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SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSLYVANIA,

ALONG  WITH  REPORTS  FROM

BROOME & CHENANGO  COUNTIES, N. Y.


Periodical Articles:  1820-1829   |   1830-1849   |   1850-1879   |   1880-1899   |   1900-1999

Books with substantial relevant information

THE  GREAT  BEND

EARLY  MORMONISM
STUDY  RESOURCES


Part  One:  Periodicals



1820-1829

1824: May 14  Broome Republican (Oliver Harper Murder)
1824: May 21  Susquehanna Democrat (Oliver Harper Murder)
1824: Jun 9  Sandusky Clarion (Oliver Harper Murder)
1824: Aug ??  Ovid Gazette (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Sep 10  Broome Republican (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Sep 17  Susquehanna Democrat (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Sep 17  Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Sep 22  Adams Centinel (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Oct 7  Ohio Respository (Treadwell Trial)
1824: Dec 10  Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Execution)

1825: Jan 1  Sat. Eve. Post (Treadwell Execution)
1825: Jan 7  Ohio Respository (Treadwell Execution)
1825: Jan 7  Ohio Repository (Treadwell Execution)
1825: Jan 14  Montrose Gazette (Treadwell Execution)




Joseph Smith and Isaac Hale Houses at Harmony  (click image to enlarge)


Periodicals
Continued


1830-1849

1830: May ??  Wayne County Inquirer (Joseph Smith)
1830: Nov 20  Brattleboro Messenger (Colesville Branch)

1831: Apr 9  Evangelical Magazine (Smith Trials)
1831: Apr 27  Ithaca Journal (Colesville Branch)
1831: Dec 29  Broome County Courier (Joseph Smith)

1832: Nov 7  Boston Christian Herald (Smith Trials)
1832: Dec 19  Herald of Gospel Truth (Book of Mormon)
1832: Dec ??  Susquehanna Register (Mormons)

1834: May 1  Susquehanna Register (Smith Marriage)

1843: Jan ??  Methodist Quarterly Review (Joseph Smith)

1844: Jun 1  Times & Seasons (Smith Trials)




Artist's Depiction of Joseph and Emma Hale Smith's Old Home at Harmony


Periodicals
Continued


1850-1879

1854: Aug. 18  New York Tribune (Isaac Hale)

1870: Aug. ??  Montrose Republican (Money-Digging)

1873: Feb ??  Fraser's Magazine (Smith Trials)

1875: Dec 2  Syracuse Journal (Money-Digging)

1877: Apr 4  Broome Republican (Money-Digging)
1877: Apr 12  Chenango Union (Money-Digging)
1877: May 3  Chenango Union (Money-Digging)
1877: Aug 23  Bainbridge Republican (Money-Digging)

1878: May 3  Roman Citizen (Josiah Stowell)

1879: Apr 23  Amboy Journal (Money-Digging)
1879: Apr 30  Amboy Journal (Money-Digging)
1879: May 21  Amboy Journal (Money-Digging)
1879: Jun 4  Amboy Journal (Joseph Smith)
1879: Jun 11  Amboy Journal (Money-Digging)
1879: Jun 15  Saints' Herald (Book of Mormon)
1879: Jul 9  Amboy Journal (Money-Digging)
1879: Jul ??  Philadelphia Times (Money-Digging)
1879: Aug 2  Evening Gazette (Money-Digging)
1879: Aug 6  Amboy Journal (Joseph Smith)
1879: Sep 7  Salt Lake Tribune (Joseph Smith)
1879: Oct 1  Saints' Herald (Joseph Smith)
1879: Oct 3  Salt Lake Tribune (Book of Mormon)
1879: Oct 17  Salt Lake Tribune (Money-Digging)




Martin Harris Works as Smith's Scribe  (Harmony, 1828)


Periodicals
Continued


1880-1899

1880: Mar 20  Susquehanna Journal (Money-Digging)
1880: Jul 28  Broome Republican (Money-Digging)
1880: Aug ??  Lippincott's Magazine (Money-Digging)

