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The early Utah period of Mormon history saw the rise and fall of many peculiar schisms and competing prophets. From the reincarnation teachings of Charles Stayner (who apostle Orson F. Whitney was so enamored with), to the Mormon-Spiritist syncretism of William Godbe (who apostle Amasa Lyman joined, holding seances to commune with the deceased Joseph Smith), one “would-be” leader is largely forgotten to history – the man known as Arnold Potter, or “Potter Christ.” Having been given the Melchizedek priesthood by Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 24, 1840, and receiving a patriarchal blessing by Joseph Smith, Sr. on June 1, 1840,1 Potter would eventually settle in Mill Creek, Salt Lake County in 1849, as an early Mormon pioneer.2

Potter and his wife had been among those converted by Wilford Woodruff and his companions at the Benbow farm and were active members of the Church ever since. Potter would be ordained into the 16th Quorum of Seventy at Nauvoo,3 and would later become the President of the Sand Prairie branch in Iowa, which had 49 members as of March 15, 1845.4 While his loyalty to the Church remained strong during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, it was during the Presidency of Brigham Young that Potter began to reject Mormon Orthodoxy, and developed his own vision for the future of Zion.

By 1856, Arnold Potter had moved from Salt Lake City, Utah, to San Berndardino, being one of the pioneers sent there by the Church to settle in California.5 On March 16, 1856, he was then called by Brigham Young to board the ship “Osprey” and embark as a missionary to Australia.6 While aboard the Osprey, Potter claimed to have experienced a “purifying, quickening change,” receiving the literal soul of Christ into his body and being transformed into “Potter Christ, Son of the living God.” He was given “revelations from the Lord saying he was the one chosen to lead the Church,”7 and a series of manuscripts and pamphlets outlining his beliefs soon followed. Of these, only one central text survives, which we will examine.

The Revelations of Potter Christ

A short, 16-page pamphlet titled, “Revelations of Potter Christ” is the best (and perhaps only) first-hand source detailing the theology of Arnold Potter. He opens with the account of his transformation, having received the title of Christ on August 15, 1856, while aboard the Osprey, explaining that over a duration of three days his body was miraculously transformed from a mortal to a spiritual body, that Christ underwent the same 3-day process, and that the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation are “soon to be reclaimed by the same quickening change.”8 During this process, Potter lost “every drop” of his “mortal blood,” but his “Resurrection Angel (Christ)” entered his body as fast as the mortal blood left it. He says, “This angel is the spirit called in Scripture the Holy Ghost; the same spirit that quickened Jesus body … This spirit was what made Jesus the Christ, by quickening him. This spirit also done the same by me … This quickening revealed to me that I was the very person Paul calls the last Adam … I saw plainly, according to Paul, I held the title Christ, the Lord from Heaven—being a quickened spirit.”9

If Potter holds the title of Christ, what title does Jesus hold? Potter explains: “This pamphlet is also the glorious harbinger of the revealing to the world, the first and second advent of Potter Christ, Son of the Living God, who has now succeeded his Celestial Father, Jesus, who once was our Christ, the Gospel Mediator, but is now God, the very Eternal Father, and now reveals himself to me, his only Son, in His new name, Abraham, who now is the great Spiritual Father of us all.”10 Referring to Jesus as “Father Abraham” or “Jesus Abraham” throughout the pamphlet, Potter envisions a system where the resurrected Jesus has ascended to become our new Heavenly Father, leaving a vacant spot for a new “Christ,” which Potter fills with his birthright as the “Son of the living God.” He continues: “While passing through my change, I received the Three Witnesses, the same as Jesus did. These three witnesses I received in my flesh, and declared to me that I then was the immortal Christ, the Son of God, the same as Jesus Christ had been on earth.”11

The newly appointed “Potter Christ” quickly went to work writing “The Celestial Law,” a book he titled, “The Midnight Cry,” which would “wake up the slumbering Christians of all sects and denominations.”12 He did this by means of angelic inspiration: “I was visited by Celestial Angels of the highest of spirits. These glorious spirits revealed to me God’s Holy Celestial Law—the Law to govern Zion, the holy Millenium kingdom, throughout all time. These celestial angels stood by me forty days, and often at morning’s dawn, I saw them standing by my bed in a stooping posture, whispering God’s eternal truth, and so firmly did they implant it in my immortal mind by holy inspiration, that I often arose and wrote two full sheets, as easy as from a copy, and through the day time, though invisible, did my instructors keep my mind well stored with eternal truths as fast as I could write them.”13 In an advertisement for his pamphlet, Potter goes on to call himself, “the greatest writing medium of the Age,” as his revelations were “written in the presence of Celestial Angels.”14

Having completed his magnum opus, which also included “four hundred entirely new hymns,”15 The Midnight Cry was still not ready for the Saints, as it would first have to be preached in Hades by Joseph Smith: “I then went to San Francisco, to put my work in print. The same night I arrived there, an holy angel, Moroni, by name, visited me and took my manuscript, and said, ‘You have written the Holy Law to govern Zion, the Millenium Kingdom of Heaven; and this Law must first be preached to the Zion of the spirit world.’ ... Moroni also explained to me that Joseph Smith opened the sixth Gospel dispensation, here, and at his death, he was sent to open the sixth dispensation in Hades, the spirit land. And having closed his Gospel dispensation in Hades … he, Joseph, was now ready to obey the Holy Law of the dispensation of the fullness of time, and preach it to the spirits that had obeyed the preparatory Gospel there in Hades.”16

