24 May 1843); William M. Mathers, History of the Sandusky Conference (Toledo: Toledo Commercial Book and Job Printing, ca. 1890), 16-17.

49; Religious Telescope, 5: 38 (15 April 1846.)

50. Ibid., 7: 32 (8 March 1848.)

51. United Brethren Church Conference Minutes, 17 February 1848.

52. Ibid., 18 September 1851.

53. Census Roll No. 1032, 250. Maria was 52 years old in 1860.

54. Dickinson, 64.

55. Ibid., 70.




 

Introduction to Dale W Adams' 1995 Paper:

When amateur historian Mr. Adams researched and wrote this paper very little had been compiled in one place in regard to the enigmatic Doctor Philastus Hurlbut. His work, even though its is relatively short and limited in scope, represents a ground-breaking effort in reporting and interpreting the impact of D. P. Hurlbut upon the early Latter Day Saints. As for Adams' portrayal of Hurlbut the man, his pen sketch is only slightly more refined and "filled in" than the one offered by Elder Benjamin Winchester in 1840.

It is difficult to say much about D. P. Hurlbut and be certain that the report is accurate and balanced. Much of what can be known about him today comes as the result of incomplete and haphazard accounts set down by persons who were more interested in defending or exploding the statements he gathered on Joseph Smith and the Mormons than they were in conveying exact information about the man, his motives and activities. In many cases the modern student of Kirtland Era Mormon History has only singles source to turn to for facts, allegations, and opinions on certain aspects of Hurlbut's personality and performance. Without the cross-checking controls offered by consulting different contemporary sources, the modern investigator can quite easily string together a chain of seemingly reasonable probabilities concerning Hurlbut, nearly all of which may ultimately prove to be grossly inaccurate. To his credit, Dale W Adams appears to have kept this potential pitfall in mind and to have compiled his information with the intention of truly understanding the man and his motives. How successful his endeavor will prove to be, only time will tell.

When the editor of the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal accepted Mr. Adams' paper for publication in the twentieth issue of that periodical, she imposed some restrictions on his reporting which resulted in the Journal printing a good deal less (and a little more) that he wrote in 1995. In order not to lose some of Mr. Adams' valuable initial reporting, both versions of his paper are presented on this web-page. Since the 1995 version is the longer and more complete text, the current transcriber's notes and comments are attached to that paper and the 2000 version is merely referred to where it offers additional, corrected, or probably more reliable information.

All notes, corrections, and comments not original to Mr. Adams' text are presented below in colored text. The emendations are provisional and may be changed in the future as new intelligence on Mr. D. P. Hurlbut and related topics becomes available.

 


[ 1 ]




April 18, 1995

Judge Not: The Saga of D.P. Hurlbut

by

Dale W Adams
The Ohio State University


...few men have the gift of thinking new and original
ideas and of changing the traditional body of creeds and
doctrines.             -- Ludwig von Mises
If there were a hall-of-fame for Mormon bashers Doctor Philastus Hurlbut would be an early inductee; none of Joseph Smith Jr's. antagonists has had a more persistent negative influence on Smith and his followers than Hurlbut. He fostered the Spalding Myth that questioned the parentage of the "Book of Mormon" and also collected testimonies that besmirched the reputation of Smith and his family. Though the Spalding Myth is now discredited, for 160 years a relay of writers have periodically recycled the condemnations of Smith collected by Hurlbut. 1 Since he was so liberal in his criticism it may be appropriate to review Hurlbut's life to assess the credentials and objectivity he brought to the judgement of others.


Early Life

The first two dozen years of Hurlbut's life are cloaked in mystery. He left no details about it other than his birth date and place, and the reason for his given name Doctor. He saw the first light of day in Chittenden County -- the area around Burlington, Vermont -- on February 3, 1809, a few days before the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. He came from a large family and was named Doctor for being the seventh son. 2

Hurlbut's parents likely moved north along Lake Champlain to the Burlington area from Connecticut or Massachusetts sometime during the three decades prior to 1809. This was Vermont's golden period when its population surged from 30 thousand to more than 200 thousand (Stilwell, p. 96). Like most of their neighbors his family probably earned a livelihood cutting timber, making potash,

__________
1 Contemporary examples are Cowdrey, Davis and Scales; and Anderson. See Brodie, Bush, Fairchild, Patterson, Shook, Tanner, Whittier and Stathis, and Winchester for more on the Spalding Myth.

2 The seventh son legend has numerous variants (Leach). In the United Kingdom and the United States seventh sons were thought to be lucky, especially gifted, possibly having occult powers, and having the talents to be doctors.

  Note 01: Although the writer (Mr. Adams) may be correct in his estimate of Hurlbut's "persistent negative influence on Smith and his followers," it should be kept in mind that in mid-1833 there was already in existence a substantial body of published accounts -- largely negative in their conclusions -- regarding Joseph Smith, Jr. and the rise of Mormonism. Hurlbut was not so much an innovator in anti-Mormonism as he was a zealous over-achiever in his questionable research activities.

Note 02: Whether or not "the Spalding Myth is now discredited" remains to be seen. "Myths" have a reputation for conveying certain truths where prosaic accounts may fail in that task. Sone specific elements of the old Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship can be demonstrated as being accurate, even if a certain version of the "theory" they comprise is "discredited." Perhaps Mr. Adams' following Elder George Reynolds, in calling those old authorship claims a "myth," is merely meant as an expedient whereby to separate out any truths inadvertently mixed in with falsity, at the outset of his summarization.

Note 03: The only known sources for information on Hurlbut's birth and early life come from members of his own family. The replies he gave to census takers every ten years agree with his being born in Vermont in 1809. If he was possibly untruthful in providing those details, at least he was consistent. It might be guessed that D. P. Hurlbut's self interests were not served by his divulging much about his life prior to becoming a Mormon. Whatever Hurlbut and his associates may have said about his unusual name, it is altogether possible that he was not actually a seventh son, was never called "Doctor" as a child, and only adopted that name once his childhood was over. For more on Hurlbut's early life see Ep. 2, Ch. 1 of my on-line "Crisis at Kirland" series.


 



[ 02 ]



growing wheat and raising livestock -- all early exports to Canada. Lovely scenery and maple syrup were attractive features of Vermont then, as well as they are now. Otherwise, life was far from easy since soils were thin and growing seasons were short.

The years spanning Hurlbut's birth from 1808 through 1816 were particularly difficult in the state. President Jefferson placed an embargo on trade with the United Kingdom/Canada in 1808, heavy rains in 1811 washed out most of the mills that straddled the streams and rivers, the War of 1812 disrupted parts of the state, and an epidemic of spotted fever in 1813 further plagued inhabitants. The crowning touch was the volcanic eruption of Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 that threw huge amounts of dust into the atmosphere and caused extremely cold weather in New England during the summer of 1816. It snowed every month in Vermont that year and farmers lost most crops. People in the Green Mountain State still refer to this disastrous year as eighteen hundred and froze-to-death.

Within a few years after Hurlbut's birth nearly half of Vermont's inhabitants migrated west to upper New York state, to Lower Canada, and to Western Pennsylvania (Stilwell). Hurlbut's family likely joined this wave of migrants. Notable names such as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were part of this trek from Vermont.


Hurlbut's Parents

Most early settlers in Vermont were English or Scottish, as were the early Hurlbut immigrants to the U.S. (Hurlbut). Several dozen Hurlbut families moved to Vermont in the late 1700s and early 1800s from Massachusetts and Connecticut, most of them settling in Chittenden County ("1810 Census"). There were 17 families in this Census with the surname of Hurlbut or close variants, They were concentrated in the townships of Underhill, Essex, Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg, and Williston, all towns a few miles to the east and south of Burlington. 3 Only three of these families listed seven or more children and a boy of Hurlbut's age in the 1810 Census: Isaiah Hurlbut in Charlotte, Joseph Hurlbut 5th in Charlotte, and John Halbert in Essex. Fragmentary information suggests D.P. Hurlbut did not have roots in any of these families.

Another possibility for D. P. Hurlbut's father is Adam Hurlbut who was listed in the "1800 Census" as living in Underhill with a relatively large household, including four young males. This was likely the Adam Hurlbut who was born in Woodbury, Connecticut in 1736 and whose second wife's name was Rebecca Booth, but it also may have been the household of his eldest son Adam Jr. -- a more likely candidate for D. P.'s father -- who was born in 1769 and was

__________
3 For more detail on several of these townships see Bent, Dwyer, and Higbee.

Note 04: The writer neglects to consider yet "another possibility" for Mr. Hurlbut's undocumented descent -- that he was either an illegitimate child or was raised by persons other than both his biological parents. Hurlbut's wife Maria places him in the Penn Yan area of modern Yates Co., New York during his school days, saying: "When a young man he attended school in Penn Yan, N.Y. Although now in Yates Co., The region around Penn Yan was in Ontario Co., NY during Hurlbut's school days. There were Hurlbut families living in the area at that time (as reported in the NY State Census). D. P. Hurlbut's removal from Vermont to New York may have been with a family of some other name, however. Also, Penn Yan was built on the eastern edge of "prophetess" Jemima Wilkinson's "New Jerusalem" tract of land. She founded the religious colony in 1790 and died there in 1819, about the time D. P, Hurlbut would have been a schoolboy. If Hurlbut's near relatives were Wilkinsonites they may have had unusual family connections.

