Before I get into the gist of my post, I wanted to state clearly that I believe the Book of Mormon to be a man made fiction written by Joseph Smith. I also strongly feel that Smith used many of the place names within his environment as seed material for his book. While many of Holly's assertions are flawed, especially as they relate to his Spaulding theory and city locations on his map, I believe that he was spot in his assertion that Smith used his environment as a source for place name materiel for his book.
Note: To the best of my knowledge some of what follows is new and some of it has been known for a long time but not brought together in the manner I am presenting it today. Please feel welcome to push back.
I have recently identified several additional references that strengthen the possibility that Joseph Smith was familiar with the place name Angola, one of the locations identified on the Vern Holly Map.
Why is this significant?
When Vern Holly published his "Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look" in 1983 he leaned heavily on modern maps of the area surrounding Joseph Smiths boyhood home. Mormon apologists had an easy time pointing out that many of the place names Holly found had not even existed on maps that would been available to Smith. They were correct to also point out that the New York town, Angola hadn't even been incorporated until 1873. These F.A.I.R. arguments undermined Holly's assertion. For if the village of Angola was not incorporated until 1873, Smith surely wouldn't have known of nor heard of the name Angola early enough to have used it as a source for his book.
But that was then and this is now.
I have recently identified several additional references that strengthen the possibility that Joseph Smith could have been familiar with the place name Angola, one of the locations identified on the Vern Holly Map and could have even visited the location.
None of my finding are conclusive nor do they prove beyond doubt that Smith knew of the village of Angola. But I content that what I have discovered lessens the gap between his not being able to know of it's existence to it now being within reason for Smith to have been aware of its existence.
Enter the Quakers:
Jacob Taylor was a Quaker (Friend) who came from the Philadelphia area to western New York around 1809 as the leader of a Quaker mission. The mission was established to work with Native Americans and teach them agriculture, domestic skills, reading, and writing. Taylor and the other Quakers settled in what became known as Taylor's Hollow, in the present town of Collins, Erie County. This village later incorporated in 1873 under the name of Angola, New York. Taylor acquired approximately 300 acres in the area and established a substantial early settlement. Under his direction, the Quakers built cabins and, by about 1809, established both a sawmill and gristmill. The mills served both Native Americans and the growing number of white settlers moving into the region. Taylor subsequently became an important local figure. By 1814, sources indicate that he operated a sawmill, gristmill, and tavern, with the tavern serving travelers along the developing stage route.
How the name Angola enters the story:
Taylor's Hollow was not originally called Angola. But in 1822, when the area was still a small rural settlement, a post office was established there. The federal postal records give the establishment date as March 26, 1822, and identify Jacob Taylor as it's first postmaster. He named the post office Angola.
Why Angola?
My research has found that in the early 19th centuries, Quakers had become strongly associated with the abolition of slavery. Specifically, New York Quakers or Friends as they were also known, had directed their members to free their own enslaved people in 1777, and by 1790 there apparently were no Quaker slaveholders in the United States. Quakers subsequently became active in broader antislavery efforts. This movement led to effort to free slaves and return them to Africa. One of these efforts led to Quaker missions in Africa's Liberia and, here it is, Angola. The word Angola was well known in the New York area as an important region of Africa and as a major source to enslaved Africans. There was therefore already an established association between the word "Angola" and the African slave trade. New York itself had a direct historical connection to people from Angola through the Dutch colonial period. The naming of this post office Angola by Jacob Taylor was due to his being an anti slave Quaker and the Quakers connection with Africa. The Angola post office became an important link in the mail route in western New York.
So to recap, we know that the name Angola had been established as early as 1822 along an important mail route, well within the timeline necessary for Smith to have been aware of the names existence...but that is only the beginning and only proves that the name was in existence not that Smith could have been aware of its existence.
The more difficult question has been establishing a plausible connection between the young Joseph Smith, before the production of the Book of Mormon, and this relatively remote location. Angola was approximately 115 miles from the Smith family home in Manchester, New York, making it necessary to identify some historical evidence that could reasonably connect Joseph to the region.
And then I struck gold...ok maybe silver
While I was familiar with Joseph Smith's 1826 glass-looking trial, I had never heard of one William D. Purple nor his role in the trial. But he becomes an important part of this story.
William D. Purple was not only present at the 1826 trial, he was asked to take notes by Justice of the Peace Albert Neely during the trial. In other words he took contemporaneous notes of the trial. Purple later published his recollection in 1877 using his notes as a refresher.
According to Purple, Joseph Smith gave a fairly detailed account of how he obtained one of his seer stones and how he traveled to find it.
Purple's account says that when Joseph was a young man, he heard about a neighboring girl, most likely Sally Chase, living about three miles away, who could look into a glass and see things that were hidden from others. Joseph eventually persuaded his parents to let him visit her. Most of us here are aware of Smith's 1826 Glass Looking Trial, so I won't re-plow that ground.
The account continues stating that…When he looked into her glass, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, he said he saw a small stone located a great distance away. The stone became increasingly luminous until it appeared as bright as the midday sun.
According to Purple's account, Joseph described looking into this stone and seeing the other stone located approximately 150 miles away along the southern shore of Lake Erie, beneath the roots of a tree. The location was reportedly about a mile up a small stream, near the point where the stream entered the south shore of Lake Erie, close to the New York–Pennsylvania boundary.
Purple continued stating that Joseph became sufficiently interested in what he had claimed to have seen that he eventually left his father's home and traveled westward in search of the location. According to the recollection, Joseph took provisions and money with him but, when his resources became depleted, worked for a farmer for approximately three days. He then continued traveling westward for roughly 150 miles until he reached the mouth of the creek that he believed corresponded to the location he had seen in the stone.
One additional piece of this puzzle is that the known pre-1829 roads from the Smith home to Lake Erie show that the Angola/Taylor's Hollow area was connected to the developing road and postal network of western New York. A westward journey from the Smith family home near Palmyra to the southern shore of Lake Erie could therefore have passed through or near the Angola area.
Conclusion: To be clear, this account does not, by itself, prove that Joseph Smith visited Angola or that he was familiar with the location identified on the Vern Holly Map. It does, however, provide a potentially important piece of historical context. It places Joseph Smith, prior to the Book of Mormon, in an account involving a journey of approximately 150 miles westward to a location on or near the southern shore of Lake Erie, well within the same 115 mile distance to Angola from Palmyra and the general geographic region in which Angola was located.
Consequently, the question of Angola should not be dismissed solely because the village was incorporated in 1873 as F.A.I.R would want us to do. The historical evidence demonstrates that the name Angola was already established and in official use by 1822, and the Purple account provides an independent source that puts Joseph Smith in the region of western New York where Angola was located years before the Book of Mormon was written.
Taken together, these sources do not establish the identification conclusively, but they do appear to weaken the argument that Angola can be ruled out simply because its formal incorporation occurred after the Book of Mormon was written. At minimum, the evidence warrants a more careful examination of the historical use of the name Angola and Joseph Smith's movements through western New York during the years preceding the Book of Mormon.
Alias, much of the required historical record needed to get us to a beyond reasonable doubt position does not exists...but I feel that I provided enough evidence to have reopened the investigation to Vern Holly's theory that Smith used place names within his own backyard as source material for the place names in the Book of Mormon. The other Vern holly place names also need to be researched...my work continues.
New Reference:
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75493318
U.S. Post Office Department, “Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1814–1832,” Record Group 28, National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1131, vol. 3, entry for Angola, New York, established March 26, 1822; Jacob Taylor appointed postmaster March 26, 1822.
