Item Detail
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13580
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9
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18
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English
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Grandison Newell's Obsession
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Journal of Mormon History
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Spring 2004
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30
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no.1
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Mormon History Association
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159-88
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Joseph Smith had many detractors, but Grandison Newell of Mentor, Ohio, was one of the few that had no apparent reason for going after Joseph Smith and his followers. Newell was not a minister trying to protect his flock, nor was he politician concerned with the block voting that seemed to accompany the Mormons, yet he still persecuted and followed Smith and the members for almost thirty years. This unfounded but apparently unshakable dislike seems to have become an obsession. A brief discussion of Newell's background and business activities is given. Newell refused to employ any of the Mormons in his factory or shops. After hearing claims that could prove Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon, Newell decided to support the claims though his investment yielded nothing that proved plagiarism. Newell tried to prevent Mormon leaders and missionaries from speaking in Mentor and organized mobs to drive them out when they attempted it. The opening of the Kirtland Safety Society bank and the subsequent issuing of money-like script without a state charter presented Newell with another reason to pursue Joseph Smith and followers eventually driving them from Kirtland. Twenty-one years after Smith left Kirtland, Newell gained authorization from the Ohio General Assembly to acquire and sell property in Kirtland still owned by the Smith estate. Adams concludes that Newell's action might have been rationalized if he had been a clergyman who felt he was protecting his congregation from infidels, or if the Church or its leaders had owed him money or defrauded him in any way, but neither was the case. Newell's persistant obsession appears to have been based on pure malevolence and his place in history was secured solely for the reasons of being a bigot and a bully.
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