Not only would Potter’s book be preached in Hades by Joseph Smith, but it had already been taken to the highest heaven to be reviewed by the Gods themselves! Potter writes, “I, Potter Christ, the Immortal Son of the Living God, did write the New Covenant—the Celestial Law, under the immediate dictation of an holy spirit angel, (I being a writing medium), yet after doing the very best I could, and revising it three different times, it was not then thought sufficiently perfect to judge and govern the elect of Israel; so it was taken to the highest Heaven, before the Grand Council of the Gods, or God Head, to be inspected, and if need be, revised by our Great Father, Jesus Abraham, himself, and his quorum, Michael and Gabriel. So, now, remember what I tell you, it is eternal truth and nothing but the truth, and easy to understand, that is to judge the whole world; so all may rest assured that a righteous judgement will be rendered unto all out of a book brought direct from the highest Courts of Heaven by the holy spirit angel Gabriel.”17 Having passed the Heavenly book review, and after passing Joseph Smith’s test run in Hades, “’then,’ says the spirit angel [Moroni], ‘when this is fulfilled, the holy spirit angel, Gabriel, [will] bring down to earth again the Holy Celestial Law, in direct fulfillment of Rev. XIV, 6, all printed in a book. This book is then the same John ate on the Isle of Patmos, then a figure of a book, but now a glorious reality—a real, literal book will Gabriel bring to Potter Christ’s Zion; now founded and set up on this earth.’”18

When would this glorious book finally be returned to the earth to help guide the Saints? Why, at the translation of Potter Christ, when he would ascend to the Celestial Sun in Gabriel’s heavenly chariot! Potter explains: “At the time Gabriel comes down with the Holy Book, or books, I have my twenty-one witnesses. In the presence of these witnesses, myself and family of seven persons, will enter the chariot of the angel, and are translated with him to where my father, Jesus Abraham dwells, in yonder Sun, the Celestial planet … When I and my family enter the heavenly chariot, then we pass our last great celestial quickening change in a moment—the twinkling of an eye—then being of the same nature, in body and mind, as Jesus Abraham now is, we are taken by our conductor right into the presence of our Great Father Abraham, who sits on the great White Throne. I shall be absent from earth about eleven months, then return—coming down in the great Temple, the same spoken of by John … On the day I return, the Sixth Seal is opened.”19

Although advertising The Midnight Cry as coming to print “immediately,” the Book never materialized. Potter took out an article in the paper which read, “The Midnight Cry is coming! The mysterious book so long under the seven seals is now immediately to be put in print.”20 Shortly after, it was said that a “steam power press was en route from Keokuk to print this long-expected book,” which Potter called, “the eighth wonder of the world.”21 Perhaps still in review in the Heavenly Courts on the Sun, or still being preached by Joseph Smith in Hades, we at least have an idea of what this “new bible” contained:

“Part one contained the opening and closing of the six gospel dispensations ‘from the beginning of the world down to the present, A.D. 1871.’ There was also, the article said, a full description of how and when the sun was formed; who God is, and his first name; his wife; the formation of the first female; a full description of the New Jerusalem; who Jesus was and who he is now; the salvation of all females; and sundry other things including sixty new millennium hymns, Potter Christ’s holy lineage through twenty-two bodies, and the unholy lineage of Brigham Young from Cain.

Part two, Potter explained showed the final downfall and utter destruction of modern Babylon and a full description of the two great battles to be fought between Potter Christ, “the living God,” and Brigham Young, at the head of their great armies, in which Potter was to slay all of Brigham’s vast army except two thousand, and capture his military chest containing ninety-five million in gold. There followed also much other information. The long list of revelations which Potter gave in his ‘brief prospectus’ showed at least a most remarkable imagination.

The final paragraph dealt with the physical appearance of the Midnight Cry, including ‘a steel plate engraving of the Angel Gabriel, with Potter Christ and family of seven persons, entering the chariot of the angel in the presence of twenty-seven witnesses.’ The book was not to be sold, but was to be sent free to the poor. It was suggested, however, that the rich might donate free gifts to Potter’s angel witnesses, as ‘an untold amount of means’ would be needed to print the millions of books necessary for every tenth person in Christendom to have one.”22

The Life of Arnold Potter

Having had a taste of the “Revelations of Potter Christ,” what can be said about the man who is Arnold Potter? Our understanding of this Latter-day “Messiah” comes primarily from newspaper reports, many of which are from Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he became somewhat of a local oddity, spending the last seven years of his life there. The first known report of Arnold Potter comes from the Manuscript History of the San Bernardino Settlement, immediately upon Potter’s return from Australia: “Wednesday 21 October 1857—Arnold Potter, who calls himself Potter Christ, appeared in our streets today with a brand on his forehead which had been put in with India ink. The words which can be read at quite a distance, are ‘Potter Christ—The Living God—Morning Star.’ To the right of the inscription is a star, below a cross. He appears very desirous of winning followers. It is said there are several apostates about to join him.”23

In her autobiography, Louisa Barnes Pratt, a Mormon missionary and pioneer, living in San Bernardino, records: “The 1st day of Nov. [1857] two elders from Australia preached to the people. Their discourses were comforting and instructive; filling our minds with animated hope. At the close, a stranger, calling himself Potter Christ arose, called on the people to listen; proclaimed he was the “Ancient of Days!” Said he was immortalized; had passed from death into life; that he should no more taste death. He further said, in sixty one [days] he would lead the elect back to Jackson County, Missouri, and build the Temple there; then the tares and wheat would be separated. The people listened to him for a short time, and then turned away; believing him to be insane. He succeeded in getting a very few to believe on him, and soon left the place.”24