Note 05: Since Elder Benjamin Winchester (1817-1901), in 1900 recalled D. P. Hurlbut as being "a relative of mine," adding no conditional remarks, D. P. was probably closely related to Winchester's uncles: Asel, Ansel, and David Hurlbut, along with their sister Asenath Hurlbut Sherman (mother of D. P.'s romantic interest, Electa E. Sherman of Kirtland). A thorough investigation of these peoples' genealogy might turn up Hurlbut's close relatives and perhaps even his parents.

Note 06: There were several Hurlbut families living in or near Chittenden Co., VT in the year of Hurlbut's birth (given as 1809 by his wife Maria). While it may be possible that D. P.'s father was Adam Hurlbut, Jr. (1769-?) or one of Adam's relatives, it is also possible that D. P. Hurlbut did not grow up living in the household of his biological father.

Note 07: Andrew J. Simmonds (1943-1995), in his 1995 Nauvoo Journal article, ("'Thou and all Thy House:' Three Case Studies of Clan and Charisma in the Early Church") tried to link D. P. with two of the daughters-in-law of Mormons "Sally Hulet Whiting, [and] her husband Elisha Whiting, Jr." Simmonds says that "the Hulets were a Massachusetts family settled in Lee, Berkshire County, who moved to Nelson Township, Portage County, Ohio, in the Western Reserve in 1814." In his 1979 unpublished Mormon History Association paper, "John Noah and the Hulets: A Study in Charisma in the Early Church," Simmonds identifies these daughter-in-law as sisters Lydia B. Hurlbut, who in 1830 married William E. Whiting (1807-1834) and Martha Mana Hurlbut, who, on Sept. 16, 1835 was married by Joseph Smith, Jr. to Charles Whiting (1811-1841). Lydia remarried Charles English after the death of William in 1841, and after Charles' death in 1839 she married John J. Babcock. Lydia appears to have died on the Iowa trail c. 1847-48. Martha was born at Burlington, Vermont on Aug. 27, 1814. She remarried the infamous Mormon outlaw Jackson Redding (1817-aft. 1850) after the death of Charles Whiting in 1841; she died at Winter Quarters on March 15, 1847.

Note 08: Ron Romig and Donald Moore, in their 1983 Restoration Studies II article, speculate that D. P. Hurlbut was related to the Joseph P. Hurlbut and Samuel Hurlbut families of New Portage, Medina Co., OH. The Mormons maintained a colony of their members in this town during the 1830s and, according to these two authors, "at least one of these [New Portage] Hurlbuts was a member of the church." The LDS Messenger and Advocate, for June, 1837 reported: "DIED -- On the 6th day of June, DEBORAH H. HURLBUT, wife of Joseph P. Hurlbut, of Nelson, Medina County, Ohio. She was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and died in the faith of the everlasting gospel." What relation D. P. Hurlbut and the above-mentioned Medina and Portage Mormon Hurlbuts may have been to Wesley Hurlbut is unknown. The LDS Times and Seasons for July 15, 1845 reported the following: "On the evening of the 2nd of January [1834], a bishop's court assembled in Kirtland to investigate the case of Wesley Hulbert, against whom charges had been preferred by Harriet Howe and others, "that Hulbert had denied the faith, spoken reproachfully of the church, did not believe Joseph was a true prophet, &c. Hulbert was in the place, but did not appear before the court consequently was cut off." Possibly this was Wesley Rhinaldo Hurlbut, b. LeRoy, Genesee, NY, c. 1807.

Note 09: D. Michael Quinn conducted a careful search for D. P. Hurlbut's ancestry, but came up empty handed. In his 1987 book he had this to say: "The name of Philastus's father is not presently known, but at least some members of the Hurlbut family also moved from Winchester to Burke, Vermont, about the same time as the Walters... In addition, members of the Hurlbut family married into the Nathaniel Winchell family... The Winchell family would later be involved in the so-called "Wood Scrape"... A Walter(s)-Winchell-Hurlbut family connection seems to have begun in Connecticut, coalesced around the Joseph Smith family in Vermont... Although Philastus Hurlbut provided almost all of the information about the Smiths in New York for Howe's book, he may have had too many personal connections with folk magic to mention neighborhood claims of a Walter(s)-and-Winchell association with the Joseph Smith family...." Quinn's linkage of D. P. Hurlbut to the Walters, Winchell, and Smith families is pure conjecture. And, as Hurlbut contributed practically none of the narrative in Howe's 1834 book, it is useless to speculate as to why D. P. Hurlbut's alleged "personal connections" are not detailed there.


 



[ 03 ]



therefore 40 years old in 1809. Adam Jr., his brother Joseph, and their uncle Moses spent their latter lives in Brockville, Oxford, and Augusta, Ontario, Canada respectively.

Most of the Hurlbuts in Chittenden County were Congregationalists and a number of them served as ministers ("Vermont Historical Gazetteer"). There is no mention of any Hurlbuts serving as a Methodist minister in Chittenden Country during its early history, the church to which D. P. Hurlbut is first reported to have belonged. 4


Jamestown New York

D. P. Hurlbut surfaced in Mormon History in Jamestown, New York where he was baptized in late 1832 or early 1833 (Winchester, p. 6; Reynolds, p. 14). 5 Jamestown is in the western part of the state and on the south end of scenic Lake Chautauqua. The village was on a minor east-west overland route for people moving from New England to the Western Reserve and other points West and it was also on an ancient north-south route for those traversing from the Great Lakes -- what is now Westfield -- to the headwaters of the Ohio River. Timber and potash made from wood ash were major early products of the area (McMahon). The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 stimulated a rapid increase in its population.

It is uncertain what brought Hurlbut to Jamestown but while there he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in which he was a class leader, an exhorter, and also a local lay preacher (Winchester, p. 5). The Methodist Church there was organized in 1823 and the congregation was just finishing their first building about the time Hurlbut became a Mormon (Stonehouse, p. 16-18). Hurlbut left no mark on Jamestown or on the Methodists and never became an ordained minister; no trace of his living there or being a member of a congregation is on local or national Methodist records. Winchester claimed that Hurlbut was expelled from the Methodist Church because of unvirtuous conduct, but no corroborating testimonies support this accusation (p. 5).

None of the Mormon missionaries who labored in Western New York in 1832 and early 1833, and who left written records of their missions, mentioned converting Hurlbut. Numerous Mormon

__________
4 There were few Methodists in Vermont until about 1800 when seven Methodist circuit riders covered the state. As Stillwell points out, "The general public regarded Methodism as an outrage, bitterly denouncing their own kinsmen who became converts and had no scruples against breaking up Methodist meetings by force" (p. 110).

5 Without citing a source, Reynolds states that Hurlbut became a Mormon in 1832.

Note 09: Elder George Reynolds, in his 1883 account, merely says that "Hurlburt embraced the gospel in 1832." More exact information is given by Elder Hiram P. Brown, who, in a July 1885 article, says that "Dr.(?) Hurlburt was baptized into the Church of Latter Day Saints on the farm of our father-in-law, William Barker, near Jamestown, Chatauqua county, New York, somewhere between 1832 and 1835." Hiram P. Brown's first wife, Hannah A. Barker (1827-1883?), was the daughter of Elder William Barker, Sr., and Sylvia Barker. The Barker family was living at Busti (near Jamestown), Chautauqua Co., New York in the early 1830s. According to the Sept. 26, 1832 issue of the Jamestown Journal D. P. Hurlbut was living in Ellicott, near Jamestown, at least as early as Sept. 13, 1832. In constructing a chronology for D. P. Hurlbut, it becomes evident that he became a Mormon in Chautauqua Co., New York near the end of 1832 and was baptized there by either Elder William Barker, Sr. or one of Barker's associates.

Note 10: Whether or not D. P. Hurlbut was ever a Methodist preacher in the Jamestown area remains open to question. Elder Benjamin Winchester, in 1840 credited D. P. with having "resided in Jamestown, N.Y., previous to his embracing the profession of a Latter Day Saint." Winchester goes on to say that Hurlbut was "a member of the Methodist E. Church, and was for some time a class leader, and then an exhorter and local preacher; but was expelled for unvirtuous conduct with a young lady." But did his connection with Methodism come only after he moved to Chautauqua Co.? D. P. Hurlbut's great great granddaughter, Lynette Purkey McCullough, says that while D.P. "resided in Jamestown. NY. he was a member of the Methodist Church, a class leader. an exhorter and preacher." However, her wording is so close to that of Winchester's that he may be her original source for this information. More useful, perhaps, is the statement made by Hyram Rathbun in 1884, saying that: "my mother's people were all Methodists, so that I was blessed with seven Methodist preachers as near relatives. Hence the excommunication of said Hurlbut from the Methodist Church was familiar household talk whenever any of them met together." If Rathbun's relatives knew enough about Hurlbut's days with the Methodists to make his story "familiar household talk," they probably once lived near the man while he resided in NY. His wife's report places him near Pen Yann (in what was then Ontario Co., New York) as a youth. Arthur B. Deming, in a Jan. 1888 article , claims that "D. P. Hurlbut was a Methodist preacher in Ontario County, N. Y." before he "joined the Mormons."

