Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, August, 1880Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, August, 1880
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Mrs. Squires and Mrs. McKune agree in saying that no converts were made
by Smith and Harris in the vicinity of Susquehanna. The scene of the
Mormon endeavors was suddenly moved along the beautiful valley of the
Susquehanna to a point north of the Appalachin Mountains and just within
the borders of New York. In the locality of Harpersville and Nineveh a
broad plain had been settled by a colony of emigrants called "the
Vermont Sufferers," from their having formerly occupied land which was
claimed by both Massachusetts and New York. Three miles above Nineveh
lies Afton, just on the edge of Chenango county, and a short distance
above are Sidney, in Delaware county, and Otego, in Otsego county. Smith
and his followers operated with the peek-stone in this part of the
valley, where he was a comparative stranger. George Collington, one of
the most substantial farmers in Broome county, was then a lad of
sixteen. One evening, at twilight, he discovered Smith, Joseph Knight,
William Hale (uncle of Smith's wife) and two men named Culver and
Blowers in the act of dodging through the woods with shovels and picks
upon their shoulders, their object being to discover a salt-spring by
the agency of the peek-stone. He followed them, under cover of the
brush, to a point where they stopped for consultation and finally
decided to dig the next day. Noticing that Bostwick Badger, who then
owned the farm now occupied by Collington, had felled an oak near the
place, and that he had drawn out the timber, Collington obtained
permission to cut the top for wood. Collington's axe and the prophet's
diggers began operations about the same time on the following morning.
Out from the treetop came Collington and asked what they were doing.
They told him to mind his business, which he did by thoroughly
publishing them about the neighborhood--a proceeding that brought them a
number of unwelcome visitors in the place of one. Frederick Davenport
furnished young Collington with a half bushel of salt to be deposited in
the hole at night. By morning the water had dissolved the salt and
retained its briny flavor. Bottles were filled for exhibition, and the
stock of the converts in the peek-stone ran high until the trick was
discovered. It was claimed that the peek-stone also pointed out an
extensive silver-mine on the farm of Abram Cornell at Bettsburg, nearly
opposite Nineveh. No silver was found except that furnished by Josiah
Stowell, a not over-bright man whose little all went into the pocket of
Smith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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