Mormon History
Benjamin Winchester Testimony - 1889
The Salt Lake Tribune
September 22, 1889
PRIMITIVE
MORMONISM.
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Personal Narrative of It by Mr. Benjamin Winchester.
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AN EARLY CONVERT AND CHURCH ELDER.
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How
he repudiated Polygamy -- Joseph Smith and His Capacity for Deceit,
Lewdness and Confidence Games -- The Contradicting Revelations -- An
Absorbing Narrative.
It was in the month of February, 1833, when I a boy, not quite sixteen
years of age, living with my parents in Elk Creek township, Erie county
Pennsylvania, that two Mormon Elders came into our neighborhood. Their
names were John Boyington and E[v]en Green. Like many other sensational
proselyters they created a great deal of interest upon the subject of
religion and succeeded in making a considerable number of converts
there, among whom were my parents and myself and several relatives. In
November of the same year I left my parents and went to Kirtland, Ohio,
which place at that time had been designated as the rendezvous of the
Saints. Soon after my arrival there I made my home with Sidney Rigdon.
Following that time and prior to the beginning of May, 1834, the
Mormons organized what they termed "Zion's camp." This organization was
effected with the understanding that they were to fight their way, if
deemed necessary to redeem Zion. More than 200 left, then, I among
them, on that expedition to Missouri, During that trip, Joseph Smith
who was of course at the head, had a number of revelations, all
beginning with his stereotyped formula, "thus saith the Lord," and the
belief he imparted to the company was that the Lord would protect us
all, and if necessary to gain a crossing of the Missouri River, it
would open its waters and let us over, even as the Red Sea was reputed
to have opened in ancient times. When we reached Clay county, Missouri,
Joseph stated to me that he had received another revelation that this
Zion's camp programme was simply a matter of the Lord's will
TO TRY THE FAITH
Of the Saints and that it was not the Lord's will that they should go
into Jackson county then but that He had expected this offering as a
tribute to their faith and the Zion's camp expedition was then
abandoned. Joseph said at that time that the keys of the kingdom had
been given to him through the angels, Peter, James and John, and that
he himself had finished his work so far as a complete organization of
the church was concerned. He then, in a conference ordained David
Whitmer to be his successor in case of accident to himself. Whitmer, by
the way, as the world knows, repudiated Joseph Smith, Brigham Young,
and the polygamous doctrine that came after this time. Directly after
the majority of us returned to Kirtland the best way we could get there
-- it was a good deal like "every fellow for himself and the devil take
the hindmost." When I returned to Kirtland the temple was nearly
completed, and during that winter -- 1835 and 1836 -- its dedication
occurred. That ceremony ended in a drunken frolic -- one of the worst I
ever saw. Joseph Smith
BECAME BEASTLY INTOXICATED
And his father and brother, Hyrum, begged that the wine should be taken
away, so that the carousal might be stopped as soon as possible. I did
not know Joseph to be what is termed a "common sot," but that was not
the last time I saw him intoxicated.
After that dedication the Mormons organized what they termed "the
school of prophets." A revelation prior to that time had given Oliver
Cowdery the privilege of nominating the twelve apostles of the Church.
About the time of this organization there was a good deal of scandal
prevalent among a number of the Saints concerning Joseph's licentious
conduct, this more especially among the women. Joseph's name was then
connected with scandalous relations with two or three families.
Apparently to counteract this he came out and made a statement in the
Temple, before a general congregation that he was authorized by God
Almighty to establish His Kingdom -- that he was God's prophet and
God's agent, and that he could do whatever he should choose to do,
therefore the Church had
NO RIGHT TO CALL INTO QUESTION
Anything he did, or to censure him, for the reason that he was
responsible to God Almighty only. This promulgation created a great
sensation -- a schism occurred and a large portion of the first
membership, including the best talent of the Church, at once withdrew
from it. This was during the summer of 1836.
