Pomeroy Tucker, son of Jeduthan Tucker and Abi Brown, was born on October 28, 1802 in Palmyra, New York. He was the “first white child” born in the village of Palmyra.[1] Pomeroy had a family network in Palmyra. He was the brother in-law of E. B. Grandin, publisher of the Book of Mormon, and cousin of J. N. T. Tucker, employee of E. B. Grandin. Pomeroy was the nephew-in-law of Thomas Rogers II, a cousin to Stephen Harding, and a brother-in-law of Abner F. Lakey. In other words, between a familial network and his career in the print business, Pomeroy was a well-known figure in Palmyra when the 116 pages were stolen.
In 1818, at age sixteen Pomeroy became a printer’s apprentice to Timothy C. Strong in the Palmyra Register office, the first newspaper printed in Wayne County. (Jonathan Hadley, another suspect, recalled that Pomeroy had been a printer’s apprentice to Thurlow Weed in Rochester.) Also working as an apprentice in the Palmyra Register office was Orasmus Turner, another suspect. From apprentice to editor and publisher, Pomeroy appeared to enjoy every step in his career and make friends in the publishing business in Western New York.
In October 1823, at age twenty-one Pomeroy’s first publishing partner was E. B. Grandin. Pomeroy and E. B. Grandin purchased the Western Farmer and Canal Advocate and changed the name of the newspaper to the Wayne Sentinel. For the next thirty years, Pomeroy helped publish the Wayne Sentinel in one capacity or another.
In 1824, he married nineteen year old Lucy Rogers, daughter of Major William Rogers—the manager of the Eagle Hotel in Palmyra. An announcement of their marriage appeared in the Geneva Gazette on December 29, 1824.[2] To their union were born six children, five living to adulthood.
In 1827, Pomeroy became a member of the Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge in Palmyra. Membership put him in a brotherhood with the most influential men in Palmyra as well as those who were positioning themselves to be influential.[3] In his obituary, it was said, “Masonry was his guide, if not his religion, and his last act was the presentation of a set of jewels, while upon his dying bed a few hours before his decease, to the chaplain of the lodge.”[4]
Relationship of Pomeroy Tucker to the Smith Family
In 1867, Pomeroy Tucker wrote Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism:
[I] was well acquainted with ‘Joe Smith,’ the first Mormon prophet, and with his father and all the Smith family, since their removal to Palmyra from Vermont in 1816, and during their continuance there and in the adjoining town of Manchester; that [I] was equally acquainted with Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, and with most of the earlier followers of Smith.
According to his own account, Pomeroy knew about money digging in Palmyra. He knew of Joseph’s birth, his family, Father Smith operating a “cake and beer shop,” the Smiths purchasing land in 1818, and the floor plan of the Smith log cabin. His acquaintance with Joseph Smith Jr. led him to conclude—
From the age of twelve to twenty years he is distinctly remembered as a dull-eyed, flaxen-haired prevaricating boy—noted only for his indolent and vagabondish character, and his habits of exaggeration and untruthfulness. . . . He could utter the most palpable exaggeration or marvelous absurdity with the utmost apparent gravity. . . . Albeit, he seemed to be the pride of his indulgent father, who has been heard to boast of him as the “genus of the family.”
