A Suggestion for Spalding Theorists: Look at Martin Harris

[_mocnarf]

I think maybe the problem Joseph had was he was not very careful as to the type of mushrooms that he would eat.

[_CaliforniaKid]

Additional reasons pointing to Joseph Smith, Sr. as a mover and a shaker in inspiring his son to undertake the prophet role:

Nathaniel Wood in Middletown, Vermont founded a group called the New Israelites. They considered themselves Israelites and everyone else Gentiles. You can already see the overlap. They were a charismatic sect, exercising prophetic gifts and trying to obey the law of Moses. The sect became fairly large, and among its members were Joseph Smith, Sr. and William Cowdery, Jr. (Oliver's father). The group got mixed up in 1799 with a diviner named Winchell (Wingate?), who apparently stayed for a time at William Cowdery's home. Under Winchell's influence, the group used divining rods to pronounce judgment and receive instruction from God. Among other things, the rods instructed the group to build and then to abandon a temple. They also spent several summers digging for treasure under the rods' guidance. Joseph Smith, Sr. was one of "the leading rodsmen" in the group. The group dissolved when the end of the world failed to come as predicted by the rods and when Winchell was exposed as a convicted counterfeiter. Counterfeiter, you say? The Smith and Cowdery families moved to New York in disgrace.

1) The "in" group were Israelites, outsiders "Gentiles".
2) They were interested in restoring Old Testament elements as well as New Testament elements.
3) They used divination both to find hidden treasures and to receive divine instruction.
4) They exercised charismatic gifts.
5) They built a temple.
6) Winchell, a counterfeiter, worked closely with Joseph Smith Sr.

Coincidence?

In this light, the account of William D. Purple concerning Joseph Smith, Sr.'s fervent hope that his son's gift would be used by God for some great religious purpose seems altogether plausible. So does Abner Cole's statement that before Moroni had ever appeared to Joseph Smith Jr., Joseph Smith Sr. had propesied that his son would reveal a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country. Was Joseph Smith, Jr. merely living up to his father's expectations? Was he perhaps even in league with his father in the writing of such a record?

Hmm...

-Chris

Sources:
Marini, Stephen, "The New Light Stir," chap 3 in Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England (Harvard University Press, 1982).
Oliver Cowdery Chronology

[_Yoda]

Wow, CK!

I had never heard this information before!

[_CaliforniaKid]

That's partly because the Vermont rodsmen connection, though upheld by Quinn, has been rejected by Richard Anderson and Larry Morris. It is admittedly more tnuous than my previous post made it out to be, though I think that given Quinn's defense it can carcely be considered unsound.

http://olivercowdery.com/gathering/Newisrael.htm

[_why me]

Additional reasons pointing to Joseph Smith, Sr. as a mover and a shaker in inspiring his son to undertake the prophet role:

Nathaniel Wood in Middletown, Vermont founded a group called the New Israelites. They considered themselves Israelites and everyone else Gentiles. You can already see the overlap. They were a charismatic sect, exercising prophetic gifts and trying to obey the law of Moses. The sect became fairly large, and among its members were Joseph Smith, Sr. and William Cowdery, Jr. (Oliver's father). The group got mixed up in 1799 with a diviner named Winchell (Wingate?), who apparently stayed for a time at William Cowdery's home. Under Winchell's influence, the group used divining rods to pronounce judgment and receive instruction from God. Among other things, the rods instructed the group to build and then to abandon a temple. They also spent several summers digging for treasure under the rods' guidance. Joseph Smith, Sr. was one of "the leading rodsmen" in the group. The group dissolved when the end of the world failed to come as predicted by the rods and when Winchell was exposed as a convicted counterfeiter. Counterfeiter, you say? The Smith and Cowdery families moved to New York in disgrace.

1) The "in" group were Israelites, outsiders "Gentiles".
2) They were interested in restoring Old Testament elements as well as New Testament elements.
3) They used divination both to find hidden treasures and to receive divine instruction.
4) They exercised charismatic gifts.
5) They built a temple.
6) Winchell, a counterfeiter, worked closely with Joseph Smith Sr.

Coincidence?

-Chris

Sources:
Marini, Stephen, "The New Light Stir," chap 3 in Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England (Harvard University Press, 1982).
Oliver Cowdery Chronology

So this puts a kabosh on Uncle Dale? But on the other hand, to have Joseph Smith write the book and then get witnesses to verify it and then lead a gang of guys into the woods for heavenly visitations, then, have dad pleased with his son's deception and blasphamy, mom too...does seem a little far fetched. Plus, the pain that came with the book upon pubication and the turmoil that it caused the Smith household, might of swayed Dad to drop the pretence near the beginning of the enterprise.

[_DonBradley]

Additional reasons pointing to Joseph Smith, Sr. as a mover and a shaker in inspiring his son to undertake the prophet role:
Sources:
Marini, Stephen, "The New Light Stir," chap 3 in Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England (Harvard University Press, 1982).

