2005 Cowdrey & Davis Book

Wayne Cowdrey, et al.
Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon?
The Spalding Enigma
St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 2005
ISBN: 0758605277

Title page
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
excerpts

Comments Errata Lit. Index

Copyright © 2005 Wayne L. Cowdrey, Howard A. Davis, & Arthur Vanick
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On-line Excerpts | Rigdon & Spalding in 1816 | 1977 "Who Really Wrote" precursor

2000 CD-ROM reviewers' edition | 2006 Matthew Roper review

Who Really Wrote
THE BOOK OF MORMON?

THE
SPALDING
ENIGMA

WAYNE L. COWDREY • HOWARD A. DAVIS • ARTHUR VANICK

C O N C O R D I A P U B L I S H I N G H O U S E • S A I N T L O U I S

Because of copyright law restrictions,
only limited "fair use" excerpts are presented here.

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CONTENTS

List of Frequently Used Terms
Forword
Preface
Introduction
1. Genesis
2. Memories
3. Synchronicities
4. The Letter
5. Red Herring
6. Hat Trick
7. Questions
8. Family Plot
9. The Elusive Oliver
10. The Gold Bible Business
11. The Mysterious Stranger
12. Revelations
Afterward
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Appendix 7
Notes

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FOREWORD

By Rev. George Mather ¹

As of December 13, 2000, membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was reported to be at 11,068,861 members, with 34 new temples dedicated in the same year. They have well over 60,000 full-time missionaries throughout the world. ² The Christian church needs to take Mormonism seriously and address its growth in a wise and loving manner.

Over the years, Christians have been trying to evangelize Mormons using a variety of methods. It is not unusual to use apologetics (defense of the faith) in their zeal to reach members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though these approaches have been used with little success, The apologetic approaches used have often led to what Mormons have dubbed "Mormon Bashing," whether intentional or unintentional. Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon? is not a book that will evangelize the Latter-day Saints. Rather, it presents the historical facts and the reliability of the Spalding Enigma. However, it is one thing to know the facts, and another to know what to do with the facts.

Like Mormonism as a whole, the origin of The Book of Mormon has mystified many people over the years. Like many religions, one of their authoritative books claims to be of divine origin. Therefore, it is only reasonable to study the historical circumstances surrounding such claims of divinity. One would be wise to do what the Bible invites us: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). We should examine just what it is that we believe (2 Corinthians 13:5).

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PREFACE

by Dale R. Broadhurst ¹

According to a story that is probably more apocryphal than factual, on January 27, 1840, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith reportedly appeared before a large audience of prominent persons in Washington D. C. and delivered a prophecy concerning an eminent Protestant minister who had been preaching sermons in the nation's capital against the Mormons and their self-proclaimed sacred writings. Dr. Robert D. Foster, physician to the Mormon leaders then visiting Washington, recalled that President Martin Van Buren, Senator Henry Clay, Senator Thomas H. Benton, Representative John Quincy Adams and "many other celebrated characters" were present when Joseph Smith prophesied utter doom and destruction against the Rev. George Grimston Cookman, Chaplain of the United States Senate.

Among the disputed opinions that Rev. Cookman is alleged to have preached to his Washington parishioners that winter were his condemnation of Joseph Smith as an "arch impostor" whose practices and doctrines "were very irreligious and inconsistent with Bible truth." ² The Senate Chaplain also reportedly stated that Joseph Smith "did not believe in the Bible, but had got a new one, dug up in Palmyra, New York; and that it was nothing but an irreligious romance, and that Smith had obtained it from the widow of one Spaulding, who wrote it for his own amusement." ³ In his rebuttal to Rev. Cookman, Joseph Smith is said to have stood before that distinguished Washington audience and "uttered a prophecy, one of the most wonderful predictions of his life." The Mormon Prophet declared Chaplain Cookman's preaching against the Mormons to be "willfully and wickedly false, and that if he, Cookman, did not take it back and acknowledge that he had dealt falsely of

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him, his people, and his own congregation, also that he must turn and preach the truth and quit deceiving the people with fables, he should be cut off from the face of the earth, both he and his posterity... this should be so plainly manifest that all should know it." ⁵ Smith closed this startling LDS prophecy by declaring to his incredulous auditors: "Write it on your tablets; write it in a book; write it in your memory; for as sure as God ever spoke by my mouth, all these things shall come to pass." ⁶ According to Dr. Foster, not long thereafter Rev. Cookman made ready to sail to England, and, "Both he, his wife, and all his children went on board the steamship President, and neither the ship nor a soul is left to tell what was their sad end. But the prophecy is fulfilled to the letter, and the words uttered on that occasion have never been forgotten by me, nor I presume by hundreds of others. Had Cookman gone alone, it might be charged to chance, but why was it that his whole family were suddenly cut off, both root and branch?" ⁷

As a sixth generation descendent of some of the earliest Latter Day Saint converts, I look upon Dr. Foster's extraordinary report with a measure of dismay and apprehension. If Divine Providence deals thusly with those people who assert that The Book of Mormon is "nothing but an irreligious romance," written long ago by a certain Solomon Spalding, perhaps I should abandon my own investigations along those lines altogether and completely disassociate myself with those researchers and scholars who continue to advance such authorship claims at this late date. On the other hand, I am intrigued that the Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship have survived into the twenty-first century and that this troublesome authorship question appears to remain unresolved. In his recent Master's thesis, prepared at Louisville's Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Rev. Bryan Ready, a student of American Protestant theology, remarks:

The purpose of this thesis was to examine critically William Whitsitt's claim that Sidney Rigdon was the 'real founder of Mormonism,' and to argue that Whitsitt's research is an extremely valuable contribution to the understanding of the origins of Mormonism. I went on to identify his most significant contributions... Whitsitt demonstrated that Rigdon likely had a connection with Smith prior to his "conversion" in 1830.... that Campbellite theology can be found in the Book of Mormon.... as a result of Whitsitt's findings, Rigdon's role in early Mormonism needs to be reevaluated, and the Spalding-Rigdon theory needs to be reexamined.... Whitsitt's most significant contribution is that Mormonism was founded

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by sincere, albeit extremely misguided, individuals who believed they were restoring authentic Christianity.

If the celebrated Rev. Dr. William H. Whitsitt thought that people like Solomon Spalding and Sidney Rigdon had a hand in writing The Book of Mormon and thus furnished a basis for the early "sincere, albeit extremely misguided" Mormon faith, then perhaps there is an important story here, still waiting to be told, after all. In several different ways the work of the writers of this book and the generally overlooked nineteenth century scholarship of Dr. Whitsitt appear to supplement and complement each other. If Rev. Ready (who has carefully read nearly everything written by Whitsitt and much by the Enigma authors), feels that the time has come to admit that Sidney Rigdon "likely had a connection with Smith prior to his 'conversion' in 1830" and that "Rigdon's role in early Mormonism needs to be reevaluated, and the Spalding-Rigdon theory needs to be reexamined," why should any honest seeker of the truth wish to stand in the way of such research and investigation?

In 1945 a would-be biographer of Joseph Smith published a seminal work on the Mormon Prophet which has ever since colored the imaginations of practically everybody who has written on the subject of Mormon origins. I am of course referring to Fawn MacKay Brodie's thoroughly readable No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.⁸ Mrs. Brodie was a Latter-day Saint in good standing when she researched and wrote her well-known book. No doubt she truly believed that Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spalding could not possibly have had anything to do with the writing of The Book of Mormon; at least, that is the message she has conveyed to the world so well. If Mrs. Brodie is correct in rejecting the "Rigdon-Spalding theory," then I suppose that the authors of this book must be fundamentally wrong in what they have to report. If, on the other hand, those same authors are substantially correct, Mrs. Brodie's volume and practically every other book ever published mentioning Joseph Smith and early Mormon history needs to be re-examined or re-written.

It also follows that if the authors of Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon? (as well as numerous past investigators like William H. Whitsitt) are basically correct in what they have to say about Mormon origins, then the Mormons themselves are faced with a crucial challenge regarding their identity as a people and their proper place within the Judeo-Christian tradition. So long as the Mormons remain a relatively small group within that tradition, not openly attempting to establish a pre-millennial theocracy, then perhaps Christians and the secular public can afford to ignore them and thought-provoking books like this one. However, should they continue their rapid

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expansion as a very wealthy, tightly cohesive, and politically influential movement comprising many millions of members, still professing a supposedly divine mandate to establish a world-wide theocracy, then we all might do well to take a second, scrutinizing look at reports like this book. In a day an age when the Mormons are actively seeking to adopt a mainstream Christian face and social credentials, perhaps it is useful to re-examine their beginnings. By understanding the Latter-day Saints, their origins within and alongside American Protestantism, and the methods they have used to become an extensive modern institution, we all can better determine whether they pose a threat to contemporary communities of faith, or perhaps provide, instead, potentially valuable resources in a world whose religious future is yet unfolding.