Note 11: Adams is mistaken in saying that there are "no corroborating testimonies support" Winchester's "accusation," unless he supposes Winchester merely repeated that "accusation" from Sidney Rigdon. If, as Sidney Rigdon said in his May 1839 letter, Hurlbut was "excluded" from the Methodists "for immoralities," then perhaps the man moved from his previous ministerial responsibility in Ontario Co. to Chautauqua Co. in order to start life anew, away from the scene of his previous personal troubles. Rigdon's letter was first republished by the Mormons in Parley P. Pratt's 1840 tract, Plain Facts. There LDS Apostle Pratt presents Rigdon's words: "This said Doctor was never a physician, at any time, nor anything else, but a base ruffian. He was the seventh son, and his parents called him doctor: it was his name, and not the title of his profession. He once belonged to the Methodist Church, and was excluded for immoralities." Hyram Rathbun said much the same, 44 years later. In his 1839 letter, Rigdon is probably correct in stating that D. P. "was never a physician," although D. P. may have tried to set up a root doctor's practice in Kirtland, much the same as "Dr." F. G. Williams' son-on-law, Burr Riggs did in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. One other tidbit of information may be helpful in researching D. P. Hurlbut's connection with the Methodists. His wife Maria said that, following his school years, Hurlbut "lectured about the country on various subjects." It is quite possible that a search of the NY newspapers published west of Penn Yan between 1828 and 1832 might yield up an announcement of just such a Hurlbut lecture -- perhaps on religion or "botanical medicine." If such published evidence can be found, a careful investigation of local records may reveal that the man was a member of a nearby Methodist congregation.


 



[ 04 ]



missionaries were called to labor in Pennsylvania and New York State and many of them traveled through Jamestown or further North along Lake Ontario (Curtis). There was a substantial group of Mormons located in Westfield, north of Lake Chautauqua. Several missionaries noted in their diaries passing through Jamestown at various times where a group of Mormons congregated in 1833 and 1834. Hurlbut likely was baptized by missionaries who failed to leave a diary, such as John Boynton, Evan Greene, or Zebedee Coltrin. Or he may have been converted by one of the New York members who may have done local missionary work, such as Moses Smith (LeBaron, p. 10). 6


To Kirtland

Soon after baptism Hurlbut likely left for Kirtland in February 1833, briefly pausing in Elk Creek, Erie County Pennsylvania where Benjamin Winchester lived (Winchester p. 4). 7 Winchester and his family were baptized on January 27, 1833 along with a number of others by missionaries John F. Boynton and Evan M. Greene (Rosenbaum, p. 60). Elk Creek was a focal point of Mormon activities in Western Pennsylvania and was also a stopping place for Mormons traveling both to and from Kirtland.

Hurlbut likely arrived in Kirtland in early March and had his first talk with Joseph Smith Jr. on March 13, 1833, the main subject of their conversation being the Book of Mormon. 8 Like many other converts, he perhaps became a Mormon after reading the "Golden Bible." His limited exposure to the Church and its teachings may have resulted in the book being the main thread tethering his testimony.

__________
6 James J. Strang, a later convert of note to Mormonism, lived at the time about 15 miles Northeast of Jamestown in Ellington where he practiced law, was postmaster, and also published the "Randolph Herald." Strang was converted to Mormonism by Moses Smith, a friend of Stang's brother-in-law, Benjamin C. Perce, who was also a Mormon (Quaife, p. 9).

7 Hurlbut may have fled from smallpox. McMahon mentions that smallpox afflicted the Mormons in Jamestown (p. 141). The January 23, 1833 issue of the "Jamestown Journal" reported smallpox in town and the February 6th issue mentions that a Mrs. Clark died from the disease. Norton Jacob mentions visiting Jamestown on April 12, 1833 in his diary and finding four Mormons sick with smallpox (p. 3).

8 Smith notes in his Diary that Hurlbut said during the interview that, "if he ever became convinced that the "Book of Mormon" was false, he would be the cause of my destruction..." (Faulring, p. 20).

Note 12: It is indeed remarkable that no contemporary record of D. P. Hurlbut's Mormon baptism has survived. Adams is probably correct in saying that Hurlbut "likely was baptized by missionaries who failed to leave a diary..." but he is mistaken in counting Evan Greene and Zebedee Coltrin among that group -- both left missionary diaries, both mention D. P. Hurlburt, and they probably would have made some further note of him had they been acquainted with him during the earlier periods not covered in their journals. See my note #09 for more on this matter.

Note 13: While Hurlbut may well have journeyed through Elk Creek Twp., Erie Co., Pennsylvania on his way from Jamestown, NY to Kirtland, Ohio, his possible reasons for choosing such a "backwoods" route of travel should be explained. Assuming that Hurlbut passed through Erie Co. late in 1832 or early in 1833, it seems more practical for him to have walked the lakeshore route from the town of Erie, passing through Springfield Twp., and entering Ohio at New Salem (Solomon Spalding's place of residence between 1809 and 1812). The LDS branch in Springfield was a bit older and established in a better situation for travelers than was the new Mormon group at Elk Creek. However, it is possible that Hurlbut went to the Elk Creek area to carry a message there from New York, or to visit certain people in the area before he traveled to Kirtland. Recalling that Benjamin Winchester was a "relative" of D. P. Hurlbut and that Winchester had Hurlbut uncles and an aunt at Elk Creek, it seems likely that the new convert from New York stopped in Elk Creek to see those particular Hurlbuts. While Elk Creek itself was not exactly the "focal point of Mormon activities in Western Pennsylvania" at the beginning of 1833, nearby Jackson's Corners and Lexington were on the main road north from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie. The Elk Creek LDS branch eventually outgrew its elder sister branch in Springfield, gathering in a remarkable number of local converts during 1833-34 . By the time that Hurlbut returned to this same area (as a Mormon missionary in April) it was indeed becoming a center for Latter Day Saint proselytizing efforts in western Pennsylvania.

Note 14: Winchester says that Hurlbut "embraced the faith of the church of the Latter Day Saints, and soon started for Kirtland, Ohio; ostensibly to cultivate an acquaintance with the brethren there. On his way, he passed through the place in which I resided; he was not ordained at this time." All of this sounds very plausible, especially Winchester's close linkage of Hurlbut's need for ordination (practically all LDS men of his age were priests or elders) and his desire to "cultivate an acquaintance with the brethren." In this instance "brethren" should be understood to signify the top leaders of the Church. While Joseph Smith, Jr.'s personal record shows that he first met D. P. Hurlbut on March 13, 1833, the entry is a retrospective one and may conceal more of what happened during that period than it reveals. It is possible that Hurlbut arrived in Kirtland several days (or even several weeks) prior to the time he reportedly met with Smith. Several persons who were acquainted with D. P. in Ohio left recollections which seem to indicate that he lived in the Kirtland area, as a Mormon or as a friend of certain Mormons, for a considerable period of time. It may well be that the few sketchy accounts preserved regarding Hurlbut's days as a Mormon at Kirtland contain some chronological errors.

Note 15: It is quite possible that D. P. Hurlbut did have one or more conversations with Joseph Smith, Jr. about the Book of Mormon. Since Hurlbut came from western New York, he may have already heard some of the negative reports regarding Joseph, money-diggers, seer-stones, etc. then in circulation in that region of the country. Smith's retrospective journal entry says that Hurlbut threatened that "if he ever became convinced that the Book of Mormon was false, he would be the cause of my destruction." Although this allegation appears to tie in neatly with Mormon reports of Hurlbut's subsequent emotions and actions, the journal entry itself is not particularly convincing. This note was not written in the journal at the time that Hurlbut supposedly first visited with Smith (on March 13, 1833), but was a "flashback" Smith's scribes recorded in two parts, one part on Jan. 11, 1834 and the rest shortly thereafter. This was precisely the time when Joseph Smith, Jr. would have been rehearsing the testimony he and his friends intended to give against Hurlbut two days later at a pre-trial hearing before Justice William Holbrook in Painesville. It is entirely possible that the Mormon leader (or his scribes) exaggerated or misrepresented Hurlbut's March 1833 conduct. For example, it hardly seems reasonable that Joseph Smith, Jr. would have allowed Hurlbut to be ordained and take a position of trust (as a senior missionary companion) if he had a belief or premonition that the man might return to cause his "destruction." It is more likely that Hurlbut, then trying to "cultivate an acquaintance with the brethren," attempted subtle blackmail against Smith, insinuating that he would cause some trouble about the Book of Mormon if Smith did not help facilitate his entry into the leadership's social circles.


 



[ 05 ]



During his initial sojourn in Kirtland Hurlbut stayed in a boarding house run by Julia Hills Johnson located on the Kirtland Flats. One of Julia's sons, Joseph, mentioned in a letter to the Editor of the "Deseret News" (December 28, 1880) that Hurlbut boarded at his mother's place for the better part of a year after Hurlbut joined the Church. Hurlbut may have known the Johnsons through a New York connection. They were long-term residents of Westfield, New York, about 25 miles North of where Hurlbut joined the Church.

By most accounts Hurlbut was a handsome man, and this may explain his various romances. Joseph Johnson describes Hurlbut as being a ". . . man with a fine physique, very pompous, good looking and very ambitious, with some energy, though of poor education." Joseph's younger brother Benjamin provided a less flattering and somewhat contradictory description: "He (Hurlbut) was of a conceited, ambitious and ostentatious turn with a degree of education, but of a low moral status" (Johnson, p. 25). E.D, Howe described him as, ". . . good sized, fine looking, full of gab, but illiterate . . ." (Howe's statement in Deming). Kennedy, possibly a less vested observer, described Hurlbut as being ". . . of fine address and excellent personal appearance (Kennedy, p. 145). Even in the twilight of his life Hurlbut was handsome. He was 81 and in precarious health when Ellen Dickinson interviewed him and she provided the following description: "He was still a very handsome man, even in his shabby clothing and amid his plain and homely surrounding, having a fine, ruddy complexion, expressive eyes, long, abundant gray hair, and a figure of excellent proportions" (p. 64).

