The Stick of Joseph, Taken from the Hand of Ephraim, broadside, [ , NY: Prophet, 1844], one page. The copy used for transcription is held at CHL; includes file notes.
File notes on verso in ink in unidentified handwriting: “”; “Vault | Nq | M222 | 5854 | 184-?”; “1844 | Placard | Stick of Joseph”; “Book of Mormon | Characters”; and in handwriting of : “This was formerly owned by sent to the Historian office March 22, 1860, by his son Joseph <F.> Smith”.
Printed sheet measuring 14⅝ × 11⅞ inches (37 × 30 cm). Gold leaf printing on paper coated in black. Border around the text block measures 10⅞ × 8⅞ inches (28 × 23 cm), composed of various designs. Text set in various typefaces and sizes. Includes three sets of characters enclosed in separate borders. This copy of the broadside has multiple folds.
The broadside could not have been owned by Hyrum Smith, since it was published after his death.
Historical Introduction
This broadside is the first known published copy of characters reported to have been taken from the . The Prophet, a church-affiliated newspaper in , printed it to help cover its publication costs and to memorialize “the wisdom that inspired our martyred Prophet.” In December 1844, it advertised, “We have published a very neat specimen of the original characters or hieroglyphics that were copied from the plates which the Book of Mormon was from.” Although the three lines of characters reproduced here closely resemble the characters in ’s copy, his document could not have served as the source for this 1844 publication. Following his 1838 excommunication, Whitmer left the church and took his papers, including his copy of the characters, with him.
“The Words That Were Delivered to the Learned, Isaiah 23;11,” Prophet, 14 Dec. 1844, [3]; see also “The Stick of Joseph Taken from the Hand of Ephraim,” Prophet, 21 Dec. 1844, [2].
The Prophet. New York City, NY. May 1844–Dec. 1845.
Was translated from—the same that was taken to of , by
, in the year 1827 in fulfilment of Isaiah 29.11, 12.
“The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith; I cannot for it is sealed: And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.”
[one line of characters]
“Truth shall spring out of the earth.”—Psalms 85—11.
[one line of characters]
“I have written to Ephraim the great things of my law.”—Hosea 8—12.
[one line of characters]
“Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the Stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.—Ezekiel 37;19.
“Our fathers once had ‘Sacred Book’ like the white man have, but it was hid in the ground, since then Indian no more prevail against his enemies.”—An aged Indian of the Stockbridge tribe. [p. [1]]
For accounts of Harris’s visit to Anthon, see JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 5; JS History, vol. A-1, 9; and Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, 42; see also Kimball, “Anthon Transcript,” 325–352.
Tucker, Pomeroy. Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism: Biography of Its Founders and History of Its Church. New York: D. Appleton, 1867.
It is unknown what document the characters were copied from, though they are nearly identical to the first three lines of John Whitmer’s copy. The editors of the Prophet did not have access to Whitmer’s copy, since he had been excommunicated in 1838. (See Characters Copied by John Whitmer, ca. 1829–1831.)
See “From Priest’s American Antiquities,” Times and Seasons, 1 June 1842, 3:814, which quotes Priest, American Antiquities and Discoveries, 68–70, which in turn reproduced the text of Smith, View of the Hebrews, 223. Josiah Priest argued that there was a lost race in the ancient Americas, possibly of Israelite descent. (See Priest, American Antiquities and Discoveries, 59–84.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Priest, Josiah. American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West. . . . 5th ed. Albany: Hoffman and White, 1838.
Smith, Ethan. View of the Hebrews; or, The Tribes of Israel in America. . . . 2nd ed. Poultney, VT: Smith and Shute, 1825.