180 years ago today - Aug 25, 1836

the CINCINNATI JOURNAL AND WESTERN LUMINARY prints a letter from Truman Coe pastor of the Old South Church in Kirtland, Ohio: "Mormonism, it is well known, originated with Joseph Smith in the town of Manchester, adjoining Palmyra, in the state of New York. Smith had previously been noted among his acquaintances as a kind of Juggler, and had been employed in digging after money. He was believed by the ignorant to possess the power of second sight, by looking through a certain stone in his possession. He relates that when he was 17 years of age, while seeking after the Lord he had a nocturnal vision, and a wonderful display of celestial glory. An angel descended and warned him that God was about to make an astonishing revelation to the world, and then directed him to go to such a place, and after prying up a stone he should find a number of plates of the color of gold inscribed with hieroglyphics, and under them a breastplate, and under that a transparent stone or stones which was the Urim and Thummin mentioned by Moses."