In addition to seeking religious edification in Kirtland, Hurlbut also quickly capitalized on his good looks by romancing Lovina Susan Williams, attractive 16 year old daughter of Joseph Smith's Counselor Frederick G. William (Johnson). He proposed to her saying he had received a revelation that she was to marry him (Hine's statement in Anderson). She replied that marriage would only be possible when she received a confirming revelation. 9 The disturbance this romance caused may have provoked the rebuke to her father that appears in the "Doctrine and Covenants," section 93, verses 40-43.

Hurlbut's whirlwind romance with Lovina perhaps prompted Joseph Smith to send him on a mission immediately after he was ordained an Elder on March 18, 1833 by Sidney Rigdon ("History of The Church," p. 334). Hurlbut attended a Conference the next day where he was called on a mission to Eastern Pennsylvania. Daniel Copley, a young priest, was named his companion at the same meeting (Kirtland High Council Minutes, p. 14).

__________
9 Hine claimed that a major reason for Hurlbut becoming disaffected with the Mormons was his rejection by Lovina.

Note 16: As Adams says, D. P. Hurlbut almost certaibly knew the Ezekiel Johnson family in Chautauqua Co., New York before both they and he (all originally from Chittenden Co., Vermont) moved from western New York to Kirtland. The family appears to have lived at Pomfret in Chautauqua Co. -- rather than nearby Westfield -- though they may have been active in the LDS congregations in both of those places. In1880 Joseph E. Johnson, a son of Ezekiel and Julia, recalled that "Soon after his arrival he [Hurlbut] came to my mother's house to board, where he remained for nearly a year, while he made an effort to get into a good practice of medicine, sought position in the Church, and was ever stirring to make marital connection with any of the "first families." The scenario reported by Benjamin Winchester and most other Mormon sources has D. P. Hurlbut first appearing in Kirtland in the middle of March, 1833 and then being permanently cut off from the Church three months later. Given this generally accepted chronology, it is difficult to explain how Hurlbut managed to remain at Mormon Julia Hills Johnson's home at Kirtland "for nearly a year." Perhaps part of the solution to this chronological problem lies in the fact that Julia's husband, Ezekiel Johnson, was not a Mormon. The couple appear to have been frequently parted, but Ezekiel probably maintained control of the family home on the "Kirtland Flats" (apparently within waking distance of Newell K. Whitney's store). While Julia may have operated a small room and board business in the home, Ezekiel likely had the final say on who was welcome there and who was not -- at least so until the spring of 1835 when Ezekiel left his wife permanently and moved to nearby Mentor. As a non-Mormon (perhaps even an anti-Mormon, eventually), Ezekiel apparently allowed D. P. Hurlbut access to the family residence even after Hurlbut's excommunication from the Mormons. Even with Ezekiel's friendliness with Hurlbut factored in, it is easier to picture D. P. living in the Johnson home "for nearly a year," if he first arrived in Kirtland near the end of1832, rather than in March of 1833.

Note 17: By all accounts D. P. was a handsome man with a gift for talking and getting people to listen to him. But, some of these same people, after getting to know him better, came away with negative opinions of the man. Although loquacious, his depth of knowledge on most subjects was perhaps not especially impressive. Eber D. Howe called Hurlbut "illiterate," meaning that he was somewhat ignorant and not well read. Hurlbut's handsome features and self-promotion may have allowed him some an occasional success in winning the affection of the opposite sex. But probably most of his female admirers repulsed his ingratiating efforts as they got to know D. P. better. He is said to have tried to find a wife among the leading Mormon families, and perhaps his first attempts along these lines were with young Lovina Williams, the daughter of LDS leader "Dr." F. G. Williams. If Hurlbut did indeed arrive in Kirtland in 1832, the attempted courtship may have continued a few weeks before the girl finally rejected her suitor permanently. Hurlbut reportedly tried to proposition Williams' daughter into marrying him by claiming to receive a spiritual revelation commanding her to become his wife. If that report is true, it may provide an insight into how Hurlbut made illicit use of his LDS eldership to his own advantage. Maria Woodbury Hurlbut (his final conquest after at least two failures in Ohio) says that the "Prophet Jo Smith told him he should receive the gift of speaking in unknown tongues. He was told he must dash in and make any unknown sound he could and it would be the unknown tongue." Hurlbut arrived in Mormon Kirtland during its second, more subdued manifestation of latter-day "spiritual gifts." Speaking in tongues was common while he was in the Church and the miraculous "translation" of unknown tongues was generally supposed to contain a measure of divine revelation. Perhaps Elder Hurlbut used this "gift" in order to attempt proposals or seductions among the female Saints.

Note 18: The second named woman of Hurlbut's hopeful desires was Electra Sherman, sister of E. R. Sherman. Whether Hurlbut carried out this attempted courtship before of after he was excommunicated is not entirely clear, but it is more likely that he first approached this woman while he was still a Mormon than after he had been cut off from the Church.


 



[ 06 ]




Mission in Western Pennsylvania

Hurlbut and Copley soon left for Western Pennsylvania and worked in the area south and west of Erie. Orson Hyde reported doing missionary work with them around Elk Creek in April, 1833 (Kirkham, pp. 333-336). During a meeting, or while going house-to-house, Hurlbut bumped into Lyman Jackson, a staunch Methodist, a revolutionary war soldier, an early settler of Albion, and an old friend of Solomon Spalding. ( 10 ) After listening to the missionaries talk about the Book of Mormon Jackson remarked that the tale sounded similar to an Indian yarn that Solomon Spalding, who died in 1816 had written two decades earlier (Winchester, p. 6). ( 11 ) This challenge likely piqued Hurlbut's interest and he perhaps pressed Jackson for proof. Jackson likely responded that Hurlbut could clarify the issue by talking with Spalding's younger brother John who lived just 25 miles south of Albion in Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

Winchester reports that Hurlbut made several converts in Crawford County (p. 4) and it is likely that while in the area he interviewed John Spalding and his wife who lived a mile Northeast of Linesville. John was 59 in 1833, operated a small farm, and was also a fervent, closed-communion Baptist. ( 12 ) As the Spaldings

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( 10 ) Jackson and Solomon Spalding lived near each other in Richfield, Otsego Country, New York in the 1790s and may have soldiered together during the Revolutionary War. They swapped land in New York and Western Pennsylvania and this eventually resulted in Jackson moving to Albion in 1805. Jackson died on March 20, 1835. For more detail on the connection between Jackson and Spalding see Abner Jackson's statement in Gregg, pp. 444-450. Abner was Lyman Jackson's son and also a Methodist minister who began to preach in 1833.

( 11 ) The fact that Lyman Jackson later refused to provide a letter to Hurlbut/Howe supporting the allegation that Spalding's novel was similar to the "Book of Mormon" suggests that someone else sold Hurlbut on the Spalding Myth (Kirkham, pp. 277-279; Reynolds, p. 19; Winchester, p. 6)

( 12 ) John was born in Ashford, Connecticut on January 10, 1774. He married Martha Denison on April 5, 1802 and they lived for some time in Richmond, New York where he taught school and was also a music instructor ("History of Crawford Country," p. 837). He and his family moved in 1810 to Springfield Township in Erie County, Pennsylvania, just across the state boarder from New Salem where his brother Solomon resided. By the early 1820s he had moved to a farm near Linesville where we also taught school. Sometime in the early 1840s he and part of his family moved to Lisle, Illinois, a


 



[ 07 ]



claimed in undated letters prepared for Hurlbut they were convinced that the Solomon Spalding manuscript was plagiarized by the author(s) of the "Book of Mormon" (Howe 1834, pp. 278-281). This assertion likely destroyed the thin thread that anchored Hurlbut's testimony and dissolved Daniel Copley's weak testimony as well. John Spalding was the midwife for the Spalding Myth and Hurlbut became its Johnnie Appleseed. Winchester states that soon after Hurlbut began his mission he exhibited the spirit of big I and little u, possibly a smug attitude he assumed after uncovering what he thought was a secret that would expose fraud by Joseph Smith Jr. (p. 6).

Shortly after interviewing the Spaldings, Hurlbut abandoned his mission and may have gone to court his future wife Maria Woodbury who was then teaching school in Jefferson, Ohio. ( 13 ) This perhaps was the genesis for later accusations by Hyde, Winchester, Pratt, Rigdon, and others that Hurlbut was guilty of moral transgressions while on his mission. ( 14 )

There may have been truth in Hurlbut's later claim that he joined the Church -- at least tried to stay in despite losing his testimony -- to gather evidence to support the Spalding Myth, to prove that Joseph Smith was a fraud, and to perhaps realize material gain from his efforts. This probably was Hurlbut's motivation for seeking reinstatement soon after his first excommunication in early June, 1833.


Trial in Kirtland

Before returning to Kirtland Hurlbut was tried in Kirtland by a Bishops' Council of High Priests that met on June 3, 1833, with

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community on the east edge of Chicago where he died on March 22, 1857 (Spalding, 1897, p. 244).

