George Stoddard, son of Silas Stoddard and Bathsheba Sheffield, was born on June 26, 1788 in Groton, New London County, Connecticut. His father Silas Stoddard lived in Macedon. Joseph Smith lodged at his father’s home for a night. Lucy Mack Smith reported that while in his home, Joseph received a vision of some proportion. Things manifested to him in a vision were so “painful to contemplate,” he asked the Lord to remove the scene from before his eyes. Momentarily, the vision was gone, but it “returned immediately and remained before his eyes until near the middle of the forenoon.[1]
George Stoddard became a farmer in Arcadia, New York, ten miles east of Palmyra. In 1820, he was baptized a member of the First Baptist Church of Palmyra.[2] In 1823, he was dis-fellowshipped from the Baptist Church for immoral conduct and for swearing.[3] In 1825, George was reinstated in the Baptist Church of Palmyra.[4]
On February 6, 1833, he married Martha Reed. In 1833, George wrote an affidavit against Martin Harris and the Joseph Smith. The affidavit was later printed in Mormonism Unvailed:
Palmyra, Nov. 28th, 1833
Having been called upon to state a few facts which are material to the characters of some of the leaders of the Mormon sect, I will do so in a concise and plain manner. I have been acquainted with Martin Harris, about thirty years. As a farmer, he was industrious and enterprising, so much so, that he had, (previous to his going into the Gold Bible speculation) accumulated in real estate some eight or ten thousand dollars. Although he possessed wealth, his moral and religious character was such, as not to entitle him to respect among his neighbors. He was fretful, peevish and quarrelsome, not only in the neighborhood, but in his family. He was known to frequently abuse his wife, by whipping her, kicking her out of bed and turning her out of doors &c. Yet he was a public professor of some religion. He was first an orthodox Quaker, then a Universalist, next a Restorationer, then a Baptist, next a Presbyterian, and then a Mormon. By his willingness to become all things unto all men, he has attained a high standing among his Mormon brethren. The Smith family never made any pretentions to respectability.
G. W. STODDARD[5]
On March 21 (31), 1840, George married MariaCarpenter in Walworth, Wayne County, New York. In 1860, George died in Clinton County, Michigan.
[1] Anderson, Lucy’s Book, p. 594.
[2] Book of Records for the First Baptist Church in Palmyra, 1813–1828, Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY.
[3] Book of Records for the First Baptist Church in Palmyra, 1813–1828, Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY.
[4] Book of Records for the First Baptist Church in Palmyra, 1813–1828, Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY.
[5] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 260–261.