The probability that the document was in the keeping of Butler & Lambdin in preference to any other firm in Pittsburgh printers is in a measure confirmed by the circumstance that a sort of intimacy existed between Sidney and Mr. Lambdin. Rigdon never denied the statement of Howe to that effect when in 1834 the latter affirmed: "we have been credibly informed that he was on terms of intimacy with Lambdin being seen frequently in his shop" (Howe p. 289). Mr. Robert Patterson, who must have kept a sort of eye upon the movements of his partner in business, also declared that Lambdin and Rigdon were very intimate during the residence of the latter in Pittsburgh (Patterson 11); and Mrs. Eichbaum, whose husband was postmaster from 1822 to 1833, makes allusion to the fact instancing the circumstance that the twain often came to the office together. She recalls a remark of Silas Engles to the effect that Rigdon was always hanging around the printing office (Patterson p. 1). Though in one or two points this lady may be mistaken in what she communicated for the valuable pamphlet of Patterson, her memory is generally so precise and accurate that much respect is due her testimony. She is one of the main witnesses to the indubitable fact that while a resident of Pittsburgh, Sidney was engaged in a tannery.

This intimacy between Rigdon and Lambdin and the habit of the former of visiting his friend at the printing office, will go far to encourage the supposition that the manuscript of the Book of Mormon was obtained at the hands of Butler & Lambdin in preference to any other Pittsburgh printers. But the reader should bear in mind that while it may be uncertain from what particular source the document was procured, it is a thing beyond any question that it was obtained from some source; which after all is the point of leading concern.

On the other hand, if the contents of the printing office were sold under the hammer, Sidney might have purchased the Manuscript Book of Mormon for a song. There is no kind of necessity to suppose that anything improper was connected with the transaction; it was likely one of the most honest and commonplace affairs that could be imagined. Lambdin might not have thought of it a moment afterward; if he could have been consulted in the year 1834, it is a chance whether he would have been in a situation to recall anything that might have been said or done when the bargain was closed. Transfers of this color are being enacted every day, and few will consider it important to charge their minds with a record of the particulars connected with them.

But the acquisition was a very important affair to Mr. Rigdon. The moment he became aware of what a prize he had drawn, he conceived a fresh ambition in life, and as he often assured his friends in after years, he immediately abandoned other concerns and devoted all the time he could command to the labor of "studying the Bible" (Howe p. 289).

Chapter V. Rigdon's Patmos

Mr. Howe affirms that "Rigdon resided in Pittsburgh about three years and during the whole of that time, as he has since frequently asserted, abandoned preaching and all other employment for the purpose of studying the Bible" (p. 289). It has been suggested above that the precise duration of his Pittsburgh period was about four years, but the above report is of considerable importance. The period during which Rigdon retired from business and devoted his cares to the study of the Bible was of just about three years duration, namely from the date of his obtaining Spaulding's Book of Mormon to his removal from the city. It was likely to this season that Howe so often heard him allude, and not to the entire space of his sojourn in Pittsburgh.

On the other hand, it is worthy of investigation whether Mr. Rigdon represented the case truly when he would affirm that in the months that intervened between the first of January 1823 and the last of December 1825 he "abandoned preaching and all other employment." As late as the 11th of June 1823, he was the recognized pastor of the Baptist church of the town and it is likely ministered before that community every Sunday. After the 11th of June and particularly after the 11th of October 1823, he was the fellow-elder of Walter Scott in the pastoral charge of the Sandemanian church that worshiped in the courthouse. Besides these functions, he also secured a position to labor in the tannery.

The explanation of this apparent contradiction must be sought in the circumstance that the study of the Bible was the only occupation in which Mr. Rigdon had any heart. After his eyes had rested upon the Book of Mormon, almost all his waking thoughts would be employed in the editorial preparation of it for the purposes he had in mind. His preaching, whether for the behoof of the Baptists or later of the Sandemanians, was of a perfunctory sort which required no special preparation and therefore in later years it was not difficult for him to overlook the fact that he had even gone through the form of it. Nothing really engaged his thoughts and energies except the Book of Mormon and the task of elaborating from the scriptures such passages and such points of the "ancient order of things" as he should like to insert into his revised edition of it. Already a glimpse has been had of a "diligent student of the Bible" who in the month of August 1824 was teasing Mr. Campbell with very unwelcome inquiries in that regard (G.B. p. 86) which is believed to indicate that Sidney was by that time making satisfactory progress in his researches.