( 13 ) Maria was the daughter of Wheeler Woodbury and Mary Pease. She was born on April 8, 1807 in New London Township, Merrimack County, New Hampshire. Her family moved to Kingsville, Ohio in 1812 (Wickham, p. 536). Kingsville is about 12 miles west of Conneaut (New Salem). Maria's father was a lawyer and judge and she and her sisters, along with her mother, were school teachers for a time. Maria was noted for being the best grammarian in the Western Reserve in her youth. One of her sisters, Phebe Woodbury Randall, later nursed President Garfield.

( 14 ) Winchester states that Hurlbut was involved with women on his mission, stating: ". . . some other organ, not of a moral mould, was unduly developed . . ." (p. 6). Because Winchester was only 15 in 1833, his statement was likely based on hearsay and was embellished to counter the slashing attacks that Hurlbut and his backers made on the Smiths.


 



[ 08 ]



Sidney Rigdon officiating. Hurlbut was accused of unchristian conduct with women while on his mission. "It was decided that his commission be taken from him and that he no longer be a member of the Church of Christ." (Kirtland High Council Minutes p. 12) ( 15 ) It is noteworthy that no mention of the Spalding Myth was made during this trial.

Hurlbut soon returned to Kirtland and on June 21, 1833 he appealed the court's decision in person saying he was absent during the first hearing and that a strict justice was not done him. His appeal was heard by the Presidents' Council of High Priests with Joseph Smith Jr. presiding. The Council was made up of twelve high priests. Orson Hyde and Hyrum Smith gave testimony against Hurlbut but it was decided he should be forgiven because of his liberal confession. ( 16 ) The Council concluded that the Bishops' Council decided correctly before, and that Hurlbut's crime was sufficient to cut him off from the Church, but on his confession he was restored." (p. 21). I conclude that if Hurlbut had gone public with the Spalding Myth before this trial that his membership would not have been restored.

Hurlbut likely gloated, knowing he conned Joseph Smith into reinstating him, thus further validating in Hurlbut's mind the fallibility of Smith. What Smith and others felt was an act of compassion in reinstating Hurlbut, despite serious charges against him, was interpreted by Hurlbut as a license to brag.

At the same June 21, 1833 meeting Daniel Copley's priest license and membership were taken from him by the court because he refused to fulfill his mission (p. 21). In a statement prepared more than 30 years later George A. Smith described Copley as "a timid young man . . . (who said) he was too weak to attempt to preach . . ." (p. 8).

Winchester mentions that immediately after reinstatement on June 21st Hurlbut left Kirtland to return East via Thompson, Ohio where he attempted to seduce a woman. It was for this that Hurlbut was again excommunicated in Kirtland by trial only two days later on the 23rd. (p. 6). Solomon Gee and a Brother Hodges, both

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( 15 ) In a letter to the "Boston Journal," dated May 27, 1839, Sidney Ridgon stated that ". . . Hurlbut was excommunicated from the church for using obscene language to a young lady, who was a member of the church, who resented his insult with indignation, which became both her character and profession" (Mayhew, pp. 33-36). When or where this happened is not clear, but it might have been the result of Electra Sherman's rejections of his overtures mentioned later and this might have occurred in Thompson, Ohio.

( 16 ) In his testimony Hyde accused Hurlbut of ". . . seduction and crime" (Kirkham, pp. 333-336).


 



[ 09 ]



Mormons from Thompson, gave testimony against Hurlbut in this third trial. George A, Smith, who attended the trial, supplements the reasons for Hurlbut's final excommunication by saying Hurlbut stated to the Branch in Thompson ". . . that he had deceived Joseph Smith's God or the spirit by which he is actuated, I have proved that Council has no wisdom, I told them I was sorry, I confessed and they believed it to be an honest confession, I deceived the whole of them and made them restore me to the Church." (p. 8).

It is difficult to imagine that Hurlbut could travel to Thompson, attempt to seduce a women there, give a lecture to the Thompson Branch, and then have the word get back with witnesses to Kirtland in only two days -- Thompson is about 20 miles east of Kirtland. The events reported by Gee and Hodges may have happened in a different time sequence than is generally supposed, some of it occurring before Hurlbut returned to Kirtland to ask for reinstatement of his church membership. Something untoward must have occurred in Thompson because of the testimony given, but the sexually related incident may have happened before Hurlbut returned to Kirtland to appeal his excommunication. It may have been that Gee and Hodges were slower than Hurlbut in going to Kirtland with their testimonies about events that may have occurred prior to his reinstatement on June 21st. Hurlbut's boasting must have occurred after Hurlbut's retrial and may have been the primary reason the council cut Hurlbut off from the Church a second time on June 23rd, (p. 22). Hurlbut most likely set a record for the least time between reinstatement of membership and being excommunicated a second time.

All this conflict failed to dampen Hurlbut's ardor. Benjamin Johnson mentions that after Hurlbut was severed from the Church he became enamored with Electra Sherman, sister of E.R. Sherman, who was Johnson's brother-in-law. Electra rejected Hurlbut's advances because of his character and Johnson felt this stoked Hurlbut's anger toward the Mormons (p. 25).


To New Salem, Massachusetts, and Palmyra

Shortly after being excommunicated a second time Hurlbut began giving anti-Mormon lectures in the Kirtland/Mentor area in which he vaguely outlined the Spalding Myth. One of these meetings may have been at the Presbyterian Church in Kirtland that William Hine reports attending (Anderson, p. 160). Possibly during July, 1833 Hurlbut met with a group of anti-Mormons in the Kirtland/Mentor area and proposed -- soliciting financial support -- to travel east to gather evidence against Joseph Smith.

Based on his earlier talks with John Spalding, Hurlbut knew that Solomon Spalding's wife might have a manuscript that would confirm the Spalding Myth. The former Mrs. Spalding, Matilda Sabine, was then living in Monson, Massachusetts with her daughter and John undoubtedly gave Hurlbut directions for contacting her, or at least how to contact her brother who lived near Syracuse, New


 



[ 10 ]



York. With this as bait, it was easy for Hurlbut to convince Grandison Newell and other avid anti-Mormons to finance his trip to Monson, located about 20 miles east of Springfield, Massachusetts. Newell probably contributed most of the cash, possibly $300, to finance the trip (Kirkham, p. 278). This meeting likely took place in Mentor. The Campbellite Church there -- Sidney Rigdon's old congregation -- was a center of anti-Mormon activity, led by the Clapp family: Orris, Matthew and Thomas (Buzbee and Whiting).

To supplement the money he collected in the Mentor/Kirtland area, and to also begin assembling testimonies, Hurlbut next went to New Salem (Conneaut), Ohio, probably in late July or early August, 1833, where Solomon Spalding had lived until 1813. He held at least one meeting and collected additional funds to further his research on Spalding's manuscript. To support Hurlbut's arguments, John Spalding attended these meeting(s) and poured gas on the fire that Hurlbut fanned. During his stay in New Salem in August and September, 1833 Hurlbut gathered five written statements that supported the Spalding Myth from residents of New Salem who had known Solomon Spalding. ( 17 ) These statements along with the two by John and Martha Spalding were later published in E.D. Howe's book "Mormonism Unvailed."

Late in their lives Hurlbut and Spalding's widow both stated they first met in 1834 in Monson. This date is clearly incorrect, however, since an article in the December 20, 1833 issue of the "Wayne Sentinel" shows Hurlbut had been to and returned from Monson by late 1833:

The original manuscript of the Book was written some thirty years since, by a respectable clergyman, now deceased, whose name we are not permitted to give. It was designed to be published as a romance, but the work has been superadded by some modern hand -- believed to be the notorious Ridgon. These particulars have been derived by Dr. Hurlbert (sic) from the widow of the author of the original manuscript. ( 18 )
Following information provided by John Spalding, Hurlbut likely left Ohio in September and traveled east to Onondaga Valley, New York, an area about 15 miles south of Syracuse. This is where Matilda Spalding and her adopted daughter moved soon after Solomon died in Amity, Pennsylvania on October 20, 1816. They moved there to live with Mrs. Spalding's brother, William H.

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( 17 ) Three of these statements -- Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith, and Nahum Howard -- are dated August, 1833. The other two statements by Henry Lake and John N. Miller are dated September, 1833 (Howe, 1834, pp. 281-286).

( 18 ) This article was reprinted in the "Chardon" (Ohio) "Spectator," 18 January 1834.


 



[ 11 ]



Sabine, taking all their personal effects with them. ( 19 ) Hurlbut may have hoped he could obtain the manuscript in Onondaga but found that Matilda had remarried a Mr. Davison of Hartwick, New York in 1820 and moved all of her personal effects to her new husband's residence about 100 miles east and south of Onondaga.

Matilda Davison's marriage failed, or her husband died, about 1828 and she then move to Monson, Massachusetts to live with her daughter, Matilda McKinstry. Mrs. Davison left much of her furniture and a trunk with a cousin in Hartwick, Jerome Clark (Dickinson, p. 22). It was this trunk that contained the infamous Spalding Manuscript.

