Appendix A: Statement of Benjamin Cole Latham

Be it ever Remembered

I, Benjamin Cole Latham son of Alsop Latham and Sallie Cole daughter of Benjamin Cole who cleared the first acre on the old Haynes place one mile down the highway from the Joseph Smith’s birthplace testifying say, that I was born in the year 1824 in this neighborhood and except for about nineteen years between 1849 and 1868 have always lived here upon Dairy Hill so called in Royalton near Sharon town line. That I knew Asahel White who formerly lived on the Mack farm in White Hallow. That I knew Ebenezer Dewey 3rd who died in 1845 aged 80 years, that I also knew Ebenezer Dewey the 4th who died in 1871 aged 82 both of whom were born on, occupied and lived on, the farm adjoining to the west and South of the Solomon Mack farm which Mack farm, including the birth place of Joseph Smith, the foundations of which house are still in tact, I owned for twenty three years from 1868 to 1892. That I have often heard the last named Dewey also his father, speak familiarly of the place where the foundations still remain, as being the former home of Joseph Smith Sr. and the birthplace of Joseph Smith the Prophet. That the cellar and foundations now standing on the hill a few rods from the old Dewey farm so long owned by me have for many many years been pointed out as the ruins of the home in which Joseph Smith was born. That said Dewey so pointed them out to me that said Dewey also referred to the farm as the old Mack farm and the elder Dewey often spoke of Solomon Mack whom he new, [sic] as being of a fine family. That the Ebenezers Dewey were always considered the best of people, and the bodies of four generations of them lie in the old cemetery along the line of my old farm. And further testifying I say that there is not the least doubt about this old cellar being the place where Joseph Smith was born. That I heard the elder Dewey Say that Mack lived there in the house that then stood upon these foundations, both before and after Joseph Smith lived in it. That I have heard Lieut. Harrison Dewey who was born and lived on the Dewey place for ninety years speak of the Smiths and Macks living in the place on the hill. Harrison Dewey died in 1899. He had a wonderful memory and told many things about these people and knew well about them from the common talk of his own family and neighbors. That I bought the Mack farm with other lands from Lesure [?] in 1868 and lived on it in peaceable possession until 1892 when I Sold it to Kent. Said farm was formerly owned by Bela Durkee who was my wife’s father. His wife was Eliza Baker, Sister to Zina Baker, who had a twin Sister Lina, who was the wife of William Huntington and the mother of Zina D. Dimick B. and the other “Mormon Huntingtons. That I remember when Bela Durkee bought the Mack farm from White and Doner. That Said Bela lived on the Royalton part of the ^[352] farm in the same house that I occupied. That Said Bela took down and removed the Mack house and barn then known as the White house. That the Said barn was later constructed into what is now Mr. Robinson’s horse barn being the same as I rebuilt it when I lived there. That I have always understood that the apple orchard, many of the trees of which are now standing near the foundations of the house where Joseph Smith was born, was planted by Solomon Mack. These trees were old trees when I lived there. That Burbank who married a Dewey lived on the west on the old Dewey farm (now Mackintosh’s) on the north Drew lived, then Sherlock and Doubleday who bought of Doyle lived to the east, and on the southeast Carl Jones and Mosher.

Signed Benjamin Cole Latham

Witness Junius F. Wells

State of Vermont 
Windsor County

At Royalton in Said County on this 14th day of
November personally appeared Benjamin Cole
Latham and made oath to the foregoing affidavit
by him subscribed as being the whole truth and
nothing but the truth so help him God.

Before me Arthur G. Whitham Notary Public

Received for record March 13th 1906 at 2 o’clock P.M.
     Attest D. E. Parkhurst Town Clerk.^{1 [353]}