marg wrote:
I have a few questions regarding the map. Where on the map did Smith extend his treasure digging to?
Well, marg, if I recall my
Dialogue collection of articles, we have Dan Vogel here to update his previous studies
on this subject. I'll let him answer your question. He may not say much about Joseph Smith's water-witching and
well-digging seersmanship, however. My notes say that the young Smith extended those activities as far afield as
Otsego County, NY -- to the towns of Oneonta, Mount Vision, and Hartwick Seminary. In the latter village there lived
next door to the Jerome Clark residence a certain Mr. Stowell, who is said to have been either a brother or a cousin of
Josiah Stowell, the money-digger and early Smith-follower. Local tradition says that the young Smith came to Hartwick
to help locate a well for the Stowells there. I have never followed-up on the allegation -- but if it is true, that activity
would have put young Joe within a few yards of Solomon Spalding's old trunk full of papers. Vernal Holley thought this
was an important lead -- so I went to Hartwick, but a series of unfortunate events rushed me back to Syracuse that
day, and I never confirmed the well-locating account.
About four different sources say that the young Joe went west, out of the state of New York, in search of a seer stone,
or
something. Thurlow Weed says that Joe returned with a manuscript. I have been told that there is a very early
Weed document (a letter I think -- in Albany) in which this assertion is spelled out in greater detail -- I have been too
ill to go so far from home as Albany, however.
Auburn? How far is Auburn from Bainbridge?
Auburn touches Bainbridge, along a shared 6 mile, north-south border. The center of Bainbridge is six miles from
the center of Auburn -- about as far as my wife drives on Saturdays to go grocery shopping.
During the 1820s, the number of households in Bainbridge and Auburn was about 150 each, with most of the land still
in uncleared wilderness forest, haunted by wolves and bears. The best road between the centers of those two adjacent
Ohio townships was a dirt wagon path of about six miles in length. About half-way along that road was the home of
George Wilber, who in 1826-27 walked or rode the 3-4 miles over to Bainbridge school, a few hundred feet south of
Sidney Rigdon's cabin. Thus, George Wilber resided about half-way between Rigdon (living just south of Bainbridge
Center) and Gad Stafford (living immediately east of Auburn Center -- then called "Kirtland Tract" or just "Kirtland)).
So, when George Wilber says that he knew something about Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, in 1826-27, Mr. Wilber
was then positioned almost exactly in the middle, between Rev. Rigdon and a known money-digging follower of Smith.
I tried to talk to Dan Vogel about this earlier in his thread, but he brushed the whole subject aside.
How far from Auburn did Smith live?
That depends upon where we place Joe in 1825-27. Richard L. Bushman says he was in the Harmony, PA area. But I
think it likely that he ran from that NY/PA border region after his early 1826 hearing, and was back in Manchester with
his family, for at least a short time.
There was a continual flow of pioneers moving from western New York into northeastern Ohio during these years. A
young man who wanted to go west, and who was willing to work in a wagon company, might travel hundreds of miles
practically for free. The distance from Smith's home in Manchester, NY, to Auburn, OH is about 260 miles as the crow
flies, and about 275 miles by way of 1825 wagon roads. An express stage or mail coach might have covered that
distance in less than two weeks. A pioneer wagon company would have taken 3-4 weeks to cover the distance.
Thus, if we want to know whether Smith could have made it from Manchester to Auburn -- stayed there a while -- and
made it back home -- the total time necessary would have been a minimum of two months, and probably something
more like three months. Sidney Rigdon, on the other hand, had a paid stage ticket to the Mahoning Baptist Association
meeting each year, and could have made it from there to Manchester, via stage or canal, in a total of 2 weeks travel,
or less. But I do not think young Joe could then afford stage coach tickets and hotel lodging on his long journeys.
Did Rigdon live in Bainbridge?
He moved there at the end of 1825, after his "Church of Christ" in Pittsburgh dwindled down to practically nothing.
Rigdon had previously been a visitor at meetings of the Ohio Grand River Baptist Association and no doubt had some
friends among its members. Milton Backman says that Rigdon was "called" to a pastorate in Bainbridge by that group,
but I think it more likely that he went there as a journeyman tanner -- since a tannery had just opened in that place.
It was Regular Baptist practice in those days for a congregation to elect a minister from among its own members, and
to have that chosen preacher licensed by the local association. Thus, I think Rigdon arrived in Bainbridge during the
winter of 1825-26 (probably about the end of December) and joined the little Baptist congregation there. He probably
received no cash salary, but the members might have provided him and his family with a cabin and groceries.
So Rigdon lived in about the center of Bainbridge township for all of 1826 and part of 1827. His kids' nursemaid is
said to have left the Rigdon's employ when they moved north to Mentor in 1827, and to have then gotten married.
I suppose that Sidney had moved his family north to Mentor by the time the maid got married -- or at least by late 1827.
Sidney himself was then a traveling preacher who ranged all through southern Geauga Co. and adjacent northern
Portage Co. As 1827 wore on, he spent more and more time at Mentor -- but he maintained his ties in the Auburn area
well into the 1830s.
How far from Bainbridge would Rigdon travel to preach?
If he could depend upon meals and lodging from local Baptist families, he might have traveled typically as far
away as Mantua (6 miles). Hiram (12 miles), Nelson (18 miles) or possibly Ravenna (20 miles) and Mentor. Once he
was installed in Mentor as a salaried preacher he might have had enough pocket money to range as far away from
home as Cleveland, Erie and Youngstown. We know that he visited congregations west of Cleveland before 1830 and
helped establish churches at a considerable distance from Mentor, before he became a Mormon.
A ride on his horse from his cabin to the schoolhouse next to George Wilber's home in Auburn (Baptist meetings often
were held in schoolhouses) would have taken Rigdon less than an hour. A ride to Gad Stafford's home might have
taken an entire hour in bad weather.
Rigdon was very early rejected by the Bainbridge congregation -- so it appears that on Sundays he would typically
ride over to Hiram or Mantua to preach, eat Sunday dinner and perhaps return home after a night's rest. We know
from extant records that Rigdon paid some of his bills from that period by doing leather work. He was a leather-finisher,
so he could pick up tanned hides from the local tannery (two miles south of his cabin) and process the raw material in
his home on weekdays. After the Bainbridge Baptists rejected him, I suppose Rigdon had to restort to this sort of work
in order to feed his family. Before he left Bainbridge, ownership of the local tannery passed to another person -- a man
whose sister later became a plural wife of LDS President Lorenzo Snow. I would think that her diaries might be worth
reading ---- but Brent Metcalf has advised that I quit my Spalding studies. Maybe I will -- my neurologist says has about
the same advice for me as does Brent.
from James A. Briggs, Esq:
Uhhhhh ... not quite, marg -- go back and read carefully the warning posted with that particular text ---
it is docu-drama, and not meant to be a direct quote from Briggs' various statements on the matter.
Uncle Dale