In the autumn of 1837 Joseph received a revelation especially
concerning Kirtland. It was to be the great center of the world. Kings
and queens were to come there from foreign lands to pay homage to the
Saints. It was to be the great commercial point of the universe, and on
the strength of this revelation the famous bank there was started. A
boom of huge proportions was then inaugurated, and it became so great
that a large number of Gentiles in the surrounding country were
attracted, and they came by scores and hundreds, and depleted their
savings, taking receipts or checks, as we would call them now. I have
seen men come there with large quantities of Mexican dollars, even in
the night, and they would wake up Sidney Rigdon, the
SMOOTH, URBANE CASHIER,
For the purpose of making deposits, seemingly with the belief that
there was a big thing in it. Joseph was president, and Rigdon was
cashier of the concern. This went on until the bank had absorbed a
large proportion of the money in that section of the country, and a
considerable number of people began to find out that they had some need
of some of their deposits. When the demands for redemption began to
accumulate the deposits were paid in the paper of an almost defunct
bank at Monroe, Michigan, which the schemers had bought. Of course the
depositors soon became uneasy after finding that their checks were paid
in worthless bank notes of the bank of Monroe, and when the prospect of
mob violence became apparent, Smith, Rigdon, and a man named Boyd of
New York, connected with the first two in the swindle, decamped between
sunset and sunrise. The trio had the money and the people had their
experience. Soon afterwards came the collapse of Kirtland.
Among the visionary schemes at Kirtland which I well remember was the canal scheme. This was a project to connect Kirtland with
A SHIP CANAL
From Lake Erie at the mouth of a small river some five miles away. It
is almost needless to say that Joseph's name was first and foremost in
this proposed enterprise.
After the collapse at Kirtland, to which I have referred, all of the
so-called witnesses to the Book of Mormon, with the exception of the
members of the Smith family, left the fold and were never afterwards
identified with it at Nauvoo under Joseph Smith, or in Utah under
Brigham Young, and two-thirds of the best talent of the Church then
left, and never after had any connection with the concern at either
place above named.
During this period I will say in extenuation for myself, that I was
young, and, like most other youthful religious enthusiasts, I was
fanatical as well as credulous. I was induced to believe that many
things which seemed to me wrong and absurd would come out right, and
with many misgivings about what seemed to be foolish and absurd, I kept
on hoping that the outcome would justify the faith I had reposed in the
concern.
Still strong in the faith, I was ordained as an elder and started out
to preach what I believed to be the first, and pure principles of the
Gospel of Christ, and during two or three years of service in that
capacity I made more converts than any half dozen of the leading elders
of the entire Church.
When, as I have stated, Joseph fled from Kirtland in the night, he,
with his brother Hiram, and Sidney Rigdon, went to Missouri. Not long
after their arrival there they were driven out by a mob and came to
Nauvoo, Illinois, which became a common rendezvous for the Saints from
Kirtland, from Missouri and from every other place in which they had
gathered in any considerable number. In the winter of 1839 and 1840
Smith, in company with Rigdon and with Porter Rockwell, acting as a
sort of body guard,
FLED FROM THE OFFICIALS
That were after them, acting for the State of Ohio, on the charge of
criminal practice at Kirtland, and they came to Philadelphia where I
was stationed and where I was stake president. There they remained with
me in the best degree of secrecy that could be maintained. Smith and I
slept in the same bed and Porter Rockwell occupied a bed near the foot
of our couch in the capacity of a body guard for the "prophet." It was
there and at that time that I had a good opportunity to study the
character of the "prophet." It then began to be apparent to me that he
was tyrannical by nature, a libertine, in short a gross, sensual,
corrupt man, but I was then still young and hopeful and it remained for
events in a few brief years thereafter to fully open my eyes to the
gigantic delusion I had been drawn into.
During the time of Smith's sojourn with me in Philadelphia we visited
quite a number of members of the Church there. Among them was a Mrs.
Smith, foreman or forewoman of a glove factory, and some eight or ten
girls were working in that factory who were, like Mrs. Smith, members
of the Church. Smith, after several silly flirtations with the girls
which I witnessed and which created
A GOOD DEAL OF SCANDAL
And caused me some trouble, finally became enamored with Mrs. Smith and
induced her and two girls to leave there and go to Nauvoo. I
subsequently met Mrs. Smith at Nauvoo, when she told me that she had
lent Joseph all of her money and he had gotten her married to a man by
the name of Debble -- that through the "prophet" she had lost her all
and was reduced to a condition of abject poverty. But to repeat all I
heard at Nauvoo in the way of complaints of poor people who had been
"TAKEN IN AND DONE FOR"
In the same way by the prophet would take a great deal of your time and mine.