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INTRODUCTION

So long as a mystery hangs over the origin of The Book of Mormon, so long will the name of Solomon Spalding be associated with a creed which was formulated years after his death, and with a church of which he had never heard.
James Harrison Kennedy (1888) ¹

One of the richest, most influential, and fastest growing religious organizations in the world is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also known as the Mormons, the Church is renowned for its aggressive missionary activities, its virtual stranglehold on Utah politics, and its long history of shrewd financial dealings that have made it a force to be reckoned with. However, few are aware of a fascinating body of evidence that has continued to accumulate over the years and, despite efforts by pro-Mormon scholars to deny or dismiss it, has grown to such proportion that it now poses a significant challenge to history itself. At stake is nothing less than the Church's most sacred text, The Book of Mormon. At issue is whether this long-revered book is actually a valuable, historical record of pre-Columbian North America or a deception of the first order, perpetrated upon the gullible and the credulous by the very founder of the Church himself, Prophet Joseph Smith. ²

Some of this evidence has been previously published, only to be met with a wall of denial from loyal and often eloquent Mormon apologists. However, upon being integrated with certain recent discoveries, a case of such overwhelming significance emerges that continuing to ignore it would constitute a historical injustice. The record speaks for itself. The purpose of this volume

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1
GENESIS

It is only the densely ignorant, the totally depraved, and clergymen of different denominations afflicted with anti-Mormon rabies, who still use the Spaulding theory to account for the origin of The Book of Mormon.
Salt Lake City, Deseret Evening News (May 14, 1901) ¹

The Bible speaks of the Hebrews as a people divided into twelve tribes, yet today it is generally understood that modern Israel is descended from only two tribes. The fate of the other ten "lost tribes" has long been the subject of myth and controversy.

According to traditional accounts promulgated by the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints (LDS), ² the process that led to the publication of The Book of Mormon began in 1823, when the angel Moroni allegedly visited 18-year-old church founder Joseph Smith, and explained to him that the North American Indians were descendants of the House of Israel. During this experience, Smith was informed that several groups of Israelites had migrated to North America many centuries before, and a sacred record of their ancient wanderings had been preserved and lay hidden in a cave beneath a small hill near Palmyra, New York, about three miles from Smith's home.

Finally, in 1827, after repeated communications with his angel, Joseph Smith claimed to have uncovered these records that, he said, were engraved upon plates having the appearance of gold. These plates (or sheets) were about as thick as heavy-duty aluminum foil, measured approximately eight inches long by seven inches wide, covered on both sides with engravings similar

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a "you must believe this in your heart" or an "ask God to show you this is true" strategy with potential converts.

In addition, it should be noted that there is a distinct difference between historical evidence that is truly anti-Mormon, and that which originates with sources who are merely non-Mormon. In this light, most sources cited herein must be considered non-Mormon simply because no evidence exists that would tie them to any consistent pattern of anti-Mormon behavior. In essence, these are generally disinterested non-Mormon citizens whose recollections, by one means or another, have been carefully preserved for posterity. As such, just as in any other historical controversy, each piece of testimony deserves to be carefully weighed and considered upon its own merits.

Once the basic facts of the Spalding Enigma have been set forth, it becomes clear that the issue is whether evidence supporting a conspiracy by Joseph Smith and others to transform Solomon Spalding's manuscript into The Book of Mormon is strong enough to overcome the inevitable question of reasonable doubt. With that in mind, let us begin by noting that present Mormon objections to the Spalding Enigma can be effectively reduced to a list of four basic points:

1. Sidney Rigdon was neither employed by nor otherwise connected with any print shop in Pittsburgh. In fact, no evidence exists to indicate he was ever in Pittsburgh prior to his having moved there in 1822, six years after Spalding's death (though his son, John Wycliffe Rigdon, does admit his father visited the city as early as 1818). Moreover, Sidney Rigdon denied any involvement in the Spalding Enigma in a strongly worded letter written in May 1839, in reply to allegations made by Spalding's widow.

2. The origin of the so-called Spalding Enigma can be traced to the vindictive designs of one Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, who engineered the entire myth as part of a personal vendetta against the Mormons for their having excommunicated him in 1833. Indeed, all of the statements of non-Mormon witnesses collected by Hurlbut and others like him between approximately 1830 and 1900 are unacceptable as evidence because of their anti-Mormon bias.

3. Although The Book of Mormon was published in March 1830, no credible evidence exists to show that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had dealings with each other prior to December of that year, thus ruling out all possibility that Rigdon could have supplied Smith with the text for that work.

4. Finally, comparisons of The Book of Mormon to an earlier Solomon Spalding work called Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek, a copy of which was recovered in 1833 from an old trunk in Hartwick, New York, show no similarities whatsoever between the two works. In addition, Mormons have consistently argued that no credible evidence exists to suggest Spalding ever wrote anything else, that Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek and A Manuscript Found are one and the same, and that this alone is sufficient to dispel the Spalding Enigma.

In order to properly present Solomon Spalding's case, and to demonstrate that all of the above objections are historically deficient, it will be necessary to examine these points individually and to carefully consider the facts surrounding each of them.

According to the version of the Spalding story preferred by most pro-Mormon writers, it all began with Doctor Philastus Hurlbut ("Doctor" was his given name, not an academic title) ²⁵ who, having been excommunicated from the Latter-day Saints in June 1833 for alleged improprieties involving members of the opposite sex,

took to lecturing against the Mormons, holding forth first at Springfield, Erie county, Penn., some distance east of Conneaut. Finally visiting the Jackson settlement... he learned, from one of the Jacksons, of Solomon Spaulding, and that he had written a story called Manuscript Found. "Not that any of these persons," says my authority... "had the most distant idea that his (Spaulding's) novel had ever been converted into The Book of Mormon; or that there was any connection between them."

It was the conception of Dr. Hurlburt [sic] that this Spaulding manuscript could be used in concocting a country theory for the origin of The Book of Mormon – "a long felt want," by the way, among those who opposed the book and the work growing out of it. With the information he had obtained in the Jackson Settlement, Hurlburt repairs to Kirtland [Ohio], holds a public meeting, at which there is great joy, and enthusiasm among the anti-Mormons in that vicinity, because of Hurlburt's theory of the origin of The Book of Mormon. One Mr. Newel, a bitter anti-Mormon, promised to advance $300 for prosecuting the work of identification, and others contributed liberally for the same purpose.... ²⁶

The above account, though written in 1908, essentially paraphrases the words of Benjamin F. Winchester, who, in 1840, published the Mormons' first significant anti-Spalding polemic under the imposing title The Origin of the

Spaulding Story, Concerning the Manuscript Found, with a Short Biography of Dr. P. Hulbert [sic], the Originator of the Same; and Some Testimony Adduced, Showing it to be a Sheer Fabrication, so far as its Connection with The Book of Mormon is Concerned. ²⁷ Although Winchester refers to himself as a "Minister of the Gospel...

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2
MEMORIES

Hurlburt [sic] is one of the most notorious rascals in the western country. He was first Cut off from our society for an attempt at seduction and crime, and secondly he was laid under bonds in Geauga county, Ohio, for threatening to murder Joseph Smith, Jr.... Now what but falsehood could be expected from such a person?
Parley Parker Pratt (1839) ¹

With Solomon Spalding's Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek, the Manchester/Palmyra affidavits, and other documents in hand, Doctor Philastus Hurlbut left New York for Ohio, arriving about December 18, 1833. Just before departing, however, he paid a friendly visit to Pomeroy Tucker, editor of the Palmyra (NY) Wayne Sentinel, and left him with this announcement:

The Mormon Mystery Developed

Doct. P. Hurlbert [sic], of Kirtland, Ohio, who has been engaged for some time in different parts of this state, but chiefly in this neighborhood, on behalf of his fellow-townsmen, in the pursuit of facts and information concerning the origin and design of The Book of Mormon... requests us to say, that he has succeeded in accomplishing the object of his mission, and that an authentic history of the whole affair will shortly be given to the public. 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 author died soon after it was written; and hence the plan failed. The

pretended religious character of the work has been superadded by some more modern hand -- believed to be the notorious Rigdon. These particulars have been derived by Dr. Hurlbert from the widow of the author of the original manuscript. ²

In perspective, the most important part of this composition is the final two sentences, which suggest that Doctor Hurlbut had failed to grasp the significance of Sidney Rigdon's role in the Spalding Enigma until after his visit to the widow. Although Rigdon had been publicly suspected as early as 1831 of having been a shady, behind-the-scenes player in the production of The Book of Mormon, by all indications it was the former Mrs. Spalding's testimony that first connected him with the removal of her late husband's manuscript from the Pattersons' shop. In fact, it seems doubtful that Hurlbut even knew Rigdon had roots in the Pittsburgh area until this point. Had he caught on to this extremely important link somewhat earlier, Hurlbut's investigations might have been considerably more fruitful.

