{"id":44503,"date":"2017-10-07T11:59:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T17:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44503"},"modified":"2018-01-02T12:23:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T19:23:45","slug":"evidence-joseph-smiths-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/10\/evidence-joseph-smiths-sister.html","title":{"rendered":"Evidence from Joseph Smith’s sister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Smoot's<\/a>
The Qiuliqtunga Museum of Dung Beetles and Other Egyptian Antiquities at the University of Toronto, where Stephen Smoot is currently serving out a sentence of servitude as a graduate student in Egyptology.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

From yet another of my manuscripts-in-progress, a few lines on one of the lesser-known and unofficial witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illinois state senator Orville F. Berry wrote a tribute to Katharine Smith Salisbury not long after her death, in her late eighties, on 2 February 1900: \u201cThere resided in this county, until her death, Catherine Smith Salisbury, sister of the prophet.\u00a0 The writer knew her personally, has been in her house many times and has grown up from boyhood days with her sons and grandsons, and the world would be wonderfully well off if all women were as good as Catherine Smith Salisbury.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Salisbury Hancock, the granddaughter of Joseph\u2019s sister Katharine, remembered Katharine relating an episode when Joseph, with the plates in his possession, had been chased by a mob:<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearing an unusual commotion outside Catherine flew to the door and threw it open just as Joseph came rushing up, panting for breath.\u00a0 He thrust a bundle into her arms, and in a gasping voice whispered hoarsely, \u201cTake these quickly and hide them,\u201d then he disappeared into the darkness.\u00a0 Closing the door Catherine ran hurriedly to the bedroom where she and Sophronia slept.\u00a0 Sophronia threw back the bedding and Catherine put the bundle on the bed, quickly replacing the bedding.\u00a0 Both of them lay down on the bed and pretended sleep.\u00a0 The mob, failing to find Joseph outside, returned to the house to search, but they did not disturb the girls since they appeared to be sleeping.<\/strong>[2]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Herbert S. Salisbury, grandson of Joseph\u2019s sister Katharine, said that she<\/span><\/p>\n

told me that while dusting up the room where the Prophet had his study she saw a package on the table containing the gold plates on which was engraved the story of the Book of Mormon.\u00a0 She said she hefted those plates and found them very heavy like gold and also rippled her fingers up the edge of the plates and felt that they were separate metal plates and heard the tinkle of sound that they made.<\/strong>[3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, including the night on which the plates were first brought to the Smith home from Cumorah, Katharine was able to heft the plates on at least three distinct occasions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Orville F. Berry, \u201cThe Mormon Settlement in Illinois,\u201d Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the year 1906<\/em> 11 (1906): 93.\u00a0 [See original.]\u00a0 See also Kyle R. Walker, \u201cKatharine Smith Salisbury: Sister to the Prophet,\u201d Mormon Historical Studies<\/em> 3\/1 (2002): 5-34.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Mary Salisbury Hancock, \u201cThe Three Sisters of the Prophet Joseph Smith,\u201d The Saints\u2019 Herald<\/em> 101\/2 (11 January 1954): 36.\u00a0 [See original]<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u201cThe Prophet\u2019s Sister Testifies She Lifted the B. of M. Plates,\u201d The Messenger <\/em>(October 1954): I, 6 [typescript copy in LDS Church<\/a> Archives; see original].<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

These notes are based on a reading of Kyle R. Walker, \u201cKatharine Smith Salisbury: Sister to the Prophet,\u201d in Mormon Historical Studies<\/em>\u00a0\u00a03\/1 (2002): 5-34. \u00a0Mormon Historical Studies<\/em> is the journal of the invaluable\u00a0Mormon Historic Sites Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Book of Mormon Central has just posted a very good new 7.5-minute video \u2014 featuring the exiled and desperately cold Stephen Smoot<\/a> \u2014 that I hope many will both watch and share:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidences of the Book of Mormon: Translation\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For links that will help you to understand the sad but instructive and cautionary tale of Brother Smoot, see here:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA new \u2018Introduction to the Book of Abraham'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dan Vogel, a formerly-Mormon writer with whom I\u2019m actually on entirely polite terms (or, anyway, so I think; we don\u2019t see each other very often), has been acting up again. \u00a0Ireland\u2019s Robert Boylan has begun to respond:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPsalm 110:1 and the two Lords in the 1832 First Vision Account\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother Anti-Mormon Double Standard\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

After incredulously reading several hagiographic obituaries for the late Hugh Hefner, I was relieved, finally, to see some appropriately\u00a0critical<\/em> evaluations appear. \u00a0You can find the links that I\u2019ve posted to them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ross Douthat, though, a conservative who (astonishingly) writes for the New York Times<\/em>, has now told the unvarnished truth:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking Ill of Hugh Hefner\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Park City, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 From yet another of my manuscripts-in-progress, a few lines on one of the lesser-known and unofficial witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates: \u00a0 Illinois state senator Orville F. Berry wrote a tribute to Katharine Smith Salisbury not long after her death, in her late eighties, on 2 February 1900: \u201cThere resided in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEvidence from Joseph Smith's sister<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    From yet another of my manuscripts-in-progress, a few lines on one of the lesser-known and unofficial witnesses to the Book of Mormon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/10\/evidence-joseph-smiths-sister.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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