Potter was apparently causing such a scene in San Bernardino that William J. Cox wrote a letter to Charles C. Rich, (one of the key leaders in establishing the San Bernardino settlement), explaining the situation (with a healthy dose of sarcasm):

“Christ has suddenly come to San Bernardino and the Saints will not receive him. We have turned infidel and cut him off from the Church. It is Arnold Potter that claims to be a Potter Christ, the living God, the morning star. He is causing quite a stir among the apostates in this place. He is going to organize his church next Sunday, so I hear. So we thought we would take [the] priesthood from him ... Potter is getting revelation constantly, he put up a proclamation on the 6^th, the day that we cut him off, assigning us our portion and also the Mormons in Salt Lake. He has been Adam and all the great men that ever lived. He is going to Jackson County, Missouri, in 12 months to build up Zion ... He is going to brand his disciples in the forehead with ink tattooed in. So you see there will be no chance to apostatize for the mark will stay as long as they live.”25

By 1861, Arnold and his small band of followers left for Independence, Missouri, but were shortly driven out due to persecution; Arnold was even shot at by a Union soldier, leading him to declare a curse upon the Union and predicting that the South would win the Civil War.26 Potter’s “church” eventually settled in a small town called St. Mary’s, but after a flood washed St. Mary’s away in 1865, the group moved 12 miles north to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A newspaper at the time reports: “There is one old fellow wandering about the streets here, a little more crazy than the other Mormons who calls himself, ‘Potter Christ,’ his name being Potter, and he claiming to be Christ in the flesh. He is a painful spectacle, the laughing stock of all the rude boys in town, and when asked why he does not exert some of his diving power replies with great solemnity, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.’”27

Another newspaper from 1870 reports: “Brigham Young has a rival who styles himself ‘Potter Christ,’ and has as many revelations as the Mormon prophet, and of a much more startling character, one of them being that another great national war is to occur in this country within a year.”28 The Deseret News, in the same year, gave a fuller report of Potter’s activities, including details about his time in San Bernardino:

“POTTER CHRIST.—An individual assuming this title, created considerable excitement, says the Omaha Herald of the 21st inst., by perambulating the streets of that city the day previous, selling a pamphlet entitled the ‘Revelations of Potter Christ, the Messenger of the New Covenant: given by Inspiration of God for the salvation of the whole world.’ The Herald says he is an old man with long silver hair, flowing beard, prepossessing appearance, and was formerly a ‘Mormon’ missionary; but whether he believes himself to be the ‘Messenger of the New Covenant,’ is insane, or merely trying a dodge to draw the greenbacks it is unable to determine. In his pamphlet he tries to convert people to believe that he is the second Messiah.

Probably some of our readers will recollect this individual. His vagaries some years ago in California proved him to be insane. While there he received, or pretended to receive a great many revelations, which he asserted gave him authority to regulate the church. And when the presiding officer there refused to receive his crazy declarations, as the revealed will of Heaven, he was threatened by Potter with terrible things—among others that the Lord was displeased with him and that he would speedily be removed from his position and another appointed in his stead. But these predictions soon proved their own falsity, like others of which we wot, made since by some of the same school as Potter.

After Potter’s departure from California he started for Australia, and while on the passage he conducted himself in the most extravagant manner; and upon reaching Sidney, it was considered necessary to put him into an insane asylum. After his release and return from that country, he assumed the character of, and gave out that he was, some great one; and had a brand made, the inscription upon it being the words, ‘Potter-Christ,’ and succeeded in obtaining some followers who consented to be branded in the forehead. After poor Potter’s success in obtaining converts we ceased to be surprised at the facility with which apostates and crazy people can secure adherents. No matter how ridiculous may be the pretensions or foolish the ravings of pretenders of this class in regard to the authority they possess to lead God’s Church, and to inaugurate new movements, they are successful in obtaining followers, from among the corrupt, the unprincipled, the demented or the insincere, as the career of this man Potter and others proves.”29

In William Kirby’s 1894 book, Mormonism Exposed and Refuted, Kirby recounts his experience of traveling out of the Salt Lake Valley and running into Arnold Potter on the road, who was then “on his way to Washington to ask Congress to cede to him Jackson County, Missouri, for the purpose of building up the true Mormon Zion.”30 I will reproduce the passage here for the reader’s enjoyment:

“A new Mormon prophet, by the name of Potter, afterwards called ‘Potter Christ,’ had come up … He had been proclaiming in Salt Lake, through the past winter, that Brigham Young was a false prophet, and had led the whole church into an apostate state, and that the church was now in transgression, and that unless it should be restored to what it was when Joseph Smith instituted it, the judgements of God would overtake it and destroy its present leaders, and raise up a new prophet to lead it. He had publicly warned the church especially the heads, and they had not regarded the warning which God had sent him to proclaim. ‘And now,’ said he, ‘in a short time the judgements of God will fall upon the people in Utah,’ the leaders would be destroyed, and God had called him to reorganize the church with headquarters at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri; and that now he was on his way to Washington to have the government cede to him Jackson County as a preliminary toward the reorganization of the church. He overtook us a few days before we reached Fort Kearney. He was free and communicative on his supposed-to-be-divine undertaking, and I was just as free to listen to all he had to say. In fact, he was soon under the impression that I was favorable to his mission. I had intended it to go that way, so I could get to the bottom of his plan, and I should have a favorable opportunity to criticize it. I listened to all he had to say on the matter, and suggested to him that if he was favorable I should like to have a long private interview with him on the subject. He at once consented. He was evidently under the impression that there was something really divine about the matter, which led me the more anxiously to test him. I arranged with him that after we had got into camp that evening, and camp work was done, we, by ourselves, would retire from the camp and thoroughly talk the matter over. I told him I was a hearty candidate for any and all that I could conceive to be good and true. After supper I went to him, inviting him to take a walk. We walked quite a distance from the camp, and sat down on the grass. I had heard sufficient of the particulars already to satisfy me it was another manifestation of religious humbug. I felt sure our conference would be very short. I had already had some experience among false and deceptive religionists.

