Set of three metal plates associated with Mormonism
1845 broadside depicting the Voree Plates
The Voree plates, also called The Record of Rajah Manchou of Vorito,[pronunciation?] or the Voree Record, were a set of three tiny metal plates allegedly discovered by James J. Strang, a leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, in Voree, Wisconsin, United States, in 1845.
Purportedly the final testament of an ancient American ruler named "Rajah Manchou of Vorito", Strang asserted that this discovery vindicated his claims to be the true successor of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement—as opposed to Brigham Young, whom most Latter Day Saints accepted as Smith's successor in 1844. The plates also lent credence to Strang's claim that Voree, not the Salt Lake Valley, was to be the new "gathering place" of the Latter Day Saints. His purported translation of this text is accepted as scripture by his church and some other bodies descending from it, but not by any other Latter Day Saint organization.
Unlike the golden plates used by Smith to produce the Book of Mormon, the existence of Strang's plates was verified by independent, non-Mormon witnesses, including Christopher Latham Sholes, inventor of the first practical typewriter. Strang was accused of having fabricated the plates from a brass tea kettle, a claim which he and his partisans vigorously denied. The plates disappeared around 1900 and their current whereabouts are unknown.
Discovery
1856 daguerreotype of James Strang, taken on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, by J. Atkyn, itinerant photographer and later one of Strang's assassins.A map of old Voree, engraved on a monument at the townsite.
According to Latter Day Saint beliefs, many ancient inhabitants of the Americas engraved records on metal plates. Joseph Smith, the movement's founding prophet, claimed that he translated the Book of Mormon from a set of golden plates which he was shown the location of by an angel named Moroni.
Following Smith's murder in 1844, a number of claimants came forward to lead his nascent church, including Strang. As a recent convert to Mormonism, Strang did not possess the name recognition among rank-and-file Latter Day Saints enjoyed by Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon, the two principal contenders for church leadership. Hence, Strang faced an uphill battle in his quest to be recognized as the heir to Smith's prophetic mantle.
To advance his cause, Strang asserted that unlike Rigdon and Young, he had hard evidence of his prophetic calling. One of Smith's titles had been "Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator", and Strang wished to substantiate his claim to succession by following in Smith's footsteps. So, while Young and Rigdon never offered their followers any newly revealed ancient records, Strang announced on January 17, 1845, that God had promised to lead him to a hitherto-undiscovered chronicle of a long-lost American people.[1] This, said Strang, would prove that he was Smith's true successor.
Strang next testified that on September 1, 1845, an angel of God appeared to him and showed him the location of "the record of my people in whose possession thou dwellest."[2] Accordingly, he went on September 13 to the indicated site, located in Voree, Wisconsin, south of the White River on what is now referred to as the "Hill of Promise." Strang led four witnesses to a large oak on the hillside, inviting them to examine the ground around the tree carefully before digging for the plates. All four later testified that they could discern no evidence of digging or other disturbance of the ground.
After removing the tree, Strang's companions dug down approximately three feet, where they discovered three small brass plates in a case of baked clay. Strang subsequently claimed to have deciphered this record, which he said was authored by an ancient Native American named "Rajah Manchou of Vorito."[3]
Appearance and dimensions
The Voree plates measured approximately 2.5inches long, and between 1.25 and 1.5inches wide.[4] According to one anonymous witness, they were "about the thickness of a piece of tin, fastened together in one corner by a ring passing through them."[5] A second witness described them as being "thickly covered with ancient characters of curious workmanship."[6]Stephen Post, the brother of Strangite apostle Warren Post, visited Strang in 1850 and examined the plates for himself, noting that "they were not polished very smooth before engraving, by appearance."[4]
Unlike his brother, Stephen Post had trouble believing Strang's account of the plates' origin and discovery: "With all the faith & confidence that I could exercise," he later wrote, "all that I could realize was that Strang made the plates himself, or at least that it was possible that he made them." Post equally observed that the brass used in the Voree plates seemed indistinguishable to him from the French brass used in ordinary tea kettles.[7]
Four of the six sides of the Voree plates contained text written in an unknown script. The fifth side contained a map showing the area where the plates were found,[8] while side one contained engravings of the "all-seeing eye" and a man holding a scepter, with the sun, moon, and stars beneath him.[9] These images were said to represent God, the president of the church, his two counselors, the high council of the church, the apostles, and the seventies.[4]
Translation and testimony
Strang's published translation of the Voree plates reads as follows:
My people are no more. The mighty are fallen, and the young slain in battle. Their bones bleached on the plain by the noonday shadow. The houses are leveled to the dust, and in the moat are the walls. They shall be inhabited.
