Eber D. Howe (1798

Mormon History 1830-1844

Eber D. Howe (1798–1885)

Editor of the Painesville Telegraph (1822–1835); author, publisher of Mormonism Unvailed, based on affidavits collected by H. P. Hurlbut and including the letters of Ezra Booth previously published in the Ohio Star (1831).
Born		June 9, 1788 in Clifton Park, Saratoga County, New York, the fifth of six children.	Eber D. Howe, 1. Source
Died		October 9, 1885	Source
Near Seneca Lake		1784 family moves to Ovid, New York, near Seneca Lake—ten miles south of Fayette.	Eber D. Howe, 1–2. Source
Niagra Falls		1811 family moves to Canada, eight miles west of Niagra Falls.	Eber D. Howe, 1–2. Source
War of 1812		May 1814 enlists at Batavia to serve in War of 1812. as cook for the regimental and staff officers. Following the Battle of Lundy's Lane (July 25, 1814), his father, a surgeon, is given charge of the British prisoners hospital at Buffalo, and Eber serves as his assistant.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source // Nebraska album, 501. Source
Buffalo Gazette		Printer's apprentice for the Buffalo Gazette, Buffalo, New York.	Eber D. Howe, 21.
Erie Gazette		September 1817 sets type for the first issue of the Erie Gazette.	Nebraska album, 501. Source
Cleaveland Herald		1818 moves to Cleveland and helps establish the Cleaveland Herald in October 1819.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source // Western reserve, 180. Eber also gives 1818 for the Herald. Eber D. Howe, 21.
Skeptic		1818 at age 40 investigates beliefs in hereafter and becomes a skeptic.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source
Marriage		June 1822 marries Sophia Hull.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source
Painesville Telegraph		1822 moves to Painesville and starts the Painesville Telegraph.
Abolitionist		July 16, 1822 first issue of the Telegraph includes an abolitionist editorial and five advertisements. About 150 subscribers.	Nebraska album, 501. Source
Writes W. W. Phelps		January 11, 1831 writes W. W. Phelps, a printer in Canandaigua, New York, asking about "the origin of Mormonism."	Mormonism unvailed, 273.
Wife and sister join church		Wife (Sophia Hull), sister (Harriet), and niece join the church in Ohio.	Joseph and Emma visit Harriet, Dec. 1 and she visits them Dec. 14, 1835. Papers, 151, 160.
Niece, also a member, marries J. J. Moss		My wife was a niece of E. D. Howe & his wife and her mother were Mormons. … My wifes mother being a Mormon she was naturaly verry anxious to have her daughter go with her & believing that if she married me she would never be a Mormon she was therefore bitterly opposed <to> the mat<c>h & never gave her consent till Joseph got a revelation that I was to be a bright & shining light in the Mormon church & told her to let me have the girl & so I got the girl & afterwards converted the mother & she died in the christian faith.	J. J. Moss to James T. Cobb, Jan. 23, 1879, 2, 3. Source J. J. Moss md. Cordelia Felecia Hutt, Nov. 17, 1831. Ancestry.com
Writes Prof. Anthon		February 9, 1834 writes Charles Anthon about Mormon claims that he had authenticated Book of Mormon characters.	Anthon, 344. The 1838–1839 version of Martin Harris' interview with Charles Anthon is in ¶ Joseph Smith History–1.
Anthon: whole story is false		[Charles Anthon replies:] The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly false.	Mormonism unvailed, 270; Early documents 4:378.
Mormonism Unvailed	¶	[November 28, 1834:] Just published in this Town, a Book under the above title, containing a history of the Mormon imposition, from its rise to the present time, with many other peculiarities of the sect. 292 pages, 12 mo. For sale at this office, wholesale, and at the Painesville Book-Store.	"Mormonism Unvailed," PT, Nov. 28, 1834. Source
Ends publishing career		January 1835 turns the Painesville Telegraph over to younger brother Asahel. Eber remains a printer and manufacturer of woollen goods.	Eber D. Howe, 46. Source
		This [Howe's] autobiography reveals a man incapable of interpreting sensitively the Restoration and one who would have considered it as "vain babblings." Up to the age of 40 (1838) he found it "easier to concure in the opinion of others." He then became a skeptic, and finally an adherent of "modern Spiritualism." (pp. 44–45.)	Anthon, 344n48.
	¶	No man, not already duped, who has the half of five grains of common sense, can read this narrative of Mormonism without being converted to the belief that Joseph Smith and his colleagues in the plot are a band of the most unprincipled deceivers that ever disgraced any age or nation, and that his followers are a set of superlative fanatics.	Alexander Campbell, "Mormonism Unvailed," Millennial Harbinger 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1835) Source
Mormonism Unvailed		I published my book Nov 28th 1834 and supposed I had included enough evidence to fully satisfy all reasonble persons that the Mormon Smith Family were a set of liars and hypocrites and that the Lord was not a party to Mormonism.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source