I said to him, ‘Now, Bro. Potter, in order to get the information I most need, allow me to ask a few questions.’ To this he readily gave his consent. I said to him, ‘Bro. Potter, you say the Lord has revealed this matter to you.’ He answered that he had. I said, ‘please tell me where you were when the Lord made this known to you.’ He said he was at home, in his feed lot. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was husking fodder. I then asked him how the Lord made this known to him. He paused awhile as though he did not understand me. I then said to him, ‘Did you see any one?’ He answered, ‘No.’ I asked him if he heard any one speaking, as an audible voice. He said he did not. Then I said to him, ‘Please tell me by what means these things were made known to you.’ Here he was at a total loss for an answer. I asked if these things had just occurred to his mind without any sensible manifestation, and at once he rose to his feet in haste, saying, ‘Your horns are too large to enter the kingdom, and I wish no more to do with you.’ I answered him, ‘We are about even on that part of the programme.’ After this it was no trouble for me to keep out of his way, for he gave himself special trouble to avoid me. I was after this unable to approach him on any subject.”31

The Death of Arnold Potter

The life of Arnold Potter was a strange one, and his death was a tragic one. According to the Palimpsest: “On July 24, 1871, appeared a notice that Potter Christ and his angels would march in ascension regalia through the city, accompanied by a band of music, in obedience to a new order signed by Gabriel. One of the business firms took advantage of the publicity that Potter was having heaped upon him, and incorporated him in their advertisements. The public was advised that Potter Christ and the Angel Gabriel proposed opening a branch house on Mars for the company!”32

Throughout the summer of 1871, Potter and his followers continued their apocalyptic parade, marching throughout the city, but eventually they journeyed to the bluffs. Dr. W. H. Nipps describes how things took a turn for the worst: “The converts were few but devout. The men wore long black robes and the women dressed like it was a sin to be pretty. They held enthusiastic prayer meetings. At one time Potter decided it was time to make his ‘ascent.’ Some packing house workers made up a purse to buy the self-designated holy man some golden slippers befitting the occasion. Some other kind soul donated a donkey, and before long the entire Potter Christ group made a pilgrimage to the bluffs from which Potter was to leave for his home in the heavens. Apparently the weather or the signs were not right for the ascension because Potter never took off, and there is no report of the descent from the bluffs.”33

Steven L. Shields summarized the “ascent” as follows: “When Potter led his followers out of Council Bluffs, it is said that he rode a mule and carried a cross. Potter’s death is reported at least by one source as having been caused when he leaped to his death from the bluff above the town in an attempt to ascend into heaven.”34 Evidently, there was no heavenly chariot, no Gabriel, and no Midnight Cry. And so ends the tale of Potter Christ.

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Leman Copley was born in Connecticut in 1781 and joined a Shaker community near Cleveland in 1820.1 He was an early convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being baptized in March 1831.2 Joseph Smith’s History records, “At about this time came Leman Copley, one of the sect called Shaking Quakers, and embraced the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.”3 Copley’s conversion was the springboard for Joseph Smith’s May 7, 1831 revelation recorded in D&C 49 which “refuted some of the basic concepts of the Shaker group.”4 Leman Copley was “honest-hearted,” but he still believed that the Shakers were right in some aspects of their faith. Joseph Smith records, “In order to have [a] more perfect understanding on the subject, I inquired of the Lord.”5 After receiving clarification, Leman Copley, Sidney Rigdon, and Parley P. Pratt were commissioned to take the revelation to the Shaker community at Union Village6 and win new converts, but in Pratt’s own words, “they utterly refused to hear or obey the Gospel.”7 John Whitmer records in his history, “The above-named brethren went and proclaimed [the Gospel] according to the revelation given them, but the Shakers hearkened not to their words and received not the Gospel at that time.”8

Copley had originally agreed that the Saints from Colesville, New York, could settle on his property in Thompson, Ohio (just outside of Kirtland), under the law of consecration, but after the failed mission to the Shakers in North Union he changed his mind.9 Copley experienced a faith crisis—having second thoughts about Mormonism, he also had second thoughts about Joseph Smith’s “United Order,” an economic system where the Saints would pool together their resources and land to be used according to individual needs: “The Saints were to make a consecration of whatsoever things they possessed unto the Bishop, and then each man receive from the Bishop a stewardship. Every man was to be equal in his stewardship, according to his family, his circumstances, and his needs.”10 Newel Knight records in his journal, “A man by the name of Copley had a considerable tract of land there [in Thompson] which he offered to let the Saints occupy. Consequently a contract was agreed upon, and we commenced work in good faith. But in a short time Copley broke the engagement.”11 John Whitmer also writes, “At this time [the early part of June] the Church at Thompson, Ohio, was involved in difficulty because of the rebellion of Leman Copley, who would not do as he had previously agreed, which thing confused the whole Church.”12 Because of Copley and others who broke similar agreements (such as Ezra Thayre), the Saints that had just arrived from Colesville were now without a home, and so moved westward to Missouri: “Newel Knight was appointed the leader of this company, which was made up of the Colesville branch, and under his leadership they made the entire journey from Thompson to Missouri.”13