In any case, as soon as was feasible, possibly on Friday, December 20, 1833, Doctor Hurlbut laid his findings before the Citizens' Committee. The next day, he held another public lecture, perhaps the one Painesville editor and publisher Eber D. Howe speaks of having attended. ³ It was during this event that Hurlbut allowed himself to become overly exuberant and, in what was soon to prove an extremely unfortunate choice of expressions, made the mistake of threatening to "kill" Joseph Smith. Judge J. C. Dowen testifies:

I heard Dr. P. Hurlbut, who had been a Mormon Preacher, preach a good sermon and then deliver his first lecture in the Methodist Church in Kirtland, Ohio, on the origin of He said he had been in New York and Pennsylvania and had obtained a copy of Spaulding's Manuscript Found. He read selections from it [and] then the same from The Book of Mormon. He said the historical part of it was the same as Spaulding's Manuscript Found. He read numerous affidavits from parties in N. Y. and Penn. showing the disreputable character of the Mormon Smith Family.

Hurlbut [stayed] at my house every three or four days for as many months. I read all of his manuscripts, including Spaulding's Manuscript Found and compared it with The Book of Mormon, the historical part of which is the same as Spaulding's Manuscript Found, which is about the size of the papyrus Jo had with his Egyptian mummies. Hurlbut said he would kill Jo Smith. He meant he would kill Mormonism. The Mormons urged me to issue a writ against him. I did, as recorded in my Docket, Dec. 27, 1833, on complaint of Joseph Smith, warrant returnable to William Holbrook, Esq.,

at Painesville, Ohio. He was brought to trial and over 50 [sic] witnesses were called. The trial lasted several days and he was bound over to appear at the Court of Common Pleas at Chardon. ⁴

Although Judge Dowen says he did not issue his writ against Hurlbut until December 27, the Geauga County court docket indicates Joseph Smith lodged his complaint on December 21, further reinforcing the conclusion that Hurlbut had made his remark about "killing" Smith earlier that same day. ⁵

Unfortunately, Doctor Hurlbut's exuberance at this moment of apparent triumph seems to have spilled over into other areas as well. Although he was unmistakably aware that Solomon Spalding's Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek was not the manuscript he had been seeking, others, such as Judge Dowen, who had contact with Hurlbut during this time were at least partially convinced that it was the correct document. While Hurlbut, and subsequently Eber Howe, later did what they could to clarify the issue, a myth had begun, continuing to this day, that Hurlbut did obtain A Manuscript Found from the widow's trunk, and that either he or Howe (or both) surreptitiously sold it to Joseph Smith for a large sum of money, after which Smith destroyed it.

Although several writers over the years, most notably Solomon Spalding's grandniece Ellen E. Dickinson and her contemporary Arthur B. Deming (both essentially anti-Mormons), have espoused this view, and though various members of the Spalding/McKinstry family, including Spalding's daughter Matilda McKinstry, continued to adhere to it for many years thereafter, the evidence actually stacks up against them. ⁶ All things considered, there is but scant reason to believe that Hurlbut got anything except an earlier Spalding composition called Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek, and every reason to accept that he knew that the prize had eluded him. By the time he got to that trunk in Hartwick in the fall of 1833, A Manuscript Found had already been lost or misplaced, and so it remains to this day.

Proof that Doctor Hurlbut never had A Manuscript Found in his possession and that he recognized the difference between it and Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek lies in the fact that at the end of December 1833, only days after Judge Dowen's writ had been lodged against him, ⁷ Hurlbut returned to Conneaut with Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek in hand and showed it to several key witnesses who, upon examination, quickly recognized that it was indeed Spalding's work, but verified that it was definitely not A Manuscript Found. Once again, such is hardly the behavior of one intent upon subterfuge and deceit.

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3
SYNCHRONICITIES

[T]he two leading sects of Mormons have published this first manuscript [Spalding's Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek] as a refutation of a theory which no one ever advocated, viz. That the manuscript now at Oberlin was the thing from which Smith et al. plagiarized The Book of Mormon.
Theodore Schroeder (1907) ¹

Everyone agrees that when Doctor Philastus Hurlbut returned to Ohio in December 1833, he brought with him at least one manuscript obtained from Mrs. Davison's old hair trunk in Hartwick, New York. This, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string, bore the title Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek, and, as we have seen, was clearly not A Manuscript Found for which he had been searching. Ultimately it was turned over to Eber D. Howe, along with Hurlbut's other notes and materials, and became the subject of a brief synopsis in Howe's 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed. Because it was not A Manuscript Found, Hurlbut placed little value upon it and soon misplaced it amidst the clutter of his printing business. When asked many years later, he said he believed it had been destroyed in the Painesville (OH) Telegraph office fire about 1841. ²

In August 1884, however, Lewis L. Rice of Honolulu, Hawaii, one of Eber Howe's successors as editor of the Painesville (OH) Telegraph from about 1838 to 1840, was looking for anti-slavery material in a heap of old papers and documents that he brought from Ohio many years earlier. In this, he accidentally stumbled across Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek still wrapped in

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4
THE LETTER

Sidney Rigdon never was at Pittsburgh or any other place at the same time as Mr. Spaulding's manuscript was there and therefore he could not have seen or read it.
George Reynolds (1882) ¹

Pro-Mormon historians have traditionally relied upon four arguments in dismissing the Spalding Enigma: (1) that Solomon Spalding wrote only a single novel, Manuscript Story – Conneaut Creek; (2) that Doctor Hurlbut's hateful desire to destroy Joseph Smith and the Church renders his evidence hopelessly biased and unacceptable; (3) that Sidney Rigdon was not in Pittsburgh until 1822 and never had any connections with the print shops there; and (4) that Rigdon's first contact with Joseph Smith took place in late 1830, many months after The Book of Mormon had already been published. Having already dismissed the first two objections, let us now turn our attention to the third.

The Rev. Sidney Rigdon was born February 19, 1793, in what was then the United States' western frontier, the green, rolling hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, near the present town of Library. It is said that he received only the rudiments of education at a small country school not far from his home. ² During this time, young Sidney "was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get." ³ Possessed of an excellent memory, he could recall "everything he read and in this way laid up a fund of Knowledge that was of great value to him in later years." ⁴ Even Sidney

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5
RED HERRING

I wish my name was buried in oblivion.

Sidney Rigdon to Joseph Smith (ca. June 20, 1831)¹

Of everything written about the Spalding Enigma, the one question that has been generally overlooked is whether A Manuscript Found was of sufficient literary quality to justify publication on its own merit. Judging from the few available samples of Solomon Spalding's work, it would appear that his talents as an author were mediocre at best, which probably explains why Silas Engles and the Pattersons felt justified in asking for "security" before venturing to publish his book. No doubt Joseph Smith met with a similar response when he tried to peddle The Book of Mormon, equally mediocre, to publishers 15 years later. However, unlike Spalding, Smith was able to find someone eager to finance the job.