Pomeroy went on to write that Joseph had a “spiritual or religious turn of mind, and frequently perused the Bible,” and of his joining “the probationary class of the Methodist church in Palmyra.” He wrote of a curious stone “found in the digging of a well upon the premises of Mr. Clark Chase” and of “ancient metallic plates resembling gold” and of the Urim and Thummim. He also wrote of Willard Chase being asked to make a strong chest so that the golden book could be kept under lock and key and of Joseph Smith calling on George Crane with several foolscap pages of the translation.[5]
The Year 1828
On June 14, 1828, Martin Harris carried the 116 pages to Palmyra. He had the manuscript in his possession for three weeks or until about July 7, 1828. Pomeroy Tucker was age twenty-six when the 116 pages were stolen. In Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, Pomeroy wrote of Martin Harris and the lost manuscript pages—
[Martin Harris] was accordingly permitted to take the manuscript translation into his possession. Reading a portion of them to his wife, a Quakeress of positive qualities, she denounced the whole performance as silly and impious. His neighbors and friends, whom he importuned and bored on the subject, uniformly expressed the same sentiment and belief, and cautioned him against being imposed upon and defrauded. . . . As might have been anticipated, Harris’s wife became exceedingly annoyed and disgusted with what she called her husband’s “craziness.” She foresaw, as she thought, that if he incurred the printing liability as he had avowed to her his purpose of doing, the event would be the ruin of himself and family. Thus exercised, she contrived, in her husband’s sleep, to steal from him the particular source of her disturbance, and burned the manuscript to ashes. For years she kept this incendiarism a profound secret to herself, even until after the book was published. Smith and Harris held her accountable for the theft, but supposed she had handed the manuscript to some “evil-designing persons” to be used somehow in injuring their cause.[6]
Printing the Book of Mormon
In 1829, Pomeroy was the foreman at the Grandin Press. As such, he had responsibility for printing the Wayne Sentinel and the Book of Mormon. As far as his specific role in printing the Book of Mormon, Pomeroy was the “Palmyra’s printer’s devil,” meaning he inked the “balls” for the press. He also read proof pages of the Book of Mormon. Pomeroy wrote of Joseph Smith taking proof sheets of 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi and other portions of the Book of Mormon to show relatives in Harmony.[7] Pomeroy also wrote of his involvement with the Book of Mormon from negotiation to publication—
in the progress of the work [Book of Mormon, I] performed much of the reading of the proof-sheets, comparing the same with the manuscript copies, and in the meantime had frequent and familiar interviews with the pioneer Mormons, Smith, Cowdery, and Harris; that [I] was present at the repeated consultations and negotiations between these men and Mr. Grandin in relation to the printing of the book, and united with the latter in the friendly admonitions vainly seeking to divert Harris from his persistent fanaticism in that losing speculation.
Becomes a Recognized Leader on a Minor Scale
Pomeroy Tucker was a “man about town” in Palmyra, but not necessarily influential from 1829 to 1832. The following entries reveal his recognition as a leader of sorts. On October 28, 1829, at a county convention of the Democratic political party Pomeroy was one of three persons from Palmyra selected to serve on the County Correspondence and Vigilance Committee to promote candidates for the upcoming election.[8] In March 1830, he was elected “town sealer” of Palmyra.[9] On November 29, 1830, at a Mechanics Institute meeting in Palmyra, he was selected vice president of the institute.[10] In 1831, Pomeroy and his associates Henry Jessup, Thomas Rogers II, E. B. Grandin, George Crane, and Pliny Sexton applied to the New York legislature requesting a railroad be built connecting Palmyra with Canandaigua.[11] On March 7, 1832, Pomeroy was appointed an auctioneer in Wayne County.[12] And on October 24, 1832, he was appointed to the Corresponding Committee of the 7th Senatorial District.[13]
Friendship with Newspaper Men in Western New York
His partnership with E. B. Grandin ended long before Pomeroy Tucker began his foray in the limelight of the Democratic Party in Palmyra. E. B. Grandin and Pomeroy were more than past business partners. E. B. Grandin wrote in his diary:
July 29, 1832: “At home in the forenoon. In the afternoon went down to L. L. Durfee accompanied by Pomeroy Tucker.”
March 16, 1833: “Went hunting with P. Tucker. Did not see a squirrel or other game.”
April 6, 1833: “Went to Putneyville accompanied by Pomeroy Tucker after fruit trees.”
April 27, 1833: “At market in forenoon. In afternoon after stock. P. Tucker accompanied. Brought home a parcel of white mutton.”