I have in the burial served them, and their bones in the Death-shade, towards the sun's rising, are covered. They sleep with the mighty dead, and they rest with their fathers. They have fallen in transgression and are not, but the elect and faithful there shall dwell.
The word hath revealed it. God hath sworn to give an inheritance to his people where transgressors perished. The word of God came to me while I mourned in the Death-shade, saying, I will avenge me on the destroyer. He shall be driven out. Other strangers shall inhabit thy land. I an ensign there will set up. The escaped of my people there shall dwell when the flock disown the Shepherd and build not on the Rock.
The forerunner men shall kill, but a mighty prophet there shall dwell. I will be his strength, and he shall bring forth thy record. Record my words, and bury it in the Hill of Promise.[10]
Strang published facsimiles of the Voree plates, and his translations of them, in his church's newspaper, The Voree Herald.[11] Many Latter Day Saints found this new discovery compelling and believed it to be a sure sign that Strang was indeed Smith's true successor. For those who remained skeptical or merely curious, Mormon or non-Mormon, Strang readily produced the plates themselves for personal examination.
One such investigator was the non-Mormon Christopher Sholes, inventor of the first practical typewriter, and a later inspiration to Thomas Edison. As the editor of the Southport Telegraph, Sholes called upon Strang and perused his discovery. Sholes offered no opinion on the plates, but described Strang as "honest and earnest" and opined that his followers ranked "among the most honest and intelligent men in the neighborhood."[12]
According to one source, there may have been text translated from the Voree plates that Strang never made public. Strang himself had indicated more than once that he had released to his followers only "part of the record of Rajah Manchou of Vorito."[4] H. V. Reed, who had visited Strang and read his translation, published a possible addition to Strang's text in the Chicago Illustrated Journal in January 1873:
It shall come to pass in the latter days, that my people shall hear my voice, and the truth shall speak from the earth, and my people shall hear, and shall come and build the Temple of the Lord. My prophet, unto whom I send my word, shall lead them, and guide them in the ways of peace and salvation. In Voree the name of the Mighty One shall be heard, and the nations shall obey my law, and hear the words of my servant, whom I shall raise up unto them in the latter days.[4]
No official determination has been made by the Strangite church as to whether these words should be considered part of Strang's translation or not.[4]
Allegations of forgery
Some members of competing restoration churches have insisted that the Voree plates were forged by Strang. Isaac Scott, an ex-Strangite, wrote to Joseph Smith III alleging that he learned from Caleb Barnes, Strang's former law partner, that he and Strang had fabricated the plates from a tea kettle belonging to Strang's father-in-law as part of a land speculation scheme.[13]
According to Scott, Barnes and Strang "made the 'plates' out of Ben [Perce]'s old kettle and engraved them with an old saw file, and ... when completed they put acid on them to corrode them and give them an ancient appearance; and that to deposit them under the tree, where they were found, they took a large auger ... which Ben [Perce] owned, put a fork handle on the auger and with it bored a long slanting hole under a tree on 'The Hill of Promise,' as they called it, laying the earth in a trail on a cloth as taken out, then put the 'plates' in, tamping in all the earth again, leaving no trace of their work visible.”[13]
Wingfield W. Watson, a high priest in the Strangite sect who knew Strang, vigorously challenged these allegations in an 1889 publication entitled The Prophetic Controversy #3.[14] Among other things, Watson points out that the theory advanced fails to explain how the 12"x12"x3" stone covering block was placed above the case containing the plates.
Strang was assassinated in 1856. The Voree plates remained with his family until they disappeared sometime around 1900.[4] Their current whereabouts are unknown.
Script used on the plates
The Voree plates are written in an unknown alphabet. Strang authored a personal diary during his youth, parts of which were written in a secret code which was not deciphered until over one hundred years later by his grandson. Comparison of the script used in the coded portions of Strang's diary[15] and the script used on the Voree plates[4] shows remarkable similarities between the two.
Keith Thompson alleges that the text on the plates matches Strang's published translation. Although he did not identify the values of specific characters, he claimed to have shown how words such as "and", "in", and "are" appear in multiple places.[16] According to a Strangite website, Derek J. Masson, a non-Mormon scholar, reportedly argued in an unpublished 1977 paper that Strang's translation was sound.[4] This same site alleges that a second scholar, Robert Madison,[17] concluded in 1990 that the text on the plates appears to represent a genuine, albeit unknown, language, and that Strang's translation appeared to be "a superb (if poetic) rendition of that text into English."[4]
Independent scholarly assessment of Masson's and Madison's conclusions does not exist.
↑ "he served as General Church Historian for the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And has published twice before in The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal." ""Inspired Fiction" v. The Plates & The Witnesses", Mormon Dialog & Discussion Board. Comment posted October 5, 2017; retrieved April 27, 2024.
