Book of Mormon/Geography/Statements/Nineteenth century

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Statements about Book of Mormon geography: Nineteenth century

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• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1829-1840
• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1841
• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1842
• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1843
• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1844
• Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made after Joseph Smith's death: 1844-1899

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1829-1840

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• Observer and Telegraph (Nov 1830): "the Aborigines of America; who, as they affirm, are a part of the tribe of Manasseh, and whose ancestors landed on the coast of Chile"
• W. W. Phelps: Ruins in Central America "good testimony in favor of the Book of Mormon"
• American Revivalist (2 Feb 1833): "The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians"
• Evening and the Morning Star (March 1833): "The continent of America is a choice land above all others"
• Evening and the Morning Star (Jun 1833): "NO people that have lived on this continent, since the flood, understood many of the arts and sciences, better that the Jaredites and Nephites"
• Evening and the Morning Star (Jun 1833): "Lehi was guided by the matchless power of God to this continent"
• Question: Does the story of Zelph have implications for Book of Mormon geography?
• Joseph Smith (4 Jun 1834): "wandering over the plains of the Nephites"
• Eli Gilbert (24 Sep 1834): "was not the book of Mormon also written by men who were divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, on the continent of America?"
• W.W. Phelps (Feb 1835): "The first one is where you sat day after day and wrote the history of the second race that inhabited this continent"
• Oliver Cowdery (Jul 1835): "A history of the inhabitants who peopled this continent, previous to its being discovered to Europeans by Columbus"
• W.W. Phelps (Oct 1835): "the Indians, whose history and doings, upon this western continent, it unfolds as plainly"
• Joseph Smith (Nov 1835): "he said the indians were the literal descendants of Abraham"
• W.W. Phelps (Jan 1836): "The book of Mormon has made known who Israel is, upon this continent"
• William Smith (Jan 1837): "a remnant of the branches or seed of Joseph are represented as crossing the sea, and settling this continent of North and South America"
• Times and Seasons (Mar 1840): "The ancient events of America now stand revealed in the broad light of history, as far back, at least, as the first peopling of the continent after the flood"
• Joseph Smith (19 Jul 1840): "speaking of the Land of Zion, It consists of all North & South America"
• Parley P. Pratt (Aug 1840): "excavating in the neighbourhood of Bahia, in Brazil...bearing a strong architectural resemblance to the ruins existing in the northern parts of Norway, in Iceland, and in Greenland"
• Millennial Star (Sep 1840): "We learn these gentlemen will continue their journey, and after their visit to Palenque, will proceed to Mexico"
• Orson Pratt (1840): "they were marvellously brought across the great deep to the shores of North America"

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1841

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• Levi O. C. Nicklin (18 Jan 1841): "To prove the divinity of the book he assured us that a prophecy, and the description of certain cities in South America were accurately laid down"
• Parley P. Pratt (Feb 1841): "What heart can be so indifferent as not to wish to peruse the record of half a world?"
• Benjamin Winchester (1 Mar 1841): "The antiquities of America spread from the great lakes of the North and the West to Central America, and the Southern parts of Peru on the South"
• Walter Scott (1 May 1841): "Having already shown that the Book of Mormon describes the christian religion as being on the Western Continent..."
• Times and Seasons (15 Jun 1841): "We feel great pleasure in laying before our readers the following interesting account of the Antiquities of central America"
• Book of Mormon and the Mormonites (Jul 1841): "The history of the settlements of the emigrants in North and South America"
• Millennial Star (2 Jul 1841): "Canada on the north, Oregon on the West, Mexico on the south, together with all the tribes in central and South America"
• Times and Seasons (15 Jul 1841): "I have always thought that there had been a more enlightened people on this continent, than the present Indians"
• Chas. W. Wandell (27 Jul 1841): "in speaking of the writing found on the ruins of the stone city found in Mexico"
• Christian Advocate and Journal (29 Jul 1841): "This little band, after wandering long and far, came at last to America, and planted themselves in the western part of the present State of New York"
• Wilford Woodruff (13 Sep 1841): "a flood of testimony in proof of the book of mormon in the discovery & survey of the city Copan"
• Parley P. Pratt (15 Nov 1841): "with it their prophecies and their testimony of Jesus as the risen Messiah and the Saviour of the world, not of Asia only, but of America also"
• Times and Seasons (15 Nov 1841): "The bible was written by a people upon the Eastern continent, but the Book of Mormon by a people upon this continent"
• Joseph Smith (16 Nov 1841): "I received your kind present...of all histories that have been written pertaining to the antiquities of this country it is the most correct"

