Two important reminiscences of John H. Gilbert, the main compositor (typesetter) for the first printing of the Book of Mormon.

1) An 1877 interview with the Detroit’s Post and Tribune.

2) A memorandum that he wrote for the 1893 World’s Fair as background information for the Book of Mormon printing proof sheets, which were being exhibited there.

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Typescript of 1877 Interview with
John H. Gilbert

Original article: Post and Tribune (Detroit), Dec. 3, 1877
Reprinted in: The American Bookseller, Vol. IV, No. 12, Dec. 15, 1877
(source of this typescript)

The Book of Mormon

The Detroit Post and Tribune [3 December 1877] of the ad instant prints the following:

Maj. J. H. Gilbert, of Palmyra, N. Y., is in the city on a visit to his son, Charles T. Gilbert, of Nevin & Mills. He is a printer; was formerly proprietor of the Wayne (Palmyra) Sentinel, and is the man who set up the Mormon Bible from the original manuscript. It was the custom of the printers as the sheets were run through the press to take one of each form for preservation. Maj. Gilbert did this, and now has with him in this city the unbound sheets of the Mormon Bible as he then took them from the press. These he cheerfully exhibits to any person who has a curiosity to look at them. The book was a quarto of 580 pages. The contents were sub-divided into chapters broken into frequent paragraphs, but the verses were not numbered as they are in later editions. Upon the title page appears the name of Joseph Smith as “Author and Proprietor.” In all subsequent editions he appears simply as “Translator.” This change was rendered necessary to carry out the theory afterward adopted that Smith dug up these writings and translated them from “reformed Egyptian” by means of a pair of supernatural spectacles.

A reporter of The Post and Tribune met Maj. Gilbert on Saturday, and had a very pleasant chat with him about the early days of Mormondom in Wayne county, N. Y., in which that modern religion started. He found the veteran printer, though now 75 years of age, remarkably well preserved, and hale and vigorous as a man of 50. It was more than half a century ago that he learned the printer’s trade, of Chauncey Morse, now a resident of this city, and had just established himself in business at Palmyra, when, after a short newspaper experience, he sold out to E. P. Grandin, and continued in his employment as a journeyman printer.

One pleasant day in the summer of 1829, Hiram Smith, Joe’s brother, came to the office to negotiate for the printing of a book. The arrangements were completed. Five thousand copies of the book were to be printed for $3,000. A well-to-do farmer named Martin Harris, living in the neighborhood, agreed to become security for the payment of the money, and the work was at once put in hand. Maj. Gilbert set up all the type of the book, except some 20 or 30 pages, and did nearly all the press work. It was all worked off on a hand press.

The copy was brought to the office by Hiram Smith. It was written on foolscap paper in a good, clear hand. The handwriting was Oliver Cowdery’s. There was not a punctuation mark in the whole manuscript. The sentences were all run in without capitals, or other marks to designate where one left off and another began, and it was no easy task to straighten out the stuff. Maj. Gilbert, perceiving that large portions were stolen verbatim from the Bible, used to have a copy of that book on his case to aid him in deciphering the manuscript and putting in the proper punctuation marks.

At first Smith used to come to the office every morning with just enough manuscript to last through the day. But it was so much bother to put in the punctuation that Gilbert said: “Bring me around a quantity of copy at a time, and I can go through it and fix it up evenings, and so get along faster with it.”

Smith replied: “This is pretty important business, young man, and I don’t know as we can trust this manuscript in your possession.”

Finally his scruples were overcome, and he consented to the arrangement. Then he would bring around a quire of paper, or forty-eight pages, at a time, and this would last several days. When the matter had been set all the copy was carefully taken away again by Smith. It took eight months to set up the book and run it through the press.

Maj. Gilbert was not much interested in the book, thought it rather dry and prosy, and to this day has never thought it worth his while to read it a second time.

Of course, nobody then dreamed that the “Book of Mormon” was destined to achieve the notoriety which it has gained, or that it was to cut such a figure in the history of this country. It did not find a very ready sale at the outset, and Harris, who had mortgaged his farm to pay the printer’s bill, was cleaned out financially. He was an intimate friend of the Smiths, and afterwards became an adherent to the doctrines they taught. He did not follow them Westward, however, but remained near his own home, where he died two years ago.

With this book as the basis of his teaching, Joe Smith began to preach, and soon formed a congregation of followers in Palmyra and the neighboring village of Manchester, where the Smiths resided. A year later he, with thirty of his followers, removed to Kirtland, Ohio. His subsequent history is well known.

