lomon Spalding, who was born in Ashford, Conn., in 1761, graduated at Dartmouth college in 1785, was ordained, and preached for three or four years. Relinquishing the ministry, he engaged in mercantile business at Cherry Valley, N. Y., whence in 1809 he removed to Conneaut, Ohio. In 1812 he removed to Pittsburgh, and thence in 1814 to Amity, Pa., where he died in 1816. He wrote several novels, which he was in the habit of reading to his friends in manuscript, as they were so worthless that he could find no publisher for them, while his poverty prevented him from issuing them at his own expense. During his residence in Ohio in 1810-'12 he wrote a romance to account for the peopling of America by deriving the Indians from the Hebrews, in accordance with a notion then prevalent in some parts of the country that the American Indians were descended from the lost tribes of Israel. As early as 1813 this work was announced in the newspapers as forthcoming, and as containing a translation of the “Book of Mormon.” Spalding entitled his book “Manuscript Found,” and intended to publish with it by way of preface or advertisement a fictitious account of its discovery in a cave in Ohio. His widow published a statement in the “Boston Journal,” May 18, 1839, declaring that in 1812 he placed his manuscript in a printing office at Pittsburgh, with which Sidney Rigdon was connected. Rigdon, she says, copied the manuscript; and his possession of a copy was known to all in the printing office, and was often mentioned by himself. Subsequently the original manuscript was returned to the author, who soon after died. His widow preserved it till after the publication of the “Book of Mormon,” when she sent it to Conneaut, where a public meeting, composed in part of persons who remembered Spalding's work, had requested her to send the manuscript that it might be publicly compared with the “Book of Mormon.” She says in conclusion: “I am sure that nothing would grieve my husband more, were he living, than the use which has been made of his work. The air of antiquity which was thrown about the composition doubtless suggested the idea of converting it to the purposes of delusion. Thus, a historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expressions, and extracts from the sacred Scriptures, has been constructed into a new Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fanatics as divine.” Sidney Rigdon was born in St. Clair township, Allegheny co., Pa., Feb. 19, 1793. Soon after getting possession of a copy of Spalding's manuscript, he quitted the printing office and became a preacher of doctrines peculiar to himself, and very similar to those afterward incorporated into the “Book of Mormon.” He had a small body of converts to his notions when about 1829 he became associated with Joseph Smith, who was then endeavoring to gain believers to his tale of the golden plates and stone spectacles. It is asserted that through Rigdon's agency Smith became possessed of a copy of Spalding's manuscript, which he read from behind the blanket to his amanuensis Oliver Cowdery, with such additions as suited the views and purposes of Rigdon and himself. Immediately on its publication, the “Book of Mormon” was recognized not only by Spalding's widow but by many of his friends as his long lost work. The printing of the “Book of Mormon” was done at the expense of Martin Harris, who had some property, and was persuaded that he could make money by the speculation. While the work was in progress, this man called upon Prof. Anthon of New York with a transcript on paper which Smith had given him of the characters on one of the golden plates. “This paper,” Prof. Anthon says in a letter dated New York, Feb. 17, 1834, “was in fact a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters, inverted or placed sideways, were arranged and placed in perpendicular columns; 