1881: Jul ??  The Interior (Money-Digging)

1882: Dec 08  Wilkes-Barre Record (Harmony Temple)

1888: Jan ??  Naked Truths (W. R. Hine Statement)
1888: Jan ??  Naked Truths (K. A. Bell Statement)
1888: Jan ??  Naked Truths (H. A. Sayer Statement)
1888: Feb 26  New York Times (Money-Digging)
1888: Aug 16  Bainbridge Enterprise (Colesville branch)
1888: Nov 14  Syracuse Express (Isaac Hale)

1890: Jan 19  Elmira Telegram (Money-Digging)
1890: Nov 14  Otsego Farmer (Money-Digging)

1891: Feb 17  Syracuse Journal (Money-Digging)
1891: Apr 18  Saints' Herald (Money-Digging)

1895: Dec 18  Binghampton Weekly Herald (Joseph Smith)

1899: Jul 7  Philadelphia Inquirer (Smith Home)
1899: Nov 25  Rockford Daily Register (Money-Digging)




Oliver Cowdery Arrives at Harmony to Work as Smith's Scribe  (April 1829)


Periodicals
Continued


1900-1999

1900: Jan 18  Otsego Farmer (Money-Digging)

1901: Sep 13  Philadelphia Inquirer (Smith Home Photo)
1901: Sep 25  Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Joseph Smith)

1903: Apr 25  Geneva Daily Times (Money-Digging)

1904: Feb ??  Homiletic Review (Smith Trials)
1904: Mar 20  Elmira Telegram (Smith Home Photo)
1904: Apr 14  Binghampton Press (Money-Digging)
1904: May 20  Binghampton Press (Money-Digging)
1904: Jun 4  Broome Republican (Joseph Smith)
1904: Dec 12  Binghampton Press (Smith Home)

1905: Jun 29  Montrose Democrat (Hale family)

1907: Jun 21  Binghampton Press (Money-Digging)

1908: Sep 13  Philadelphia Inquirer (Money-Digging)

1909: Mar 14  ??? (Money-Digging)
1909: Jun 6  Syracuse Herald (Money-Digging)

1912: Feb 16  Binghampton Press (Isaac Hale)

1918: Aug 11  Binghampton Press (Money-Digging)

1919: Jul 8  Ogden Standard (Smith Home)

1936: Jul 18  Deseret News (Isaac Hale)

1960: Jul 17  Binghampton Press (Isaac Hale)

1985: Jul 14  Syracuse Herald Journal (Money-Digging)





Joseph Smith's 1829 Baptism of Oliver Cowdery at Harmony


Unsourced newspaper clipping, dated March 14, 1909


IT  IS  THE  BIRTHPLACE
OF  MORMONISM.

_____

Old House Near Susquehanna, Pa., Where Joseph
Smith Wrote His Mormon Book -- House Was
Built Between 1824 and 1828.

Whether particularly proud of the distinction or not, the fact nevertheless remains that the state of Pennsylvania is the birthplace of the Book of Mormon, and the house in which Joseph Smith wrote his mysterious revelation is still standing in Oakland township, Susquehanna county, Pa., formerly Harmony township.

The stereotyped story that has found its way into the current biographies of Smith and his Latter Day Saints, differs very materially from the Susquehanna traditions regarding his search for a mysterious revelation.

Smith's followers have it that on the night of September 21, 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to him three times. Each time the angel informed Smith that God had a work for him to do. There had been written upon gold plates a record giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America, and God's dealings with them, which was deposited in a particular place in the earth, a hill in Manchester, Ontario county, New York. Two transparent stones in silver bows, like spectacles, were with the record. These the angel Moroni informed him, were anciently called the Urim and Thummim. On looking through these, the golden plates would become intelligible.

