| Show bone bome interesting ARY ABY experience WITH A SINGULAR RELIGIOUS NARRATIVE APPENDED A COAL VALLEY allegheny county penn may 1886 edito deseret deet news I 1 arrived here on the etli dinst iiii having been called to fill a mission to the united states and assigned to for the present aan in this state on ahe he ath dinst i tart I 1 had rd the pleasure of meent elders victor E bean and win W allen alien who had been laboring ik ife this state since the ad of december last A conference having been appointed appoint od for the and instas at little litti p redstone near fayette city in rayette county potta some 28 miles from frere are pa the monongahela river at the appointed time we met with the few saints that have lately been baptized gad at 2 p in were joined by the president of this mission aud an elder from hew york city our meeting increased ja itt numbers until the evening of the idith the large schoolhouse was well mostly by strangers the meetings on sunday and sunday evening were well attended and house crowded to q its utmost ulmot capacity the discourses by bf the elders were f full all of interest A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE WANTS A SIGN on sunday at the close of the forenoon meeting a man by the name of samuel parker claybaugh asked our resident Etes Ies ident to appoint a time and prove some gome of the sayings saying in regard to the apostasy apo stacy ot the pr primitive r church after the e death of the apostles the school house bouse was obtained for monday evening at the time appointed the house was filled but we noticed a restless element dement and a desire manifest to annoy when our meeting had been opened ind the speaker commenced this mr claybaugh began to interrupt by the way thid same person is the justice of the peace after getting quiet restored the speaker continued his bis discourse for about one and aid a half hours quoting very much scripture and explaining the necessity necessia essit y of the restoration of the gospel in the last days at toe the close we dismissed our meeting and the said claybaugh called for the people to 10 remain and the elders also lie he then began a tirade af f abuse not even saying one word upon the subject he stated that it had bad been said by the speaker that these signs shall follow them that believe etc and that if they drink any delis deadly cily thins thing it shall not hurt them 11 now 11 he said 6 here is a piece 0 of i sugar of lead ead awu about the size of of hen hens Is egg af after ter exhibiting ithe dropped it into a cup of water stating it if any man would drink that it would kill him in less than four hours offering us the cup cap he said now gave us a sign if you drink this and it does not hurt you we will believe you our president told him that that was not the subject and he had bad not brought our argument and had misstated his discourse d I 1 ftp ours claybaugh still persisted in arg urging ing us to drink the poison this remark was applauded by his gang of goodla hoodlums ms with fiendish yells and screams while the majority were disgusted with him when he had finis hect his abusive tirade our president arose arese and said that this man took the same position that the devil did when he took the savior upon the pinnacle of the temp leand told him to cast himself down etc and that christ had said that it was a wicked and an adulterous generation that for a si sign agn I 1 he said this man is a wicked and adulterous man to which claybaugh made no reply PELTED WITH MISSILES ns we then made our way through the crowd amid yells and shouts b by this fellows gang of half inebriated inebriate Z roughs boughs we called for the officers to protect os as as american citizens but of course they only gave encouragement to them pieces of stone coal rocks and eggs were thrown promiscuously at us but without effect so far as we were concerned however one of the eggs struck a stranger who was att attending epding the meetings biorn the country ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH we baptized ten persons blessed ten ek children ildren and organized a branch of the church to be known as the little rut kut stone branch ordained bro andrew gilbert a priest and set him apart to preside there are pow now 17 members in this branch and many others invests gating in and around coal valley there are a few saints and others who expect to soon be added by baptism we hold three meetings in this part today to day and the respectable citizens of fayette city feeling indignant about the way we were treated have obtained a hall for us and sent us ua an invitation to come and preach on monday and tuesday evenings which we have accepted ce ted there cheri are many honest hearted hearted people in this part and the lord has been preparing them in a wonderful and mysterious way for the reception of the gospel A CURIOUS NARRATIVE doubtless a brief sketch of how quite a number of honest souls in this martof part of our heavenly fathers vineyard d have been lead to believe and tar ob obey y the truth would be of interest to the readers ol of the NEWS it appears appeals that soon after sidney rigdon higdon was excommunicated from the church at nauvoo he came east to pittsburg this state and began to preach and baptize among others he be baptized was one wm accordion accor to his bis claims was ordained orda inea a seventy under the hands of mr rig bigdon and set apart to preside over a small branch in Elizabeth elizabethtown town this county after a short time perhaps three or four years he wm win ticker bickerton lear learned ried that had no authority to baptize as he had bad been severed from the church and therefore his baptism was fi illegal legal he accordingly with the few under his bis watchcase watch care eare was baptized as he claims by two Elders Riders who had the rightful authority and who also ordained him an elder and set him apart to preside over the few saints there BICKERTON apostatizes not long after this the revelation on celestial marriage was made public which when he heard that it was a doctrine of the church instead of receiving it as such buchhe he denounced aud and declared that the church had gone into iniquity he succeeded also in making those over whom he was set to preside believe the same saine and baptized them again he then commenced in good earnest to build up a church accepting by profession as a rule role of faith thel the bible