Mormon History
Death Notice of Martin Harris - 1875
The Chicago Daily Tribune – September 12, 1875
A MORMON SAINT
DEATH OF MARTIN HARRIS.
There is in the Cincinnati
Commercial an obituary notice of one of the alleged authors of the Mormon
Bible, which was evidently written by one who had never heard of the nil nisi
bonum percept. It is copied below:
Martin Harris,
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has just departed life at
Clarkson, Utah, at the advanced age of 92 years. Mr. harris first appeared in
print in the year 1830, at which time, in company with Oliver Coudery and David
Whitmer, he subscribed to the solemn affidavit which appears on the title-page
of the Mormon Bible.
Joseph Smith, the Palmyra impostor, having noticed Harris' relish for religious
wonders, and his capacity for receiving and retaining all the bosh that folly
and knavery could furnish, took it into his head to use Harris in the matter of
getting up a new religion. Harris had seen the devil in a dug-way near Palmyra,
and his contact with that distinguished personage had so improved his swallowing
apparatus that Joe Smith's angels, revelations, golden Bible, sword of Laban,
etc., went down in a single gulp. He had been something of a Friend, then a
Wesleyan, then a Baptist, afterward a Presbyterian, and, if not halted by the
Mormon fraud, he would, in all probability, have gone the round through all
existing sectaries. Having advanced $50 and accepted the position of a scribe to
Joseph, he found himself fully committed to the "fullness of the Gospel," and
earnestly proclaimed whatever foolishness or blasphemy Joe might put into him.
Mrs. Harris, knowing her husband's credulity and Smith's trickery, did all she
could to stop the expenditure of money; but Smith not only plied Harris with
"revelations," but explained the certainty of making a spec out of the
publication of the manuscripts. An edition of 5,000 would cost, say, $3,000.
Joseph had a revelation that the books would sell for $1.25 each, and he went on
to assure his victim that there was a chance to clear $3,250. Mrs. Harris
objected. Harris explained the gain to be derived from the investment. She
railed at his folly, and, egtting hold of the manuscript, burned "the more
history part" of Lehi. Harris quarreled with and beat her; they separated, and
Smith got his Golden Bible printed at the expense of Harris. Any other knave
than Joe Smith would have been backed out by the burning of Lehi by Mrs. Harris,
but, as Joe told Ingersoll, "he had the fools into it, and he proposed to put it
through." So with promises of advancement to Harris, he had a "revelation" that
his father (old man Smith) should help sell the Bibles. But the old man was
arrested with a basket full of Bibles, and to pay costs he had "to cut" on the
Lord's price ($1.25) and sell the lot for 80 cents apiece! This interfered with
"prior revelations" given in favor of Harris, and troubles increasing, Smith,
Harris, Coudery, and the Whitmers cleared out for Kirtland, O. Here the "Twelve
Apostles" were appointed, -- Harris being left out; but as he still had some
money, a little honesty, and increased capacity for credulous business, Smith
smoothed him with new promises and daily revelations. In 1833, the Mormons in
Jackson County, Mo., having excited the wrath of the Jacksonians by their
immoralities and fanatical insolence, were ordered out of the State. On learning
this, Joe Smith, Harris, and perhaps 200 others, started for Missouri to "redeme
Zion." On the way they ran into the cholera; and, notwithstanding Harris was
saved in articulo mortis by Divine interposition, twenty of the Saints turned
their toes to the lines, in spite of Joseph's "laying on of hands." In Missouri
Bishop Partridge succeeded in getting old Harris to advance $1,200 more to
purchase land on which to establish Zion -- Zion never to be removed! Too many
birds of a feather having got together, Joseph found his hands full in trying to
settle the difficulties which beset the Church without and within. Many of the
Saints were whipped, jailed, and shot for bad conduct, and some of the chiefest
among the Apostles turned against the Prophet. Cowdery and Whitmer, two of the
witnesses, were "cut off" for lying, theiving, counterfeiting, etc.; and the
brethren mooted it openly that Joseph was bad -- real bad. Some of the sisters
said so, and Coudery believed it. Coudery with Whitmer were turned over to
Satan. Poor Harris, who had helped Joseph to get up the Mormon business, lost
$3,000 in the Bible investment, and had recently lent the Lord $1,200 to fix the
foundations of Zion, did not escape the troubles which excessive piety had
brought upon the brethren. In company with Parish, who had been charged with
swindling, Harris was kicked out of the camp of Israel. His earnestness and
ignorance had served Joseph to their fullest extent; his money was gone, and he
was named among the "negroes with white skins," and the Prophet posted him
publicly as a "lackey," one so far beneath contempt that to notice him would be
a sacrifice too great for a gentleman like himself (Smith) to make! Packing his
valise, he cut sticks for Kirtland, where he lived unto 1870, when he went to
Utah and ended a miserable life, raving in his last delirium over the Book of
Mormon -- witnesses, facts, and fictions of the most deplorable fraud recorded
in history. Never was credulity or avarice more useful in a bad way or knavery
more successful than in the lives of Joe Smith and Martin Harris.