"Mormon Hill," later named "Hill Cumorah" in New York

Parent page: Book of Mormon/Geography/Hill Cumorah

Orsamus Turner (1852): "at the place afterwards called Mormon Hill"

Orsamus Turner, who considered Joseph Smith "a cheat and a fraud," had this to say about Martin Harris. Turner felt that Joseph Smith duped Martin Harris into mortgaging his farm in order to finance the printing of the Book of Mormon:

The Prophet Joseph, was directed by an angel where to find, by excavation, at the place afterwards called Mormon Hill, the gold plates. ^[1]

Orsamus Turner (1852): "They pretended that in digging for money, at Mormon Hill"

Orsamus Turner, who considered Joseph Smith "a cheat and a fraud," had this to say about Joseph Smith's treasure seeking:

Long before the Gold Bible demonstration, the Smith family had with some sinister object in view, whispered another fraud in the ears of the credulous. They pretended that in digging for money, at Mormon Hill, they came across "a chest, three by two feet in size, covered with a dark colored stone. In the centre of the stone was a white spot about the size of a sixpence. Enlarging, the spot increased to the size of a twenty four pound shot and then exploded with a terrible noise. The chest vanished and all was utter darkness." ^[2]

Notes

1. ↑ Orsamus Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham’s Purchase and Morris’ Reserve (1852) 215.
2. ↑ Orsamus Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham’s Purchase and Morris’ Reserve (1852) 216.