History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

76
THE STORY OF MOEMONISM.
Rigdon was a native of Pennsylvania, and was now
thirty-seven years of age. He worked on his father's
farm until he was twenty-six, when he went to live
with the Rev. Andrew Clark, and the same year, 1819,
was licensed to preach. Thence he went to Warren,
Ohio, and married; and after preaching for a time he
was called to take charge of a church at Pittsburgh,
where he met with success, and soon became very
popular. But his mind was perplexed over the doctrines
he was required to promulgate, and in 1824 he
retired from his ministry. There were two friends
who had likewise withdrawn from their respective
churches, and with whom he conferred freely, Alexander
Campbell, of his own congregation, and one
Walter Scott, of the Scandinavian church of that city.
Campbell had formerly lived at Bethany, Virginia,
where was issued under his auspices a monthly journal
called the Christian Baptist. Out of this friendship
and association arose a new church, called the
Campbellites, its doctrines having been published
by Campbell in his paper. During the next two
years Rigdon was obliged to work in a tannery to
support his family; then he removed to Bainbridge,
Ohio, where he again began to preach, confining himself
to no creed, but leaning toward that of the Campbellites.
Crowds nocked to hear him, and a church
was established in a neighboring town through his instrumentality.
After a year of this work he accepted
a call to Mentor, thirty miles distant. Slanderous
reports followed him, and a storm of persecution set
in against him; but by his surpassing eloquence and
deep reasoning it was not only soon allayed, but
greater multitudes than ever waited on his ministra-
tions.
mon concluded to accept its doctrines, and together with his wife was baptized
into the church, which now numbered about twenty in this section.
Millennial Star, iv. 181-4; v. 4-7, 17; Times and Seasons, iv. 177, 193-4.
Rigdon had for nearly three years already taught the literal interpretation ol
scripture prophecies, the gathering of the Israelites to receive the second coming,
the litei-al reign of the saints on earth, and the use of miraculous gifts in
the church. Gunnison's Mormons, 101.