Solomon Spalding went to Pittsburgh because he had little other choice. Buffalo was not an option because there was a war going on. Printers west of the Allegheny Mountains were few and far between, and Pittsburgh, a thriving river port and trade center founded in 1758 by the French, had several. In such a market, however, even if Spalding had been a writer of outstanding talent, he would have faced an uphill struggle, for the kind of publishing done in that city was of a rather limited nature. Historian Edward Park Anderson provides an interesting insight into the difficulties Spalding must have encountered:

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6
HAT TRICK

"Now," said Jo [Smith],"I have got the damned fools fixed, and will carry out the fun." Notwithstanding, he told me he had no such book, and believed there never was any such book....
Peter Ingersoll (1833) ¹

When one considers Sidney Rigdon's life, he emerges as a complex and mysterious character, a brooding yet visionary individual who appears to have been so dedicated to his own dreams that he thought nothing of appropriating Solomon Spalding's novel, reworking it to reflect his personal beliefs, then using it as a tool to achieve his ultimate goal -- leading an errant and factious Christendom to the glorious restoration of its "ancient order of things." ² Rigdon felt it was his personal mission to bring back the good old days when real, living apostles walked the land, spreading the Word of God and working miracles. Indeed, this bizarre obsession was so sincerely heartfelt that at times Rigdon seems to have actually believed he was a modern saint, chosen by God to walk the land and do His work. Whether it took fraud, deceit, cunningly contrived divine revelations, or just plain old-fashioned showmanship to accomplish the task, it did not matter to Rigdon. As he saw it, the ends inevitably justified his own means, no matter what. If God's plan was being served, only good could come of it; and because he had been predestined (indeed, perhaps even pre-anointed) to be a part of it, his work was clear. He was a voice crying in the wilderness -- a man on God's mission. ³ He could do no other. "Every man is a government of himself, and infringes on no government.

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7
QUESTIONS

The Mormons are composed of two classes, the Deceivers and the Deceived, who are by far the most numerous, and are generally honest, industrious, well-meaning people. Had the newspaper managers of 1830 been as enterprising and thorough in collecting news as they are today, Mormonism would have been very short lived.
Arthur Buel Deming (1888) ¹

Eber Howe had been hard at work on his own book, Mormonism Unvailed, for quite some time before acquiring Doctor Hurlbut's material in January 1834. Rather than push everything aside and start anew, he simply gathered together the most important of these items and added them to his existing text. This explains why Hurlbut's information is confined to the final 60 pages, and why his premature conclusion concerning Sidney Rigdon's role in the Spalding Enigma is given only perfunctory treatment in the closing paragraphs. Although pro-Mormon writers have often asserted that Hurlbut himself wrote the entire book and then sold it to Howe for publication, even a cursory examination of its structure and style exposes this as impossible. ²

The real importance of this unfounded allegation is that it seems to have originated with none other than Joseph Smith himself, who briefly mentioned Mormonism Unvailed while taking his archrival Alexander Campbell to task. According to Smith:

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8
FAMILY PLOT

Why have neither Smith nor his friends given any history of these four years... ? Why does Smith pass over this most interesting portion of his life in silence, or speak of it only in vague generalities? The only possible answer is, he dares not give a minute and detailed history of that period, giving places and dates; for if he should, he fears it would lead to his detection.
Jonathan Baldwin Turner (1842) ¹

As work on this volume progressed, it became evident that no meaningful solution to the Spalding Enigma could be found without first exploring another unsolved mystery -- the early life of the inscrutable Oliver H. P. Cowdery, ² Co-founder and Second Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ³ Although it is widely acknowledged that Cowdery played a major role in the early history of the Church from the time he moved into Joseph Smith's home in 1828 until his excommunication in Missouri 10 years later, it takes only a single paragraph to summarize what most historians admit to knowing about him before then. "The only reliable information" about Oliver's youth comes from an 1887 statement by Lucy Cowdery Young, one of his younger half-sisters:

Oliver was brought up in Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont, and when he arrived at the age of twenty, he went to the state of New York, where his older brothers were married and settled.... Oliver's occupation was clerking in a store until 1829, when he taught the district school in the town of Manchester. ⁴

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9
THE ELUSIVE OLIVER

Apparently nothing of great consequence happened in his life during
this period -- or at least nothing he found noteworthy.
Phillip R. Legg (1989) ¹

Perhaps most critical to substantiating the events of Oliver Cowdery's early life is demonstrating that he left Vermont in the spring of 1822, and that he went from there to the Smith's home in Palmyra, New York. Fortunately, this is supported by firsthand accounts of two historians, one at each end of the journey.

The first historian is Robert Parks, who, along with Hiland Paul, wrote an extensive history of Wells, Vermont, in the late 1860s. Parks recorded that "We well remember this same Oliver Cowdery when in our boyhood.... He attended school in the District where we reside in 1821 and 1822. He then went to Palmyra, N. Y." ²

The fact that Oliver Cowdery arrived in Palmyra that same spring and was quickly accepted into the Smith family circle is confirmed by Orsamus Turner, a pioneer newspaper editor whose two thick volumes on the history of western New York are still highly regarded by scholars. ³ In the second volume, Turner devoted several pages to what he styled "a brief pioneer history" of Mormonism as set forth from the very personal perspective of one who, as a printer's devil in the Palmyra print shop, had delighted in using ink to "once and a while blacken the face of [Joseph Smith,] the then meddling inquisitive lounger -- but afterwards Prophet." ⁴ Turner's testimony is particularly valuable because of his personal knowledge of the Smith's presence at Palmyra from

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10
THE GOLD BIBLE BUSINESS

I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgement[.] Such being still my opinion... I only, respectfully, ask leave, therefore, to withdraw from [this] society...
Oliver Cowdery (1838) ¹

If Oliver Cowdery really was William Morgan's mysterious scribe that summer of 1826, he certainly would have come under increasing pressure to disentangle himself before something unpleasant occurred. By August 1, things were getting ugly. Morgan had been arrested in what was only the first of several such harassments, a Masonic boycott of David Miller's newspaper was underway, and serious threats were being openly voiced. As if external strife was not enough, on August 7 a nervous and probably besotted Morgan began writing letters to his partners, accusing them of dishonesty and expressing his wish to settle and have no more to do with [them]." ²

If Oliver was associated with Morgan and Miller at this point, it seems likely he would have been advised by his brother Warren (a Mason) to get away from the situation while he still could, and lay low for a while. That would have meant leaving Genesee County and going somewhere he would have been both welcome and safe. One such haven would have been his father's home at Arcadia, 60 miles to the east -- a place within an afternoon's walk of the Smith's farm at Manchester. And if there is anything to be said about the "pedestrian peddlers" of that era, it is that they were extraordinary walkers.

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11
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER

Sidney Rigdon never saw Joseph Smith until December, 1830, the visit being prolonged into January, 1831. These two persons had never been within two or three hundred miles of each other until that period.
Millennial Star (November 1, 1850) ¹

It is impossible to show any contact between Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon before The Book of Mormon was published....
Brigham H. Roberts (1909) ²

If Solomon Spalding and Joseph Smith had anything in common, it was that they were both fascinated by ancient Indian burial mounds, arcane legends, old ruins, and the many strange artifacts of an earlier age that were continually discovered as settlers pushed westward. Consider the words of Smith's mother:

In the course of our evening conversations Joseph would give us some of the most ammusing (sic) recitals which could be immagined (sic) he would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent their dress their manner of traveling the animals which they rode the cities that were built by them the structure of their buildings with every particular of their mode of warfare their religious worship as particularly as though he had spent his life with them. ³

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11
REVELATIONS

I wanted to know how the Book of Mormon came into existence for [my father] owed it to his family to tell all he knew about it and should not go down to his grave with any such grave secrets. He said "My son I will swear before God that what I have told you about the Book of Mormon is true. I did not write or have anything to do with its production and if Joseph Smith ever got that other from which he always told me that an angel appeared and told him where to go to find the plates upon which the Book was engraved in a hill near Palmera Smith guarded his secret well for he never let me know by mood or action that he got them differently and I believe he did find them as he said and that Joe Smith was a Prophet and this world will find it out someday." I was surprised smarting under what he thought was ingratitude of the Church for turning him down and not having been with them for over 25 [sic] years. I must believe he thought he was telling the truth. He was at this time in full possession of his faculties what object had he in concealing the fact any longer if he did write it. My father died in 1876 at the age of 83 a firm believer in the Mormon Church. After my fathers death I told mother what my father had told me about the Book of Mormon. She said your father told you the truth. He did not write it and I know as he could not have written without my knowing it for we were married several years before the Book was published and if he wrote it, it must have been since our marriage."

