JOSEPH SMITH, SENIOR, LOSES HIS PROPERTY AND BECOMES POOR--RECEIVES A
VISIT PROM JASON MACK--THE HISTORY OP THE LATTER CONCLUDED.
My husband, as before stated, followed merchandising for a short period
in the town of Randolph. Soon after he commenced business in this
place, he ascertained that crystalized ginseng root sold very high in
China, being used as a remedy for the plague, which was then raging
there.
He therefore concluded to embark in a traffic of this article, and
consequently made an investment of all the means which he commanded, in
that way and manner which was necessary to carry on a business of this
kind, viz., crystalizing and exporting the root. When he had obtained a
quantity of the same, a merchant by the name of Stevens, of Royalton,
offered him three thousand dollars for what he had; but my husband
refused his offer, as it was only about two-thirds of its real value,
and told the gentleman that he would rather venture shipping it himself.
My husband, in a short time, went to the city of New York, with the
view of shipping his ginseng, and finding a vessel in port which
was soon to set sail, he made arrangements with the captain to this
effect--that he was to sell the ginseng in China, and return the avails
thereof to my husband; and this the captain bound himself to do, in a
written obligation.
Mr. Stevens, hearing that Mr. Smith was making arrangements to ship his
ginseng, repaired immediately to New York, and by taking some pains,
he ascertained the vessel on board of which Mr. Smith had shipped his
ginseng; and having some of the same article on hand himself, he made
arrangements with the captain to take his also, and he was to send his
son on board the vessel to take charge of it.
It appears, from circumstances that afterwards transpired, that the
ginseng was taken to China, and sold there to good advantage, or at a
high price, but not to much advantage to us, for we never received any
thing, except a small chest of tea, of the avails arising from this
adventure.
When the vessel returned, Stevens, the younger, also returned with it,
and when my husband became apprized of his arrival, he went immediately
to him and made inquiry respecting the success of the captain in
selling his ginseng. Mr. Stevens told him quite a plausible tale, the
particulars of which I have forgotten; but the amount of it was, that
the sale had been a perfect failure, and the only thing which had been
brought for Mr. Smith from China was a small chest of tea, which chest
had been delivered into his care, for my husband.
In a short time after this, young Stevens hired a house of Major
Mack, and employed eight or ten hands and commenced the business of
crystalizing ginseng. Soon after engaging in this business, when he
had got fairly at work, my brother, Major Mack, went to see him, and,
as it happened, he found him considerably intoxicated. When my brother
came into his presence, he spoke to him thus, "Well, Mr. Stevens, you
are doing a fine business; you will soon be ready for another trip to
China." Then observed again, in a quite indifferent manner, "Oh, Mr.
Stevens, how much did Brother Smith's adventure bring?" Being under the
influence of liquor, he was not on his guard, and took my brother by
the hand and led him to a trunk; then opening it, he observed, "There,
sir, are the proceeds of Mr. Smith's ginseng!" exhibiting a large
amount of silver and gold.
My brother was much astounded at this; however, he disguised his
feelings, and conversed with him a short time upon different subjects,
then returned home, and about ten o'clock the same night he started for
Randolph, to see my husband.
When Mr. Stevens had overcome his intoxication, he began to reflect
upon what he had done, and making some inquiry concerning my brother,
he ascertained that he had gone to Randolph. Mr. Stevens, conjecturing
his business--that he had gone to see my husband respecting the ginseng
adventure, went immediately to his establishment, dismissed his hands,
called his carriage, and fled with his cash for Canada, and I have
never heard anything concerning him since.
My husband pursued him a while, but finding pursuit vain, returned home
much dispirited at the state of his affairs. He then went to work to
overhaul his accounts, in order to see how he stood with the world;
upon which he discovered that, in addition to the loss sustained by the
China adventure, he had lost about two thousand dollars in bad debts.