Howe further deposes that Sidney "resided in this vicinity (at Mentor) about four years previous to the appearance of the book, during which time he made several long visits to Pittsburgh and perhaps to the Susquehanna where Smith was then digging for money or pretending to be translating plates" (p. 29). If the historian had been familiar with the details of the Pittsburgh period after the discovery of the Book of Mormon, it is more than probable that he would have had something to relate concerning several long journeys undertaken between the first of January 1823 and the last of December 1825. For example, there is reason to suppose that Sidney was in Manchester, New York, on the night of the twenty-first of September 1823, and on the following day in conference with Mr. Joseph Smith, Jr. Returning from that journey about the 1st of October, it will be remembered that he accompanied Mr. Campbell to Kentucky where the debate with McCalla was appointed. Sidney had more ready cash at this moment than was usual in his scanty exchequer; he had received from James Means on the 28th of June a portion of the money due for the land that gentleman had purchased in St. Clair township, so that it was not difficult for him to put himself in readiness for a considerable visit.

The years 1824 and 1825 it is believed were also signalized each by a visit to New York in the month of September. When the month of December 1825 had come round, it was apparent that his work in Pittsburgh was closed; it is also possible that he had already completed the greatest portion of his labor on the Book of Mormon; and he resolved to return to Ohio. About the first of January 1826, he must have celebrated his entrance into the township of Bainbridge, Geauga county. This place was probably selected because Mr. Brooks of Warren, his wife's father, possessed a landed estate there where Sidney, being stranded, it would be convenient to dispose of him. He could employ his exertions in raising a farm crop and in that way earn an honest living. The above explanation is suggested by the circumstance that Adams on Bentley, who married another daughter of Mr. Brooks's, established himself there in the year 1831, possibly in the very house which Rigdon had occupied in the beginning of 1826. Reliable information exists to the effect that the house of Rigdon was in the neighborhood of Chagrin Falls in Cuyahoga, and that was the postal address of Mr. Bentley also (Hayden p. 106). Rigdon was never able to forgive Bentley for the fact that Mr. Brooks was induced to disinherit his daughter, Mrs. Phoebe Brooks Rigdon (Mess. & Adv. 2, 335).

At Bainbridge, Sidney continued, as opportunity was offered, to put the finishing touches on the Book of Mormon. The following glimpse of him and of the book is supplied by Mrs. Amos Dunlap of Warren, Ohio:

"When I was quite a child, I visited Mr. Rigdon's family. He married my aunt. They at that time lived in Bainbridge, Ohio. During my visit, Mr. Rigdon went to his bedroom and took from a trunk, which he kept locked, a certain manuscript. He came out into the other room and seated himself by the fireplace and commenced reading it. His wife at that moment came into the room and exclaimed, 'What! You're studying that thing again?' or something to that effect. She then added, 'I mean to burn that paper.' He said, 'No indeed, you will not. This will be a great thing someday.' Whenever he was reading this, he was so completely occupied that he seemed entirely unconscious of anything passing around him." (Patterson, p. 12)

The closing remark would seem to suggest that during the visit of Mrs. Dunlap, it was not an unusual thing for Sidney to be occupied with his Manuscript.

In the month of June 1826, he was invited to Mentor on the occasion of the death of the Rev. Warner Goodall, pastor of the Baptist church in Mentor. This gentleman had rendered himself esteemed by promptly yielding to the innovations that had been proposed by Mr. Campbell, and at his death, it was the desire of his brethren to do him distinguished honor. Mr. Rigdon, a mighty orator in the Boanerges vein, was sent for to preach the funeral sermon. The church at Mentor were content with the manner in which the service was performed, and in a short season, this eloquent defender of the "ancient order" was called to the honor of succeeding "Father Goodall." Meanwhile, however, in the last days of August 1826, Sidney appeared at the Mahoning Association, who were convened in their annual session at Canfield, where the distinction was conferred upon him of being put forward to preach before the body on Sunday morning, along with Walter Scott and Alexander Campbell (Hayden pp. 34-5). Several weeks later, he removed his residence from Bainbridge to Mentor and threw himself into the thick of the combat then waging in that quarter on behalf of Sandemanian views and practices. But it is possible that even at Mentor, he prosecuted as industriously as he could the business of putting the final touches upon his redaction of the Book of Mormon. The work did not leave his hands until nearly an entire year after his removal to Mentor; it was first committed to the providence of Mr. Smith on the 22nd of September 1827.