From Onondaga Hurlbut proceeded to Monson carrying a letter of introduction from William Sabine along with the statements prepared by the New Salem residents (Dickinson, p. 25; Mayhew, p. 33). The letter urged Mrs. Davison to cooperate with Hurlbut (p. 238). In Monson Hurlbut spent a day convincing her to give him written permission to take the manuscript from the trunk stored in Hartwick. In doing so he promised to have the manuscript published, offered her half of the resulting profits, and also pledged to return the original manuscript to her -- none of which he later did (Reynolds, p. 22) ( 20 ) In an undated statement A. Badlam reports interviewing Mrs. Davison before her death in 1844 about Hurlbut's visit to Monson (Reynolds, p. 22). She mentions receiving a letter sometime after Hurlbut's visit saying the manuscript did not read as he expected and he was not going to print it. This letter may have been written by Howe rather than by Hurlbut.

After obtaining a letter from Mrs. Davison, Hurlbut went directly to Hartwick. He must have been elated as he opened the musty trunk and saw the long sought after manuscript. As he lifted it from the trunk he likely thought it was in his power to drive a stake into the heart of the religion that came up short of his expectations and to also discredit Joseph Smith, whom Hurlbut felt had deceived him.

In a letter prepared for Ellen Dickinson on January 10, 1881, Hurlbut claimed he did not read the manuscript he found in Hartwick until he returned to Kirtland (Dickinson, p. 245). This conflicts somewhat with the information that Hurlbut gave directly to Dickinson during her earlier interview with him at his home in Gibsonburg, Ohio on November 13, 1880. She quotes him as saying

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( 19 ) Sabine was the grandfather of Ellen E. Dickinson who did the last recorded interview of Hurlbut in 1880,

( 20 ) In a statement written for Robert Patterson on August 19, 1879, Hurlbut denied promising Spalding's widow any profits from the publication of the Spalding manuscript (Patterson, p. 14).


 



[ 12 ]



that he ". . . peeped into it (the manuscript) here and there and . . . I thought it was all nonsense . . . but I just gave it to Howe because it was of no account" (Dickinson, p. 67). Both descriptions of Hurlbut's cavalier treatment of the manuscript after his passionate quest for it undoubtedly shades the truth. Without doubt, Hurlbut sat down immediately upon obtaining the manuscript and read it, He must have been crushed when he saw that Spalding's tale had scant resemblance to the "Book of Mormon" and also realized that it would not support the boasts and promises made to his financial backers.


To Palmyra

If the manuscript had been the source of the "Book of Mormon" it would have been unnecessary for Hurlbut to dredge up incriminating statements about Smith. If he could have proved that Smith plagiarized the "Book of Mormon" it would have demolished Smith's fledgling Church. Hurlbut probably passed by Palmyra on his way back to Kirtland after the failed quest to prove the Spalding Myth, hoping he could salvage something for his backers by collecting derogatory statements about the Smiths. He may have been prompted to do this by one of his non-Mormon friends in Kirtland, W.R. Hine. Hine lived near Coleville, New York, knew Joseph Smith, his wife Emma and her family in the late 1820s, and later moved to Kirtland in about 1831 (Anderson, pp. 155-160). ( 21 ) He may have told Hurlbut that many people in the Palmyra area thought Joseph Smith was a fraud.

Hurlbut spent a month or more in Palmyra giving anti-Mormon lectures and securing anti-Smith testimonials. A reading of these statements suggests that at least some of them were collected at lectures given by Hurlbut, possibly supplemented by talks given by local ministers who were critical of Joseph Smith, One of these lectures took place in the Stafford School, for example, not far from where the Smiths had lived (Anderson, p. 168). In evaluating the statements collected by Hurlbut it must be recognized they were not assembled from a random sample of people who knew the Smiths. It is unlikely that Hurlbut sought, attracted, or even would have accepted statements that were neutral or complimentary. His rhetoric and the histrionics of other anti-Mormon religious leaders who helped him certainly incubated negative testimonials.

Hurlbut must have muted his claims about the Spalding Myth in Palmyra because of the disappointment he found in the Hartwick trunk. He may have outlined his "second Spalding manuscript" thesis while on the stump in Palmyra, mainly relying on the earlier statement by John Spalding about the similarities between his

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( 21 ) Hurlbut might have also gone to Harmony, Pennsylvania during this time and talked with Emma Smith's father, Isaac Hale, who later sent Hurlbut a letter, dated December 22, 1833, that was critical of Joseph Smith (Howe 1834, pp. 262-266).


 



[ 13 ]



brother's manuscript and the "Book of Mormon." Hurlbut may have provided a tepid justification for this claim by displaying the Hartwick manuscript and then asserting it was Solomon Spalding's first draft of a novel that he later expanded into a much longer novel that eventually fell into Joseph Smith's hands. The supposed connection between Smith, Rigdon, and the writing of the "Book of Mormon" was substantially embellished in Palmyra by Hurlbut. ( 22 ) This was done by imagining a longer manuscript written by Spalding and then assuming that a 22 year old Rigdon was clever enough to pirate the manuscript about 1815 while both Rigdon and Spalding lived in Pittsburgh. ( 23 ) Since the only purpose of Hurlbut's stay in Palmyra was to show what shifty and illiterate sorts the Smiths were, reinforcing the notion that the primary author of the complex "Book of Mormon" was Rigdon became a necessity. Hurlbut failed to explain why a proud and educated man such as Rigdon would seek an illiterate lad to front for him in the publication of a pirated novel by an author who failed to sell a single copy of his writings.

It is ironical that the negative testimonies about the Smiths that Hurlbut collected in Palmyra -- almost as an after thought -- had a more lasting effect on Mormons than did his initial creation, the Spalding Myth. It is now impossible to weigh the veracity of these statements since none of them were subjected to cross examination. The motivation of the individual collecting the statements -- Hurlbut -- and the conditions under which they were collected should cause an objective observer, however, to read these statements with skepticism. Rules of fairness demand that hostile testimony assembled by someone who is even more hostile not be taken at face value. The meetings at which most of these testimonies were collected were more like a verbal tar-and-feathering than they were a fair trial of the Smiths.

-------------------
( 22 ) Van Wagoner notes that rumors about Ridgon, rather than Smith, being the author of the "Book of Mormon" began to circulate immediately after Ridgon made his late-1830 trip to New York State to meet Smith (p. 133). Newspaper accounts making this claim circulated as early as September, 1831 in New York State and in Ohio.

( 23 ) In the last few years of his life Spalding was quite ill. He was long bothered by a serious hernia and he died from the ravages of tuberculous in his mid-50s. Although some budding authors overcome the disappointment of not publishing their manuscripts and continue writing, I doubt Spalding had the energy to attempt a work as extensive and complex as the "Book of Mormon." If Spalding had written such a manuscript Hurlbut would likely have sought a statement from the former Mrs. Spalding to support the "second manuscript" thesis after finding the Hartwick manuscript was a disappointment,


 



[ 14 ]




Back in Kirtland

Despite his failure to substantiate the Spalding Myth, Hurlbut returned to Kirtland about the middle of December and began attacking Joseph Smith. Understandably, Smith and his supporters lashed back and this may have involved publicizing allegations about Hurlbut's alleged indiscretions with women. Whatever was said -- possibly including statements that threatened his budding romance with his future wife, or he may have felt some of the statements smeared her -- Hurlbut reacted violently. The mud slinging on both sides quickly escalated until Hurlbut threatened Joseph Smith. This caused Smith to file a complaint on December 21, 1833 against Hurlbut before the Justice of the Peace in Kirtland, J.C. Dowen.

A warrant for Hurlbut's arrest was issued and William Holbrook who was the constable for Kirtland Township served the warrant. Hurlbut appeared before the Justice of the Peace in Painesville Township, William Holbrook, on January 4th, 1834 and requested a continuance. It wasn't until the 13th and 14th of January 1834 that the case was heard. The finding of the Justice was that Joseph Smith Jr. had reason to fear Hurlbut would kill, wound or beat him and that he might do damage to Joseph Smith's property. Hurlbut was forced to post bond for good behavior and was then remanded to have a final judgement made on his case at the next session of the Court of Common Pleas scheduled in Chardon in late March .

The presiding judge at the Chardon trial, which was held on March 31, 1834, was Mr. Birchard and after hearing testimony he required Hurlbut to post a good-behavior bond of $200, pay court costs of $112.50, and to also have two people provide additional sureties for his behavior. Charles A. Holmes and Elijah Smith posted bonds of $200 each guaranteeing Hurlbut's good behavior, in general and especially toward Joseph Smith for a period of six months. This judgement likely absorbed most of the funds that Hurlbut had assembled from backers of the Spalding Myth plus what he had collected in various places for giving his anti-Mormon lectures. Losing the trial was a bitter and costly pill for Hurlbut to swallow and could only have further heightened his hatred of Joseph Smith and his religion.

Hurlbut accomplished something positive that Spring, however, by marrying Maria Sheldon Woodbury on April 29, 1834 in Ashtabula County, Ohio, only a month after losing his court case with Smith. Where he and his wife lived immediately after marriage is uncertain, but they soon returned to the Mentor/Kirtland area so Hurlbut could continue to capitalize on his anti-Mormon presentations. With all of the animosity surrounding Hurlbut, it must have been an

-------------------
( 24 ) "Chardon Spectator and Gazette," April 12, 1834, p. 3.


 



[ 15 ]



unpleasant time for Maria as she is said to have been afraid to be left alone when her husband was absent (Pancoast, Appendix 1, p. 6).

