Jesse Jasper Moss was a Campbellite preacher and early critic of the Church. He married a niece of E.D. Howe in November 1831. The following are his recollections from Spring 1831 (sharing this as portions are cited by critics):
SPYING ON A MORMON MEETING
About this time a new supply of preachers came
from New York with some of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon among them
Parley Pratt and Martin Harris. Soon afterwards they began to have visitations
of angels among them. I was suspicious of these angels from the first. When
they partook of the sacrament they always did so at night. In preparation for
this they would exclude everybody from the room but their leaders and would
then hang up blankets and quilts at the windows. When all was ready they would
open the doors and let the people in. I determined to stay through one of their
services of the sacrament, so a friend and I went to a meeting with that
intention. He went to sleep just before the time to exclude the people, and I
became possessed of a deaf-and-dumb devil and they could not make me understand
anything. After a time they decided to leave us along and go on with their
ceremony. My companion awakened and we saw the whole performance. I became satisfied
that their power was in the wine, so I tried to steal a bottle and would have
succeeded if I had been wearing the cloak I usually wore.
Persons coming from abroad were invited to stay
with them overnight and were invariably baptized by them in the morning. Soon they
began to invite residents to stay all night with them, and they were also
baptized next day. In this way they began to make converts again and I wondered
how it was. I asked some of them what had made them change their minds, and
their answer was, "If you could see what we have seen you would be
convinced too."
"But what have you seen?" I asked.
"Oh, we dare not tell!" they replied.
This aroused my suspicion still more, and I determined
to ferret the matter out if possible. For this purpose I ceased all opposition
to them and became very grave and sober in their meetings. Soon they began to
entertain hopes of my conversation and my friends began to be very uneasy about
me. Although they talked to me about it and solemnly warned me I kept my own
counsel. I soon got an invite the Mormons to stay all night with them. As this
was what I was working for I gladly accepted, but so many strangers came from
abroad that they could not accommodate me. They, therefore, requested me to put
off until the next night, and I reluctantly compiled. The next day Bro. Matthew
Clapp came from Mentor to see me, and taking me into the field after school
reasoned with me and pleaded apparently in vain. But when he wept and worked on
my feelings and sympathies, I told him my suspicions and plans enjoining the
strictest secrecy upon him until I should have the opportunity to test the
matter. The next night the same difficulty occurred and I was again requested
to wait until a later night. In the meantime Brother Clapp could not forbear to
relieve the minds of some of the anxious brethren, and the story got out so
that the Mormons heard it and the plot was spoiled.
I then stated publicly my suspicions. I said I had
studied the black arts, or necromancy, and knew just how their angels were
made, and showed how it could be done. I stated that if I had succeeded in
getting to stay there all night, I would have had a wrestle with the angel, and
that I was sure it would have been of flesh and blood. Perhaps, however, it was
best that I failed in my plan and it may be that I was foolhardy, for they
might have taken my life rather than be exposed.
THE ANGEL GOES UNDER
This incident and other that took place just at
that time put a stop to their angel visits and their making converts by keeping
them overnight. The other circumstance was this: As they went to the water to
baptize at the close of an evening service, an angel appeared on the bank of
the stream opposite the group and walked out on the water and stood viewing the
scene. The next night they had some more to baptize and they announced
beforehand that the angel would appear again and would speak to them. Some
persons, suspecting a trick, examined the place and found a two-inch plank
fixed in the manner of a spring board just beneath the surface of the water.
They sawed the plank almost in two. Next evening, when the angel walked out
upon the water the plank gave way, there was a splash and a shriek as the
angel's bright and shining glory was extinguished beneath the waves. It proved
itself very much flesh and blood as it scrambled desperately to get to shore.
The young men who sawed the board were lying in wait to catch the angel, but it
escaped by jumping down a high bank and disappearing.
[TO BE CONTINUED]
(Jesse Jasper Moss, “Autobiography of a Pioneer
Preacher,” ed. M. M. Moss, in Christian Standard, January 15, 1938,
22-23)
[CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK]
It was getting near springtime and Joseph Smith
sent these Mormons a revelation that their performance were of the devil and
must cease. Accordingly they partook of the sacrament in the daytime, in the
presence of all the people, and their conflicts with the devil, their preaching
to the Indians and the visits of the angels all came to an end. None, however,
but their members, were allowed to see their revelations. At one time a large
company gathered at a pubic house to converse with Martin Harris, who had
returned from New York with certain revelations. His hat sat upon the table in
the room where we were gathered and in it I discovered a copy of the
revelations. I quietly abstracted them and, whispering to Brother Jones and
wife who were present, I took Brother Tanuer with me and left the house. We
went directly to the home of Brother Jones and copied them entire. We then
returned and I deposited the original revelations in Harris' hat without his
having missed them. Soon there were copies of these revelations circulating
among the people. It was always a great mystery to the Mormons how these
revelations became known, and they could get no revelations to solve the
mystery. I don't believe they have solved the problem up to this day.
MORMON BAIT
At the close of school I entered into a matrimonial
contract with the girl who was to be my wife. In the meantime her mother and
her aunt had joined the Mormons, so that when I went to get her mother's
consent to our marriage, she refused. By this time Joseph Smith had come to
Kirtland and she went to him for counsel on the matter. He got a revelation
that I was to be converted to Mormonism and that I would become a bright and
shining light in the Mormon church—a bait to my ambition. The revelation said
that she might give her daughter to me with perfect safety, so she gave her
consent. Time has shown the falsity of that revelation. Had it said that I was
to convert the mother from Mormonism it would have been of more value as a
prophecy. (Jesse Jasper Moss, “Autobiography of a Pioneer Preacher,” ed. M. M.
Moss, in Christian Standard, January 22, 1938, 8)
