John P. Livingstone: In the summer of 1830 the first missionary of the newly organized Church of Christ traveled the road that passes in front of this, the Tomlinson Inn a popular stagecoach stop and dance hall in Mendon, New York. On his back Samuel Smith, the prophet Joseph Smith’s younger brother, carried a knapsack filled with copies of the recently published Book of Mormon.1 While stopping here at the Tomlinson Inn, Samuel approached Phineas Young, Brigham Young’s brother, and presented him with a copy of the Book.
While stopping here at the Tomlinson Inn, Samuel approached an individual sitting in the large public room of the house. Phineas Young, Brigham Young’s brother, had stopped by the Inn to get some dinner. Samuel held out his hand and declared, “There is a Book sir I wish you to read.” Startled, Phineas hesitated for a moment and then asked, “Pray sir, what book have you?” “The Book of Mormon, or as it is called by some the Golden Bible.” At the young missionaries request Phineas looked at the testimony of the Book of Mormon witnesses after which Samuel boldly affirmed, “If you’ll read this book with a prayerful heart, and ask God to give you a witness, you will know of the truth of this work.” Phineas assured him that he would do so and then asked him his name, he said his name was Samuel H. Smith. “Ah, you are one of the witnesses.” “Yes,” he said, “I know the book to be a revelation from God translated by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, and that my brother Joseph Smith Jr. is a prophet, seer, and revelator.”2
You can imagine Samuel Smith like any young missionary today, trying to go ahead and speak to a stranger and to open his mouth and to try and say something that would be meaningful, that would somehow trigger a bit of a spiritual response. Of course when his investigator recognizes that his name is on the list of witnesses, why there is an additional little interaction and he is able to actually testify and reiterate and bear testimony to the Book of Mormon, what he has seen, and what he knows.
Craig J. Ostler: Tomlinson Inn has so many important elements to it that represent, let us just take one, missionary work in general. It begins with Samuel Smith officially, and Tomlinson Inn becomes the symbol of everything that Samuel Smith began.
Richard E. Bennett: Samuel H. Smith was perhaps the first and finest missionary the church ever produced. As you know he was the younger brother to the prophet Joseph. Very faithful, somewhat overlooked, he will serve various missions coming forth out of the Palmyra, Fayette area, moving around different parts of New York, Lyons, Newark, and all those other areas along the Erie Canal.3 Samuel H. Smith in many ways set a marvelous present for the church in two significant ways. First he began to disseminate and to teach from the Book of Mormon, as the Book of Mormon was the battle cry of the restoration, it was the statement that was being made that differentiated the church in its infancy from anything else. So it was critical that Samuel H. Smith being the brother of the prophet Joseph, understood the seminal significance of the Book of Mormon. Secondly he taught, as you all know, the first principles and ordinances of the gospel on those very early missions.
John P. Livingstone: Phineas read the Book of Mormon and felt it was true, he lent his copy of the book to his father John Young who read it and announced it to be the greatest work he had ever seen. Phineas then lent it to his sister, Fanny Murray,4 who after examining it declared it to be “a revelation.”5 Subsequently Fanny gave the book to her brother Brigham Young. In due course this copy of the Book of Mormon along with an addition copy that Samuel Smith gave to Rhody Young Green, resulted in the conversion of almost the entire John Young family.6 Eventually the Young’s with the Kimball’s and other converts made up the Mendon, New York branch of the church which was organized in the spring of 1832.7
Craig J. Ostler: Elder Neal A. Maxwell refers to the star that appears above Bethlehem at the birth of the Savior, and he indicates that it must have taken great planning, one, to see that the star is in its orbit millennia before the light is going to shine on the earth. That the Lord has taken at least as much care to see that his children are placed in individual orbits, where they will be in the right place at the right time, to influence others that they come in contact with because they are in the orbit.8 Now as I understand that we take Samuel Smith, he is placed in the orbit, let us simplify it, of the Young and the Kimball families9 and so it becomes important that he is in this orbit of people who know one another and he plants that seed. I think when you talk about planting seeds of the gospel, Samuel Smith doesn’t baptize any of those people he only planted the seeds. Look who some (of these individuals are), I mean the Kimball’s, Brigham Young, Phineas Young, John Young, and their families, Heber C. Kimball comes into the kingdom. Both Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball become stalwart’s and pillars in the church, when every other member of the quorum of the twelve may have at one time or another turned against Joseph, Joseph indicated that Brigham and Heber never have.10 So for missionaries the next part is, you know, there is real significance in planting seeds because it is not for like two years later before Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were baptized and Samuel is not going to see that as he leaves those copies of the Book of Mormon.11 You can see the Tomlinson Inn represents nearly everything, nearly, with missionary work that we have today. Missionaries would be well served to study what happened in Tomlinson Inn for those brief few moments.
1 Lucy’s Book, ed. Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001), 498.
2 “History of Brigham Young,” Millennial Star 25 No. 23, (1863):360-361.
See http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/MStar/id/7990
3 Lucy’s Book, ed. Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001), 478-480, Lucy Mack Smith details many of Samuel Smith’s missions at the time, and the people he interacted with.
4 Fanny Young married Roswell Murray, becoming the step-mother of Vilate Kimball, the wife of Heber C. Kimball.
5 Latter Day Saints’ Millennial Star, History of Brigham Young, 1863, Vol. 25, No. 23, 361.
See http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/MStar/id/7990/rec/25
See also, Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1985), 20-21.
6 Latter Day Saints’ Millennial Star, History of Brigham Young, 1863, Vol. 25, No.24, 374-376.
See http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/MStar/id/7990/rec/25
7 Larry C. Porter, Sacred Places: New York and Pennsylvania, ed. Lamar C. Berrett, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 228-229.
8 Neal A. Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co, 1974), 86.
9 Latter Day Saints’ Millennial Star, History of Brigham Young, 1863, Vol. 25, no.21, 327. Brigham indicated that he and Heber C. Kimball became acquainted in the fall of 1826 during a visit to Mendon, New York, and later became very good friends after Brigham Young moved to Mendon in 1828.
See http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/MStar/id/7990/rec/25
10 Joseph Smith, Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City; Deseret Book Co, 1949, 1980), 5:412.
11 Elden J. WIlson, ed, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844 (Salt Lake City, 1968), P, 2-3.;
See also, Journal of Discourses, 9:219.
