particularly how the neighbors gathered to hear him read the novel called "The Manuscript Found," and how the talk of the hour dwelt on the discoveries made by the workmen employed to open the earth-mounds close to Mr. Spaulding's house. The very spot where this house once stood is pointed out-a log cabin, containing some relics of New England comforts, and the best dwelling in the vicinity at the time.

Its owner, it is said, was the most noted and probably the best educated man in that part of the State. There is no trace of this primitive homestead now, or of the earth-mound close to it; but there are many people living in Conneaut who remember both.

Just below this locality, and close to the creek, was the foundry of the Spaulding brothers and Mr. Henry Lake, which was so prosperous until the war of 1812 made its proprietors bankrupt.

There were formerly a number of earth-imounds in the vicinity of Conneaut, all of which have been levelled with the surrounding fields; but numerous evidences of their existence and locality are pointed out at the present time. A few months since some prehistoric relics were unearthed by a ploughman in a corn-field where it is known that an earth-mound had existed, and many persons in and near the village possess pottery, implements of iron, carved beads, or ornaments of personal adornment, that have been exhumed in turning up the soil for agricultural purposes.

Traditions and personal remembrances are numerous among the elder residents of Conneaut of the great Mormon Conference held in that place in 1834. Some traveller, it is said, in that year brought a copy of the "Book of Mormon" to Conneaut soon after it was published, but it does not seem to have created much gossip

among the townspeople, until a woman preacher, who had been recently converted to Mormonism, appointed a public meeting, and in her talk made copious extracts from it, which were immediately recognized by many persons present, particularly by John Spaulding (see Appendix, No. 13), who was "amazed and afflicted that his brother's writings should have been perverted for such a wicked purpose."

His grief found vent in a flood of tears, and he arose on the spot and expressed his regretful sentiments. Both Mr. Hiram Lake and Mr. Lorin Gould, whose statements (see Appendix, No. 14) will be found elsewhere, told the author they remembered this occasion, and some incidents in connection with it.

They also said that at the time of this Mormon meeting there was the wildest possible excitement all through that part of the State in regard to the "new faith," as it was called.

It was as a result of these meetings that D. P. Hurlburt, who had resided in or near Conneaut, and whose reputation was not the best for veracity or honesty, and who at the time had joined the Mormons with his wife (the sweet-faced woman the writer saw at Gibsonburg), offered or was selected to visit Mrs. Davison at Munson, Mass., and to request a loan of the Spaulding "Manuscript Found," as it was reported, to compare it with the "Book of Mormon."

It is remembered at Conneaut that he returned with a manuscript, or that was so reported. This is presumably the manuscript which E. D. Howe says was lying in his office at Painesville for years, and which the Mormons pretend was compared with "the Golden Bible of Joseph," at a public meeting the Mormons called for the

purpose, and found to be entirely wanting in the essentials claimed for it.

It was beyond question, from very strong circumstantial evidence, the manufactured manuscript prepared by Hurlburt or his confederates for the occasion. A daughter of Mr. John Spaulding, still living near Conneaut, in a letter to the writer (see Appendix, No. 15) of a recent date, substantiates all that Mr. Lake and Mr. Gould stated at the former gentleman's house.

Of the odd stories told at Conneaut, in 1834, in connection with Solomon Spaulding, was one to the effect that he told his neighbors at the time he entertained them with his romance, that his "Manuscript Found" was a translation of the "Book of Mormon," and he intended to publish a fictitious account of its having been discovered in a "cave in Ohio" as an advertisement, to advance its sale, when his book was printed.

The remarkable features of the Mormon meeting at Conneaut, in 1834, and the conflicts of opinion between the converts to the new doctrines there promulgated, and the affirmations of the old neighbors and relatives of Solomon Spaulding, led to the venture of E. D. Howe in writing the book called "Mormonism Unveiled."

There is a tradition that Mr. Howe was himself half a Mormon when he wrote this volume, and it is believed that his motive in writing it was not a desire to expose an imposture, but to make money.

Another outcome of this meeting at Conneaut, in 1834, was the wild enthusiasm of the people, who travelled from great distances to see the "new prophet," and from it "elders," or preachers, were sent out to those who could not attend.

Stories were circulated at the time that even in the then remote New England States and in the British

provinces families were placing their all in wagons-the common method of travelling at that date—and hastening to join the ranks of the "Saints."

How long the Mormons tarried at Conneaut it is now impossible to state. It must have been some weeks, however, as in the interval Hurlburt visited Munson, Mass., and other matters of importance in their history eventuated at this period of their career.

CHAPTER VII.

The Mormons in Missouri.

WHEN Joe Smith found that he could not be a prophet. of repute in the State of New York, and after he and Sidney Rigdon had witnessed the favor with which their scheme was received in Ohio, they followed Oliver Cowdrey, whom they had sent on in advance to the State of Missouri to look for a fitting locality for the New Jerusalem, and, as they professed, to evangelize the Indians and Gentiles generally.

Cowdrey's report of Jackson Co., Mo., was so favorable that these two founders of "a religious empire" directed their steps thither, under the most discouraging difficulties of travel, making a portion of the distance of over three hundred miles on foot. On their arrival at Independence they were so enamored of the country that they at once selected it as the place for the New Zion; and, to silence all cavil among his followers, Smith had a "revelation," in the form of a document, which is among the most extraordinary performances of this remarkable man, as this was early in the history of Mormonism, and long before persecutions and dangers had sharpened his faculties by a ripe experience. It commences: "Hearken, oh ye elders of my Church, saith the Lord, your God, who have assembled yourselves together, according to my commandments, in this land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the Saints. Behold the place which is called Independence is the centre place,