Now it transpires, according to the Susquehanna story, that the angel that appeared to Smith was a straggling Indian. In passing through this part of the country the Indian informed Smith that he could find near the highest point of Turkey hill, three quarters of a mile distant from Susquehanna, in Oakland township, rich treasure, and Smith at once, assisted by Oliver Harper, began digging for the buried treasure, which they did not find. The two spent, however, $2,000 in cash, before they were through. Four excavations were made. The largest was located a quarter mile north of the Susquehanna river, and about 120 yards southeast of the house [which] Smith made his home. It was in the year 1825 that Smith first arrived in Harmony, and he appeared and reappeared at intervals until 1829. In 1830 the Book of Mormon was published.

Tradition has it that one of the seeing stones by which Smith professed to translate the golden plates was purchased of Jack Belcher, of Gibson, Susquehanna county. It was a green stone, about the size of a goose egg with brown irregular spots, and was seen by a number of the early residents of Susquehanna county. Smith's Book of Mormon and his Church of the Latter Day Saints, so Susquehanna folks believe, were after-thoughts, which were suggested by his failure to find the hidden treasures which he had sought at such an expense.

It was between Susquehanna and Great Bend, and near Capt. Buck's sawmill, that Smith made his first excavation in Susquehanna county, but he soon abandoned that place and commenced digging in Oakland township, where he professed to find the plates from which his Book of Mormon was translated. Smith, early in his career, assumed the air of a prophet, one of the marks of his calling showing itself in blessing his neighbor's crops, but not, however, without a consideration.

Old settlers declare that he could not in every instance discriminate between a blessing and a curse, as the following instance goes to show. Smith was employed on one occasion, to bless a piece of corn planted rather late, its owner feeling doubtful about its ripening. When, as it turned out, that this was the only corn killed in that section by frost, Smith [said], on having his attention called to the fact, that he must have made a mistake. Instead of blessing [it, he] must have put a curse upon it.

So far as [his ----- ----- ----] goes, at the time [----- ----- ----] in Pennsylvania, [Smith is said] to have been a careless young fellow with a markedly insolent [tongue].

The rear of the [property is] occupied by Mrs. Jasper, who is a relative of the original owner of the part of the building where the Book of Mormon was written. Smith hung a blanket across the room to keep the sacred records from profane eyes, stationing a secretary on the opposite side of the blanket, to whom he [pretended] to read the narrative from the plates which he had unearthed by his digging, the stone spectacles Urim and Thummim aiding him in the process.

At the time three witnesses vouched for the truth of Smith's statement, Oliver Cowdery, his secretary, David Whitmer and Martin Harris. But several years afterwards, the settlers say, they all quarreled with Smith, and renouncing Mormonism, admitted that their signatures swore falsely, and that Smith's revelations were all a fraud. Then it was that the other story came out, [Using] the title of "Manuscript Found," Solomon Spalding had written a novel about the tale, and in trying to get it published in Pittsburg, it fell into the hands of a printer, who afterward became associated with Smith [took the] manuscript, after being edited in the biblical style and interlarded with several hundred scriptural quotations without credit [---- ----- ---- the] Book of Mormon [----- ------- -----].

The fact that [------ -------- --------- ---------- --------- ------ and who] doubtless is responsible for the story that the plates were dug up in the hill there. Susquehanna county, in Pennsylvania, however, is the birthplace of the Book of Mormon. And the old house of the prophet and four half-filled excavations, made by Smith himself, and his digging associates, in Oakland township, bear out the proof of the claim.





Old McKune House Lot and Cemetery, Prior to LDS Restoration Efforts of 2012-13


THE  GREAT  BEND

EARLY  MORMONISM
STUDY  RESOURCES


Part  Two:  Books



1830-1869

1834:  Mormonism Unvailed (Isaac Hale, etc.)

1853:  Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith (under constr.)

1870-2012

1870:  Early Times on the Susquehanna (under constr.)

1872:  Atlas of Susquehanna County (under constr.)

1873:  History of Susquehanna County (Mormon section)

1882:  Life Among the Mormons (Colesville, etc.)

2000:  Origins in New York & Pennsylvania (under constr.)





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