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Mormon History

intaglio

Gone But Not Forgotten
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This showed up in "Breaking News"

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A forensic examiner says a document blaming Mormon Church leader Brigham Young for the 1857 massacre of 120 Arkansas pioneers is a fake.

The sheet of lead, discovered earlier this year, was engraved with words purportedly written by John D. Lee, the only man held accountable for the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. Dated 1872, it says Lee and other Mormon leaders carried out the murders on orders from Young, head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lee was executed for his role in the massacre. But the engraving's authenticity has been questioned ever since it was found inside a former trading post called Lee's Fort during a restoration.

William Flynn, a private Phoenix examiner hired by the National Park Service, said on Tuesday that the engraved sheet of lead appeared to be the work of convicted con man Mark Hofmann.

Flynn and George Throckmorton, manager of the Salt Lake City police crime lab, examined the lead sheet April 5 after the park service asked them to determine its authenticity. Flynn said they discussed the lead sheet with colleagues, all of whom agreed the handwriting on the document wasn't Lee's.

Link to the full article

Now, I'd never heard of this massacre and to be frank am unsurprised that the Salt Lake police say that evidence about BY is a fake (query How can you compare engraving to handwriting?) but were the Mormons truely that violent early on?
 
Certainly Mormonism had a dubious reputation in the UK in the 1880s if 'A study in scarlet' (the first Sherlock Holmes story) is representative.
As to verifying the engraving, it would be possible if the lead sheet was 'written' freehand with a sharp implement as opposed to the letters being stamped.
Oh, and the whole Hoffman forgery story is well worth following up... a rum do altogether.
 
Found these tidbits online:

The 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred when a wagon train of 120 settlers, mostly women and children, were killed after they had thrown down their weapons on a promise of safe passage.

The Church of the Latter-Day Saints, as Mormons are properly known, first tried to blame Indians for the slaughter but after huge pressure from the federal government, John D Lee, a militiaman who was Young's adopted son, was tried and executed 20 years later for organising the attack.

The Church has always maintained that the militia acted alone, despite persistent claims that documents incriminating its leaders were burned at the end of the 19th century. Schoolbooks in Utah do not mention the incident and it has been airbrushed out of the religion's official history.

and

In 1877, John D. Lee is brought to trial for the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, but Mormon loyalty to one of their own leads to a hung jury. The national outcry at this result persuades Mormon leaders to withdraw their support for Lee, and in a second trial he is convicted by an all-Mormon jury. On March 23 he is executed by firing squad at the site of the massacre, after denouncing Brigham Young for abandoning him. His last words are for his executioners: "Center my heart, boys. Don't mangle my body."
 
thanks for that, I'll admit i'd forgotten "Study in Scarlet"

Ogopogo's contribution makes you wonder how much of Conan Doyles fancies about CJCLDS were based on reality
 
It must be remembered that in the 19th Century,Mormonism was held in great contempt,mainly because of it's acceptance of polygamy.It was also seen in much the same light as we would see many cults today.Indeed,Utah Territory was virtually the private fiefdom of federally appointed governor Brigham Young,and he could get away with almost anything.

Lee was thrown to the wolves by Young and many of the church hierarchy to placate U.S. authorities.It may not be conclusively proven that Young or any of the elders ordered the massacre,but the evidence points in that direction.
 
Major Kraut said:
It may not be conclusively proven that Young or any of the elders ordered the massacre,but the evidence points in that direction.

The Hofman affair means that the whole question of evidence becomes a very vexed one.
In summary (for those who don't know) he was a collector of rare autographs and documents and seemed spectaularly successful until (a few murders later) it was revealed that he was an equally successful forger....
Many of the documents fabricated by him seemed to provide evidence relating to some of the murkier aspects of the early history of the CJCLDS, but the net result of his efforts seem to be that any unwelcome document can now be branded a 'Hoffman forgery' and immediately discounted.
 
there was a passing reference in a TV documentary a couple of years ago to CJCLDS owning many of the casinos in Las Vegas :confused:
 
First employed in that capacity by Howard Hughes I believe.
Makes sense really; they are used to dealing with large amounts of money and have a reputation for clean-living and honesty.
I suppose they just moved in when the Mob moved out
 
Major Kraut said:
It must be remembered that in the 19th Century,Mormonism was held in great contempt,mainly because of it's acceptance of polygamy.It was also seen in much the same light as we would see many cults today.[snip]

You mean it still isn't thought of like that today? :confused:
 
Well, considering that Smith was lynched in Illinois, one can understand a certain level of caution, not to say paranoia, on the part of the Mormons. Supposedly, Porter Rockwell, Young's body guard, was also known as Brigham's Avenging Angel. How many people he actually killed is open to speculation. I would guess that pre-emptive actions were taken as the need was perceived.
 
hedgewizard said:
Well, considering that Smith was lynched in Illinois, one can understand a certain level of caution, not to say paranoia, on the part of the Mormons. Supposedly, Porter Rockwell, Young's body guard, was also known as Brigham's Avenging Angel. How many people he actually killed is open to speculation. I would guess that pre-emptive actions were taken as the need was perceived.