Copley was disfellowshipped in summer 1831 for breaking his promise to the Colesville Saints but was reinstated in October 1832.14 Two years later, in 1834, Joseph Smith took Doctor Philastus Hurlburt to court for threatening his life, and Copley testified against Joseph Smith.15 For this action he was cut off from the Church a second time, but in 1836 he was rebaptized after admitting his error. Joseph Smith’s History records: “He [Leman Copley] confessed that he bore a false testimony against me in that suit, but verily thought, at the time, that he was right, but on calling to mind all the circumstances connected with the things that happened at that time, he was convinced that he was wrong, and humbly confessed it, and asked for my forgiveness, which was readily granted. He also wished to be received into the Church again, by baptism, and was received according to his desire. He gave me his confession in writing.”16 The strange story that follows was allegedly given by Copley during the Hurlbut trial.

Leman Copley and Moroni’s Monkey

The following account was originally published in E.D. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed, presented as an excerpt of Copley’s testimony in the State vs Hurlburt trial, though I am unable to find any other sources that corroborate the testimony. In a letter from George Gee during his 1841 mission to Pittsburgh, he says that after John E. Page’s discourse on The Book of Mormon, they were approached by a man (who Gee refers to as “the devil”), who brought with him a copy of E.D. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed, as well as a “pamphlet containing the trial between Br Joseph and Hurlburt at Painsville.” Gee and Page “then left the room while they read Lemon [Leman] Copleys testimony as give[n] at Painesville.” It is unclear if the man (or “devil”) was reading Leman Copley’s testimony as given in E.D. Howe’s book or if he was reading Leman Copley’s testimony as given in the pamphlet, which might corroborate E.D. Howe’s book. No known copies of said pamphlet survive today.17

The result of the 1834 trial against Hurlbut was in Joseph Smith’s favor and the court found that “the said complainant had ground to fear that the said Doctor Ph[ilastus] Hurlbut would wound, beat or kill him, or destroy his property.” Bail was set at $200 and Hurlbut was charged to keep the peace.18 Prior to the trial, Hurlbut had collected a series of affidavits from Joseph Smith’s neighbors in Palmyra with the goal of proving Mormonism a fraud. It was during a fiery anti-Mormon debate that “over 50 witnesses” heard Hulburt say that “he would kill Jo Smith.”19 After the trial, Hurlbut did not publish the affidavits himself, but instead gave them to E.D. Howe who was already working on his book. As Dan Vogel correctly asserts, “The legal entanglement must have dissuaded Hurlbut from publishing the affidavits on his own.”20 In addition to the Hurlbut affidavits, E.D. Howe published an excerpt of Hurlbut’s trial, where Leman Copley told the following story “under oath, before two magistrates of Painesville Township.”21 It is reproduced here in full for the reader:

“Mr. Copley testified, that after the Mormon brethren arrived here from the Susquehannah, one of them, by the name of Joseph Knight, related to him a story as having been related to him by Joseph Smith, Jun. which excited some curiosity in his mind, he determined to ask Joseph more particularly about it, on the first opportunity. Not long after it was confirmed to him by Joseph himself, who again related it in the following manner: “After he had finished translating the Book of Mormon, he again buried up the plates in the side of a mountain, by command of the Lord; some time after this, he was going through a piece of woods, on a by-path, when he discovered an old man dressed in ordinary gray apparel, sitting upon a log, having in his hand or near by, a small box. On approaching him, he asked him what he had in his box. To which the old man replied, that he had a MONKEY, and for five coppers he might see it. Joseph answered, that he would not give a cent to see a monkey, for he had seen a hundred of them. He then asked the old man where he was going, who said he was going to Charzee. Joseph then passed on, and not recollecting any such place in that part of the country, began to ponder over the strange interview, and finally asked the Lord the meaning of it. The Lord told him that the man he saw was MORONI, with the plates, and if he had given him the five coppers, he might have got his plates again.” (E.D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, p. 388-390)22

While no other story that I’m aware of describes Moroni tricking Joseph Smith with a “monkey in a box,” it’s not entirely out of character with treasure-digging lore, and the Leman Copley story shares some similarities with other Moroni stories—the most similar element being Moroni in disguise as an old man carrying the plates unbeknownst to anyone else until his true identity is revealed, acting as a kind of trickster-spirit. One example that immediately comes to mind is the story David Whitmer told to Edward Stevenson where David, Oliver Cowdery, and Joseph Smith were traveling in a wagon and passed “an aged man about 5 feet 10 [inches tall], heavy Set & on his back an old fashioned Armey knapsack strap[p]ed over his Shoulders & Something Square in it.”23