February 24, 1835: “Settled with Tuckers.”
March 20, 1835: “At home in forenoon. In afternoon went down home—wife also, and Mr. and Mrs. Tucker.”[14]
In 1980, when restoring the Grandin Building, Church employees found a newspaper fragment dated 1828 in the attic. They looked further and found not only more newspaper scraps, but a letter to Pomeroy Tucker from E. B. Grandin and a letter to Pomeroy Tucker from John H. Gilbert.[15]
Pomeroy kept in touch with newspaper editors outside of Palmyra by writing letters to them. His extensive correspondence was with Henry O’Reilly in Rochester. Why is this significant? On September 8, 1892, John H. Gilbert wrote Recollections of John H. Gilbert (by himself). In his autobiographical sketch John Gilbert wrote,
The work [of printing the Book of Mormon] was commenced in August 1829, and finished in March 1830—seven months. Mr. J. H. Bortles and myself did the presswork until December taking nearly three days to each form. In December Mr. Grandin hired a journeyman pressman, Thomas McAuley, or “Whistling Tom,” as he was called in the office, and he and Bortles did the balance of the presswork.” (Bortles was the brother-in-law of Fayette Lapham).
Thomas McAuley or “Whistling Tom” also worked for Henry O’Reilly. On April 30, 1830, O’Reilly wrote—
. . . published extracts from, the book just then printed but not yet published by the prophet Joseph Smith. Mr. [Abner] Cole, told me, that, when that “Prophet’s” attention was called to my comments as they were republished in some neighboring journal, he swore, with more than comical vigor, that he would ‘go to Rochester and thrash that damned O’Reilly, for writing that way about his book.’ A copy of the work had been brought to Rochester by a Journeyman printer named Macaully [this is Whistling Tom], then employed in our office. And he, supposed it would interest me, loaned it to me. Hence I learnt first about the contents, and mentioned it in my paper, giving some extracts . . . of the contents.”
Adding to the significance of the relationship between Pomeroy Tucker and Henry O’Reilly, Pomeroy named his son Henry O’Reilly Tucker. He later gave this son proof sheets of the Book of Mormon. An article in the New York Herald on April 2, 1877 stated, “The proof sheets of the original Mormon Bible were read by Mr. Tucker. There are few copies of this first edition of the book now extant. A copy preserved by Mr. Tucker is now in possession of his son, Henry O’Reilly Tucker, of the Troy Times.”
The extant letters of Pomeroy Tucker to Henry O’Reilly are political in nature, leaning towards the Democratic Party agenda. For example, one undated letter reads,
Dear Sir: I thank you for your friendly and congratulatory letter of yesterday. I had hoped to be forever excused from a return to the perplexing and thankless task of conducting a newspaper; but the circumstances of our Sentinel requires a “shoulder” and the calls of our common country, demanding the mite of every democrat, I could not hesitate to throw myself into . . . the campaign, and contribute my limited means and service in the great cause of Principle and Right.
On June 30, 1838, Pomeroy again corresponded with Henry O’Reilly—
The proposition for an early and efficient organization of the young men of the state is namely approved by the democracy of our county and steps are now being taken to help on the enterprise by a county convention of the young men, soon to be called. The general convention of our party is already called to be held on the 18th July and the indications are such as to inspire the belief that we shall renew our rally . . . As to the documents which you offered to share with us, I would suggest that they be forwarded in a package via canal to G. W. Cuyler (the collector) and we will distribute them through the mail and otherwise. P. Tucker.
On August 26, 1839, Pomeroy wrote to Henry O’Reilly about the president of the United States coming to Rochester and asked, “Do you know on what day certain the President of the US will be at Rochester on his route from Oswego and his points to be taken in this section of the state?” In yet another letter, Pomeroy stated, “I congratulate you upon the magnificent appearance of your enlarged weekly, and am glad to be informed that the patronage and prospects of your newspaper enterprise are good. How does it happen that your neck is still spared from the guillotine?”
