"I am disposed to say a word relative to the bills of the 'Kirtland Safety Society Bank.' I hereby warn them to beware of speculators, renegades, and gamblers, who are duping the unwary and unsuspecting, by palming upon them those bills, which are of no worth here. I discountenance and disapprove of any and all such practices. I know them to be detrimental to the best interests of society, as well as to the principles of religion.

Joseph Smith, Jr."

-Millennial Star, vol. 15, page 55.

Dear Sir:-One week ago to-day I arrived in this city, to look after the interests of the Reorganized Church in its action in the State courts, to recover the possession of the Kirtland Temple property, in Lake County. The plaintiff's claim is based upon the grounds that the Reorganized Church is the lawful and legitimate successor of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized by Joseph Smith, Jr., A. D. 1830, at Palmyra, New York, and to which the property in controversy was deeded in the year 1841. The cause was tried to the court, Judge Sherman on the bench, on the 17th inst., and is now held under advisement. Upon the final submission of the case the court referred to the evidence produced, as "showing a very wide departure from the laws and usages of the original church by that body of Mormons in Utah Territory," which make claim to be in the line of succession. Although no decision has been made in the case yet, plaintiff's counsel are confident that -

judgment must be for the Reorganized Church and ordering that they be put in possession of the property.

Since my arrival I have had the pleasure of the acquaintance of many of the leading citizens of the county, and find that among them the most tolerant spirit is manifest toward the members of the original and the Reorganized Church. And now, while I am upon the ground and have every means to ascertain the true character of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, who resided here from 1830 to 1838, and have been surprised myself with the facts in the case, as so widely differing from what is found in the popular histories of religious denominations of the day and encyclopedias, I have determined to submit to you the result of my candid inquiries.

So far, among the former acquaintances of Joseph Smith, Jr., I have failed to find one who will say that he was not a good citizen and an honest man. "Joe Smith," say they, "was an honorable man and a gentleman In every particular, let the histories say what they may." Now, if these things are true, history greatly belies the man, and in the eternal fitness of things time must correct the false and fickle stories and vindicate his memory. My information is derived from such men as Messrs. Quinn, Storm, Burrows, and Axtell, who are foremost citizens of the county. These parties say that among some of the fanatical and ignorant there is existing great prejudice and hatred against the early Mormons, and I have found in Kirtland two persons who are terribly bitter, but neither of these had any acquaintance with the parties and base their knowledge on the "stories told." One of these is the present pastor of the Methodist Church in Kirtland, and who is now under the charge of being not only a fanatic, but crazy, and his congregation ask his removal; the other, a Mr. Harvey, of Kirtland, a member of the Baptist Church, but ignorant, can neither read nor write, and abuses his own wife for differing from him in religion, and teaches his children to abuse their mother.

As a sample of my testimony I give you my conversation with I. P. Axtell, Esq., a large farmer, and director in the First National Bank of Painesville for many years; a man of energy and experience, and as early as 1844, a member of the Whig convention at Baltimore, which nominated Henry Clay for President. The conversation was as follows:-

Q.-When did you come to this county, Mr. Axtell?

A.-My father moved here with his family in the year 1830. I was but a boy then.

Q.-What was your father's business?

A.-He was a Baptist minister, and kept a hotel then.

Q.-Did you know Joseph Smith?

A.-Yes, Sir. I have seen him many a time; he was often at my father's house; and I with many young people often went to Kirtland to see him and his people. I knew his father also, who at the time I knew him had charge of the Kirtland Temple. He took me with others through the temple at one time; he appeared to be a fine old man.

Q.-When did your father become acquainted with Mr. Smith?

A.-In about six weeks after he came to the county he first met him; he went out of his way one day six miles to see Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. He said he found them in Kirtland Township; they had been there but a short time and occupied a small log house. He found them to be quite intelligent men, and he said pleasant talkers, and quite free to converse upon their religious views, which at that time was known as the "new sect." My father always said Joseph Smith was a conscientious and upright man.

Q.-Did you know any other persons of the new society?

A.-Oh, yes, a great many. I knew Mr. Pratt very well. He was a smart and a square man all around. Those men were neither knaves nor rogues; that is my opinion of them. I suppose some of them may have been. It was just as in all other bodies of the kind, there will be some bad ones, but I don't know of any that were. There were a good many stories circulated about them that I knew to be false. At one time an ox was found in Kirtland Township, killed and skinned; and there was a great to do about the Mormons having killed it. My brother was sheriff at the time, and with others went up to investigate the matter, and he says that there was not the least evidence which showed that the Mormons had any hand in killing the ox. Persons around, however, who hated their religion, would tell that they did.

Q.-How was it that people did not like them? Were they not good citizens?

A.-Yes, they were as good citizens as those of any society. It was the fanatics in religion that tried to drive those men out. There were a great many conservative men in our county at that time who held these fanatics back, and if it had not been for this they would have gone in and killed them all. But our intelligent and honorable citizens prevented this.

Q.-What about the Kirtland Bank swindle? Mr. Axtell, you are a banker, and know how that was, do you not?

A.-Yes, I know about that bank; they started in Kirtland. These parties went into the banking business as a great many others in the State of Ohio and other States. They got considerable money out a first, and their enemies began to circulate all manner of stories against them, and as we had a great many banks then that issued what was known as "wild-cat" money, the people began to get alarmed at so many stories, and would take the other banks' issue instead of the Kirtland; and so much of it was forced in at once that the bank was not able to take it up. Had the people let these people alone there is no reason that I know of why the Kirtland Bank should not have existed to this time and on as stable a basis as other banks.

Q.-Then you think it was the fault of the enemies of the bank that it failed?

A.-Yes, I do; and it was not the only one that failed either by a good many, and with which Smith had nothing to do.

Q.-What then do you consider the prime causes of the expulsion o the Mormons from Kirtland?

A.-The ignorance and fanaticism of their accusers did it; they thought public sentiment would tolerate it and they did it. The same as Roger Williams was driven out and the witches burned in Massachusetts.

My position is that no fanatic, either in religion or politics, should be permitted to hold an office of trust in this country.

The above is a fair average sample of the testimony of those I have met and talked with as to the character of the early Mormons in this county, among those who lived here and knew these people. A gentleman of Willoughby, this county, suggested to me, that another reason was, their persecutors wanted their property, and said he, "They got from them thousands of dollars worth too." After canvassing the sentiment here of these men, I feel a good deal like Col. R. G. Ingersoll when he offered the gold for the evidence of Tom Paine's dying declarations; and I now affirm that if any of the great newspapers of the day, like the Chicago Times, Tribune, or Inter-Ocean wish to test the truth of the statements and publish the facts by a correspondent through their columns, I will undertake the task of accompanying their correspondent and if the general integrity, uprightness, honesty and patriotism, of these men are not maintained by the evidence, I will forfeit to the one so publishing one hundred dollars in gold. A letter will reach me at any time directed, Glenwood, Iowa.

My associate counsel in the case here, J. B. Burrows, Esq., is not only an able attorney but a genial gentleman. He is a brother of Congressman Burrows from Michigan, and I must say that his acquaintance has greatly raised in my estimation the favorable opinion I had already entertained of Michigan's great orator. I find many able and indeed eloquent practitioners at the bar here,-this is one of the oldest towns in the State, as well as the wealthiest in proportion to its population-and, as all well informed attorneys are, these are pleasant and honorable.

Hastily, I am very respectfully yours,

E. L. KELLEY.

Painesville, Ohio, Feb. 19, 1880.

-Saints' Herald, vol. 27, pp. 84, 85.