Smith may have been "lynched," but only in response to many and various nasty acts that drove him to such a - dare I say it? - deserved fate. As a bona fide descendent of Robert Foster, I've always been amused by the Mormons' take on the circumstances surrounding their "persecution" and the way they were "driven" to Salt Lake City. As my persistent use of quotation marks might indicate, I believe a little honest research on early Mormon teachings and practices will give the fair observer some doubt as to whether we're talking about legitimate persecution, or earned derision.
 
If my memory is faulty, I appologize, but being dragged from jail by a howling mob is NOT a part of US jurisprudence. If Smith was a bad guy, then it was up to the system to punish him, not a lynch mob.

"The unrest continued, however, and Smith was charged with inciting a riot by ordering the Nauvoo Expositor destroyed. Smith fled Nauvoo into Iowa. However, he returned at the request of Mormons who feared that a militia gathering outside the city would make good on its threats to attack the city if Smith was not delivered into its custody.

Illinois Governor Ford proposed a trial in Carthage, the county seat, and guaranteed Smith's safety. Smith agreed and stayed in the Carthage Jail, under the promised protection of the Governor. Ford agreed to stay in Carthage, but left not long after Smith went to stay at the jail. Smith was not a prisoner of the Carthage jail per se, but a guest under protection of the Governor at the jail.

Before a trial could be held, a mob of about 200 armed men (some painted as indians) stormed Carthage Jail. Some in the mob were militia members appointed by Governor Ford and local authorities to protect Smith.

Smith attempted to defend himself and his associates with a small pistol that some reports state was brought into the jail. However, after trying to defend themselves from the mob, Hyrum Smith, Joseph's brother was shot multiple times and killed. Smith also was shot several times as he attempted to escape the mob by jumping from the second story window of the jail.

Some accounts report that before or as Smith fell from the window, Smith called "Oh Lord, my God!" or some similar phrase [4] (http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/josephsmithsdeath.htm#Masonic Cry), which some have noted is similar to "Oh, Lord, My God, is there no help for the widow's son?", the traditional Freemasonic call for assistance. Smith was a Freemason, but the nature of his reported last words is generally considered conjecture.

There are varying accounts of what happened next. Some claim Smith was dead when he landed after his fall; other accounts suggest Smith was alive when mob members propped his body against a nearby well and shot him several more times before they fled. Another account claims one man tried to decapitate Smith and died in the act."

The above is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith
 
I'm not defending mob action, not suggesting that what happened was right, legally or morally. It's just a simple fact: what goes around comes around. The Mormons typically paint themselves as a persecuted minority, as though they were chased west by a paranoid populace with no room in their hard hearts for a meek band of God-fearing, simple folk. One needs only look at the treatment of other splinter religious groups like the Shakers to see that, by and large, this is a farce. Such treatment generally ranged from mild mistrust to out-and-out acceptance, with only isolated incidents of malfeasance. Smith was never afraid to harness mob action, nor was he ever afraid to utterly disregard any and all laws on the books, up to and including murder and treason, among others. So no ... mob justice was not an acceptable alternative to a fair trial, but that doesn't negate the fact that the man brought it down upon himself -- and I'm not speaking here merely of the incidents leading to this specific event, as this was only the culmination of many events. Smith's death was not one spastic reaction to one event -- namely the burning of the press -- regardless of what the church continues to claim.

Incidentally, we're accepting for the sake of argument that the description of the events surrounding Smith's death as you provided them are undisputed, which isn't the case. Questions remain about who was directing the mob, who was in the mob, the motives behind their action, and if the number of actual participants really warranted the label "mob" to begin with. Whether they were all of one purpose and motive is in doubt as well. Questions remain about exactly how many "interested parties" were represented by members of the mob. Smith wasn't loved by all of his fellow church leaders, and power plays within the church are certainly a time-honored tradition. (As is deceit, revisionist history, and church-sponsered purjury to cover their own tracks.) My main point being, they simply weren't the beleaguered band of oppressed martyrs their history books and murals would have everyone believe. I speak now only of the church in the 19th century -- not necessarily its current incarnation. As for Smith, you can place him squarely in the company of Jim Jones and Osama bin Laden as far as I and others are concerned.
 
intaglio said:
kev, interested. Are there any source books?