Thurlow Weed. A letter from Thurlow Weed was included in the preface of Pomeroy Tucker’s Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism.
NEW YORK, June 1, 1867. DEAR SIR: I have been so constantly occupied, that I really did not get time to say how much I was interested in your history of Mormonism. I have long hoped that some person with personal knowledge of the origin of this great delusion—who saw it as I did, when it was “no bigger than a man’s hand,” and who has the courage and capacity to tell the whole truth, would undertake the task. I read enough of your manuscript to be confident that you have discharged this duty faithfully. The character you have given “Joe Smith,” his family and associates, corresponds with what I have often heard from the old citizens of Palmyra. Such a work is wanted, and no one but a writer personally and familiarly acquainted with the false prophet and his surroundings could have written it. Truly yours, THURLOW WEED
Pomeroy Tucker is an Elected Official
In 1837, Pomeroy was elected to represent Wayne County in the New York legislature.[16] Of his service in the legislature, the Rochester Republican reported, “Mr. T. is a man of excellent talent, a sound, unwavering Democrat, and in every respect worthy of the office.”[17] On February 13, 1838, Pomeroy was appointed US postmaster of Palmyra.[18] On February 5, 1840, he was elected trustee/president of the village of Palmyra. He took his oath before Isaac E. Beecher, a justice of the peace: “I, Pomeroy Tucker, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of trustee of the village of Palmyra according to the best of my ability.”[19]
From 1842 to 1858, Pomeroy was the Erie Canal toll collector at the Thomas Rogers II Basin.[20] He filled the position first held by John H. Gilbert.
In 1848, Pomeroy espoused the cause of “free soil” and was offered an opportunity to be a candidate on the Democratic ticket for the US Congress. He declined.[21] However, he did write to Josiah Miller and say,
I really don’t think I can answer very satisfactorily or intelligently your inquiries in relation to the awful state of things in our party at Albany. . . . I have been to Albany and have witnessed lice. . . . I went twice to Albany and on both occasions hoping that I might possibly be instrumental in meeting the commonly and distracting likenings among our common friends. . . . Ambitions for the “head of the heap” and for the spoils! What can be more damnable if this be so? At any rate, I can see no reason why the Democratic Party, as a party, should participate at all in the controversies going on or take sides with the respective combatants.[22]
Pomeroy kept himself in the Democratic political arena. On September 6, 1854, he attended the state Democratic convention held in Syracuse, New York.[23] A year later, he was a delegate representing Wayne County at the 7th Judicial District.[24] And so it went from year to year until Pomeroy was nearly fifty years old. At that time, he bade farewell to active politics and turned his attention to democracy in the press.
The Wayne Democrat
At age fifty-three, Pomeroy Tucker became editor and proprietor of the Wayne Democrat and the Utica Observer, then the leading Democratic newspapers in Central New York.[25] It was on these presses that Pomeroy printed his views of democracy. He also printed his views of Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among his more famous articles were “Mormonism and Joe Smith. The Book of Mormon or Golden Bible” and “The Mormon Imposture—The Mormon Aborigines.” In the articles, Pomeroy rehashed past events and names Elihu F. Marshall, Thurlow Weed, E. B. Grandin, John H. Gilbert, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and money-digging as well as the 116 pages—but refers to them as the “118 pages:”
Smith declares that he lost one hundred and eighteen pages of his Bible. It might be supposed that with his “plates” before him, he could easily have supplied the omission. And so he no doubt would have done had he really been the translator of the Book as he pretended to be. But to explain his inability on this score, he cunningly pretended to have received information from the Lord that his enemies had altered portions of the lost manuscript with a view to confound him and to have been forbidden to re-write it. Some suppose that the one hundred and eighteen pages of manuscript alluded to were lacking in the original copy.
It appears his newspaper business was lucrative for the 1860 US Federal Census shows Pomeroy as having a real wealth of $4,000 and a personal wealth of $1,000.