There were nine children in the Smith family. Joe was then about 23 years of age. He was a lazy, good-for-nothing lout, chiefly noted for his capacity to hang around a corner grocery and punish poor whisky. He had good physical strength, but he never put it to any use in the way of mowing grass or sawing wood. He could wrestle pretty well, but was not given to exerting his muscles in any practical way. He had evidently made up his mind that there was an easier way of getting a living than by honest industry.

He was the discoverer of a magic stone which he used to carry around in his hat. Holding it carefully laid in the bottom of his hat he would bring his eye to bear on it at an angle of about 45 degrees and forthwith discover the whereabouts of hidden treasures. He would draw a circle on the ground and say to the awe struck bystanders, “dig deep enough within this circle and you will find a pot of gold.” But he never dug himself. He had a good share of the rising generation of Palmyra out digging in the suburbs, and to this day traces of the pits thus dug are pointed out to curious vis[i]tors.

As he claimed to be the author of the “Book of Mormon” his story was that by the aid of his wonderful stone he found gold plates on which were inscribed the writings in hieroglyphics. He translated them by means of a pair of magic spectacles which the Lord delivered to him at the same time that the golden tablets were turned up. But nobody but Joe himself ever saw the golden tablets or the far-seeing spectacles. He dictated the book, concealed behind a curtain, and it was written down by Cowdery. This course seemed to be rendered necessary by the fact that Joe did not know how to write. Otherwise the book might have gone to the printer in the handwriting of Old Mormon himself.

It is now pretty well established that the “Book of Mormon” was written in 1812 by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, of Ohio, as a popular romance. He could not find any one to print it. The manuscript was sent to Pittsburg, where it lay in a printing office several years. Spalding was never able to raise the money to secure the printing of the story, and after his death in 1824 [1816] it was returned to his wife. By some means, exactly how is not known, it fell into the hands of one Sidney Rigdon, who, with Joe Smith, concocted the scheme by which it was subsequently brought out as the work of Smith.

The dealings with the outside world in respect to it were manipulated by Hiram Smith, an elder brother of Joe.

Maj. Gilbert’s recollection of all these persons and events is fresh and vivid, and he has a fund of anecdote and incident relating to them.

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(Below: Photo of the interview, reprinted in the American Bookseller.)
(click to view)

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Typescript of John H. Gilbert’s
1893 Memorandum

Memorandum, made by John H. Gilbert, Esq.,
Sept. 8th, 1892, Palmyra, N.Y.

I am a practical printer by trade. I have been a resident of Palmyra, N.Y., since about the year 1824, and during all that time have done some type-setting each year. I was aged ninety years on the 13th day of April 1892, and on that day I went to the office of the Palmyra Courier and set a stick-ful of type.

My recollection of past events, and especially of the matter connected with the printing of the “Mormon Bible,” is very accurate and faithful, and I have made the following memorandum at request, to accompany the photographs of “Mormon Hill,” which have been made for the purpose of exhibits at the World’s Fair in 1893.

In the forepart of June 1829, Mr. E. B. Grandin, the printer of the “Wayne Sentinel,” came to me and said he wanted I should assist him in estimating the cost of printing 5000 copies of a book that Martin Harris wanted to get printed, which he called the “Mormon Bible.”

It was the second application of Harris to Grandin to do the job,—Harris assuring Grandin that the book would be printed in Rochester if he declined the job again.

Harris proposed to have Grandin do the job, if he would, as it would be quite expensive to keep a man in Rochester during the printing of the book, who would have to visit Palmyra two or three times a week for manuscript, &c. Mr. Grandin consented to do the job if his terms were accepted.

A few pages of the manuscript were submitted as a specimen of the whole, and it was said there would be about 500 pages.

The size of the page was agreed upon, and an estimate of the number of ems in a page, which would be 1000, and that a page of manuscript would make more than a page of printed matter, which proved to be correct.

The contract was to print and bind with leather, 5000 copies for $3,000. Mr. Grandin got a new font of Small Pica, on which the body of the work was printed. When the printer was ready to commence work, Harris was notified, and Hyrum Smith brought the first installment of manuscript, of 24 pages, closely written on common foolscap paper—he had it under his vest, and vest and coat closely buttoned over it. At night Smith came and got the manuscript, and with the same precaution carried it away. The next morning with the same watchfulness, he brought it again, and at night took it away. This was kept up for several days. The title page was first set up, and after proof was read and corrected, several copies were printed for Harris and his friends. On the second day—Harris and Smith being in the office—I called their attention to a grammatical error, and asked whether I should correct it? Harris consulted with Smith a short time, and turned to me and said: “The Old Testament is ungrammatical, set it as it is written.”