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1842

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• Book of Mormon Index (1842): "The discovery of America predicted"
• Times and Seasons (1 Jan 1842): "Near Newark in the county of Licking, Ohio, is situated one of the immense works or fortifications of the ancient nations of America"
• Times and Seasons (15 Jan 1842): "Christopher Columbus...the discovery of America—the land of Joseph—a land more blessed of the Lord than any other land"
• Joseph Smith, Wentworth letter (1 Mar 1842): "The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country"
• Parley P. Pratt (Mar 1842): "Mr Stephens...penetrated a dense forest, till then unexplored by modern travellers , and actually finds the ruins of those very cities mentioned by Mormon"
• Times and Seasons (2 May 1842): "The Book of Mormon gives an account of a number of the descendants of Israel coming to this continent"
• John E. Page (1 Jul 1842): "The city...was in some region on the South of what is called at this time, North America"
• Millennial Star (9 Jul 1842): "the American Indians were once an enlightened people and understood the arts and sciences, as the ruined cities and monuments lately discovered fully prove"
• Joseph Smith (15 Jul 1842): "Stephens and Catherwood's researches in Central America abundantly testify of this thing"
• Times and Seasons (15 Sep 1842): "these wonderful ruins of Palenque are among the mighty works of the Nephites"
• Times and Seasons (15 Sep 1842): "we read in the Book of Mormon that Jared and his brother came on to this continent...and covered the whole continent from sea to sea"
• Millennial Star (Sep 1842): "as the western continent is separate from the eastern"
• Times and Seasons (1 Oct 1842): "The city of Zarahemla, burnt at the crucifixion of the Savior, and rebuilt afterwards, stood upon this land"

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1843

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• A critic of the Book of Mormon (1843): "the ruins of Central America...the existence of such ruins were known long before the publication of the Book of Mormon"
• Missionary responds to critic (1843): "I contend that it is North and South America both that includes the promised land to the branches of Joseph"
• Orson Spencer (2 Jan 1843): "I only remark that Stevens’ Travels had some influence, as an external evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon"
• Times and Seasons (1 May 1843): "the wealth, architecture and splendor of ancient Mexico; when recent developments proved beyond a doubt, that there was ancient ruins in central America"
• Wilford Woodruff (27 Aug 1843): "the Book of Mormon...it gave a history of all those cities that have been of late discovered by Catherwood & Stephens, that it named those cities"
• Times and Seasons (1 Oct 1843): "a very interesting work entitled 'Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan,'...This is a work that ought to be in the hands of every Latter Day Saint"

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made during Joseph Smith's lifetime: 1844

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• LDS missionary tract (1844): "where has the seed of Joseph gone to?...There is no place except North and South America to which they could have gone"
• Times and Seasons (1 Jan 1844): "We have been informed by a gentleman who has traversed a large portion of the Indian country of Northern Texas...that there are vestiges of ancient cities and ruined castles or temples"

Nineteenth Century: Statements on Book of Mormon geography made after Joseph Smith's death: 1844-1899

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• Times and Seasons (15 Dec 1844): "As to the original inhabitants of the continent of America, the Book of Mormon, backs up the description of immense 'ruins' in central America"
• John Taylor (1 Apr 1845): "cities have been discovered by Mr. Stevens in Central America, exactly were the Book of Mormon left them"
• Parley P. Pratt (13 Mar 1852): "Four-fifths, or perhaps nine-tenths of the vast population of Peru, as well as of most other countries of Spanish America, are of the blood of Lehi"
• Brigham Young (15 Aug 1852): "it takes North and South America to make the land of Joseph"
• Orson Pratt (15 Feb 1871): "they landed on the south-west coast of South America"
• Brigham Young, Jr. (25 Mar 1883): "The leaders of the Church have in view the 5,000,000 of Lamanites located in Mexico"
• George Q. Cannon (1 Jan 1890): "For these reasons we have strong objections to the introduction of maps and their circulation among our people which profess to give the location of the Nephite cities and settlements"
• James E. Talmage (1899): "The hill, which was known by one division of the ancient peoples as Cumorah, by another as Ramah, is situated near Palmyra in the State of New York"

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Source(s) of the criticism

Critical sources

Rodney Meldrum, DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography: New scientific support for the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon; Correlation and Verification through DNA, Prophetic, Scriptural, Historical, Climatological, Archaeological, Social, and Cultural Evidence (Rodney Meldrum, 2007), mail-order DVD. ( Index of claims ) MormonThink.com website (as of 4 May 2012). Page: http://mormonthink.com/book-of-mormon-problems.htm Bruce H. Porter and Rod L. Meldrum, Prophecies and Promises: The Book of Mormon & The United States of America (Salt Lake City, UT: Digital Legend, 2009), 91–113. Simon Southerton, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2004) 43, 168. ( Index of claims )