Now please enlighten all of us why exactly someone who is about to face his maker would need to "LIE" in a confession just to protect BY??? Be honest - would YOU? I thought not, so thank you very much for proving this event with your babbling. I'll stand by my sources thank you very much along with the other historians based on the overwhelming evidence in this particular case to the contrary, and you can continue to wallow in your comfortable little world where fear is the motivator for never, ever, questioning anything the LDS ever in any way says or does. OH GOSH, heavens no - the LDS would NEVER EVER cover-up its questionable past from anybody would they? OH my no -- oh no --- its always the anti-mormons isn't it never the Church lying to YOU? tsk tsk tsk. Yeah anti-mormons are so evil we have the audacity to actually show you direct quotations complete with source citations that your own leaders have actually SAID. (This is done not bash but to present truth). But hey if you don't like the quotes and sources we post seems to me your problem isn't with us -- its with the LDS. So my dear if you don't like what you see -- why are you STILL LDS?
I give up. I'm rather reminded of a rabid jihadist faced with the truth of Mohammed and starts yelling death to the infidel for daring to question his prophet. So go ahead and sit in your comfy corner. And while you're there don't forget to put a blindfold over your eyes, cover your mouth with your hands, stick cotton in your ears and hum after me LA LA LA LA LA LA LA as loud as you can. Meanwhile I'll happily take comfort in the obvious reality that I've struck a nerve here and pray the real Lord of Heaven and Earth will open your eyes to truth.
I don't think the main body of LDS in Utah has any more information regarding those times than the rest of us. Even the handful of Authorities who post here have expressed surprise that there was a COTFB in existence before Smith was born ~ and right there in that part of New York, and in Rhode Island, and so forth. Kind of changes the complexion of what little information anyone has about those days.
Too often Mormon bashing consists of little more than someone coming up with a little documented personal event involving someone in the hierarchy and then demanding the Authority provide more information or suffer the consequences of folks conjuring up evil plots and conspiracies.
Absent a time machine no one can fill in all the gaps in America's history of Westward movement before 1860. Sometimes it's simply "dark".