After working a few days, I said to Smith on his handing me the manuscript in the morning; “Mr. Smith, if you would leave this manuscript with me, I would take it home with me at night and read and punctuate it.” His reply was, “We are commanded not to leave it.” A few mornings after this, when Smith handed me the manuscript, he said to me:—

“If you will give your word that this manuscript shall be returned to us when you get through with it, I will leave it with you.” I assured Smith that it should be returned all right when I got through with it. For two or three nights I took it home with me and read it, and punctuated it with a lead pencil. This will account for the punctuation marks in pencil, which is referred to in the Mormon Report, an extract from which will be found below.

Martin Harris, Hyrum Smith and Oliver Cowdery were very frequent visitors to the office during the printing of the Mormon Bible. The manuscript was supposed to be in the handwriting of Cowdery. Every Chapter, if I remember correctly, was one solid paragraph, without a punctuation mark, from beginning to end.

Names of persons and places were generally capitalized, but sentences had no end. The character or short &, was used almost invariably where the word and, occurred, except at the end of a chapter. I punctuated it to make it read as I supposed the Author intended, and but very little punctuation was altered in proof-reading. The Bible was printed 16 pages at a time, so that one sheet of paper made two copies of 16 pages each, requiring 2500 sheets of paper for each form of 16 pages. There were 37 forms of 16 pages each,—570 pages in all.

The work was commenced in August 1829, and finished in March 1830,—seven months. Mr. J. H. Bortles and myself done the press work until December taking nearly three days to each form.

In December Mr. Grandin hired a journeyman pressman, Thomas McAuley, or “Whistling Tom,” as he was called in the office, and he and Bortles did the balance of the press-work. The Bible was printed on a “Smith” Press, single pull, and old fashioned “Balls” or “Niggerheads” were used—composition rollers not having come into use in small printing offices.

The printing was done in the third story of the west end of “Exchange Row,” and the binding by Mr. Howard, in the second story the lower story being used as a book store, by Mr. Grandin, and now—1892—by Mr. M. Story as a dry-goods store.

Cowdery held and looked over the manuscript when most of the proofs were read. Martin Harris once or twice, and Hyrum Smith once, Grandin supposing these men could read their own writing as well, if not better, than any one else; and if there are any discrepancies between the Palmyra edition and the manuscript these men should be held responsible.

Joseph Smith, Jr. had nothing to do whatever with the printing or furnishing copy for the printers, being but once in the office during the printing of the Bible, and then not over 15 or 20 minutes.

Hyrum Smith was a common laborer, and worked for any one as he was called on.

Cowdery taught school winters—so it was said—but what he done summers, I do not know.

Martin Harris was a farmer, owning a good farm, of about 150 acres, about a mile north of Palmyra village, and had money at interest. Martin,—as every body called him,—was considered by his neighbors a very honest man; but on the subject of Mormonism, he was said to be crazy. Martin was the main spoke in the wheel of Mormonism in its start in Palmyra, and I may say, the only spoke. In the fall of 1827, he told us what wonderful discoveries Jo Smith had made, and of his finding plates in a hill in the town of Manchester, (three miles south of Palmyra,)—also found with the plates a large pair of spectacles, by putting which on his nose and looking at the plates, the spectacles turned the hyroglyphics into good English. The question might be asked here whether Jo or the spectacles was the translator?

Sometime in 1828, Martin Harris, who had been furnished by someone with what he said was a fac-simile of the hyroglyphics of one of the plates, started for New York. On his way he stopped at Albany and called on Lt. Gov. Bradish,—with what success I do not know. He proceeded to New York, and called on Prof. C. Anthon, made known his business and presented his hyroglyphics.

This is what the Professor said in regard to them:—1834—

The paper in question was, in fact, a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of singular characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets; Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sidewise [sideways], arranged and placed in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, arched with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calendar, given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject since the Mormon excitement began, and well remembered that the paper contained anything else but ‘Egyptian Hyroglyphics.’

Martin returned from his trip east satisfied that “Joseph” was a “little smarter than Prof. Anthon.”

Martin was something of a prophet:—He frequently said that “Jackson would be the last president that we would have; and that all persons who did not embrace Mormonism in two years would be stricken off the face of the earth.” He said that Palmyra was to be the New Jerusalem, and that her streets were to be paved with gold.

Martin was in the office when I finished setting up the testimony of the three witnesses,—(Harris—Cowdery and Whitmer) I said to him,—“Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?” Martin looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, “No, I saw them with a spiritual eye.”

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