[Footnote 136: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 42.]
[Footnote 137: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 36.]
[Footnote 138: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 36.]
Adding fifteen miles from the distance from Macedon to Palmyra, we find the total distance to be traveled, all on foot, going from Whitmer's home in Seneca County, N.Y., to Kirtland, O., is three hundred and seventy miles, "preaching by the way,"[139] even to Indians.[140] When we remember the time of year and the almost certainty of inclement weather and the unimproved condition of the roads in that then wild west, it could hardly be expected that Pratt, "traveling on foot" and preaching by the way, could reach Kirtland before the middle of November. Rigdon must have been converted in great haste, because, by the end of November, he is already a Mormon visitor at Smith's home in New York, and on December 7 is the recipient of a special revelation from God.[141] These conclusions accord with the diary of Lyman Wight, who, being baptized on the same day as Rigdon, entered the fact as on November 14, 1830.[142] These facts also confirm Howe's statement that Rigdon was baptized on the second day after Pratt's arrival.[143] Another authority conversant with the occurrence, and desiring to be very exact, fixes the time as thirty-six hours after Pratt's arrival.[144]
[Footnote 139: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," 169, by Lucy Smith.]
[Footnote 140: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 49. 1 "History of the Church," 154.]
[Footnote 141: "Gleanings by the Way," 317. Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 107. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 32.]
[Footnote 142: 1 "History of the Church," 154; see also Pratt's Autobiography, 50.]
[Footnote 143: Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 104. "Gleanings by the Way," 312.]
[Footnote 144: H.H. Clapp in a letter to James T. Cobb.]