Built by the Mormons.

The corner stone was laid July 24, 1833, and for nearly three years the labor of construction was carried on day and night; it was dedicated March 27, 1836; it is now in possession and used as a place of worship by the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

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on of the "Book of Mormon" at Pa 183, created a sensation in the re". stacked as a fraud and it was charges.

arism of the writings of one Solomo.. woed at Conneaut in Ashtabula County of Spaulding was entitled "The Manu... ri; ↑ was claimed that it was written i similar to the "Book of Mormon the real foundation for that production. it it was sur: ptitiously obtained by J., who appropriated its ideas and P 1..s theory was advanced soon after tr

of the "Book of Mormon." At t t Ni nen elders attracted attention by their dun abant Coreaut, and when the Morron Bile, as the new work was called, was read, many persons present were struck by what they thought was a similarity between Smith's book and the Spauldir manuscript. It shi be stated that Solomon Spaul ing used to read his manuscript to his neighbors until many of them became familiar with its language, contents and style. When they heard the "Book of Mormon," some of them testified that it was sub

stantially the Spaulding manuscript. Owing to his financial straits, Solomon Spaulding was never able to publish his work, which was a romance of prehistoric America. At one time it was in possession of a Pittsburg publishing house, from whence it is said to have been stolen.

This theory of the origin of the "Book of Mormon" gradually became the accepted one among the Gentiles and found its place in the literature of the time, being accepted by the encyclopaedias of Britannica, Chambers, Appleton and others. This view obtained until 1884, when the late James H. Fairchild, then president of Oberlin college, was visiting Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, where he met an old anti-slavery friend, Lewis L. Rice, who had years before, been the editor of the Painesville Telegraph, and also State Printer at Columbus, Ohio. President Fairchild asked him to examine his old pamphlets and papers and see what contributions he could make to the anti-slavery literature of the Oberlin College Library. In a few days, he returned with an old, worn and faded manuscript of 170 pages, which proved to be the long lost manuscript of Solomon Spaulding. It came into Mr. Rice's possessions in 1839 with other books and papers, when he took possession of the Painesville Telegraph. This manuscript is now in the Oberlin College Library.

President Fairchild, in a paper read before the Western Reserve Historical Society, March 23, 1886, and published as Tract No. 77 of that Society, discusses with originality and interest the "Manuscript of Solomon Spaulding and the Book of Mormon." It is the first authentic information on that subject.