Pomeroy Tucker writes Mormonism: Its Origin, Rise and Progress—Biography of its founders, and History of its Church of Latter-Day Saints—Personal Remembrances and Historical Collections hitherto unwritten.
Lorenzo Saunders claimed that Pomeroy Tucker was interviewing Palmyra residents who had known the Joseph Smith Sr. family in the 1820s to get information for his book. Saunders claimed that “Pomeroy Tucker never called on Willard Chase for evidence.” He thought the reason was because Willard had paralysis and was “not competent to give testimony.”[26] On May 2, 1879, Abel Chase said to James Cobb of Salt Lake City, “If you will see Mr. [John] Gilbert at Palmyra, he can tell you more . . . he was in with Tucker in getting out Tucker’s work.” Apparently, Pomeroy also wrote to Sidney Rigdon asking for input but did not receive a reply. The Geneva Courier on January 1, 1873 printed, “When the late Pomeroy Tucker was preparing his “Early History of the Mormons,” he wrote once or twice to Rigdon asking for his assistance, but could get no reply.” The same could not be said of Stephen Harding for he wrote on June 1, 1867, “I entirely approve your plan of Mormon History.”[27]
On November 9, 1867, the D. Appleton and Company agreed to print Pomeroy Tucker’s book. Having such a celebrated publisher in New York City print the book had much to do with the influence of Honorable Stephen Harding and Thurlow Weed.[28] Pomeroy sent a copy of the book to Thurlow Weed with the following letter:
I take the liberty to send by mail today a copy of my Mormon history and shall be glad if you can devote time for its examination and notice, asking the further favor of a paper containing your review if you shall publish one. Acknowledging the important benefit derived from your letter of June last as pub. in my preface . . .
Yours very truly,
P. Tucker[29]
By December 17, 1867, Pomeroy’s book was being sold for $1.75. It has been referred to as the “most influential anti-Mormon work in its period,” but it wasn’t a financial success. In the very year of its publication, at age sixty-five Pomeroy left publishing altogether and became an insurance agent in Palmyra.[30] By 1870, his real wealth had diminished to $700 and his personal wealth to $500.
Death of Pomeroy Tucker
On June 30, 1870, Pomeroy died at his residence on Fayette Street in Palmyra, after experiencing declining health for two months. His death at age sixty-eight was announced as far away as New York City. The New York Evening Times printed, “The funeral of the veteran editor, Pomeroy Tucker, was very largely attended. The Masonic ceremonies were impressive, and never did greater solemnity prevail than on this occasion. There were present numbers of representatives of the press and of the Masonic fraternity from other places.” His funeral was held in the Presbyterian Church in Palmyra with Reverend Pattengill of the Baptist Church preaching the funeral sermon. It was said of Pomeroy Tucker, “His name had long been as familiar as a household word. Almost every man, woman and child in this section of country knew Pomeroy Tucker, and we doubt if any man had a larger circle of personal friends.” He was buried “with an impressive masonic ceremony” in the Palmyra City Cemetery.[31]
Following the death of Pomeroy, his widow Lucy Rogers Tucker (an invalid) made her home in Albany with her daughter Frances Almira Tucker.[32] On August 7, 1893, Lucy Rogers Tucker died at 10 p.m. at her residence on State Street in Albany at age eighty-seven. Lucy had been a widow for twenty-three years, living twenty of those years in Albany with her daughter Frances.[33] Her remains were brought to Palmyra and buried in the Palmyra City Cemetery.[34]
As for his son, Henry O’Reilly Tucker, he became the editor of the Troy Times in Troy, New York. He found more than one occasion to print vitriolic articles against Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John D. Lee.
Children of Pomeroy and Lucy Tucker
1. Harriet Elizabeth Tucker (July 19, 1828–January 20, 1889). She was born in Palmyra. She married John Morgan Francis (1823–1897) on December 8, 1846 in Palmyra. Between 1855 and 1865, she resided in Troy City, New York.