Just like in the Leman Copley story, Joseph Smith “asked the Lord” about the strange old man, at which point “the Prophet Looked as White as a Sheet & Said that it was one of the Nephites & that he had the Plates.” When they got to the Whitmer house, they were “impressed that the Same Person was under the Shed & again they were informed that it was So.” In the Copley story, Moroni acts like a trickster-spirit with his “monkey in a box,” while in the Whitmer story, Moroni acts like a trickster-spirit hiding under the shed. He doesn’t come out until the next day, when he reveals himself and the gold plates to Mary Whitmer: “The next Morning Davids Mother [Mary Musselman Whitmer] Saw the Person at the Shed and he took the Plates from a Box & Showed them to her.”24 This is a much more familiar story that is retold even as recently as the January 2024 edition of the Liahona, an official Church publication:

“Outside her home, a gray-haired man with a knapsack over his shoulder approached Mary and said, “My name is Moroni. You have become pretty tired with all the extra work you have to do.” Taking the knapsack off his shoulder, Moroni continued, “You have been very faithful and diligent in your labors. It is proper, therefore, that you should receive a witness that your faith may be strengthened.” He then revealed the contents of his knapsack—the gold plates.” (“Becoming a Witness,” Liahona, January 2024 Edition)25

Whether either of these stories truly originate with Joseph Smith is up to the reader. In the case of Leman Copley, while sharing similarities with other stories (like Joseph reburying the plates—a claim that Joseph’s brother, William Smith, also makes26), his “monkey in a box” story has undoubtedly gone through a game of telephone. If it really did originate with Joseph Smith, then it traveled from Joseph Smith to Joseph Knight to Leman Copley to Doctor Hurlbut and finally to E.D. Howe, where it was published in Mormonism Unvailed. That’s five people that the story had to go through, two of which who are explicitly anti-Mormon (Richard L. Anderson points out, Hurlbut’s “own character appears to be worse than the worst he gathered about Joseph Smith.”27), while Leman Copley himself confessed to Smith that he “bore false testimony” against him at the same trial where the story originates. Does that false testimony include the “monkey in a box?” I don’t know that we can arrive at a definitive answer, but the tale is interesting nonetheless. Another interesting story related to Copley is the account of his being possessed or attacked by Satan at the June 1831 Conference in Kirtland—a story that E.D. Howe reports in the same book as Copley’s Moroni story, but fails to identify Copley as one of its characters. If Howe knew, he would have certainly named Copley in his version of events. I will do so in mine.

Leman Copley Possessed by the Devil

Ezra Booth, “the first apostate to write publicly against the new Church,”28 provided several letters for E.D. Howe to publish in his book, Mormonism Unvailed, including a retelling of events that happened in June 1831 at the long-awaited Kirtland Conference. One such story is the demonic possession of Harvey Whitlock, which Booth summarized in the following narrative:

“Another Elder, who had been ordained to the same office as [Lyman] Wight, at the bidding of Smith, stepped upon the floor. Then ensued a scene, of which you can form no adequate conception; and which, I would forbear relating, did not the truth require it. The Elder moved upon the floor, his legs inclining to a bend; one shoulder elevated above the other, upon which the head seemed disposed to recline, his arms partly extended; his hands partly clenched; his mouth partly open, and contracted in the shape of an italic O; his eyes assumed a wild ferocious cast, and his whole appearance presented a frightful object to the view of the beholder. —“Speak, Brother Harvey” said Smith. But Harvey intimated by signs, that his power of articulation was in a state of suspense, and that he was unable to speak. Some conjectured that Harvey was possessed of the devil, but Smith said, “the Lord binds in order to set at liberty.” After different opinions had been given, and there had been much confusion, Smith learnt by the spirit, that Harvey was under a diabolical influence, and that Satan had bound him; and he commanded the unclean spirit to come out of him.” (Mormonism Unvailed, p. 207)29

Although an anti-Mormon source, the stories of the demonic attacks at the June 1831 Conference seem to be accurate and are reproduced extensively by Mormon sources as evidence of Joseph Smith’s power over evil spirits. One detail that Booth leaves out is that after Smith expelled the “man of sin” out of Harvey Whitlock, several other people were attacked, including our now-familiar character, Leman Copley. Philo Dibble was a first-hand witness to the events and records that it was first Hyrum Smith who identified the evil spirit: “Hyrum Smith arose and declared that there was an evil spirit in the room … and stepping to Harvey, commanded the evil spirits to leave him, but the spirits did not obey.”30

According to Levi Hancock, Hyrum said to his brother, “Joseph, that is not of God,” at which point, “Joseph bowed his head, and in a short time got up and commanded Satan to leave Harvey, laying his hands upon his head at the same time. At that very instant an old man said to weigh two hundred and fourteen pounds sitting in the window turned a complete summersault in the house and [landed on] his back across a bench and lay helpless. … The man’s name was Leamon Coply [Leman Copley], formally a Quaker [Shaker].”31 Philo Dibble records the same: “Next thing I saw a man came flying through the window from outside. He was straight as a man’s arm as he sailed into the room over two rows of seats filled with men, and fell on the floor between the seats and was pulled out by the brethren. He trembled all over like a leaf in the wind. He was soon . . . calm and natural. His name was Lemon [Leman] Copley. He weighed over two hundred pounds. This I saw with my own eyes and know it is all true, and bear testimony to it.”32

