Ezra Seymour was the fifth of six children born to David Seymour and Ashsa Welton. He was christened on October 20, 1782 in Plymouth, Connecticut, a town named after Plymouth, Massachusetts.
When Ezra was ten years old, his family moved from Connecticut to Windsor, Broome County, New York. The main industries in Broome County when the Seymour family arrived in 1792 were lumbering and dairy. Four years after the Seymours had settled in Windsor, Ezra’s father died.
In December 1799, seventeen year old Ezra began his professional medical studies with Dr. John Moore.[1] In 1803, he received a medical license from Dr. Moore. More important to his career, on June 23, 1803 he was given a diploma from the Court of Common Pleas recognizing his medical license. The diploma was recorded in the county clerk’s office at Elmira, New York.
Ezra opened a medical practice in Windsor near the banks of the Susquehanna River.[2] About the same time, his brother William began practicing law in Windsor. Both brothers were successful in their careers. William was more financially successful due to his partnership in the Windsor Bridge, the first toll bridge in town. William went on to be a judge.
In the early days of his medical practice, Ezra was known as “a man of more than ordinary ability and skill.” He was called upon to not only give immediate advice to the sick but to certify the sound mind, memory, and competency of those who wrote their Last Will and Testament. In addition to his medical practice, at the first meeting of the Broome County Medical Society on July 4, 1806 at the courthouse in Chenango Point, New York, Ezra was a charter member and elected vice-president.[3]
Being a medical doctor and an elected officer of the Broome County Medical Society happened before his marriage. At age twenty-five, Ezra married Rachel Yomans. To their union were born two children.
After practicing medicine for eleven years in Windsor, Ezra moved four miles north to the town of Colesville. (On April 2, 1821, the towns of Coleville and Sanford were created from the community of Windsor.)[4] Erza was the first resident physician in Colesville. It was said of his medical talents, “His professional knowledge and skill was at least respectable.”[5] What happened to Ezra Seymour from his early days of practicing medicine in Windsor when it was said of him “a man of more than ordinary ability and skill?” Answer—Ezra has an alcohol problem.
The Year 1828
The only account of the 116 page manuscript being passed to “a certain Dr. Seymour” is found in the William Hine interview by Arthur Deming and published in Deming’s, Naked Truths about Mormonism (Oakland, CA: Deming & Company, 1888).
Before examining the interview, let us learn about the lives of Arthur Deming and William Hine.
Arthur Buel Deming. Arthur was born in 1838 at Cincinnati, Ohio. His father Miner Deming was a sheriff in Hancock County, Illinois at the time Latter-day Saints lived in Nauvoo. Arthur’s father died a year after Joseph Smith. Arthur grew up blaming “the Mormons” for his father’s early death.
Arthur became a traveling salesman, representing companies in California and New York City. In 1884, he sold goods for W. L. Hurlbut & Company in San Francisco. In 1898, he moved from Oakland, California to New York City. In the city, Arthur said he had a vision from heaven telling him to warn J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie of impending doom. He also professed that “Mormon Leaders in Salt Lake City had been sending out secret agents to steal his writings and collected statements on the history of Mormonism.” His loud shouts of these claims led to his being taken to police headquarters and committed to the psychiatric ward at Belleview.
William Riley Hine (1803-1889). William and three of his daughters were members of the Colesville New York Branch in 1830. They were supportive of branch leaders, Joseph Knight and Hyrum Smith. They moved to Ohio with the early Saints, but did not follow the Saints to Missouri or Illinois.
In 1885, eighty-two year old William Hine was interviewed by Arthur Deming. The following is the Hine statement in the Deming book—
W. R. Hine: “Martin’s wife cooked for them [Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery], and one day while they were at dinner she put one hundred and sixteen pages, the first part they had translated, in her dress bosom and went out. They soon missed the one hundred and sixteen pages and followed her into the road and demanded them of her. She refused, and said if it was the Lord’s work you can translate them again, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth. Dr. Seymour came along and she gave them to him to read, and told him not to let them go. Dr. Seymour lived one and a half miles from me [in Colesville]. He read most of it [116 pages] to me when my daughter Irene was born; he read them to his patients about the country. It was a description of the mounds about the country and similar to the “Book of Mormon.” I doubt if the one hundred and sixteen pages were included in the “Book of Mormon.” After I came to Kirtland, in conversation with Martin Harris, he has many times admitted to me that this statement about his wife and the one hundred and sixteen pages, as above stated, is true.[6]
Is the Hine/Deming reference to Dr. Ezra Seymour of Colesville? William Hine thinks it was Dr. Ezra Seymour who had the pages, but the timing is off. Hine writes of his having the pages at the time his daughter Irene Hine was born. The problem is Irene Hine was born in 1825. The pages were stolen in 1828. According to the writings of historian Dan Vogel, Dr. Seymour in the Hine/Deming reference was Ezra Seymour of Colesville.[7]
If William Hine and Dan Vogel are correct, where is a reference to Lucy Harris being in Colesville or Ezra Seymour coming to Palmyra? (Colesville is 150 miles from Palmyra.)