John W. Rigdon (ca. 1892) ¹

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...the authors believe it is possible to derive only one set of reasonable and logical conclusions from the extensive body of material which has been set forth in the preceding chapters:

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1. Solomon Spalding composed a work of fiction entitled A Manuscript Found and sought to have it published by the Pittsburgh firm of R. & J. Patterson. This work purported to be the translation of an ancient book that had been dug from the earth, in which was recorded the history of a civilization that had once flourished on the American continent but had become all but extinct because of nearly incessant warfare. Spalding died in 1816 after the manuscript for his novel was essentially complete, but before final arrangements could be made for its publication.

2. Sometime between 1814 and 1822, Sidney Rigdon surreptitiously obtained Spalding's manuscript; most likely with the assistance of his young friend Jonathan Harrison Lambdin, who worked in the Pattersons' establishment. Perhaps he undertook to copy portions of it as early as 1814, but upon learning that the Pattersons were looking for it, quietly returned the original. Later, after Spalding's death in 1816, Rigdon managed to get his hands on it again and this time he kept it. Rigdon's continued presence in Pittsburgh for at least two years following Spalding's demise is evident from the fact that he was still receiving mail there in 1818.

3. Over the next dozen years Rigdon spent time reworking the manuscript, probably with some vague hope of eventually getting it published under his own name. In the late summer of 1826 he met Oliver Cowdery in Ohio, and upon learning he was a printer, confided to him that he possessed a certain manuscript of great importance that he hoped to have published.

4. Oliver Cowdery was well aware that the Smiths were his cousins prior to 1822, and for that reason he was quickly assimilated into their family circle upon his arrival in Palmyra that year. Afterward, he had only intermittent contact with them until meeting Rigdon in 1826. Upon becoming convinced that Rigdon possessed the translation of an ancient and valuable historical Record, Oliver undertook to bring Rigdon and Smith together to see what could be done to exploit the situation for mutual benefit. Thus, though merely a coincidence, the fact that Joseph Smith had been seeking a similar Record for several years using occult methods became the unlikely catalyst that not only brought these three conspirators together, but served to stimulate the series of even more unlikely events that followed.

5. In the spring of 1827, Smith and Cowdery contrived to bring Rigdon to New York. There the three of them entered into an elaborate clandestine

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arrangement known locally as the Gold Bible Company that, at first, was only a grand scheme designed to make money by promoting and publishing Spalding's now thoroughly re-worked A Manuscript Found. The plan was to generate public interest, or to "raise the wind," as Eber Howe put it, by claiming to have unearthed an ancient historical Record from a nearby hill and by spreading the word that its translation had been accomplished through miraculous methods. Only later, in the process of taking advantage of circumstances and at the urging of Rigdon, did the idea of founding a new religion enter the picture. Although Rigdon was involved with the entire process and made several trips to New York in connection with it, his involvement was largely secret until very late in the course of events.

6. Once the plan was launched, the conspirators continued to get themselves in deeper and deeper, until there was no going back. Meanwhile, a number of innocent but credulous individuals (the Whitmers, Martin Harris, the Pratts, and the Knights, to name only a few) had been attracted to the scheme in the genuine, if not always innocent, belief that this was truly God's work....

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AFTERWARD

Although the authors have made every effort to present the material in this volume as accurately and completely as possible, it is inevitable in a work of this size that some errors will occur. It is also inevitable that these will be eagerly sought out by critics and offered to the public as proof that the entire work is flawed. No doubt the motives of the authors themselves will also be questioned, based upon the ancient practice of taking the messengers to task when one is unable to digest the message itself. Whichever the case, the reader is urged to consider critical comments about this volume and its authors in a skeptical light and, always taking their source and the motivation behind them into account, to weigh them carefully against the evidence presented herein.

The issue here is not the writers, nor is it the many millions of good, industrious, and productive people for whom faith in Joseph Smith and his church is an ongoing way of life. We are dealing with history here, not religion. Our concern is not dogma, but rather about stitching together past events, and in so doing, making a scholarly effort to place them into a reasonable perspective so they may be better understood by those of us whose lives are several generations removed from the events themselves. Under the best circumstances, reconstructing history is not easy. It becomes vastly more difficult when those who played key roles in important events have actively conspired to conceal the truth from posterity.

Naturally, there will be some who claim that much of this work goes beyond the available documents -- a fatal flaw in historical texts according to some writers (Barbara Tuchman, for example, in Practicing History [New York: Knopf, 1981], 18). While such criticism is no doubt valid under ideal circumstances,

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Appendix 1
A CHRONOLOGY OF JOSEPH SMITH
(1822 - 1830)

Because it is often easy to confuse the sequence of events in Joseph Smith's early life, we offer this chronology for purposes of reference. Generally speaking, the information that follows has been derived from a cross-section of previously published material and should enjoy ready acceptance among scholars and casual readers alike. In those few cases where citations seem necessary, they are offered accordingly.

Abbreviations: JS = Joseph Smith; JSS = Joseph Smith Sr.; OC = Oliver Cowdery; MH = Martin Harris

1822:

January 1: The JSS family is living in a "rude log house" on property owned by Samuel Jennings, located along Stafford Road about two miles south of Main St. and about 50 feet north of the line dividing Palmyra from Farmington (after 1823, Manchester) Township.

Spring-summer: JS is present when Willard Chase finds a stone in a well that is being dug on his property and borrows the stone. Over the space of the next couple of years, JS tells others that by looking into Chase's stone he can see hidden treasure, all things in caves, in and under the earth, and spirits clothed in ancient dress guarding these treasures.

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Appendix 2
“THE DETROIT MANUSCRIPT” ¹

Although media events are usually associated with the modern era, human interest has always been captured by sensational news stories. One such event occurred in 1823, when a person closely associated with the family of Joseph Smith sent noted New York City linguist Dr. Samuel Mitchill a sample of strange writing taken from an apparently ancient book that had been recently dug out of the earth under a house.

It was in March of that year when Col. Abraham Edwards, a prominent Detroit entrepreneur, discovered a deteriorating parchment manuscript written in curious hieroglyphics [2] hidden in the foundation of a house. Almost immediately this discovery became the subject of considerable discussion, resulting in the manuscript being placed on public display at the local newspaper office. As none of the locals were able to read or even to identify the strange text, a few pages were eventually sent to various linguistic experts for examination, one of whom was the renowned Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill.

As the weeks passed and the mystery deepened, details of the affair were covered and copied at length by various newspapers from Michigan eastward throughout Ohio, New York, New England, and even Canada. Eventually, it was recognized that the manuscript was a Roman Catholic religious text, which had apparently originated in Ireland and was partly written in some form of early shorthand dating to perhaps the sixteenth century.

Ultimately, it was decided that the old text had probably been brought to the area by Catholic monks sent to evangelize the local Indians in the early eighteenth century. As one would expect, most of the curiosity surrounding

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Appendix 3
“HOW TO MAKE AN ANGEL,
& OTHER MIRACLES”

TWO LETTERS OF JESSE J. MOSS

I have had several interviews with Messrs. Smith, Rigdon and Cowdery, and the various shifts and turns, to which they resorted, in order to obviate objections and difficulties, produced in my mind additional evidence, that their's is nothing else than a deeply laid plan of craft and deception.

Ex-LDS Elder Ezra Booth ¹

Jesse J. Moss (b. Onondaga, New York, July 13, 1806; d. Ohio, ca. 1882) was one of Sidney Rigdon's early followers in Ohio, and is regarded by Disciples of Christ historians as "the first man to raise a testimony against Mormonism." ² Considerably more detail about Moss's experiences with the Mormons around Kirtland can be found in his Autobiography of a Pioneer Preacher (M. M. Moss, ed.) as serialized in Christian Standard magazine, issues for December 1937 and ff.

The following letters from Rev. Moss were written to James T. Cobb (1834-ca. 1900), an anti-Mormon newsman for the then non-Mormon Salt Lake City Tribune, who had initiated correspondence with a number of key people in an endeavor to reopen the Spalding case.

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Appendix 4
THE LETTER OF JUDGE JOEL KING NOBLE
(1842)

In the early summer of 1830, while Joseph Smith was staying at the home of his friend Joseph Knight in Chenango County, N. Y., Dr. Benton, a relative of Josiah Stowell (see text), swore out a warrant against Joseph as a disorderly person for pretending to see treasure underground. When the officers came to arrest Smith, Knight asked him if he wanted counsel, to which Smith replied in the affirmative. Knight then hired lawyers James Davidson and John Reed [or Reid] to defend him. The next morning, Smith was brought before justice Joel Chamberlain of South Bainbridge, N. Y., who dismissed the case on a technicality (Statute of limits) after an all-day trial. Upon leaving the court, Smith was immediately re-arrested on a warrant for similar charges from neighboring Broome County, and taken to Colesville where he was tried again. This time, according to the judge who heard the case, he was found guilty and then let off with a reprimand. Joseph Knight covered the lawyers' fees for both trials.

