The Facts About the Zelph Mound – Part I

North American theorists, particularly those of the Heartland model championed by Rod L. Meldrum, Wayne May and others, claim that the information regarding
    The story of Zelph, a skeleton of a man Joseph Smith identified as a Lamanite warrior during the time of the prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Rocky Mountains to the sea has had an interesting side effect among theorists today.
    Take North American theorists, particularly those of the Heartland model championed by Rod L. Meldrum, Wayne May and others, who claim that the story of Zelph is downplayed or ignored by both Central American theorists and those who claim South American to be the Land of Promise. While that claim might well fit Mesoamericanists who disregard North American claims of Heartland and Great Lake theorists, it certain does not match our interest and writing about South America.

The mound in which Zelph’s skeleton was found is now called the Naples-Russel Mound 8 (Illinois Archaeology Survey)

The bones of an ancient skeleton, known to us today as Zelph, were found on June 3, 1834, on a large burial mound three miles east of Griggsville in Pike county, west-central Illinois. Observing the remains from earlier excavations by white settlers of several bones strewn over the surface of the ground on the west side of the Illinois River, one mile south of present-day Valley city, and across from Naples, some of the brethren of Zion’s Camp secured a shovel and dug down into the mound about a foot to where they found the skeleton (LaMar C. Berrett, Keith W. Perkins and Donald Q. Cannon, Vol. 3 Sacred Places: Ohio and Illinois, vol.3, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 2002, p228).
    It should always be considered regarding such incidents that to the early members of the Church, all ancient American artifacts were obvious evidences for the Book of Mormon—it was not the locations of these artifacts or knowledge (as shown by John Lloyd Stephens book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan), that was the concern of early members, but that they existed, showing that the Book of Mormon people were really based on factual matters, i.e., an early advanced civilization in the Americas showing the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
    This, of course, caused many non-Mormon critics to suggest opposite views about such findings. It is interesting that in one such case, Eber D. Howe, in his 1834 book Mormonism Unveiled, claimed that Joseph Smith said the bones belonged to “a General among the Nephites,” however, Joseph never wrote about the event, though the six prominent men of the Church who did write in their journals who were then present, all stated Joseph said Zelph was “a white Lamanite” (Kenneth W. Godfrey, “What is the Significance of Zelph in the Study of Book of Mormon Geography?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol.8, no.2, Maxwell Institute, Provo, 1999, pp70-79).

It was later in the day, while continuing on the journey westward, that Joseph Smith made the identification of the man whose bones they found. Sometime afterward, Wilford Woodruff, who had not been part of the discovery on the mound, stated regarding the finding of the bones that: “Brother Joseph, feeling anxious to learn something of this man, asked the Lord, and received an open vision. 
"The man's name was Zelph. He was a white Lamanite, the curse having been removed because of his righteousness. He was a great warrior, and fought for the Nephites under the direction of the Prophet Onandagus. The latter had charge of the Nephite armies from the Eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains. Although the Book of Mormon does not mention Onandagus, he was a great warrior, leader, general, and prophet. Zelph had his thigh bone broken by a stone thrown from a sling, but was killed by the arrow found sticking in his backbone. There was a great slaughter at that time. The bodies were heaped upon the earth, and buried in the mound, which is nearly three hundred feet in height" (History of the Life and Labors of Wilford Woodruff, as recorded in his Daily Journals prepared for publication by Matthias Cowley, Deseret News, Salt Lake City, 1909, p41).

    However, this account was written in the 1850s, some 20 years after the event, in which he included the term “fought for the Nephites,” which was not included in his Journal written at the time. It is also of interest to note, that changes were made to some of Wilford Woodruff’s entry as it was copied into the Church History. As the writer Godfrey further notes: “Wilford Woodruff’s statement that mounds in the area had been built “probably by the Nephites and Lamanites” became an implied certainty when Willard Richards left out the word “probably” in the Church History. The mere word “arrow” of the three earliest accounts became an “Indian Arrow” and finally a “Lamanitish Arrow.” The phrase “known from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains,” later became “known from the Hill Cumorah” or “eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains. The statement that the battle in which Zelph was killed occurred “among the Lamanites…became “with the Lamanites.”

Rueben McBride (left), whose account is generally regarded as the earliest, possibly written within days of the event, simply said Zelph “was killed in battle,” while Wilford Woodruff wrote a few months later in his journal “he was killed in battle with an arrow.” It should also be noted that none of the sources before the Willard Richards composition, actually say that Zelph died “in battle with the Nephites,” only that he died “in battle” when the otherwise unidentified people of Onandagus were engaged in great wars “among the Lamanites”.
    In addition, “the earlier accounts do not expressly identify Zelph with the Nephites, as do the later accounts.” Nothing about the Nephites is mentioned in Woodruff’s earlier account, written in 1834 probably within a few months of the events described, and some details in his later account are contradicted by his and the other earlier accounts. None of the other accounts written before Joseph Smith’s death mention the Nephites either.
    In fact, some of the accounts claimed Zelph had been a man of large stature, whereas other accounts claimed that he was “short” and “stout.” It might also be noted that not one of the six early journal accounts used the term “Nephite” from Joseph’s statements. In fact, in the pre-publication manuscript in the handwriting of Willard Richards, written in 1842–1843, under Joseph Smith’s guidance and direction of this event, the word “and Nephites” was crossed out by Joseph. It read: “During our travels we visited several of the mounds which had been thrown up by the ancient inhabitants of this country, Nephites, Lamanites” (History of the Church 1838-1856, vol.1-A, p483).
    Further, in an account published as part of the “History of Joseph Smith” in 1846, after Joseph Smith’s death, the names “Hill Cumorah” and “Zelph” were directly linked to the final battles “fought between the Nephites and Lamanites in the fourth century AD” through adding this information to Joseph’s own account: “The visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the spirit of the Almighty I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before us, was a white Lamanite…He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Omandagus, who was known from the hill Cumorah, or Eastern sea, to the Rocky Mountains. His name was Zelph…He was killed in battle, by the arrow found among his ribs, during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites (“History of the Church,” Times and Season,s vol.6, no.20, January 1, 1846, pp1076).
    Obviously, unless one reads the actual and original six accounts that were written after the event, it is sometimes difficult to know which comments were actually made, and which comments became additions or even changes to the original journals.
(See the next post, “The Facts About the Zelph Mound – Part II,” for more on the event)