lible and book of mormon but denounced the doctrine and covenants he taught faith repentance baptism and the laying on of hands the same as we do gaining many adherents he rents As the church grew in numbers the founder claimed to receive dreams and visions for the guidance of it it was finally decided that the organization was not perfect elou enough h so he bickerton ordained twelve wem apostles and they in turn ordained him prophet seer and revelator to the church a curious way of getting authority tho rity they then began to extend coextend their labors a little farther up and down this monongahela river built several churches and baptized in all about 1500 souls among whom were many honest in heart wh who 0 1 according to their heir sincerity sincer iry were blessed of the lord lod finally at one of their conferences they took action against the old chur chias they called it meaning the true church of christ of which brigham young youna was at the time president and cut cat them all off DOGUS BOGUS prophecies ETC perhaps a few of the prophecies and revelations given through the leaders of the church would be of interest I 1 will give only a few by which we might judge the balance after the erection of a church at greenoak greenock Gree noak on the river in this county mr bickerton called his bis apostles and priesthood together in this building to t tarry until the comforter would corne come they waited patiently until 2 in the mor morning ping when they be gan leaving the house discouraged if not disgusted but their president called them back and comforted them by saying the reason nason n ason the comforter did not come was because was paid for the building of the house bouse grudgingly which saying seemed to pacify their minds considerably on another occasion at a conference held in the same building the prophet predicted that the gospel would roll forth f from rom this place to the end of the earth that the angels of god would protect the building etc but lo 10 soon afterwards alter atter wards the house was burned down and that was the end of that prophecy after a while a revelation came for them to go and preach the gospel to the Lami and accordingly the president with two of his fellow apostles went on a mission west to the to preach to them the gospel but no sooner had they got there than tuey they all took desperately pera tely iely sick and had to return home without accomplishing the work they set out for THE consequences in consequence of all these failures man many Y of the honest and intelligent followers low ers began to lose confidence in their leaders as being all that they professed essed to be viz apostles of 3 jesus esus christ and because thy they doubted the validity of their leade 8 apostleship they were severed from the church and since thail chati time have been holding themselves together in a body preaching the first principles of the gospel gradually ia dually increasing in numbers by dissenters from the mother bickerton church and also by other converts beila added and praying for god to send them greater light they believed that they had bd received the true gospel but were left as it were without a head their eyes were finally turned towards that much despised people in utah the latter day saints sainta they sent for a copy of oi the DESERET NEWS a book ol of doctrine and covenants and other reading matter by the perusal of which they received additional light and the more ore they investigated the more they were convinced that it if there was a people on earth that are fulfilling the prophets and doing anything for the salvation of the human family it is the latter day saints in the tops of the everlasting hills about one ye year arago ago one of their number emigrated to utah and made known the existence of such a people in this part to the apostles of the church who immediately sent servants of god among them holding authority to admit them into th the e true folmand fol fold dand and since their arrival here last december there has had been about 30 added to the church and 14 children blessed and there are quite a number earnestly investigating WHAT BECAME OF BICKERTON but bat what became of the bickerton organization its history is about as follows at length mr bickerton received a revelation to go to the state of kansas and build up a zion evidently forgetting that jackson county missouri was the spot appointed years before by the lord for the location of zion but then this people or put part of them believe joseph smith fsmith was a fallen prophet some time before his death so they only believe that portion of the revelations given through him that suits them upon this pretended revelation to go to kansas to build up a zion the church split some believed it it was of god and some rejected it some went with their leader to S silk johns stafford county Ks and some remained bereano bere and from that time to the present they have been dividing and subdividing until to of there being one church they are divid ed into a dozen or more factions scattered over this state and kansas each faction testifying that they enjoy all the gif gifts Ls of the holy ghost HIMSELF THE SOURCE OF THE CHUCH CHURCH in a periodical called the ensign published I 1 shed by mr bickerton while lethe ahe hurch church was in a comparatively flourishing condition he proceeds to give an acco account of the organization in this wise this church of jesus christ of latter day saints begins with me and then he goes on to relate how he received his authority from sidney rigdon ri don evidently wishing to cover up his baptism by the two utah elders and many of his followers know nothing of it to this day as numbers of them sectarian like never once thought of investigating the authority of a man to build up a church but the last lasi query to answer is if it is tho the church of jesus christ as he states how could it begin with wm win Bicker bickerton tor if it was moses church it would begin with moses if it was Abran abrahams ams church it would begin with Abrah ambut if it was christs church it would begin with jesus christ this is about as correct and complete a statement of the matter as we are able to give as the records have all been taken away to kansas and we have only h been e en able to obtain this information by visiting among the different f factions and hearing the story of af each member yours in the gospel of christ A missionary |
