W. R. Hine's claims that "Black Pete" claimed a revelation to marry a white woman (a daughter of F. G. Williams).

Date
Jan 1888
Type
Periodical
Source
W. R. Hine
Critic
Non-LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reprint
Late
Reference

W. R. Hine's statement in Arthur Deming, Naked Truths About Mormonism 1, no. 1 (January 1888): 2

Scribe/Publisher
Deming & Co.
People
"Black Pete", Emma Hale Smith, W. R. Hine, Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, Joseph Smith, Jr., Frederick G. Williams
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

I rented Claudius Stannard’s farm and stone quarry, two miles south of the temple in Kirtland. (Before I rented the quarry, a combination had been formed not to let the Mormons have any stone). I quarried and sold the Mormons the stone used in the construction of the temple, except a few of the large ones which came from Russell’s quarry. Prophet Jo and his father frequently talked over with me their experience along the Susquehanna. Jo could scarcely read or write when he lived in New York. He had a private teacher in Kirtland and obtained a fair education. While the temple was building the workmen lived in temporary buildings. Prayer meetings were held mornings by the workmen for the success of the work before beginning their labors. One day while I was at the Flats, a meeting was held in which the Spiritual Wife Doctrine was discussed. Rigdon said if he had got to go into it he might as well begin. He put Emma, Jo Smith’s wife, on the bed and got on himself. Jo became angry. It was in everybody’s mouth for miles about Kirtland. When I first saw Emma on the streets in Kirtland, she threw her arms around me and I think kissed me, and inquired all about her father’s family. I brought her letters and took some later to Mr. Hale from her. Jo told Emma he had a revelation about the plates, but that he could not obtain them until he had married her. I became acquainted with D. P. Hurlbut before he left the Mormons. He courted Dr. Williams’ beautiful daughter, and told her he had a revelation to marry her; she told him when she received a revelation they would be married. Everybody about Kirtland believed he had left the Mormons because she refused him. Other Mormons and Black Pete claimed to receive revelations to marry her. I was often in Hurlbut’s company, and once while fishing with him on Lake Erie, after he had left the Mormons, he told me he was going to ferret out Mormonism and break it up; I replied you had better break up a nest of yellow jackets. I told him I knew the Mormons in New York State would as soon swear to a lie as to the truth. Later I told Hurlbut to write to Isaac Hale, Jo’s father-in-law, and he did.

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