Up to the year 1843 "spiritual marriage" or polygamy had never been
preached or inculcated as a doctrine of the church. Prior to that year
my experience had been that the church was fully as strict and as pure
with respect to virtue and morality as any other religious
organization. In the autumn of 1843 I moved my family to Nauvoo and I
there became fully conscious of the new departure of the prophet in
regard to the polygamous doctrine which he sought to ingraft into the
church. In the preceding year John C. Bennett, a sleek plausible man,
came to Nauvoo. An adept in flattery, he soon became intimate and
influential with the "prophet." He developed into a noted libertine and
this characteristic eventually bore fruit as his connection with his
friend Joseph Smith, for the polygamy doctrine was not long after
promulgated. That winter there was a great deal of excitement in Nauvoo
over the doctrine of "spiritual marriage," as it was then called, but
which was really polygamy. In our social gatherings many were opposed
to it while a considerable number favored it. Hyrum Smith, the elder
brother of Joseph, had always been a particular friend of mine. He came
to see me when I was convalescing after illness and said he had been
strenuously opposed to polygamy until he had become convinced that it
was the will of the Lord, and advised me to cease my opposition to it.
I told him I could not do it for the reason that a very strong point of
the 'Latter Day Saints' doctrine was in condemnation of it and the Book
of Mormon emphatically condemned it and that it was a violation of
nature's laws. In a conversation with Hyrum subsequently, when I spoke
to him about the numerical equality of the male and the female sexes he
explained that that difficulty could in time be surmounted
BY MAKING EUNUCHS
Of surplus men who should be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," and
that the church dignitaries and the more worthy brethren would be left
the choice of plenty of women. Subsequently Joseph Smith sent for me
and explained it in as plausible a manner as he could and requested me
to take a mission and go to Southern cities saying that it was the
command of the Lord. At this time Joseph, Hyrum and Sidney Rigdon and
some other officials of the Church imparted to me their theory of just
what they intended to do and that was to get out from under the
authority of the Government of the United States so that they might be
able to establish a kingdom and government of their own where they
could have the power and privileges of practicing the doctrine of
polygamy with no authority to interfere or molest them.
It was a subject of common talk among many good people in Nauvoo that
many of the elders were sent off on missions merely to get them out of
the way, and that Joseph Smith, John C. Bennett and other prominent
Church lights had illicit intercourse with the wives of a number of the
missionaries, and that the revelation on spiritual marriage, i.e.
polygamy, was gotten up to protect themselves from scandal. Of the open
scandal concerning
THE ILLICIT RELATIONS
With married women by Joseph Smith, Bennett and others I forbear to
speak, for those women have, I believe passed away and some of their
descendants now live in this city and Territory.
Joseph was very bitter in some of his public discourses relative to the
talk among people about his lewdness, especially the women gossipers.
On one occasion he said these women deserved to be threshed. One of the
brethren, Badlam by name, took his suggestion in a literal sense: he
went home from the meeting and gave his wife a severe whipping, which
circumstance became the talk of the town.
The Book of Mormon was written up about the time of the excitement upon
the subject of Free Masonry in Western New York. I think any one who
has read that book will agree with me that it condemns Masonry, for it
certainly condemns secret societies. About the time that the polygamy
revelation was received, Smith and Bennett, in connection with old Dr.
Modesa, secured a charter from the Grand Masonic Lodge of Illinois and
started a lodge in Nauvoo. They got nearly all the leading men into the
lodge and then began to admit indiscriminately, taking in boys even.
Their lodge work became so scandalous that the Grand Lodge revoked
their charter, but they continued to run their local organization just
the same. In this connection I will say that I have more than once
heard the statement made that Joseph was shot at the instigation of
enraged members of the Masonic order, but I do not personally know of
this.
Thus it was in nearly everything as it was in this Masonic business;
inconsistency following upon inconsistency in rapid succession. The
doctrines and practice of one day were set aside for something new and
contradictory on the next day. From almost the very beginning of the
church up to the time of Smith's death the word of the Lord today
became half-forgotten history on the morrow.
THE "LITERARY WORK"
In regard to Joseph's literary work -- his "translations" -- I well
remember some of it at Kirtland. They had there in the temple some
Egyptian mummies, four of them I am positive. From one of them Joseph
had taken a scroll lettered over with what purported to be Egyptian
characters. It was kept on exhibition in a glass case. To this scroll
Joseph applied his peep-stone or "Urim-Thummim" and made out a
translation purporting to be a vision of Abraham in which the modern
theory that the world is round and that it revolves was sustained
against the ancient theory prior to the time of Galileo. It also
purported to enlarge upon the Biblical account of the creation of the
world and to make clear the solar system. I am not sure whether this
work was ever published or not.