Judge Joel King Noble, who presided over that second trial, recalled some of the circumstances surrounding that event in an 1842 letter written in reply to an inquiry from Jonathan Baldwin Turner, historian and professor at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill. From the text of his letter, Judge Noble appears quite certain that Joseph Smith was not the originator of The Book of Mormon, but rather attributes its origin to "2 other individuals" he declines to name, but

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Appendix 5
THE CEPHAS DODD HOAX
AND OTHER FABRICATIONS

A number of books about the Spalding Enigma published after the turn of the twentieth century have either included or made reference to an item purporting to be an inscription written on the inside front cover of an 1830 edition of The Book of Mormon by the Rev. Dr. Cephas Dodd, MD (1789-1858), of Amity, Pa. As the story goes, Dr. Dodd, who had been a friend and neighbor of the Spaldings, as well as their minister and physician, had obtained a copy of The Book of Mormon in mid-1831 during the time when the Mormons were busily establishing their settlement at Kirtland and becoming controversial throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Upon reading it, he is said to have inscribed the book in the following manner:

This work, I am convinced by facts related to me by my deceased patient, Solomon Spaulding, has been made from the writings of Spaulding, probably by Sidney Rigdon, who was suspicioned by Spaulding with purloining his manuscript from the publishing house to which he had taken it; and I am prepared to testify that Spaulding told me that his work was entitled, "The Manuscript Found in the Wilds of Mormon; or Unearthed Records of the Nephites." From his description of its contents, I fully believe that this Book of Mormon is mainly and wickedly copied from it.
Cephas Dodd
June 5, 1831

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Appendix 6
A CHRONOLOGY OF COWDERY FAMILY
MIGRATIONS TO VERMONT, NEW YORK,
AND OHIO (1785 - 1830)

After considerable research, it seems reasonably certain that the man identified as Jerry Coudry or Cowdry, who purchased land in Genesee County, N. Y. from the Holland Land Company in 1804-05, was Oliver Cowdery's granduncle, Dr. Jacob N[athaniel?] Cowdery (1743-1820), ¹ of Hartland, Conn. -- the same man who transferred deeds at Canandaigua in 1791 (see n. 4) and 1796, and whose youngest son, John Cowdrey, was born there on June 1, 1794.

Although Mehling says Jacob was known as Major Cowdery because of his service in the Revolutionary War, a search of military records from 1756 through 1815 has failed to turn up any reference to service by Jacob Sr., though his son, Jacob Jr. (1762-1846), did serve briefly in Connecticut (DAR Patriot Index, Centennial Ed., Part I). Given what we now know about Jacob and his wanderlust, ² and recalling that he would have been 32 when the American Revolution began and 40 when it ended, we are more inclined to accept that he could have acted as a civilian guide for some frontier military expedition, or was perhaps an officer in an obscure local militia (perhaps in Ohio) during the early campaigns against the Indians. On the other hand, maybe Major was merely a harmless affectation, something akin to being a Colonel in Kentucky.

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Appendix 7
FACTS AND STATISTICS
REGARDING TRAVEL IN THE EARLY
NINETEENTH CENTURY

JOSEPH SMITH'S DIARY ENTRIES: MARCH 3-28, 1834

If, as has been set forth in chapter 11, Sidney Rigdon made several trips to the Palmyra-Manchester area of New York to meet with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery prior to the publication of The Book of Mormon in March 1830, then it is of interest to know what sort of travel arrangements would have been available to him in addition to his own horse and buggy. The shortest distance between Rigdon's home at Mentor, Ohio, and the Smith's farm at Manchester was, at the time, about 260 miles.

One answer to this question can be found in Joseph Smith's Diary: 1832-1834 (original in LDS Church Archives), entries dated March 3-28, 1834. During this period, Smith undertook what appears to have been a leisurely missionary trip from Kirtland, Ohio, to Livonia, N. Y., and back again, on horseback, allowing considerable time along the way to preach and to meet with various brethren.

By way of reference, Livonia lies just over 30 miles -- or one additional day's travel each way -- from Manchester, where Joseph Smith was living from 1826-1829, when Rigdon is alleged to have visited him.

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NOTES

FOREWORD

1. George Mather is pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in St. George, Utah. He is a noted authority on religion and the occult, and co-author of several books, including The Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions, and the Occult (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).

2. "Statistical Report, 2000," Ensign (May 2001): 22.

3. Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel of the Ages (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1958), 115.

4. James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1984), 480.

PREFACE

1. Dale R. Broadhurst is a retired academic researcher living in Hawaii. He is the web-host for www.solomonspalding.com, and has written numerous scholarly papers on the topic of the Spalding authorship claims for The Book of Mormon.

2. Robert D. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," letter to Saints' Herald 22, no. 8 (15 April 1875): 228.

3. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," 228.

4. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," 228.

5. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," 227.

6. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," 228.

7. Foster, "A Testimony of the Past," 229.

8. Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1945).

INTRODUCTION

1. James Harrison Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism (New York: Charles Scribners & Sons, 1888), 265.

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Transcriber's Comments
(updated Aug. 11, 2005)

WRWTBoM: The Spalding Enigma -- 2005 CPH Edition
A modern, detailed presentation of the Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship has long been absent from the bookshelves of those who study and write Mormon history. The lack of such a volume can be traced both to a general disinterest among most students of early Mormonism, and to a less justifiable disinterest exhibited by the overwhelming majority of those researchers and historians who possess the knowledge, experience and skills necessary to compile the missing volume. The topic was last addressed in any significant manner by LDS writers in the fall of 1977, when Lester E. Bush, Jr. and Charles C. Whittier each published an article on Spalding in Dialogue -- neither of which added much new information to the body of knowledge previously compiled by other writers. Likewise, the subsequent polemical publications of Robert and Rosemary Brown and the more reputable editorial work offered by Kent P. Jackson provide the modern reader with little more than a re-hash of time-worn Mormon apologetics, and have made few significant contributions to the subject (last addressed with commendable ingenuity by Vernal Holley during the 1980s).

Given the fact that the Solomon Spalding authorship claims for the Book of Mormon have been much discussed in various web-based communications and in other contemporary, unpublished (or privately circulated) writings, it would seem that the time is over-ripe for the compilation and hard-copy publication of a great deal of "new" information on the old "Spalding theory." So it was, that when the "Spalding Enigma" surfaced (as a pre-publication, review text) in 2000, the way seemed to be opening for something like a definitive report upon Solomon Spalding, his writings, and the old assertion that he made a significant (though inadvertant), contribution to the Book of Mormon text. With the passing of five years for critique, new input, and re-writing, the readers of 2005 might be forgiven for expecting to see the combined efforts of the "Spalding Research Associates" of southren California emerge as a sterling presentation, encapsulating and demonstrating the Spalding authorship claims in a succinct and scholarly manner. Indeed, their 2005 "Enigma" book bears evidence of a great deal of studied research and contains much reporting that is truly commendable. The 2005 edition of Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon: The Spalding Enigma, can be recommended to fill the empty spot on the historians' bookshelves on the basis of its compiled source material, no matter what readers might think of the authors' various conclusions. Whether or not it can be recommended as the best possible review and discussion of Spalding's writings (and their alleged use in the creation of the Book of Mormon), is quite a different matter, however.

Even if certain roots of Mormonism can be traced to Solomon Spalding, the 2005 "Enigma" book is not a particularly good introduction to the topic of Mormon origins. For the beginner, who is just contemplating this field of inquiry for the first time, the authors' shorter and much more concise 1977 volume may provide a better picture of what the Solomon Spalding authorship claims for the Book of Mormon are all about. At least in their first book the Spalding Research Associates managed to quickly and lucidly demonstrate why Spalding's writings were ever purportedly associated with the birth of Mormonism, in the first place. That much having been admitted, their earlier account cannot be well recommended to serious students of the subject either: mainly so because of some fatal problems inherent in its message -- the chief of which was the "red herring" (perhaps "wild goose chase" is a better term) of the authors' quest to prove that the LDS leadership still preserves, within its labyrinthine archives in Salt Lake City, several pages from Spalding's original "Manuscript Found." That strange assertion was effectively countered in 1977 by their rival, anti-Mormon crusader Jerald Tanner.