Joseph Smith, Colesville, and William Seymour
In 1826 Joseph Smith Jr. worked for Joseph Knight Sr., who resided on a farm east of Nineveh, a village in the Colesville Township. Joseph had a friendly relationship with the Knight family and others in the Colesville area. For example, in 1829 when Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph Knight Sr. came from the Colesville area to Harmony to bring him food and writing materials. At other times, Joseph traveled from Harmony to Colesville to see the Knights. After the Church was organized on April 6, 1830, Joseph made several visits to the Knight family in Colesville. On one of his visits, he cast an evil spirit out of Newel Knight, a son of Joseph Knight Sr.[8]
As it relates to William Seymour (brother of Ezra Seymour), Joseph Smith was brought to trial in Broome County on charges related to his religious activities. The two day trial took place in late June and ended on July 1, 1830. Joseph was defended by two attorneys hired by Joseph Knight Sr. Fifty-five year old William Seymour interrogated Newel Knight during the trial.[9] The historical accuracy of the following interrogation is questioned—
“Did the prisoner, Joseph Smith, Jun., cast the devil out of you?” “No, sir.” “Why, have not you had the devil cast out of you?” “Yes, sir.” “And had not Joe Smith some hand in its being done?” “Yes, sir.” “And did not he cast him out of you?” “No, sir; it was done by the power of God, and Joseph Smith was the instrument in the hands of God, on the occasion. He commanded him to come out of me in the name of Jesus Christ.” “And are you sure that it was the devil?” “Yes sir.” “Did you see him after he was cast out of you?” “Yes sir! I saw him.” “Pray, what did he look like?” Here one of my lawyers informed the witness that he need not answer the question. The witness replied: “I believe I need not answer your last question, but I will do it, provided I be allowed to ask you one question first, and you answer me, viz., Do you, Mr. Seymour, understand the things of the spirit?” “No,” answered Mr. Seymour, “I do not pretend to such big things.” “Well, then,” replied Knight, “it would be of no use to tell you what the devil looked like, for it was a spiritual sight, and spiritually discerned; and of course you would not understand it were I to tell you of it.” Joseph Smith is credited with this statement: “The lawyer [William Seymour] dropped his head, whilst the loud laugh of the audience proclaimed his discomfiture. Mr. Seymour now addressed the court, and in a long and violent harangue endeavored to blacken my character and bring me in guilty of the charges which had been brought against me; among other things, he brought up the story of my having been a money digger, and in this manner proceeded, in hopes to influence the court and the people against me.”[10]
Ezra Remains in Colesville
According to the New York State Census Index and the US Federal Censuses, Ezra maintained his residency in Colesville from 1835 to 1855. During those years, the town of Colesville grew almost exponentially. In the year 1835 alone, Colesville boasted of twenty-two sawmills and an assortment of grist mills, carding mills, and four tanneries. During that fifteen year period, Ezra witnessed the passing of his mother on April 13, 1845, the marriage of his daughter Ann Eliza Seymour to William Bigler (a carpenter of Colesville) by Reverend Bartlett, and the removal of his daughter Ann from Colesville to Chenango, New York. [11]
In 1855, Ezra was age seventy-two. He was described as “somewhat intemperate, which greatly injured his usefulness.”[12]
Death of Ezra Seymour
The date of his death is unknown. His wife Rachel Seymour died in 1862.
Children of Ezra and Rachel Seymour
1. Henry Seymour (1830). He was born in New York.
2. Ann Eliza Seymour married William Bigler.
[1] See H. P. Smith, History of Broome County (Syracuse NY: D. Mason & Co., 1885).
[2] Smith, History of Broome County.
[3] Broome County Internet Archive; Broome County New York State Index.
[4] Binghamton: It’s Settlement Growth, and Development. In author’s possession.
[5] Smith, History of Broome County.
[6] Deming, Naked Truths about Mormonism.
[7] Mackay and Dirkmatt, From Darkness unto Light, p. 95; Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:481; “W. R. Hine’s Statement,” Naked Truths about Mormonism.
[8] Smith, History of the Church, 1:82–83.
[9] Smith, History of the Church, 1:92–93.
[10] Smith, History of the Church, 1:92–93.
[11] Binghamton Courier, February 13, 1845, p. 2.
[12] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:481.