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"Hulburt went to work, catering lies for the company. Before Hulburt got through, his conduct became so
scandalous, that the company utterly refused to let his name go out with the lies which he had collected...
A man of character would neverhave put his name to a work which Hulburt was concerned in."
Sidney Rigdon, 1839
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Aaron Wright
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John N. Miller
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Nahum Howard
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Henry Lake
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Oliver Smith
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Art Cunningham
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John Spalding
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Martha Spalding
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"I then went to these neighbors of Mr. Spaulding, and enquired of them if they knew anything about his writing
a romance; and if so, whether the romance was anything like the Book of Mormon. They said that Mr. Spaulding
wrote a book, and that they frequently heard him read the manuscript; but that any one should say that it was
like the Book of Mormon, was most surprising, and must be the last pitiful resort that the devil had."
Orson Hyde, 1841
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Sol. Spalding
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M. S. Davison
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Matilda McKinstry
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Josiah Spalding
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"... the story that certain old inhabitants of New Salem, who, it is said, recognized the Book of Mormon,
either never made such a statement, or they let their imagination run away with their memory into the
endorsement of an impossible falsehood. Either way there is a lie; if they asserted that the Book of Mormon
is identical with the Spaulding story, then they are guilty of having violated the truth; if they did not
make this statement, then the falsehood is with those who, in their hatred to modern revelations, have
invented their testimony."
George Reynolds, 1882
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Abner Jackson
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Wm. Leffingwell
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Daniel Spalding
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Dan. M. Spencer
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"One who has had experience of the uncertainty of memory after the lapse of twenty years especially in
connection with fresh occurrences which suggest resemblances and supply particulars, cannot escape the
apprehension that many of the definite recollections of Spaulding's neighbors may have risen from the Book
of Mormon itself."
James H. Fairchild, 1886
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Lyman Jackson
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Robert Harper
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Erastus Rudd
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Nehemiah King
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"The affidavits themselves, as proven by the now open contents of the 'Manuscript Story,' are deliberate,
unqualified falsehoods, without a scintilla of truth in them. It is scarcely possible to think that a number
of otherwise reputable men would combine to put forth such base statements. It is more probable that some
fanatical opponent of The Church, an enemy to the truth, without conscience or scruple, concocted those
statements, after those men were dead, and put the falsehoods into their speechless mouths."
Joseph F. Smith, 1900
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The Pittsburgh Area Spalding Witnesses
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Joseph Miller
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Redick McKee
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Cephas Dodd
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Robert Patterson
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"...these witnesses had so come to identify the Book of Mormon with the Spaulding manuscript that
they could not concede having made an error without admitting to a case of memory substitution which they did not
themselves recognize"
Fawn M. Brodie,
1945
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The Conneaut Witnesses
Episode Two in the Spalding Saga
THIS episode of the "Spalding Saga" attempts to answer the question: "Who were the 'Conneaut witnesses' and what did they say"? In the narrowest use of the term, there were only eight "witnesses" of the activities of Solomon Spalding, who lived near him, at Conneaut, c. 1809-12, and who gave statements summarizing their recollections to D. P. Hurlbut in 1833. These eight persons (in order of the appearance of their statements in Eber D. Howe's 1834 book) were: (1) John Spalding, (2) Martha Dennison Spalding, (3) Henry Lake, (4) John N. Miller, (5), the Hon. Aaron Wright, (6) Oliver Smith, (7) Dr. Nahum Howard, and (8) Artemas Cunningham. Upon the statements of these eight individuals largely depended the first publication of the claims for there being a basis of for Book of Mormon in the writings of Solomon Spalding.
Over the years various people writing to "debunk" or "refute" the Spalding authorship claims have called into question the reliability of the statements of these eight "Conneaut witnesses." Certain zealous Mormon writers have even asserted that some or all of these eight people never gave the statements published under there names in 1834, or may never have lived at Conneaut when Solomon Spalding lived there, or may simply never have lived at all. The task of the present writer is, then first of all, to document the existence of these eight people and provide some evidence that they were living near Solomon Spalding during his 1809-12 sojourn in Ohio. Beyond that, there were an additional twelve
What is a "Conneaut witness" and how many were there?
xxx xx x xxxx xxx xxxx x x xxxxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xx xxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx x x xxxxxxx x xxxxxx x x xxxxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xx xxxx xx xx xx xxxxxx xx xxxx x xxxx xxx xxxx x x xxxxxx xx xxxxxx xx xxxx x xxxx xxx xxxx x x xxxxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xx xxxxx x xxxxx x
(this section is under construction)
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.
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(this section is under construction)
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Part Two
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