- THE  SPALDING  RESEARCH  PROJECT -





 
"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
 
Aaron Wright
 
John N. Miller
 
Nahum Howard
 
Henry Lake
 
Oliver Smith
 
Art Cunningham
 
John Spalding
 
Martha Spalding
"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
 
Sol. Spalding
 
M. S. Davison
 
Matilda McKinstry
 
Josiah Spalding
"... 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
 
Abner Jackson
 
Wm. Leffingwell
 
Daniel Spalding
 
Dan. M. Spencer
"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
 
Lyman Jackson
 
Robert Harper
 
Erastus Rudd
 
Nehemiah King
"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
The Pittsburgh Area Spalding Witnesses
 
Joseph Miller
 
Redick McKee
 
Cephas Dodd
 
Robert Patterson
    "...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



1878 History of Ashtabula Co.   |   1884 History of Erie Co.   |   1896 History of Erie Co.

 


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?

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Part Two


 




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