A rancorous letter, dated May 27, 1839, to the "Boston Journal" written by Sidney Rigdon suggests that Hurlbut and his wife lived for a time with Orris Clapp in his home at the corner of Mentor Avenue and Little Mountain Road in Mentor (Mayhew, 1851, pp. 33- 36). Clapp and his two sons Matthew and Thomas were Cambellite ministers, were leaders in the Mentor congregation of Cambellites, and they were close to another Cambellite minister by the name of Adamson Bentley who was an estranged brother-in-law of Sidney Ridgon. Grandison Newell, the Clapps, Bentley, Elias Randall, and Warren Corning were the nucleus of the vitriolic anti-Mormon group centered in Mentor that eventually drove numerous Mormons from Kirtland in 1837-38.

In his letter Rigdon alleges that Hurlbut returned from a trip to find his new wife and Deacon/Judge Orris Clapp in the same bed. Ridgon further alleges that after a threatened court case Clapp paid Hurlbut $100 and also gave him a span of oxen to drop the case. ( 25 ) This story rings hollow. In 1834 Orris was 64 and a respected deacon and judge, while Maria was a new bride of 27, hardly the characters one expects to find as principals in a steamy romance. Material presented by Buzbee and Whiting suggests that the Clapps were well regarded by members of their church. A more plausible explanation of this might be that Orris Clapp gave Hurlbut and his wife a span of oxen and money as a wedding gift, to underwrite some of the expenses Hurlbut incurred in collecting anti-Smith statements, and possibly to buy some of the copies that Hurlbut was promised for his contribution to the anti-Mormon book.

-------------------
( 25 ) In a biography written 50 to 60 years later, Benjamin Johnson provides a story that weakly corroborates some of Ridgon's allegations (p. 26). This story was told him by his father Ezekiel -- a non-Mormon -- who lived in Mentor and was a friend of the Clapps and other anti-Mormons (pp. 25-26). Benjamin states that Hurlbut and his wife lived with Elias Randall in Mentor near Ezekiel's home. Johnson alleges that Randall became disgusted with Hurlbut and that this caused Hurlbut ". . . with his wife, (to) put up a job on the old man (Randall), and drew him into a women snare, from which they would not release him until after payment of $500. Johnson may have transposed Randall for Clapp in his story. In a speech given in September, 1835 Joseph Smith likewise accuses Orris Clapp of paying polite attention to Hurlbut's wife and then being forced to pay Hurlbut a round sum ("History of the Church," vol, 2, p. 270).


 



[ 16 ]




Hurlbut and Howe

In late January, 1834 Hurlbut and his backers met in Kirtland to discuss the publication of an anti-Mormon book (Parkin, pp. 123-124). A report of this meeting including names of some prominent supporters, was published in the "Painesville Telegraph" on January 31, 1834. The report states that D.P. Hurlbut had been employed by the group to ". . . ascertain the real origin of the "Book of Mormon," and to examine the validity of Joseph Smith's claims to the character of a Prophet." The tone of the report is misleading, since most of the collecting of information by Hurlbut had occurred previously. Aside from a possible trip to Pittsburgh to seek information to support the "second manuscript" theory, Hurlbut likely did little more information collecting during 1834 (Winchester, p. 9).

There is controversy over who authored "Mormonism Unvailed." Although it listed E.D. Howe -- the publisher of the "Painesville Telegraph" -- as author, most contemporary Mormons who recorded an opinion thought that Hurlbut was the primary author (see Kirkham, vol. 1, p. 18, for example). Pancoast and others felt that Hurlbut was not listed as the author because of his checkered reputation and because he lost the trial with Smith in March, 1834 (p. 12).

Looking at other things that Howe and Hurlbut wrote before and after, and checking later statements by them leads me to conclude that Howe did most of the writing of the book. ( 26 ) In his last recorded interview Hurlbut credits Howe with authoring the book (Dickinson, p. 66). Hurlbut certainly collected most of the anti-Smith statements and letters supporting the Spalding Myth included in the volume. (27) He was also the promoter of the Spalding Myth and the "second manuscript" theory. He collected the material that gave the book a persistent bite, but Howe is the more logical choice as the person who did the actual writing. He was a professional writer, while Hurlbut was not. Aside from a handful of letters-to-the-editor and a poem that he wrote later in life I could find no other writings by Hurlbut. Howe, on the other hand, wrote numerous columns for his paper plus a lengthy and interesting Autobiography (Howe, 1878).

-------------------
( 26 ) For examples of Hurlbut's writing see his letters to the editor of the "Religious Telescope" (Dec. 3, 1845, p. 150; February 4, 1846; July 29, 1846, p. 6-7; June 16, 1847, p. 368; August 23, 1848 (poem); Sept. 20, 1848, p. 59). He likely also wrote at least one unsigned letter, for example, Nov. 25, 1846, p. 138.

( 27 ) Howe may not have entirely trusted the veracity of some of the statements collected by Hurlbut since Howe recontacted in 1834 some of the people interviewed by Hurlbut, Isaac Hale and residents of New Salem, for example.


 



[ 17 ]



Instead of being co-author, Hurlbut was given four or five hundred copies of the book by Howe as payment for his assistance. The Mormons reported that Howe and Hurlbut crossed swords when it came time to sell the book. Prior to publication in late 1834 Hurlbut gave numerous anti-Mormon lectures and collected subscriptions at one dollar each from people who agreed to purchase the volume. This may have been Hurlbut's main vocation during 1834. Many years later, George Albert Smith claimed that some-way or-other Howe obtained Hurlbut's subscription list and sold copies of the book to those on the list before Hurlbut contacted them ("Journal of Discourses," Vol. 7, p. 113). ( 28 ) Since Hurlbut likely depended on book sales for most of his income, this must have soured Hurlbut's relationship with Howe.

-------------------
( 28 ) There may have been additional strain between Hurlbut and Howe because of friction between Howe's wife, Sophia Hull Howe, and Hurlbut. Much to Howe's distress, Sophia and his sister became Mormons. Pancoast alleges that Sophia was the Mormon women that Hurlbut did unchristian-like conduct to in 1833, possibly because she passed along to Smith information about the fledgling Spalding Myth and Hurlbut's plans to undermine the Church.


 



[ 18 ]




Gerard, Pennsylvania

In late 1834 or in early 1835 Hurlbut and his wife moved to a 20 acre parcel on the Miller Settlement in Gerard township in Erie county Pennsylvania, a few miles northeast of Elk Creek. His land was only good for pasture. In the Erie County tax records for 1835 and 1836 Hurlbut's land was valued at only $50 and he reported having only one cow in each year. He may have continued with his anti-Mormon lectures and also attempted to sell his quota of Howe's book. ( 29 )

Hurlbut moved from Pennsylvania to his final home in Gibsonburg, Ohio in late 1836 or in early 1837. He sold his small farm to Lorenzo Clarke who paid 1837 taxes on the parcel. Without corroboration, Winchester claims that Hurlbut ". . . became a confirmed drunkard, spent every cent of his inglorious gain, was reduced to beggary, took to stealing for a livelihood, was detected in stealing a log chain, (and) fled the country to escape justice." (p. 9). How many, if any of these accusations, were true is unverifiable. Winchester wrote his smear of Hurlbut at a time when various authors were propagating the Spalding Myth and Winchester perhaps exaggerated the events in Hurlbut's life in Gerard, much as Hurlbut likely exaggerated allegations against Joseph Smith in Palmyra.


Gibsonburg, Ohio

Hurlbut moved to Sandusky County, Ohio in 1837. His property was located on the south edge of the small town of Gibsonburg. He lived there most of the rest of his life and he fathered 9 children, seven of whom grew to maturity: Wheeler W., Emily A. and Emory A. (twins), George M., Henry K., Phebe M., and John L.

Soon after moving to Gibsonburg Hurlbut joined the Salem United Brethren Church (UBC) and later became a minister. The first group meeting of the UBC near Gibsonburg was in 1837 (Meek, 1909, p. 327). Hurlbut gave land to the church on which the first log meeting house was built in 1845 south of Gibsonburg. It was the first religious building in the township.

Hurlbut was assigned to be an unordained circuit preacher on April 28th, 1843 at a conference held at Beaver Creek School House in Wood County, Ohio ("Religious Telescope" Vol. 2, No. 22, May 24, 1843; Mathers, pp. 16-17). His first assignment in 1843 was riding

-------------------
( 29 ) Hurlbut was probably the source of problems among Mormons in the Elk Creek area in late 1833 and early 1834. A number of them were excommunicated in late 1833 and Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon also visited there in October, 1833 to repair damage caused by Hurlbut (Rosenbaum, p. 64).


 



[ 19 ]



the Maumee Circuit, in 1844 he rode the Bean Creek Circuit, and in 1845 and 1846 he was assigned to the St. Joseph Circuit. He was ordained an elder in 1846 ("Religious Telescope," Vol, 5, No. 38, April 15, 1846).

Mathers mentions that UBC circuit riders received modest annual cash incomes that ranged from 150 to 200 dollars. He also mentions that on one occasion Hurlbut was offered a quarter of beef, the giver thinking Hurlbut would not be able to haul away this amount of meat (p. 20). Some way or other, however, much to the chagrin of the giver, the horse staggered off with the meat in the saddle instead of the preacher. UBC had the custom of rotating their circuit riders yearly. In the years 1847 through 1849 he rode the Swan Creek Circuit (1847), served in the Portland Mission (1848), rode the Seneca Circuit (1848), and rode the Sandusky Circuit (1849).

