Early “Mormon” Ancestors

The future Prophet showed William a box covered by a cloth in the spring of 1828, which he told him contained the plates from which the Book of Mormon was later translated. He was also present during some of the translation. He had the 116 pages of the Missing Manuscript read to him.

No membership records exist for the Church for 1830-1831, but by a comparison of accounts, it appears that William Riley HINE and his wife are the two baptisms referenced on p. 370 of Volume 5 of Early Mormon Documents edited by Dan Vogel and published in 2003 as “two unnamed persons” baptized 10 Oct 1830 by Hyrum Smith at Aaron Culver’s in Colesville. These are the 70th and 71st documented baptisms into the Church. He and his family were six of the sixty-six members of the Colesville Branch who arrived at Fairport Harbor, OH, in May of 1831. He was greeted there by Joseph SMITH, Sr., who asked him if he had joined the Faith, to which he affirmed that he had. The group arrived in Kirtland in mid-May. When he was encountered on the streets of Kirtland by Emma SMITH she embraced him.

William Riley HINE and his family remained in Kirtland, rather than following the rest of the Colesville Branch to MO. This accounts for references of the Colesville Branch numbers being variously stated as sixty to sixty-five/eight. He carried letters between Emma and her parents. He had family that remained in the Colesville area. When a combination was created in the Kirtland area to withhold building stone from the Mormons, he rented Claudius STANNARD’s farm and quarry. He quarried most of the stone used in the building of the Kirtland Temple (1833-1836).

William got caught up in the Kirtland Apostasy. William moved from Chester Twp. to Munson Twp in 1834, settling upon land later known as the LARAWAY place on the Chester/Chardon Road. William Riley HINE is in the seventh generation of Toni’s ancestry. He died 21 Feb 1889 in Chester Twp., Geauga Co., OH – where he is buried.

*The following monograph deals with a controversial statement published in 1888. The published statement purports to be an attested 1885 interview with William Riley HINE.
 

WILLIAM RILEY HINE [1803-1889]

EARLY LATTER-DAY SAINT

COLESVILLE/KIRTLAND

Toni Richard Turk

2004

Arthur B. Deming in January, 1888 published “W. R. Hine’s Statement” in Naked Truths About Mormonism. This statement was based on an interview with the eighty-two year old Hine, conducted by Deming in March 1885 regarding events that had occurred more than fifty years earlier. Hine died in February 1889 - thirteen months after publication of his interview. It is possible that he never saw or had an opportunity to respond to the 1888 publication. A close reading of the statement that an infirm Hine signed with an “X” reveals that what he actually attested was that he heard "Doctor" Philastus Hurlbut lecture in December 1833. That is the attested statement. The bulk of the published statement is probably a mingling of Hine’s historical recollection with Deming’s anti-Mormon diatribe. It is incredulous that historians have not more vigorously challenged Deming’s lack of objectivity as the witness to this document. Deming reveals his concern for a potential challenge that could come from the RLDS Elders Edmund Levi Kelley and his brother William H. Kelley, who interviewed Hine in October 1884. He attempts to discredit their statement in advance of its potential appearance. (Hine was one of five located witnesses, who had attended the Hurlbut lectures and who saw the purported Spaulding manuscript.)

William Riley Hine and his wife were most likely baptized on October 10, 1830 by Hyrum Smith in Colesville, New York – the 70th and 71st recorded baptisms in the recently founded “Mormon” Church. Hine and his family left the fledgling Church by 1836. They were not alone in leaving the new Church. The Kirtland Apostasy claimed fifty percent of the Church membership and much of its leadership during this period. It was a difficult time.

Except for Deming’s polemic we would not have a record of Hine’s historical association with the Colesville and Kirtland Saints. In this regard Hine’s descendants are indebted to him. Toni is William Riley Hine’s fourth-great-grandson. His third-great-grandmother is Irena Hine - referenced below. The Corrected Statement attempts to de-editorialize the one published in 1888. Elden J. Watson’s 1999 Approximate Book of Mormon Timeline is the source of some of the cited time references. The following is the historical account without the more scurrilous anti-Mormon dimensions.

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W. R. HINE'S CORRECTED STATEMENT

I was born February 11, 1803, at Colesville, Windsor Township, Broome County, N.Y. For two summers Joseph Smith and his father dug for salt, near and in sight of my house. He showed me his peep-stone. I have had it many times. His father told me he was fifteen years old [i.e. born 1821]* When it rained hard, my wife often made beds for them on the floor in our house. Sometimes his brothers were with him. I especially liked Hyrum. *{This was probably 1826 when Joseph Smith would have been twenty.}

Isaac Hale, a good Methodist, lived seven miles below me on the river. I often stopped with him when rafting. I attended many prayer-meetings at his house in the evenings. Emma was fine looking, smart, a good singer, and she often got the power. My wife and I saw Joseph on an old horse with Emma on behind as they passed our house on their way to Bainbridge, N.Y., where they were married.* *{January 18, 1827}