Obviously still smarting from the public embarrassment of having failed in their previous holographic scavenger hunt, the authors of the 1977 book (or, at least those two who have remained as members of the current 3 or 4 man "Spalding Research Associates), have tried very hard to provide reputable documentation for their far less zealous 21st century Spalding authorship assertions. The result is a fascinating, though bulky, disjointed pile of pages that will not match the productions of writers like Fawn M. Brodie, Andrew F. Smith, or even Newell and Avery, in holding reader's attention and comprehension, while simultaneously delivering up massive reconstructions of past Mormon experience. In fairness, however, it must be conceded that Enigma was never intended to be an intriguing biographical work and, that as narrative, it does manage to hold its own, when compared with previous reference offerings, such as History of the Church or Rev. Clark Braden's section in the old Braden-Kelley Debate. In their ponderous effort to not again be embarrassed with the serving up of half-baked, wholly improbable concoctions, ala 1977, Messieurs. Cowdrey, Davis and Vanick have loaded their present volume with a tremendous amount of old testimony, affidavits, certificates, statements, and such. For the bibliographer of obscure sources relating to Mormon origins, it may prove to be a gold mine of sorts -- but, alas, it provides no compiled bibliography of its own (nor any index, for that matter.)

Picture this --

If the book's basic premise can be accepted, of course it little matters whether its prosaic ruminations are sufficiently spiced to please the discriminating palettes of modern readers. If Solomon Spalding really did pen a substantial segment of the Nephite Record, then a systematic documentation of that supposed fact is paramount -- other writers may follow in the tracks of these "enigmatic" pioneers and eventually clear away the literary underbrush that still obscures even the most imaginative historian's fragmented vision of the Spalding authorship claims. Discernment, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. Brodie dismissed the sort of evidence the Enigmaites have stacked up, by saying: "Through the years the 'Spaulding theory' collected supporting affidavits as a ship does barnacles, until it became so laden with evidence that the casual reader was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the accumulation...." Well then, the Enigma authors appear to have discovered a good many more "barnacles" to add to this overwhelming collection. The "casual readers" may be excused if they decide to put Enigma back upon the shelf, after thumbing through a couple hundred of its weighty pages. At the same time, it can be truthfully stated that the authors of this book have made a valiant attempt to sort out their many stacks of documents. They have probably done about as good a job as can now be done, of collecting, categorizing and linking together all the hundreds of pieces to what may yet prove to be a most interesting jigsaw picture.

Whether or not a comprehensive, coherent image of historical events can be constructed from all of these pieces of evidence, here finally assembled between two covers, depends very much upon the vantage point taken by the would-be viewer. To a critic like Elder Wade Englund, who sees little value in piling up ever greater theoretical edifices, composed of "Selective, Tampered, Confabulated, Conflicting, Contrary, and Absurd Evidence," all the contents of the 2005 version of Enigma may form themselves into nothing more significant than an even greater accumulation of the same old "barnacles" that overwhelmed Mrs. Brodie. From their own perspective, the authors see highly suggestive and potentially significant relationships beginning to emerge from the mix, however. And perhaps they are correct in some of their conclusions. Whether or not the experienced student of Mormon history accepts the Spalding authorship claims laid out in Enigma as truly tenable, that same reader must admit that the authors have pulled loose many old threads from the generally accepted fabric of Saintly beginnings in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. A number of these loose threads (if carefully followed up by objective investigation) may yet lead to important historical discoveries.

How to get from There to Here

As already noted, there is no denying that the "Spalding Research Associates" have put a great deal of work into their 2005 book. While its contents do not constitute a definitive review and report for the "Spalding theory," the collected documentation and analysis offered in Enigma will no doubt long represent the only substantial publication on the subject easily available to interested readers. As such, this thick volume stands in a unique place, among the hundreds of contemporary books and articles offered as explanations of the Mormon past. It will find its spot in various institutional libraries and thus promulgate its message to future generations -- if they care to look between the book's covers. One such copy has already made its way to the public library in Conneaut, Ohio and has attracted a bit of local interest. Writing in the N. E. Ohio weekly Gazette Newspapers for Aug. 31, 2005, reviewer Richard Donley remarks, that "There is, in fact, nothing new to this [authorship] theory, which has been fiercely argued since the Book of Mormon first saw the light of day... [the 2005 book] thoroughly -- even exhaustively -- pursues all the by-ways and tributaries of this historical investigation, quoting and footnoting an amazing number of early statements, testimonies, and publications... Despite this, the authors still find it necessary to make a number of assumptions regarding the movements, accomplishments and motivations of Joseph Smith, his family and collaborators, and his opponents and skeptics."

Unfortunately, the Enigma authors have not quite managed, in all their research and writing, to move the spotlight of history away from the captivating figure of Joseph Smith. The authors present a commendable amount of detail concerning Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon, but fail to firmly establish these characters as comprehendable, motivated "collaborators" in a conspiracy to produce the Book of Mormon. Any substantial future extension of the Enigma topic must fill in this problematic gap. Before many modern readers will begin to believe that Cowdery and Rigdon served as such "collaborators," those same readers must first begin to understand why this was so. Only then, with the middlemen well delineated, can the would-be students of this Enigma make much headway in linking the writings of Solomon Spalding to the LDS scriptures.

There is a second field of endeavor, in which the Enigma authors have harvested but little fruit, and it marks a second problematic gap for Spalding theory enthusiasts. During the mid 1880s, both the LDS and RLDS churches delighted in rushing into print their respective editions of the Spalding "Roman Story" recovered in Honolulu in 1884 by Lewis L. Rice and James H. Fairchild. Fairchild's initial remarks on this unique discovery related his belief that the manuscript he brought from Oahu to Oberlin was indeed the "one and only" pseudo-historical story so long conjectured as having formed the basis for the Book of Mormon. With the passing of time both Rice and Fairchild backed away from their first, hasty identifications of this "Roman Story." However, the Latter Day Saints spread the message far and wide, saying that Spalding only wrote one fictional story in his lifetime; that this story had at last been found; that the story in question bears no substantial resemblance to the Book of Mormon; and thus the entire argument for a Spalding origin of the Nephite Record is entirely exploded.

By the mid 20th century, the LDS promulgated Fairchild remarks were fast replacing the Spalding authorship claims in most scholarly works examining Mormon beginnings. A typical set of comments in this regard can be found in the pages of the 1948 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana, which offers these words in its article on "The Book of Mormon": "Among the many assumptions advanced in purported explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon and in hostile denunciation of Joseph Smith's avowal, the most generally known is the Spaulding story. This represented the Book of Mormon as an adapted version of a romance written by Solomon Spaulding, a clergyman of Amity, Pa. The claim has been thoroughly disproved. The original manuscript of the Spaulding romance is preserved in the library of Oberlin College, Ohio, where it was deposited by the president of that institution, James W. Fairchild, who published an attestation of its genuineness and a statement to the effect that no assumption of its relationship to the 'Book of Mormon' is tenable."

It little matters whether the encyclopedia editors derived their information from an LDS-supplied reference, or whether they stumbled upon Fairchild via Fawn Brodie's book, or some other published source. What does matter, is that the disproved Fairchild explanation continues to haunt the bibliographies of writers on Mormon origins, right down to the beginning of the 21st century. Before many modern readers will begin to believe that Solomon Spalding could have furnished textual material for the Book of Mormon, those same readers must first begin to understand why the Oberlin "Roman Story" was never claimed as the source of that text -- and why it is not the only story Spalding ever wrote. The Enigma authors provide some initial attempts in the accomplishment of this very necessary task, but they have not explained the genesis of Faithchild's problematic contribution, nor why he was wrong in practically all of his initial conclusions.

If the Spalding Enigma is to serve any better purpose than gathering dust in the Conneaut public library, then modern scholars must begin to use its contents as a resource in fleshing out the personalities and probable motivations of Cowdery and Rigdon. Some link must be established between Rigdon's unusual pre-1831 theology, the Book of Mormon text, and the Rigdon-Smith re-write of the English Bible. Vast as this 2005 resource may be, it probably can serve only as a starting-point for the necessary scholorship. The same can be said in the daunting task that lies ahead of any historian who seeks to turn over useful new material for the encyclopedia editors. It may take a decade of reputable reporting in peer reviewed historical journals -- fully explicating the Spalding claims -- before the first notable reference book drops the Fairchild legacy and re-introduces Solomon Spalding to its section on Mormonism. Can the Spalding Enigma open the way for new "light and truth?" Maybe.