Hi Chris,

I may just be forgetting, but I don't recall seeing this source used on the New Israelite movement before. How did you locate it?

[EDIT: OK, that was a brain hiccup. I now see it on Dale's page to which you linked... 8-D But...not if, but when, you locate entirely new sources on the Wood movement, please do pass them along!]

Don

[_CaliforniaKid]

Hey Don,

It was actually assigned for a class. I only stumbled across D'Unk's use of it thereafter. However, it merely summarizes some of the same old information that is used in prior sources.

-Chris

[_Trevor]

Nathaniel Wood in Middletown, Vermont founded a group called the New Israelites. They considered themselves Israelites and everyone else Gentiles. You can already see the overlap. They were a charismatic sect, exercising prophetic gifts and trying to obey the law of Moses. The sect became fairly large, and among its members were Joseph Smith, Sr. and William Cowdery, Jr. (Oliver's father). The group got mixed up in 1799 with a diviner named Winchell (Wingate?), who apparently stayed for a time at William Cowdery's home. Under Winchell's influence, the group used divining rods to pronounce judgment and receive instruction from God. Among other things, the rods instructed the group to build and then to abandon a temple. They also spent several summers digging for treasure under the rods' guidance. Joseph Smith, Sr. was one of "the leading rodsmen" in the group. The group dissolved when the end of the world failed to come as predicted by the rods and when Winchell was exposed as a convicted counterfeiter. Counterfeiter, you say? The Smith and Cowdery families moved to New York in disgrace.

Thanks for bringing this up, CK! If nothing else, the Wood movement demonstrates that the idea treasure-digging was only a training ground for Joseph's prophetic mantle is an apologetic, and erroneous construct, since the two activities were obviously quite at home together, not only in the Wood group, but also in Joseph's own treasure-digging activities.

I think you are right to see a lot more going on here, and I am anxious to see what else you do with this in the future.

[_Nevo]

That's partly because the Vermont rodsmen connection, though upheld by Quinn, has been rejected by Richard Anderson and Larry Morris. It is admittedly more tnuous than my previous post made it out to be, though I think that given Quinn's defense it can carcely be considered unsound.

http://olivercowdery.com/gathering/Newisrael.htm

The Vermont rodsmen connection is very tenuous--Quinn's defense notwithstanding.

Your assertions that "Joseph Smith, Sr. was one of 'the leading rodsmen' in the group" and that "Winchell, a counterfeiter, worked closely with Joseph Smith Sr" are problematic to say the least.

Although Barnes Frisbie reported having "been told" that Joseph Smith Sr. "resided in Poultney at the time of the Wood movement here, and that he was was in it and one of the leading rodsmen," he goes on to say: "Of this I cannot speak positively, for the want of satisfactory evidence."

In fact, Joseph Smith Sr. was a resident of Tunbridge, Vermont at the time of the Wood Scrape--some fifty miles away. Quinn speculates that Smith "may have visited Poultney or Middletown while the Wood movement was developing from the spring of 1800 to January 1802" since there is a Joseph Smith listed in the 1800 census for Poultney. However, this Joseph Smith was a longtime resident--appearing in the tax rolls for 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1797, and 1798--while family and civic records place Joseph Sr. in Tunbridge in 1798, February 1800, and May 1803 (see Larry E. Morris, "Oliver Cowdery's Vermont Years and the Origins of Mormonism," BYU Studies 39, no. 1 [2000]: 116-117).

Furthermore, Dan Vogel observes that Joseph Sr.'s brother Jesse Smith's "continual residence in Tunbridge before and after Joseph Sr.'s alleged return from Poultney would have placed him in a position to know if his younger brother had been among the 'leading rods-men' in the Wood group, but Jesse, who was antagonistic to his brother's new religion, was apparently surprised when informed in 1829 by a messenger, perhaps Martin Harris, that Joseph Sr. possessed a 'wand or rod like Jannes & Jambres who withstood Moses in Egypt." Indeed, Vogel writes, "[Quinn] is unable to overcome Richard L. Anderson's observation that Frisbie was 'speculating beyond his data'"(Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1: 599).

The allegation that Winchell/Wingate "worked closely with Joseph Smith Sr." is no less farfetched. As Larry Morris points out, "there is no evidence that Winchell lived in the Palmyra area," or that he had contact with the Smiths, or that he had any involvement with New York money-digging activities. If Winchell did in fact work closely with Joseph Smith Sr. it is striking that none of the scores of affidavits collected by Philastus Hurlbut, Chester C. Thorne, and Arthur B. Deming linking the Smiths to money-digging ever mention him (Morris, "Oliver Cowdery's Vermont Years," 117).

One final note: Stephen Marini's description of the Wood movement is drawn entirely from Barnes Frisbie's The History of Middletown, Vermont (the notes mistakenly identify the author as "James Frisbee" and Oliver Cowdery's father William is called "Oliver Cowdery, Sr." on p. 55) so it doesn't lend any additional support to the alleged Smith-Cowdery connection to the group.