I called him “Peeker.” About the spring* of 1828, Joseph came in front of my house where several men were pitching quoits. I said, "Peeker, what have you found?" He said he had found some metal plates which would be of great use to the world. He had them in a box in a handkerchief which he carried in one hand. *{Joseph Smith, Jr., received the plates September 22, 1827 – the referenced “about the spring of 1828” incident apparently occurred prior to the translation process and while Martin Harris was on his trip to New York (February 4 – April 12, 1828) seeking a statement as to the correctness of the translation of some of the characters from the plates – i.e. March/April 1828.}

I heard that Joseph was translating* the plates in Badger's Tavern, in Colesville, three miles from my house. I went there and saw Joseph Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Martin Harris introduced himself to me, and said they were going to bring the world from darkness into light. *{Joseph & Emma Smith are recorded as visiting the Joseph Knight home in November 1828 and January 1829 during the translation period. These would have been likely timeframes for the referenced Colesville translation to have occurred.}

Martin's wife cooked for them, and one day while they were at dinner she put one hundred and sixteen pages, the first part they had translated, in her dress bosom and went out. They soon missed the one hundred and sixteen pages and followed her into the road and demanded them of her. She refused, and said if it was the Lord's work you can translate them again, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth. Dr. Seymour came along and she gave them to him to read, and told him not to let them go. Dr. Seymour lived one and a half miles from me. He read most of it to me when my daughter Irene was born [sic.]*. *{The “lost” manuscript pages are recorded as stolen July 9, 1828. William Riley Hine’s next child born after this event was Lucy A. Hine – born in June 1829.}

After I came to Kirtland, in conversation with Martin Harris, he has many times admitted to me that this statement about his wife and the one hundred and sixteen pages, as above stated, is true. 

Newell Knight lived a few miles from me

I met Prophet Joseph's father on the dock at Fairport, O., in July, 1831 [sic.]*. He inquired if I came on in the Mormon faith, I replied that I did. *{May 1831}

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. The night the meteors fell in 1833 [November 13], the Mormons sent men on horseback for miles about Kirtland to arouse the people. They got me up at three o'clock A.M. 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. 

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.

I became acquainted with D. P. Hurlbut before he left the Mormons. 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 told Hurlbut to write to Isaac Hale, Joseph's father-in-law, and he did.

This statement was read to me and my daughter before being signed. I heard Hurlbut lecture before, and after he saw Spaulding's widow [Dec 1833].* *{This is the statement.}

W. R. HINE X.

His right arm was paralyzed and he was compelled to sign with an X. He stated that the Kelleys, Mormon elders from Kirtland, called on him the day of the Ohio State election in Oct., 1884, and asked him questions and he replied. They wrote down something; but did not read it to him and he does not know that it is correct.

In the Colesville area the following directions were given relative to the location of William Riley HINE's home and farm:

Directions

*Isaac HALE lived seven miles below him on the Susquehanna River.

*They were on the road that went to Bainbridge, NY.

*His farm adjoined that of Calvin SMITH.

*His house was three miles from Badger's Tavern in Colesville.

*Newell Knight lived a few miles from him.

*Dr. B. [possibly Ezra] Seymour lived 1 1/2 miles from him.

It has been determined that Badger's Tavern stood at the intersection of what is now Colesville & Watrous roads (near Coles Hill Cemetery). Locally this site is now referred to as that of the Cole's Tavern. The William Riley Hine home existed 2.7 miles south of the tavern at the intersection of what is now Seward Road and Route 79 (Watrous Road becomes Seward Road when it crosses Ouaquaga Road). This is the location where William Riley Hine witnessed Joseph Smith and Emma Hale when they were eloping on the Bainbridge Road. The Isaac Hale home seven miles below the Hine home would have been in South Windsor. The elopement distance from South Windsor to Bainbridge is twenty-eight miles.

• 1825 census - Broome Co., NY: Windsor Twp., p. 9. [1 male, 3 female, 1 eligible voter, 1 md female under 45, 2 unmd females under 16 (1 born in preceding year), 3 acres, 2 cattle, 1 sheep, 3 hogs, 6 yds fulled cloth, 4 yds thin cloth].
• 1830 census - Broome Co., NY: Windsor Twp., p. 84 [males: 1 10-30; females: 1 <5, 5-10, 20-30].
• 1832 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Chester Twp., range 9, twp. 8, p. 34.
• 1840 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., p. 157 [males: 1<5, 1 30-40; females: 1<5, 2 15-20, 1 20-30].
• 1840 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., bk 23, p. 84.
• 1841 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., bk 25, p. 86.
• 1842 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Newbury Twp., bk 26, p. 72.
• 1843 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Newbury Twp., bk 28, p. 79.
• 1844 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Newbury Twp., bk 29, p. 81.
• 1847 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Newbury Twp., bk 36, p. 88.
• 1848 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., bk 37, pp. 97-107.
• 1848 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., bk 38, pp. 32-129.
• 1849 tax list - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., bk 39, pp. 103-113.
• 1850 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., p. 184B, 151/167 [farmer] [age 49; b. NY].
• 1860 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., p. 136 [723], 1152/1084 [farmer] [age 56; b. NY].
• 1870 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., p. 13 [230A], 125/116 [farmer] [age 67; b. NY] [Jul 1870].
• 1870 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., p. 12 [239B], 107/99 [farmer] [age 67; b. NY] [Mar 1871].
• 1880 census - Geauga Co., OH: Munson Twp., E.D. 75, p. 11 [107], 109/111 [farmer] [age 77; b. NY] [parents b. in CT] [widower].
• Will and Probate Records.
• Death record (old age).
• Tombstone [lot 25].
• History of Geauga and Lake Counties, OH, 1878, p. 200.
• W. R. Hine's Statement.
• "Captain Ambrose Hine," John Raleigh McCullough, 1958 [FHL film # 0185430, item 7].
• Vogel, Dan, ed., Early Mormon Documents - Volume 5, p. 370, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 2003.