The high point of Hurlbut's career came in 1847 when he was appointed to be a member of the first Board of Trustees of Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio ("Religious Telescope" Vol. 6, No. 31, February 24, 1847). He did not attend the first meeting of the Board on April 27, 1847, he attended the second meeting on June 28, 1848, but he did not attend any subsequent meetings of the board. This fledgling UBC college later became a Methodist liberal arts college (Hancock).

As was the case earlier with the Mormons, Hurlbut's UBC ministry was laced with strife. In 1848, for example, he clashed with John Davis who was the local bishop. They filed cross complaints and three arbitrators were chosen to mediate their dispute ("Religious Telescope" Vol. 7, No, 32, March 8, 1848). Hurlbut accused Davis of refusing to abide by contracts and advice of Conference, of stealing money, and of slandering him. Davis accused Hurlbut of imprudent conduct towards women, of clubbing other denominations from the pulpit, and of trifling conversations. The arbitrators concluded that Davis had slandered Hurlbut, but that Hurlbut had participated in trifling conversations. The other accusations were glossed over (UBC Conference Minutes of Feb. 17, 1848)

Hurlbut had a more serious church conflict in 1851 when he was suspended from his calling as a minister. This was based on three vague charges: trying to take advantage of his fellow men, making aspirations that he later contradicted, and making use of light and unchristian conversation and thereby lessening his usefulness as a gospel minister (UBC Conference Minutes for Sept. 18, 1851). In 1852 he was suspended permanently from the ministry and apparently spent the remainder of his life earning a modest living from farming. It is unknown if he retained his membership in the UBC or if he sustained an interest in religion.


 



[ 20 ]




Brush with Millerites

Jennie Moore Edward mentions that Hurlbut was a believer in "Millerism in 1846 or 1847" ("Yearbook," p. 11), but she is likely mistaken about the dates. The most intense interest in Millerism occurred in 1843 and 1844 (Albright). She states that Hurlbut was close to another Millerite by the name of Thomas L. Hawkins who was an early settler of Fremont, Ohio. Over the years Hawkins was involved in colorful activities including milling, politics, freighting by a horse-powered boat, writing poetry, directing theater productions, preaching, stage acting, painting, and doing carpentry work. His home on the banks of the Sandusky River made an ideal place for Hawkins and Hurlbut to await Christ's return. The "Bible" was the focal point of the Millerites' beliefs, much as the "Book of Mormon" was for Mormons.


A Second Companion

Hurlbut and his family are listed in both the 1850 and the "1860 Federal Census." Maria and seven children were living with him when the Census was done on October 1, 1850. In the "1860 Census," however, Hurlbut was recorded as living with a women by the name of Diana who was 50 at the time the Census was done in June 1860 (Roll No. 1032, p. 250) ( 30 ) Hurlbut's sons Wheeler, George, and John were living with them and apparently three of Diana's children were also in the household: Melinda (18), Clarissa (12), and Deterick (8). Hurlbut listed himself as a farmer in the Census.

How long Hurlbut lived with Diana and whether or not they were married are unknown, but he apparently reconciled later with his wife Maria and was living with her at the time of the 1870 Census.


His last Interview

Hurlbut's health was delicate for several years before his death on June 18, 1883 and burial in West Union Cemetery in Gibsonburg. Before going to Gibsonburg for an interview, Ellen Dickinson solicited a letter of introduction from Hurlbut's physician Dr. John B. Rice, a Civil War surgeon who lived in Fremont. He cautioned Dickinson that she should interview Hurlbut immediately because his health was precarious (p. 64). Dickinson does not mention Hurlbut's infirmities but Dr. Rice gained fame for developing in 1874 Trammer's Extract of Malt, a patent medicine that was used in treating pulmonary consumption and dyspepsia. Hurlbut's frail health led him to make his last will and testament on January 7, 1878. In it he left all his worldly belongings, mainly 72 acres of land and a house on the south edge of

-------------------
( 30 ) Maria was 52 years old in 1860.


 



[ 21 ]



Gibsonburg, to his beloved wife Maria. ( 31 )

With Rice's letter in hand Dickinson, accompanied by her cousin's husband Oscar Kellogg who was a lawyer practicing in Norwalk Ohio, arrived unannounced in Gibsonburg on November 13, 1880. ( 32 ) It was a cold and cheerless day when they knocked on the door of Hurlbut's small white cottage. Before Dickinson had finished reading Rice's letter of introduction, Hurlbut ". . . was shaking violently, as with palsy, and very greatly agitated" (p. 64).

Because Hurlbut did not fulfill his promises to the former Mrs. Spalding -- Dickinson 's great aunt -- Dickinson had negative views of the old man before her interview. During the interview she felt he was trying to hide something (p. 62), but this may have been his awkward family history -- and the fact that she barged in unannounced at lunch time -- rather than due to his dealings with the Spalding Manuscript. Before leaving, Dickinson took Hurlbut's wife aside and ask her several questions, one of which was ". . . if she was Hurlburt's only wife when he was a Mormon." Dickinson goes on to say that: "A little flush came into her pale cheeks, and she replied: Well, he wa'n't a Mormon long; and I was his first wife" (p. 70). Phrasing her answer this way allowed Maria to tell the truth, but avoid saying that Hurlbut had thrown her over for another woman for a time, something that must have been an extremely painful memory for this proud and long-suffering woman ( 33 ) She lived another 20 years and died March 17, 1903, in her 96th year.


Conclusions

Hurlbut's reach exceeded his grasp. He was erratic, had difficulty sticking with things, and had a chronic weakness for women -- and they for him. He dabbled in at least four religions, often generated controversy, and was unsuccessful in material matters. If it had not been for his collision with Joseph Smith he would have left no scratch on history and simply passed his genes to subsequent generations who would have known little about him -- the fate of most people, Ultimately, the measure of a person

-------------------
( 31 ) A copy of Hurlbut's Will is in the Hayes Library in Fremont, Ohio, Case No. 2,956.

( 32 ) Kellogg and Hurlbut recognized each other during the interview. Hurlbut was on a jury in one of the cases that Kellogg handled.

( 33 ) For insights on Maria's qualities see her touching letter to the editor "Religious Telescope," Vol. 1 new series, No. 32, April 9, 1851, p. 126.


 



[ 22 ]



-- Joseph Smith and D.P. Hurlbut in particular -- must be judged by what they added, not by what was said about them by their enemies. Smith fostered a new religion that has been accepted by millions, he had the gift of thinking new and original ideas and of changing traditional creeds and doctrines. Most importantly he left a large mark on history, the most telling judgement of all.

In contrast, Hurlbut is remembered only for his harsh judgment of Smith and his Elmer-Gantry-like life. Hurlbut Street in Gibsonburg and his grave are his only memorials. His death was ignored by local newspapers and by the UBC's "Religious Telescope." Those who believe in retribution might interpret the lime quarry that consumed his homestead and a large part of his farm in Gibsonburg as divine judgement on a person who so harshly judged others. As Matthew (7:1-2) reminds us: "Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged . . ."




 



[ 23 ]



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Bush, Lester E. Jr. 1977. "The Spalding Theory Then and Now." "Dialogue" 10:40-69.

Buzbee, Evelyn and Ruth Whiting. 1978, "Sesquicentennial Scrapbook of the Mentor Christian Church," 1828-1978." Unpublished manuscript on file at the Lake County Historical Library, Mentor, Ohio, May.

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Curtis, V. Alan. 1976. "Missionary Activities and Church Organizations in Pennsylvania," 1830-1840." Unpublished Masters Thesis Brigham Young University, April.

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Fairchild, James H,, 1886, "Manuscript of Solomon Spaulding and the Book of Mormon," Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract Number 37, March 23.


 



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Faulring, Scott H. ed. 1989. "An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith." Salt Lake City: Signature Books.

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"History of Sandusky County Ohio With Portraits and Biographies of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers," 1882. Cleveland, OH: H.Z. Williams & Bro.

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Jacob, Norton. No Date. Unpublished journal on file in Brigham Young University Library.

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Kirkham, Francis W. 1959. "A New Witness for Christ in America: The Book of Mormon." Volume 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Printing Co.

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LeBaron, E, Dale. 1966, "Benjamin Franklin Johnson: Colonizer, Public Servant, and Church Leader." Unpublished Masters Thesis Brigham Young University, August.

Mathers, William M. circa 1890. "History of the Sandusky Conference." Toledo, OH: Toledo Commercial Book and Job Printing.

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McMahon, Helen Grace. 1958. "Chautauqua County: A History." Buffalo, New York, NY: Henry Stewart Inc.

Meek, Basil (ed.). 1915. "Yearbook of the Sandusky Country Pioneer and Historical Association." Fremont, OH: Sandusky Country Pioneer and Historical Association, pp. 10-11.

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Whittier, Charles H. and Stephen W. Stathis. 1977, "The Enigma of Solomon Spalding." "Dialogue" 10:70-73.

Wickham, Gertrude Van Rensselaer. 1896. "Memorial to the Pioneer Women of Western Reserve" Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Centennial Commission, Pt. 1, p. 536.

Winchester, Benjamin. 1840. "The Origin of the Spaulding Story, Concerning the Manuscript Found; With a Short Biography of Dr. P. Hulbert (sic)." Philadelphia, PA: Brown, Bicking & Guilpert, Printers.

"Yearbook of the Sandusky County Pioneer and Historical Association." 1915. Fremont, OH.


 

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