External links
The Voree Plates, Strangite site containing a large reproduction of the Voree plates, with translation and other information.
The Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the four books that currently constitute its open scriptural canon. The four books of the standard works are:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—usually distinguished with a parenthetical (Strangite)—is one of the several organizations that claim to be the legitimate continuation of the church founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. It is a separate organization from the considerably larger and better known Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Both churches claim to be the original organization established by Smith. The Strangite church is headquartered in Voree, Wisconsin, just outside Burlington, and accepts the claims of James Strang as successor to Smith. It had approximately 300 members in 1998. An undated FAQ on the church's official website reports there are around 130 active members throughout the United States.
The Church of Christ was the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph Smith. Organized informally in 1829 in upstate New York and then formally on April 6, 1830, it was the first organization to implement the principles found in Smith's newly published Book of Mormon, and thus its establishment represents the formal beginning of the Latter Day Saint movement. Later names for this organization included the Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God, the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The Latter Day Saint movement is a religious movement within Christianity that arose during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century and that led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism, and to the existence of numerous Latter Day Saint churches. Its history is characterized by intense controversy and persecution in reaction to some of the movement's doctrines and practices and their relationship to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the different groups, beliefs, and denominations that began with the influence of Joseph Smith.
James Jesse Strang was an American religious leader, politician and self-proclaimed monarch. He served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1853 until his assassination.
The Book of the Law of the Lord is a sacred book of scripture used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), a sect of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is alleged to be a translation by the Strangite prophet James Strang of the brass Plates of Laban, which were originally acquired by Nephi, a leading figure in the early portion of the Book of Mormon. Strang claimed to have translated them using the Urim and Thummim, which Mormons believe was used by Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon from ancient gold plates. Strang's followers believe that while the Book of the Law was lost to the Old World during Israel's captivity in foreign lands, a copy was included in the plates that the ancient prophet Nephi took with him to the New World.
Christopher Latham Sholes was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and, along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, has been contended to be one of the inventors of the first typewriter in the United States. He was also a newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician. In his time, Sholes went by the names C. Latham Sholes, Latham Sholes, or C. L. Sholes, but never "Christopher Sholes" or "Christopher L. Sholes".
Laban is a figure in the First Book of Nephi, near the start of the Book of Mormon, a scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement. Although he only makes a brief appearance in the Book of Mormon, his brass plates play an important role when they are taken by Laman and Nephi and are used by the Nephites.
David Whitmer was a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates.
William Marks was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and was a member of the First Presidency in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Marks is mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants in sections 117 and 124 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints edition and in section 115 of the Community of Christ edition.
The Three Witnesses is the collective name for three men connected with the early Latter Day Saint movement who stated that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon; they also stated that they had heard God's voice, informing them that the book had been translated by divine power. The Three are part of twelve Book of Mormon witnesses, who also include Smith and the Eight Witnesses.
Voree (/vɔːriː/) is an unincorporated community in the Town of Spring Prairie in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. It is best known as the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to James Strang, founder of the Strangite church and of the town, the name means "Garden of Peace". The community is situated along former Wisconsin Highway 11, just west of the Racine County line.
The succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the murder of Joseph Smith, the movement's founder, on June 27, 1844.
The "letter of appointment" is a controversial three-page document used by James J. Strang and his adherents to prove that he was the designated successor to Joseph Smith as the prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It formed part of a four-tiered argument for succession, being that according to various passages in Doctrine and Covenants, a prophet successor had to be A) appointed by Joseph Smith, B) ordained by angels, C) receive revelations as Smith did and D) translate ancient records certified by witnesses. Sent from Nauvoo, Illinois on June 19, 1844, to Strang in Burlington, Wisconsin, this letter was highly influential at gathering support for Strang's claim to succession until his death. Following Strang's murder in 1856, the letter passed through various hands until acquired by Yale University, where it currently forms a part of its Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Wingfield Scott Watson was a religious leader of the Latter Day Saint Strangites. He was an Irish immigrant to the United States. He was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but was an advocate of the Strangite sect throughout his life.
Engraved metal plates hold a special significance in the Latter Day Saint movement because in 1827, the founder of that religion, Joseph Smith, claimed to have obtained a set of engraved golden plates from an angel and from them translated into English the Book of Mormon, a religious text of that religious tradition.
This is a chronology of Mormonism. In the late 1820s, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, announced that an angel had given him a set of golden plates engraved with a chronicle of ancient American peoples, which he had a unique gift to translate. In 1830, he published the resulting narratives as the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ in western New York, claiming it to be a restoration of early Christianity.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the life and influence of Joseph Smith:
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