At the time he sent his venture to China he was owing eighteen hundred
dollars in the city of Boston, for store goods, and he expected to
discharge the debt at the return of the China expedition; but, having
invested almost all his means in ginseng, the loss which he suffered in
this article rendered it impossible for him to pay his debt with the
property which remained in his hands. The principal dependence left
him, in the shape of property, was the farm at Tunbridge, upon which
we were then living, having moved back to this place immediately after
his venture was sent to China. This farm, which was worth about fifteen
hundred dollars, my husband sold for eight hundred dollars, in order to
make a speedy payment on the Boston debt; and, as I had not used the
check of one thousand dollars, which my brother and Mr. Mudget gave me,
I added it to the eight hundred dollars obtained for the farm, and by
this means the whole debt was liquidated.
While we were living on the Tunbridge farm, my brother Jason made us a
visit. He brought with him a young man by the name of William Smith, a
friendless orphan, whom he had adopted as his own son, and, previous
to this time, had kept constantly with him; but he now thought best
to leave him with us, for the purpose of having him go to school. He
remained with us, however, only six months before my brother came again
and took him to New Brunswick, which they afterwards made their home,
and where my brother had gathered together some thirty families, on a
tract of land which he had purchased for the purpose of assisting poor
persons to the means of sustaining themselves. He planned their work
for them, and when they raised anything which they wished to sell, he
took it to market for them. Owning a schooner himself, he took their
produce to Liverpool, as it was then the best market.
When Jason set out on the above-mentioned visit to Tunbridge, he
purchased a quantity of goods, which he intended as presents for his
friends, especially his mother and sisters; but, on his way thither,
he found so many objects of charity, that he gave away not only the
goods, but most of his money. On one occasion, he saw a woman who had
just lost her husband, and who was very destitute; he gave her fifteen
dollars in money, and a full suit of clothes for herself and each of
her children, which were six in number.
This was the last interview I ever had with my brother Jason, but,
twenty years later, he wrote the following letter to my brother
Solomon, and that is about all the intelligence I have ever received
from him since I saw him:
South Branch of Ormucto, Province of New Brunswick,
June 30, 1835.
My Dear Brother Solomon:
You will, no doubt, be surprised to hear that I am still alive,
although in an absence of twenty years I have never written to you
before. But I trust you will forgive me when I tell you that, for
most of the twenty years, I have been so situated that I have had
little or no communication with the lines, and have been holding
meetings, day and night, from place to place; besides, my mind
has been so taken up with the deplorable situation of the earth,
the darkness in which it lies, that, when my labors did call me
near the lines, I did not realize the opportunity which presented
itself of letting you know where I was. And, again, I have designed
visiting you long since, and annually have promised myself that
the succeeding year I would certainly seek out my relatives, and
enjoy the privilege of one pleasing interview with them before
I passed into the valley and shadow of death. But last, though
not least, let me not startle you when I say, that, according to
my early adopted principles of the power of faith, the Lord has,
in his exceeding kindness, bestowed upon me the gift of healing
by the prayer of faith, and the use of such simple means as seem
congenial to the human system; but my chief reliance is upon him
who organized us at the first, and can restore at pleasure that
which is disorganized.
The first of my peculiar successes in this way was twelve years
since, and from nearly that date I have had little rest. In
addition to the incessant calls which I, in a short time had, there
was the most overwhelming torrent of opposition poured down upon
me that I ever witnessed. But it pleased God to take the weak to
confound the wisdom of the wise. I have in the last twelve years
seen the greatest manifestations of the power of God in healing
the sick, that, with all my sanguinity, I ever hoped or imagined.
And when the learned infidel has declared with sober face, time
and again, that disease had obtained such an ascendency that death
could be resisted no longer, that the victim must wither beneath
his potent arm, I have seen the almost lifeless clay slowly but
surely resuscitated, and revive, till the pallid monster fled so
far that the patient was left in the full bloom of vigorous health.
But it is God that hath done it, and to him let all the praise be
given.
I am now compelled to close this epistle, for I must start
immediately on a journey of more than one hundred miles, to attend
a heavy case of sickness; so God be with you all. Farewell!
Jason Mack.
The next intelligence we received concerning Jason, after his letter to
Brother Solomon, was, that he, his wife, and oldest son, were dead, and
this concludes my account of my brother Jason.