The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901

Opening of the book

THE STORY OF THE MORMONS
FROM THE DATE OF THEIR ORIGIN TO THE
YEAR 1901
By William Alexander Linn

PREFACE
No chapter of American history has remained so long
unwritten as that which tells the story of the Mormons.
There are many books on the subject, histories written
under the auspices of the Mormon church, which are
hopelessly biased as well as incomplete; more trustworthy
works which cover only certain periods; and books in the
nature of "exposures" by former members of the church,
which the Mormons attack as untruthful, and which rest, in
the minds of the general reader, under a suspicion of
personal bias. Mormonism, therefore, to-day suggests to
most persons only one doctrine—polygamy—and only one
leader—Brigham Young, who made his name familiar to the
present generations. Joseph Smith, Jr., is known, where
known at all, only in the most general way as the founder
of the sect, while the real originator of the whole scheme
for a new church and of its doctrines and government,
Sidney Rigdon, is known to few persons even by name.
The object of the present work is to present a
consecutive history of the Mormons, from the day of their
origin to the present writing, and as a secular, not as a
religious, narrative. The search has been for facts, not
for moral deductions, except as these present themselves
in the course of the story. Since the usual weapon which
the heads of the Mormon church use to meet anything
unfavorable regarding their organization or leaders is a
general denial, this narrative has been made to rest
largely on Mormon sources of information. It has been
possible to follow this plan a long way because many of
the original Mormons left sketches that have been
preserved. Thus we have Mother Smith's picture of her
family and of the early days of the church; the Prophet's

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