For starters, "The Mormon Kingdom, Vol. 2" and "Mormonism -- Shadow or Reality" give a good primer on violence in the early church. Also, check out http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/legacy1.htm for a quick overview of glaring historical omissions in the LDS's own telling of the story. (Section on the Nauvoo incident is near the bottom, but the whole thing is worth a read.) If you can find it, "Confessions of John D. Lee" is quite an eye-opener.

In short, the Mormons (led by Smith) had a nasty habit of trying to raise armies, threaten to wrest land from current inhabitants by any means necessary and claim it as their own, and threaten the overthrow of the U.S. government everywhere they settled ... not the sort of thing that lends comfort to one's neighbors. At one point, Smith's army was nearly half the size of that of the entire U.S. Army. (Add to that stealing other men's wives, regularly castrating "gentiles" who were perceived as having visited a Mormon's house for "immoral purposes" [or if an elder wanted said man's wife as his own], bankrupting people through hare-brained banking schemes, routinely physically attacking any detractors for the slightest criticism, conspiring to murder vocal former Mormons and anti-Mormons, plundering and burning down houses [then claiming that the victims did this themselves to ruin the Mormons' good name], and so on, you can see why Mr. Smith was more often than not chased out of the towns and states he sought to overthrow.) Hell, even while he sat in jail in Nauvoo, he ordered his "army" to attack Carthage and wage war -- an order his "Major General" wisely refused to carry out. (Dissension among the ranks, eh?) And there's more, much more.
 

Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s photo discovered by descendant after nearly 180 years


Marooned in their homes, many Americans made the best of the early days of the pandemic by sorting through old boxes of family artifacts. One Saturday morning in March 2020, Dan Larsen and his wife were doing just that when they discovered the world’s only verified photographic image of Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr.

Larsen, 79, is a great-great-grandson of Smith, who was killed by a mob near Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844. Among the effects passed down to Larsen was a pocket watch that bore the initials of his great-grandfather Joseph Smith III, the prophet’s oldest son and founder of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now called Community of Christ. There was also a second object, a locket that resembled a pocket watch.

When Larsen inherited the locket shortly before his mother’s death in 1992, its finial was bent and he was not able to open it, so he put it away for safekeeping.

While riding out pandemic shutdowns in 2020, he and his wife embarked on a project of sorting through items collected from both sides of their family. “I was a little hesitant” about prying the locket open, Larsen [said]. But he was soon able to wrest it open and shine a penlight inside.

Expecting to find a watch face, he was stunned to see the face of a man.

webRNS-Smith-Larsen-Daguerreotype2-072122-300x420.jpg


“In my mind, there was no question who it was,” Larsen said. He felt sure he was staring into the eyes of Joseph Smith Jr. For years, historians had speculated about the possibility that a photographic image of Joseph Smith was out there somewhere, based on claims various Smith relatives had made, and an advertisement from the 1850s.

Larsen felt certain he’d found such a photo. And because the locket had been closed up tight for decades, protected from light, the image was still remarkably clear.

What followed was more than two years of verification.

They hired facial recognition experts to compare the daguerreotype to Smith’s death mask. The company reported back that 19 of 21 measured features matched, within a 95% confidence interval.

Another expert compared the daguerreotype’s facial features with those seen in the most famous oil painting of Joseph Smith, noting that the hairline and other features were a match and that both images showed the same “distinctive frown line near the left eyebrow,” the article states.

Meanwhile, Mackay and Romig tried to verify the find through historical research. Now that they knew the long-rumored daguerreotype was housed inside a locket, they realized that it had, in fact, been “hiding in plain sight” all this time.

“The locket shows up on prominent Smith family women through the years,” Mackay said. Bertha Madison Smith, who married one of Joseph Jr. and Emma’s sons, wore it in a portrait in 1869. In 1875, a granddaughter wore it in her wedding portrait, in which the locket was hanging from a chain.

It’s believed that the locket remained in Emma’s possession until her death in 1879. It eventually made its way to the family of Joseph Jr.’s grandson and Larsen’s grandfather.

Mackay and Romig also investigated links to the likely photographer, a man named Lucian Foster. A Mormon branch president in New York City in 1839, when daguerreotypes first reached U.S. shores, Foster was an expert in the craft by the time he moved to Nauvoo to join his fellow Mormons in April 1844. Since he rented a room in the prophet’s home, he had close proximity to the Smith family. Experts think it’s during the brief period of May or early June of 1844 that Smith had Foster take his picture.

https://religionnews.com/2022/07/21...covered-by-descendant-after-nearly-180-years/

maximus otter
 
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