Besides Harvey Whitlock and Leman Copley, there was evidently a third man attacked by Satan that day. Hancock writes that after “Joseph told Lyman [Wight] to cast Satan out [of Leman Copley] … The evil spirit left him and as quick as lightening Harvey Green fell bound and screamed like a panther. Satan was cast out of him. But immediately entered someone else. This continued all day and the greater part of the night. … After this we … heard Harvey Whitlock say when Hyrum Smith said it was not [of] God, he disdained him in his heart and when the Devil was cast out he was convinced it was Satan that was in him and he knew … it. I also heard Harvey Green say that he could not describe the awful feeling he experienced while in the hands of Satan.”33 Likewise, Dibble reports, “Harvey Green was thrown upon his back on the floor by an unseen power. Some of the brethren wanted to administer to him by laying on of hands, but Joseph forbade it. Harvey looked to me like a man in a fit. He groaned and frothed at the mouth. Finally he got upon his knees and came out of it.”34 The fear of demonic possession gripped the congregation and Joseph Smith warned another member, “Heamon [Heman] Bassett you sit still the Devil wants to sift you…”35 Levi Hancock records that the fear was still in the air the following night and that he and a group of elders encountered Satan in the form of a jackass:

When night came Solomon and I, Wheeler Baldwin and some others started to my father’s, we walked heavily, some said that they felt as if they would be seized by Satan. Others that they felt as though the Devil and his angels were hanging about them. I kept my feelings to myself, until we came to the mill pond of Mr. Fergdsons about a half or a little over the distance we had to go that night. When we had got against the pond which was about fourteen rods across and very deep, I said, “Let us pray.” So we all kneeled down and prayed around a circle as soon as the last one got through about nine o’clock at night and the moon shown brightly. A sudden bray of a jackass was heard about twenty feet behind us. We looked and could see nothing and nothing in the way. It started toward the pond braying all the time. I never had seen one in my life and I know that there was none about there for I was well acquainted there. I heard how they brayed. The most of our company had seen them. This braying continued across the pond and ascended the high hills on the other side until it grew less and less distinct until it got out of hearing.. “There,” said Brother Baldwin. “This proves to me that this work is true, for we all prayed for assistance; the Devil ran away.” We all felt that it must have been Satan, and some said as much. We then started on our way feeling much better and as light as ever we felt. We told it to some but it seemed like an idle tale to them. This took place on the fifth of June 1831. This may appear strange to some but God knows that I lie not. Am ready to meet it before the heavens–that night seized me and I thought he would destroy me.”36

It’s strange stories like this during the Kirtland period, that give credence to the “Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism” Theory, popularized largely by Bryce Blankenagel37, though it had been presented even earlier by Robert Beckstead in 200738, Lamar Peterson in 197539, and originally by Jasper Moss, a medically-trained schoolteacher, who was an eyewitness to many of the strange happenings in Kirtland at the time. Moss suspected that rather than demonic attacks and spiritual manifestations, the Kirtland Saints were under the influence of some kind of hallucinogen in their sacramental wine. He wrote, “We witnessed the administration & became fully satisfied that the wine was medicated & I tried to steal the bottle with the ballanc of wine left & came near doing it & when I told my suspicions & how near I came to getting the wine those performances ceased.”40 On another occasion he said, “I became satisfied that their power was in the wine, so I tried to steal a bottle, and would have succeeded if I had been wearing the cloak I usually wore.”41 Whether Leman Copley was possessed by the devil or was under the influence of hallucinogenic wine, it’s still quite the mental image of a 200-pound man stiff as a board flying through a window over two rows of seated congregants.

Lucy Mack Smith also records this event in her famous Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, emphasizing Satan’s power to bind his victims’ tongues and contort their arms, face, and fingers as if in a spasm.42 As a final example, Zebedee Coltrin (who was among those who were visited by Jesus and Heavenly Father in the School of the Prophets after a communion of “warm bread” and “a glass of wine”43), also described this event, adding that after throwing Leman Copley through a window, and being cast out of both Copley and Green, “the spirit” went outside and violently threw a group of men to the ground:

“One man by the name of Leman Copley, standing at the back side of the house was taken by a supernatural power, and thrown into the window. Then Joseph said to Lyman [Wight] “Go and cast the devil out of Leman.” He did so, and the devil entered into a brother by the name of Harvey Green and threw him upon the floor in convulsions. Then Joseph laid hands upon him and rebuked the spirit from him and from the house, upon which the spirit left him, and went outside among a crowd of men standing near the door and made a swath among them several feet wide, throwing them violently to the ground.” (Remembering Joseph, p.181)44

Leman Copley Joins the Brewsterites

Despite having an on-again off-again relationship with the Church, Leman Copley eventually left for good, instead joining James C. Brewster and his fledgling “Church of Christ” in 1849. Brewster was a schismatic figure who had claimed since the age of ten that Moroni had been visiting him with new revelations for the church. In November of 1837, he was disfellowshipped at the age of eleven for “giving heed to revelations said to be translated from the Book of Moroni … and for entering into a written covenant different from the articles and covenants of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and following a vain and delusive spirit.”45 It was even alleged in the Kirtland High Council Meeting that Moses R. Norris ordained Brewster a prophet.46 Brewster claimed that he was indeed ordained a prophet, not by Norris, but by Joseph Smith, Sr., who before taking Brewster and his father on a money-digging adventure, anointed the group’s “mineral rods and seeing stones with consecrated oil” and “prayed over them in the house of the Lord in Kirtland”, after which he “sealed it up on me by the power of the Holy Priesthood … that I should be a Prophet, a Seer, a Revealer, and Translator, and that I should have power given me of God to discover and obtain the treasures which are hid in the earth.”47

