Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/658

624 lacks." Mr. Spanieling prepared a " History of the Legal-Tender Paper Money used during the Great Rebellion "' (Buffalo, 1869), which is regarded as standard authority on the subject. He was chosen to deliver the address before the Banking associa- tion at t In- ( Vnfennial exposition, in which he gave a review of -One Hundred Years of Progress in the Businc-- of Banking."

SPAULDING, Levi. missionary, b. in Jaffrey, X. II.. >.> Aug.. 1791 : d. in Ceylon, 18 June. is?:!. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1815, finished his theological coursr at Andover seminary- three years later, and soon afterward was ordained at Salem. Mass. In 1820 he arrived as a missionary of the American board at Jaffna, Ceylon, where he labored fifty-four years, making but one visit to the United States during that period. In addition to his missionary labors, he superintended the Oodoo- ville boarding-school for girls and prepared tracts, hymns, and school-books in the Tamil language, many of the best lyrics in the vernacular hymn- book being from his pen. Among his principal w.irks are a translation of " Pilgrim's Progress," a " Script nre History," a Tamil dictionary (Madras, 1844), an enlarged edition of an English and Tamil dictionary, " Notes on the Bible," and a revision of the Scriptures in Tamil. He was one of the most aci orate Tamil scholars in southern India, using the language with great facility and power. Ten days before his death " Father Spaulding," as he was called, celebrated the fifty-fourth anniver- sary <>f his embarkation at Boston for Ceylon, at which time he was the oldest missionary of the American board.

SPAULDING, Nathan Weston, inventor, b. in the town of North Anson, Me., 24 Sept., 1829. At the age of thirteen he began to learn the trade of a carpenter and builder under the tuition of his father, who was both a school-teacher and a prac- tical mechanic. Afterward learning the trade of a millwright from an uncle and spending a year in a saw-factory, he had become at twenty tin- chief mechanic of his neighborhood. Going to California in 1851, he went at once to the mines, but did not succeed, and was employed as superintendent of the construction of one of the first quartz-mills in the state. Its success led to the erection of a sec- ond on the same stream Mokelumne river. In 1859 he opened a saw-manufactory in Sacramento, where he began to develop an inventive talent in the line of his business and devised the adjustable saw-tooth that has made him widely known. The demand for these teeth became so great that Mr. Spaulding, finding it difficult to supply them in sufficient quantities, was compelled to contrive other devices, and finally brought out the chisel- bit saw-tooth. He has also completed and pub- lished a scale for the measurement of logs, which has been adopted as the legal standard in Califor- nia and other states, as also in several territories. It is known as the Spaulding log-scale. In 18G1 he removed his factory to San Francisco, and he has since taken part in the industrial development of California. In 1881 he was appointed by Presi- dent Garfield to be assistant U. S. treasurer at San Francisco, which office he held until 20 Aug., 1885. During that period he received and disbursed, or safely kepi and transferred to'his successor, more than $320,000,000 without loss. He has twice served as mayor of Oakland, where he resides, and had been selected by Leland Stanford as a trustee of the Leland Stanford, Jr., university.

SPAULDING, Solomon, clergyman, b. in Ashford, Conn., in 1761; d. in Amity, Washington co., Pa., 20 Oct., 1816. After serving in his youth in

the Revolutionary army, and beginning to study law, he was graduated at Dartmouth in 1785, studied for the ministry, and preached in New England. In 1795 he settled in Cherry Valley, N. Y., where he entered into business with his brother, and four years later in Richfield, N. Y. In 1809 he removed to New Salem (now Conneaut), Ohio, and established an iron-foundry with Henry Lake. This enterprise proving unprofitable, on account of the war with Great Britain, he went to Pittsburg, and afterward to Amity, Pa., where he died. While residing at Conneaut, he wrote a romance entitled &ldquo;The Manuscript Found,&rdquo; purporting to be an account of the original people of this continent, their customs, and conflicts between the different tribes. It pretended to be taken from a manuscript that had been discovered in an ancient mound. Mr. Spaulding read his manuscript to some of his friends in 1811-'12, and tried to get it published, but without success. In 1830 Mormon elders preached in northeastern Ohio, and their account of how the golden plates, from which the &ldquo;Book of Mormon&rdquo; was made, had been found, brought to mind the story written by Spaulding twenty years before. A suspicion was raised that the &ldquo;Book of Mormon&rdquo; might have been an outgrowth from the latter. This suspicion ripened into a general belief, and in time became the accepted theory of the origin of the &ldquo;Book of Mormon.&rdquo; It is alleged that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon compiled the &ldquo;Book of Mormon&rdquo; from Spaulding's manuscript story, Rigdon having stolen it, or a copy of it, from a printing-office in which he worked in Pittsburg. In 1834 Dr. P. Hurlbut, who had been expelled from the Mormon church, obtained from the widow of Solomon Spaulding, Mrs. Matilda Davison, of Monson, Mass., what was supposed to be the original copy of the Spaulding story, and the same year Eber D. Howe, editor of the Painesville &ldquo;Telegraph,&rdquo; compiled a book entitled &ldquo;Mormonism Unveiled,&rdquo; which was a severe criticism on the &ldquo;Book of Mormon&rdquo; and its believers. This book was reproduced in 1840. Upon the title-page and in the last chapter is suggested the &ldquo;probability that the historical part of the &lsquo;Golden Bible&rsquo; was written by Solomon Spaulding.&rdquo; From the time Mr. Hurlbut obtained the manuscript story in 1834 up to 1884 its whereabouts was unknown to the world. In 1884 President James H. Fairchild, of Oberlin college, visited his old anti-slavery friend, Lewis L. Rice, of Honolulu, Hawaiian islands. Mr. Rice in 1839-'40 succeeded Mr. Howe in the office of the Painesville &ldquo;Telegraph,&rdquo; and the books and manuscripts came into his possession. President Fairchild asked Mr. Rice if he had among his old papers anything relating to the early anti-slavery movement which he would contribute to the Oberlin library. When examining for these he came upon &ldquo;an old worn and faded manuscript of about 175 pages of small quarto,&rdquo; which proved to be the long-lost manuscript of Solomon Spaulding. Comparisons were made with the &ldquo;Book of Mormon,&rdquo; and President Fairchild says: &ldquo;The manuscript has no resemblance to the &lsquo;Book of Mormon&rsquo; except in some very general features. There is not a name or an incident common to the two.&rdquo; A verbatim copy of the manuscript has been issued by the Mormons at Lamoni, Iowa (1885). See &ldquo;Who wrote the Book of Mormon,&rdquo; by Robert Patterson (Pittsburg, 1882); &ldquo;New Light on Mormonism,&rdquo; by Ellen E. Dickinson (New York, 1885); and &ldquo;Early Days of Mormonism,&rdquo; by J. H. Kennedy (New York, 1888).

SPEAR, Charles, philanthropist, b. in Bo-tou, Mii-~.. 1 May. ls(H : d. in Washington. D. '.. I* April, isij:;. " He became a Universalist mim-i.i