Fact 0404 | Defector of the Faith

When assisting in laying a cornerstone for the Nauvoo House on October 2, 1841, Joseph Smith approved placing the original Book of Mormon manuscript (primarily in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting and written on foolscap paper) into the cornerstone, remarking to another church leader:

“I have had trouble enough with this thing.”

see Ernest H. Taves, Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), 160.

William Alexander Linn provides further context, citing Ebenezer Robinson’s recollection. Robinson, a prominent early Mormon leader, recounted that Smith retrieved the manuscript from his home, briefly examined it to ensure completeness, and then made his now-famous remark. Robinson, viewing the manuscript as a sacred treasure, was astonished at Smith’s words.

“[P]roof [that] … a second [manuscript] copy [of the Book of Mormon] did exist [is found in the account of Ebenezer Robinson].” Robinson, who was a leading man in the [Mormon] church from the time of its establishment in Ohio until Smith’s death, says in his recollections that, when the people assembled on 2 October 1841, to lay the cornerstone of [the] Nauvoo House, Smith said he had a document to put into the cornerstone, and Robinson went with him to his house to procure it. Robinson’s story proceeds as follows: “He got a manuscript copy of the Book of Mormon and brought it into the room where we were standing and said, ‘I will examine to see if it is all here;’ and as he did so I stood near him, at his left side, and saw distinctly the writing as he turned up the pages until he hastily went through the book and satisfied himself that it was all there, when he said, ‘I have had trouble enough with this thing;’ which remark struck me with amazement, as I looked upon it as a sacred treasure.”

William Alexander Linn, The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 (New York, NY: The MacMillan Company, 1902), 44.