		Howe was reportedly able to fill a number of pre-publication orders by consulting the names previously written down on D. P. Hurlbut's subscription list for the book. So, even though he was obligated to ship 400 or 500 copies to Hurlbut, in Erie Co., Pennsylvania, perhaps Howe was able to recover his publication costs in local sales almost immediately after the book-binding was completed. The book was not widely mentioned in 1834–35; its only known contemporary review was written by Alexander Campbell. Soon after publishing this book Howe retired from the newspaper business. He did not even take the trouble to bind all the pages he had printed, and in 1840 those unused pages were gathered and issued as second edition (under the title of History of Mormonism) by L. L. Rice and P. Winchester, his successors at the Telegraph.	Dale Broadhurst note. Source Source // Millennial Harbinger 1, no. 6 (Jan. 1835)

Sells newspaper Woolen industry		January 1835 sells Telegraph to his brother for $600 and enters into a "Wollen Manufactures and Merchantdizeing" partnership with future son-in-law, Franklin Rogers.	Eber's 1885 statement. Source
Spiritualism		Becomes a Spiritualist (date unknown).
		We see the denizens of the upper spheres constantly at work devising new plans to make themselves known and respected among their dear ones left behind. They are determined to be seen, heard and felt; and not one in a thousand here will fail to perceive the truth of the great facts and phenomena who candidly and sincerely submit to the necessary conditions. There are now more believers in this new dispensation, after an exhibition of thirty years, than there were in the Christian religion for the first five hundred after its advent. It is "marching on" in its glorious career, and has already encircled the entire globe. Its numbers are computed by millions.	Eber D. Howe, 55. Source

Responses to Mormonism Unvailed	¶	When it first appeared, Mormonism Unvailed seems to have had little impact, and the Mormons all but ignored it. La Roy Sunderland's serial article in Zion's Watchman mentions the Spaulding Rigdon theory, and this brought a passing response from Parley Pratt in his Mormonism Unveiled: Zion's Watchman Unmasked. What popularized the theory was a letter purportedly written by Matilda Davison, first published in the Boston Recorder of April 19, 1839, and reprinted in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the United States and Great Britain.	Crawley bibiography 120.

A. B. Deming on Howe		Mr. Howe was a man of superior mind and intelligence and universally respected by those who knew him. He would converse with the utmost freedom on all subjects but Mormonism, when he became guarded in his expressions and refused to talk on the subject. He told me his sister Harriet was a Mormon and stock in the ledger of Jo Smith's bank stands in her name. Mrs. Howe was originally a Baptist and followed Rigdon (whom she greatly admired) into Disciple doctrine and then Mormonism. Mr. Howe said after prophet Jo Smith's back-house scrape, she lost confidence in him and in Mormonism. I was at Mr. Howe's house fifty or sixty times from five minutes to six hours each time and became much attached to himself and family. I inquired if the Mormons did not try to prevent the publication of "Mormonism Unveiled." He said W. W. Phelps, who formerly published an anti-Masonic paper at Canandaigua, N. Y., called, but that he looked at him pretty sharp and he did not stay long. Howe's paper was anti-Masonic.	A. B. Deming, NTAM 1, no. 1 (Jan. 1888): 2, col. 1.

Milton V. Backman Jr. on Howe	¶	The editor who, more than any other, planted the seeds for Mormon persecution in Geauga County was Eber Howe …	Heavens resound, 53.
	¶	During the years that E. D. Howe was editor of the Telegraph, more disparaging articles on Mormonism appeared in that publication than in any other Ohio newspaper. He personally wrote only a few of the articles, but he also accepted for publication many critical accounts (with truth and error garbled together) about the restored Church.

		Family
Wife		Sophia Hull (1800–1866), md. June 1822. Born in New York, consecrates funds for Zion's Camp, dies in Painesville, Ohio.	Nebraska album, 501. Source J. J. Moss gives family name as Hutt. Moss, J. J. (Dallas, Polk Co., OR) to James T. Cobb, Jan. 23, 1879. Source
		April 30, 1834 "Sophia Howe" is among "the following brethren [who] consecrated for the deliver[y] of Zion." She donates $7.60.	Papers, 33.
		[November 16, 1834:] This afternoon we went up to spend the evening with Sister Howe— Her husband was absent— The neighbours collected in to the amount of about 20 and we had quite a good meeting.	McLellin journals, 148.
		She was one of a family of twelve children, nine daughters and three sons. … Her unusually excellent health remained almost entirely unimpaired until about six months before her decease, which was occasioned by a cancerous tumor in the stomach. Mrs. Howe was one of the first to join with her husband in the anti-slavery movement …	Nebraska album, 501. Source
Children		Minerva Howe (b. 1827), md. Franklin Rogers, Dec. 19, 1844. Edmond Dudley (1829–Jan. 11, 1849), did not marry, no descendents. Orville D. (Sept. 1, 1831–Feb. 5, 1917), md. Mary Elizabeth Pepoon, Dec. 21, 1861.	¶ Ancestry.com ¶ Ancestry.com (Minerva)
Sister		Harriet Howe
		January 2, 1834 Harriet is one of several to charge Wesley Hulbert with speaking disrespectfully of the church and denying that Joseph is a true prophet.	Minutes of January 2, 1834
		[December 2, 1835:] when we arived at Painsvill we called at Sister Harriet [94] Hows, and left my wife and family to visit her while we rode into Town to do some buisness … Returned and dined with Sister How, and returned home.	Papers, 93–94.
		[December 14, 1835:] Sister Harriet How called to pay us a visit.	Papers, 104.
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