The Nitty Gritty

On pages 30-32 the authors list four ripe old objections to the Spalding claims (or "theory," as they call it) voiced by LDS defenders of the faith going back as far as the late 1830s. The "usual suspects" in this regard are: (1) Sidney Rigdon was not connected with any print shop in Pittsburgh -- in fact he never even lived there until six years after Spalding's death -- thus, he had no knowledge of, or contact with, Spaldings writings when they were available for inspection in that place. (2) The Spalding theory began as a huge exaggeration and willful deception concocted by D. P. Hurlbut from practically nonexistent evidence. And nearly all subsequent testimony collected by others, in support of his initial assertions, must be rejected due to its obvious anti-Mormon bias. (3) There is no reason to believe that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon could have met or known each other prior late 1830 -- long after the Book of Mormon had been published -- thus ruling out Rigdon's providing Smith with any text for that book. And lastly, (4) the only manuscript story ever written by Solomon Spalding has been well examined and shows "no similarities whatsoever" with the text published in the Book of Mormon. For the next 320 pages of Enigma the authors attempt to produce evidence to refute these four objections; which they accomplish, more or less, by the time the get around to listing their "conclusions" on pages 356-358:

1. Solomon Spalding composed a work of fiction entitled A Manuscript Found and sought to have it published by the Pittsburgh firm of R. & J. Patterson. This work purported to be... the history of a civilization that had once flourished on the American continent but... [became] extinct.... Spalding died in 1816 after the manuscript for his novel was essentially complete, but before final arrangements could be made for its publication.

2. Sometime between 1814 and 1822, Sidney Rigdon surreptitiously obtained Spalding's manuscript... Rigdon's continued presence in Pittsburgh... is evident from the fact that he... [received] mail there...

3. Over the next dozen years Rigdon spent time reworking the manuscript... In the late summer of 1826 he met Oliver Cowdery in Ohio... [and] confided to him that he possessed a certain manuscript of great importance...

4. Oliver Cowdery... becoming convinced that Rigdon possessed the translation of an ancient and valuable historical Record... [brought] Rigdon and [his cousin Joseph] Smith together... for mutual benefit.... [because] Joseph Smith had been seeking a similar Record for several years... [this brought] these three conspirators together...

5. In the spring of 1827, Smith and Cowdery contrived to bring Rigdon to New York. There the three of them entered into an elaborate clandestine arrangement... to make money by promoting and publishing Spalding's now thoroughly re-worked A Manuscript Found... Only later... at the urging of Rigdon, did the idea of founding a new religion enter the picture. Although Rigdon was involved with the entire process and made several trips to New York in connection with it, his involvement was largely secret...

6. ... a number of innocent but credulous individuals (the Whitmers, Martin Harris, the Pratts, and the Knights, to name only a few) had been attracted to the scheme in the... belief that this was truly God's work....

Solomon Spalding
(1761 – 1816)
In moving from Point A to Point B – that is, from pages 30-32 to pages 356-358 – the Enigma authors manage to lead their readers through an amazingly lengthy and complex compilation of what they feel is generally reliable historical evidence. Without providing much insight as to the method used in verifying all of these sources, Messieurs. Cowdrey, Davis and Vanick string all of their fragments of information into what may (or may not) be a reasonably accurate reconstruction of a hitherto unrecognized nexus for Mormon origins. Since they often rely upon single sources, not well confirmed by other, independent sources, their chain of evidence is only as strong as its weakest link. And some of the links offered to the reader seem to be very weak indeed. Instead of establishing one, long train of solid evidence, the Enigma authors have instead attempted to join together a number of shorter segments, with links that may not be much more substantial than the writers' own collective imagination. The law of averages seems to indicate that future researchers and reporters will conclusively do away with at least a few of these imagined connections. The question that necessarily follows is: Can the authors' remaining strands of evidence be verified and re-united into a new, and more substantial chain -- amounting to proof in the eyes of some beholders? Or, will their truly significant fragments of history remain forever just that, fragments that make up nothing like a full explanation for the Book of Mormon and Latter Day Saint origins?

The Cowdery genealogical section of the book, along with various historical tidbits relating to the family, is a valuable source of information, much of which is not elsewhere available. Positioned as it is, in the midst of the more or less chronological developemnt of the Spalding authorship claims, all of this Cowdery material may be rather tedious stuff for many a reader. Had the authors first published that material as a seperate volume, they might have established a favorable reputation for themselves, quite apart from the Mormon origins subject. They might then have selectively quoted the genealogical data in this current volume, without having to dump it all before readers more interested in Mormon history than in family history. It would not come as much of a surprise if some genealogical libraries excerpt the Cowdery material from the book and place that extract on their shelves as a stand-alone booklet.

The Enigma authors are almost certainly correct in some of their key assertions. The Spalding claims arose well before D. P. Hurlbut came upon the scene and were further substantiated by various persons totally unconnected with him for years after he disappeared from the picture. Solomon Spalding wrote other works of fiction than his single extant manuscript novel, now on file at Oberlin College. That particular manuscript cannot be the one he submitted for publication while he lived in and around Pittsburgh during 1812-16. Sidney Rigdon had close relatives living practically next door to Spalding, in Amity, Pennsylvania and the Spalding family's assertion, that Solomon Spalding had at least a slight aquaintance with Rigdon, are not at all improbable. Sidney Rigdon learned the tanning trade somewhere near Pittsburgh in his younger days and he very likely developed business ties with that town's bookbinders at an early date. Sidney Rigdon lived relatively close to Oliver Cowdery's brother, in Ohio, a few years before Sidney and Oliver joined the Mormons. Given Rigdon's well known history of secret manipulations, religious pretensions, and outright lies, his word cannot be depended upon, even if documnetary proof is uncovered in which he swears he did not know Oliver Cowdery or Joseph Smith, Jr. during the 1820s. In these, and in several related instances, the Enigma authors have "got it right," and even dedicated LDS defenders of the faith would do well to admit as much.

Many of the sources put forth in Enigma for the reader's inspection will be new items to most students of Mormon history. Among them is a truly remarkable draft letter, written at the end of 1833 -- seemingly by one of D. P. Hurlbut's key witnesses. The document is no doubt a very significant one; but what exactly does it signify? To the Mormon polemicist and the natural skeptic, the most significant thing about this important discovery may simply be the fact that its handwriting is almost certainly that of the already deeply suspect Hurlbut himself.

In another instance, the authors have uncovered postal letter lists published in old Pittsburgh newspapers, showing that letters were sent to the post office there, both for Solomon Spalding and for Sidney Rigdon, well before Rigdon's 1822-26 known residence in that city. Since the letters so listed were unclaimed mail, future LDS defenders may attempt to argue that this only shows that some correspondent of Rigdon's made the mistake of sending letters to him at a post office he probably never visited. However, in this case, there may well be enough supplementary documentation available to show that Sidney Rigdon actually did frequent that city (then a small town within walking distance of his father's farm) in his younger days -- at the very time Solomon Spalding was attempting to get his manuscripts published there. If so, then future investigations may turn up evidence of just when Rigdon visited Pittsburgh and for what purposes. It is not improbable that, sooner or later, substantial documentary evidence will be uncovered linking the young Rigdon with early Pittsburgh residents Silas Engles and/or J. Harrison Lambdin, both of whom had access to some of Spalding's writings prior to the would-be writer's death in 1816. Such likely evidence is a potential thorn in the side of Rigdon's modern saintly defenders, and it should not be passed over too lightly.

Along with their presentation of evidence (and much speculation) concerning the multi-faceted Spalding authorship claims, the Enigma authors raise a number of important questions for the professors of traditional Mormon history. Such as, Where was Oliver Cowdery in 1822-28, and what was he doing? This erstwhile Mormon witness and LDS leader was eventually expelled from the Church for a number of alleged sins, including counterfeiting. Just when did Oliver first take up that clandestine vocation, and during which part of his largely untold career is he trustworthy as having been an honest witness? A related set of questions center about the 1826 disappearance of William Morgan, the anti-Masonic "martyr." Since Joseph Smith, Jr. later took Morgan's widow for a plural wife, it is not unreasonable to ask when it was that Smith first met that lady, and whether he (and Oliver as well) were well acquainted with her late husband.

Then again, the careful reader, while reading this book, might come up