By Sandra Tanner
In 1971 Presbyterian minister and scholar Wesley P. Walters scoured the areas surrounding Bainbridge, New York, looking for early documents relating to Joseph Smith. He was able to locate two documents connected to Smith’s 1826 arrest for practicing magic while working for Josiah Stowell. We immediately published the documents and since then much has been written regarding his find.
These documents recently made the news when it became known that they were at the home of the past county historian, Mae Smith. After Walters had turned the documents over to the county, the historian secretly took the documents, plus thousands of other old county papers, home for safe-keeping. There they stayed until her death, when the records were returned to the Chenango County Historical Department in 2005. Several news stories erroneously reported that the documents were given to the LDS Church. However, Dale Storms, the current Chenango County historian, stated:
I sent a copy to their [LDS] archives. I did not send the originals. They called and thanked me. . . . I’m hoping they will be conserved because of the water damage. They need conservation. Our county is looking into having that done. (The Post-Standard, New York, December 11, 2005, p. A-14)
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