KIRTLAND APOSTASY

The Kirtland period was a very turbulent time for the Church. In 1837-1838 the "Kirtland Apostasy" occurred, almost fifty percent of the Mormon converts abandoned their new faith. Even ten of the Twelve Apostles left the Church. William Riley HINE's disaffection seems to have been influenced by the lectures of "Doctor" Philastus HURLBUT, who in retaliation for his being excommunicated for immorality on 3 Jun 1833, concocted the theory that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from Solomon SPAULDING's Manuscript Found. HINE attended a lecture around this subject in late December 1833 in Kirtland. The fact that his defection wasn't immediate is suggested by the fact that he quarried most of the stone for the Kirtland Temple after the HURLBUT lecture. However, evidence suggests that by 1836 he was already disassociated from the Mormons.

With the re-discovery of an original SPAULDING Manuscript in Hawaii in 1884, the debate over the authenticity of the Book of Mormon reemerged. The Kirtland area was scoured by investigators, who sought to identify former Mormons such as William Riley HINE to interview. In October 1884 he was interviewed by RLDS Elders KELLEY, i.e. Edmund Levi KELLEY [1844-1930], who became counselor to Pres. Joseph SMITH III in 1897; and his brother William H. KELLEY [1841-1915], who became an RLDS Apostle in 1873 and President of the RLDS Quorum of the Twelve in 1897. In March 1885 he was interviewed by the anti-Mormon Arthur B. DEMING. HINE was one of five located witnesses, who had attended the HURLBUT lectures and who saw the purported manuscript pages.

At the time of the DEMING interview HINE was eighty-two years old and at least physically infirm. He could only sign his statement with an "X". This statement later appeared in Naked Truths About Mormonism on 1 Jan 1888 - thirteen months before HINE's death. While there are some parts that may be interpreted as anti-Mormon in this statement, even LDS researchers find that the historical events touched upon are basically accurate. Given the purposes of DEMING, the possibility exists that the anti-Mormon parts are editorial embellishments against which an infirm and dying HINE was unable to protest, if he was even aware of them. The main purpose of the DEMING interview was to validate through witnesses that HURLBUT had a copy of the SPAULDING manuscript that he showed during his lectures.

William Riley HINE’s daughter Mehitable E. HINE married David STODDARD 25 Dec 1836 in Geauga Co., OH. He has been eliminated as a brother to Calvin W. STODDARD (son of Silas STODDARD and Bathsheba SHEFFIELD), who was married to Sophronia SMITH -- sister to the Prophet Joseph SMITH, Jr. Whether or not David was related to Calvin has not been established. David and Mehitable had a son William, who was born 1842/1843 in IL. The question has been raised as to whether or not this could have been in Nauvoo. This family is lost in the records. A question of whether or not this family was associated with the early Saints and perhaps eventually influenced by the Kirtland Apsotasy has been postulated.

William Riley HINE’s granddaughter Ruth Hayden married Amos W. SWEET 23 Oct 1864 in Geauga Co., OH. Amos' father was John Harris SWEET b. 17 Oct 1805 in Wayne Co., NY. His mother was Harriet HARRIS. She was born in 1811 in NY. She was the daughter of Preserved HARRIS – brother of Martin HARRIS [one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon]. John Harris SWEET and Harriet HARRIS were married 25 Dec 1828 in Wayne Co., NY. They settled in Kirtland, OH, in 1830. Their sons Job, Amos & Mahlon settled in the Painesville area. This family was a neighbor to Joseph Smith, Jr., near Palmyra and became founding members of the Mormon faith. They later broke with the LDS Church in Lake Co., OH, during the Kirtland Apostasy.

Amos' uncle was Northrup/Northrop SWEET (brother of John Harris SWEET). Northrup married a HARRIS cousin. He joined other apostate Mormons to found the "Pure Church of Christ". He is referenced in D & C section 33.

Those with an interest in the descendant genealogies of those caught up in the Kirtland Apostasy are invited to write trturk@frontiernet.net.