2. Frances Almira Tucker (December 30, 1831). She was born in Palmyra. From 1850 to 1870, she resided in Palmyra. From 1900–1905, she resided in Albany, New York.
3. Sydney Durfee Tucker (January 24, 1834–September 16, 1922). In 1850, he resided in Palmyra. In 1852, he commenced the trade of mathematical instruments with W. & L. E. Gurley in Troy, New York. He married Julia V. Symonds (born 1838) on January 26, 1863. He was the superintendent of the mechanical department of a collar factory which manufactured shirts, collars, and cuffs. He was the inventor of several attachments for sewing machines. He retired in 1875.
4. Henry O’Reilly Tucker (August 12, 1839–July 16, 1910). He was born in Palmyra. In 1850, he resided in Palmyra. Henry was the editor of the Troy Times. He married Elizabeth Brownell (born 1843) on June 12, 1867 in Troy City, New York. From 1880 to 1910, he resided in Troy City. He died in Little Compton, Newport County, Rhode Island.
5. Alice Louise Tucker (May 13, 1843–June 10, 1891). She was born in Palmyra. She married Andrew B. Jones on November 8, 1871.
6. Mary Alida Tucker (July 30, 1846–March 28, 1849). She was born in Palmyra.
[1] Albert A. Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines.
[2] “Married,” Geneva Gazette, December 29, 1824.
[3] Palmyra Masonic Records, 1827–1828.
[4] “Death of Pomeroy Tucker.” Obituary.
[5] Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, pp. 36–37.
[6] Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, pp. 40–45.
[7] Black and Tate, Joseph Smith: The Prophet, the Man, pp. 53, 59; Black and Black, “Exhibition Guide Historic Publication Site,” p. 38; Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, p. 89.
[8] “Wayne County Convention,” Geneva Gazette and Mercantile Advertiser, October 28, 1829.
[9] The Reflector, March 30, 1830.
[10] Rochester Daily Advertiser, November 29, 1830.
[11] Western Argus [Lyons NY], September 5, 1831.
[12] “Appointments made by the senate . . . ,” Geneva Gazette and Mercantile Advertiser, March 7, 1832.
[13] “Republican Senatorial Convention,” Geneva Gazette and Mercantile Advertiser, October 24, 1832.
[14] E. B. Grandin Diary, 1831–1841.
[15] “Historic Discoveries at the Grandin Building,” Ensign, July 1980.
[16] Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600–1889.
[17] “Pomeroy Tucker, Esq.,” Rochester Republican, March 6, 1838.
[18] Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines.
[19] Certificate in Palmyra Community Library.
[20] “City Items,” Rochester Daily Democrat, July 29, 1853.
[21] Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600–1889.
[22] Josiah Miller File, Special Collections, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
[23] Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines.
[24] “The Seventh Judicial District Democratic Convention,” Penn-Yan Democrat, October 17, 1855.
[25] Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines.
[26] Lorenzo Saunders Interview, September 17, 1884; Hiram Jacaway Interview, 1881; Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:87.
[27] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:82–86.
[28] “History of the Mormons,” Union and Advertiser, November 9, 1867.
[29] Thurlow Weed Collection, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
[30] Pomeroy, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines.
[31] “Miscellaneous,” Geneva Daily Gazette, July 8, 1870.
[32] “Death of Pomeroy Tucker,” Durfee Scrapbook No. 3 1876–1883; “Pomeroy Tucker” The Indianapolis News [Indianapolis, IN], July 7, 1870; “The Late Pomeroy Tucker,” Union and Advertiser, July 1–2, 1870.
[33] “Mrs. Pomeroy Tucker—Death of a Former Well Known Resident of Wayne County,” Durfee Scrapbook No 3, 1876–1883.
[34] “Of Local Interest,” News Gatherer [Macedon, NY], August 12, 1893.