I observe that THE TRIBUNE has made mention of some of my literary
work. Many Mormons in Salt Lake doubtless remember about my
publications, some of which are still in use among the Josephites. I
was on the Times and Seasons at Nauvoo only for a brief time after the
death of Carlos Smith, brother of Joseph. John Taylor afterwards took
hold of that publication.
THE SMITH FAMILY
I knew the Smith family well and was on very intimate terms with its
members. Joseph's parents were good people. The mother's great weakness
was her faith in Joseph and her ambition for the success of his work
which has wrought but little good and an infinite amount of mischief
and misery. Hyrum, the eldest brother, I always had a high regard for,
and I deeply regretted when he went off into the advocacy of polygamy,
swayed as he was by his brother Joseph's unhallowed ambition. The other
members of the family were Samuel H., William, Carlos, Lucy, and one or
two more daughters. Lucy was a bright-looking girl and a true woman --
the youngest of the family. Joseph did all in his power to make her
accept the polygamous doctrine, promising her that she would be chief
among the women of the church, offering to raise her in the dignity of
priestess, but all to no purpose, she would have none of it. She
married a man by the name of Milliken, I believe. and the last I heard
of her, some years ago, she was living in Harrison county, Iowa. It is
full forty-five years since she repudiated the so-called religion of
her brother. The brothers, Samuel H., and Carlos, I always regarded as
good men, Joseph and William were the two black sheep of the flock. The
widow of Carlos repudiated Mormonism away back in the forties. She was
a most estimable woman.
Joseph Smith had a fair degree of dramatic talent by nature and he was
cut out by nature for a writer of fiction. Although not an educated man
he had a wonderful capacity for weaving and unraveling plots. I believe
that the Book of Mormon was mainly the production of the brains of
himself and Cowdery, and by chain of events and reasoning, I say most
emphatically that I do not believe that the Spaulding manuscript was
utilized in any way in making up that book. Joseph was away behind
Brigham Young in executive ability; he could not hold his adherents
together as did Brigham and he was almost constantly in trouble over
dissensions and frequent schisms in the Church. His pictures, which I
see in windows and cabinets here, flatter him very much. The
photographs do not show the peculiar shape of his head, especially the
retreating forehead which any observer of the man in life could not
fail to notice. He was possessed with an inordinate degree of vanity
and was quite susceptible to flattery. He was a perfect adept in the
use of abusive and obscene language.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
Referring to myself, I left the Church in 1844 and went into business
in Pittsburg, Pa., where I remained for something over nine years. In
1854 I removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, which city has ever since been
my home. My parents came to Utah with the Mormons in 1848, and they
both died here. My only surviving brother, living in this country with
his family, repudiated Mormonism several years ago. I am not altogether
a stranger in this locality, having been here in comparatively early
days. I was here last about sixteen years ago.
A PROPHECY FULFILLED
If I may be pardoned for digression I will remark here that Joseph
Smith, once in the presence of my mother at Nauvoo, when walking across
the room with his hands clasped behind him as was his habit when in
deep meditation, broke out in a tirade against Brigham Young and he
wound up with this expression, "If Brigham Young ever gets control of
the church he'll run it to the devil." It was the only prophecy Joseph
ever made which has come anywhere near literal fulfillment.
The Mormon organization is the most artfully devised system in modern
times for enriching the few from the result of the toil and privation
of the many, and a most deplorable feature of it is that the system
paralyses free thought and free agency.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
I am well advanced in years, being now seventy-two, but I hope to live
to see the offensive features of Mormonism completely removed -- its
one man political power completely broken. I hope the younger Mormons,
at least, will soon realize the folly and fraud to which they are
environed, and come out boldly as free men to the end that they may
become worthy citizens of this great republic. To me it is as clear as
the light of the noonday sun that no adherent of this Mormon Church can
be worthy of the privileges of an American freeman, for by adherence to
the power of the priesthood and to the obligations a member of the
Church must assume, he is clearly in a position that is utterly and
wholly antagonistic to the institutions and government of our common
country.
BENJAMIN WINCHESTER.