After agreeing to cease his prophetic activities Brewster was readmitted to the church, although he had no intention of honoring that commitment as the revelations soon continued. After receiving a series of visions, Brewster began the task of committing his prophecies to paper. In his first vision he saw an angel “who showed him a large round table supporting a vast quantity of books” which were “ancient records that are to be written.” In his second vision, “he saw the lost books of Esdras, the writings of an ancient Israelite prophet.” In his third vision an angel declared to him “that it is the will of the Lord that you should commence and write those books of Esdras.” On December 27, 1838, the now twelve-year-old Brewster, unbeknownst to the church, began translating the records of Esdras through several scribes. This task would take him nearly four years to complete, finally publishing his book in June 1842 at the age of sixteen.48

Shortly before the completion of the book, the teenage prophet’s father, Zephaniah Brewster, began having doubts about the source of the revelations and met with Hyrum Smith, who urged him to take the manuscript to Joseph Smith for clarification. After six days, the boy’s father finally received Joseph’s verdict: “Brewster showed me the Manuscripts. I enquired of the Lord and the Lord told me the book was not true. It was not of him. If God ever called me, or spoke by my mouth, or gave me a revelation, he never gave revelations to that Brewster Boy or any of the Brewster race.”49 Ignoring Joseph Smith’s condemnation, Brewster and his father published the revelations as a pamphlet entitled, “The Words of Righteousness to All Men,” an action which led to their excommunication. John Taylor, then editor of the Times and Seasons and future President of the Church, wrote:

“We have lately seen a pamphlet, written, and published by James C. Brewster; purporting to be one of the lost books of Esdras; and to be written by the gift and power of God. We consider it a perfect humbug, and should not have noticed it, had it not been assiduously circulated, in several branches of the church. This said Brewster is a minor; but has professed for several years to have the gift of seeing and looking through or into a stone; and has thought that he has discovered money hid in the ground in Kirtland, Ohio. His father and some of our weak brethren, who perhaps have had some confidence in the ridiculous stories that are propagated concerning Joseph Smith, about money digging, have assisted him in his foolish plans, for which they were dealt with by the church. They were at that time suspended, and would have been cut off from the church if they had not promised to desist from their ridiculous ways. Since which time the family removed to Springfield, in this state; and contrary to their engagement have been seeing, and writing, and prophecying, &c. for which they have been dealt with by the Springfield church.” (Times and Seasons, December 1, 1842, p. 32)50

In Brewster’s “A Warning to the Latter Day Saints, Generally Called Mormons,” which contains the Ninth Book of Esdras, Esdras prophecies of the fall of Nauvoo, claiming the people of Nauvoo “have been a wicked and rebellious people, … they shall be driven out of the land of their inheritance. As Israel was driven forth by Nebuchanezzer, king of Babylon.”51 Because of the sudden western migration after the death of Joseph Smith (who Brewster claimed was a fallen prophet), many saw the now deserted Nauvoo as a fulfillment of Brewster’s prophecy. On September 29, 1849, James Brewster, Jackson Goodale, and Hazen Aldrich officially formed the First Presidency of the newly established “Church of Christ.” It is around this time that Leman Copley would have been swayed by Brewster’s prophetic claims, joining the new Church which would see membership grow into the “hundreds”52 by the following year.

Brewster had long declared that California would be a refuge for the Saints, as he had received a revelation that the gathering would be “upon the river Bashan [the Rio Colorado], beyond the wilderness of Deluen.” Joseph Smith was aware of this claim as early as 1842 and said: “Brewster may set our for California but he will not get there unless some body shall pick him up by the way [and] feed him &c.”53 On August 5, 1850, the now twenty-four-year-old Brewster departed for California with a ninety-member company, finally fulfilling his mission that was set forth at least eight years earlier when he was sixteen.54 No longer translating only books in visions, Brewster translated Mayan hieroglyphics from a book by John L. Stephens, Indian pictographs he found on rocks as he passed through New Mexico, and even the infamous Kinderhook Plates. Brewster’s translation differed significantly from Joseph Smith’s translation. Brewster claimed that the Kinderhook Plates contained the “History of the Altewanians,” written by “Varamenta, the last of the Altewanians,” whose people were destroyed in war with another nation about 400 A.D.55

The Brewsterite movement was short-lived after arriving in California, and many stayed behind in Kirtland, including Leman Copley. Hazen Aldrich voiced his dissatisfaction of Brewster: “We believe J.C. Brewster has misconstrued the Writings of Esdras to his own liking.”56 In response, Brewster accused Aldrich of usurping church authority.57 After several setbacks and failures as well as infighting between church leaders, membership slowly dwindled. Dan Vogel summarized James Brewster in the following way: “Young Brewster’s prophetic model was Joseph Smith, Jr., and in most important ways he attempted to emulate the Mormon leader’s career. But Brewster wished to succeed where he believed the Mormon prophet had failed, in the establishment of a utopian society.”58 By Brewster’s own metric, Brewster failed. The Reorganized Church’s official history states that Brewster was last heard “lecturing in California in advocacy of the system known as spiritualism,”59 either abandoning his failed prophetic career altogether or synthesizing Mormonism with Spiritualism as Amasa Lyman, The Godbeites, and many others did at the time, including David Hyrum Smith (Joseph Smith’s youngest son) who traveled to Utah in search of Laban’s “Urim and Thummim” or “peep-stone” having his horoscope cast for this purpose to see what his “lucky stars” had to say on the matter.60 It’s unclear how Leman Copley responded to the now-failed Brewsterite Church, but it’s a fascinating tale nonetheless.