135 years ago today - Mar 25, 1885

[Caroline Rockwell (neighbor of the Smith's)]

... I saw a large hole dug on Nathaniel Smith's farm, which was sandy. I saw Joshua Stafford's peep-stone which looked like white marble and had a hole through the center. Sallie Chase, a Methodist, had one and people would go for her to find lost and hidden or stolen things. My mother [Sarah Witt Rockwell] was one of the first Mormon converts. Father [Orin Rockwell] copied the "Book of Mormon" for the printer, or part of it. I heard Martin Harris say that the first part of the "Book of Mormon" was stolen and that he thought his wife took it and it was not printed in the "Book of Mormon." Father joined the Mormons after my parents went West. Catherine Smith, sister of the prophet, showed me in their house a chest with lock where the plates were kept, but they feared they would be stolen, and then she took up four bricks in the hearth and said they had been buried there. Jo Smith's mother doctored many persons in Palmyra. My sister, with whom mother died in California, was opposed to her being a Mormon. I hope sometime it will be known whether Mormonism is true or not. My brother, Orrin Porter Rockwell, made me a visit in 1844 or '45. When ten years old he broke his leg and a young doctor in Palmyra set it so one leg was shorter than the other and it always troubled him so he could not work at farming.

[statement by Caroline Rockwell, sister of Orrin Porter Rockwell in Naked Truths About Mormonism (April 1888): 1., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Caroline Rockwell Smith Statement]

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