This year my family has tried to attend several pageants (Manti Pageant, Hill Cumorah Pageant) but schedules haven’t worked out. Last night, we attended the Clarkston Pageant. Never heard of it? Neither had my wife.
Clarkston is definitely off the beaten path. It is about 30 minutes northwest of Logan, Utah, just 10 miles or so from the Idaho border. Every other year, they host the “Martin Harris Pageant: The Man Who Knew.”
The pageant tells the story of Martin Harris and the Book of Mormon. Martin was the original scribe for Joseph Smith, and assisted Joseph Smith translate the Book of Lehi, originally 116 pages long. His wife Lucy, concerned that Martin was spending so much time with Joseph, wanted to see the manuscript and the plates. Martin pestered Joseph three times to see the manuscript, and finally Joseph agreed on the condition that Martin was only to show his wife and family. Martin lost the manuscript, and it has never been seen again.
The first time I attended the pageant was about 20 years ago. My memory is a bit hazy, but it seems to me that Lucy was definitely the villain of the show. It seems that in the play Lucy took the manuscript and burned it in the fireplace because she did not want Martin to spend his time or money on the project. This time, Lucy was a much more sympathetic figure. Both Martin and Lucy showed the manuscript to several of the townspeople, contrary to Joseph’s instructions. The manuscript simply disappears. Lucy remarked that both she and Martin showed it to several people because she was trying to get support to publish the Book of Mormon. She definitely was a much more sympathetic figure this time around. {Note his first wife Lucy died in 1836. He later married Brigham Young’s niece Caroline.}
20 years ago, I remember how distraught Martin was at the loss of the manuscript. He was distraught this time as well, but the play didn’t dwell as much on that. This time the play ended with Martin mortgaging his farm and house to pay for the Book of Mormon, triumphant when 5000 copies of the book were published.
The Martin Harris gravesite in Clarkston, Utah is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
In the old play, it seems that they told of Martin leaving the church, becoming destitute, and then coming to Utah as an old man and being re-baptized. That part was completely left out of the current play, causing my wife to wonder why Clarkston had a pageant about Martin Harris in the first place. I told her that Martin Harris died in Clarkston, which was a surprise to her. I think that would have been a nice addition to the play, and I’m a little sad that they left that part out. The play actually takes place on the grounds of the cemetery where Martin is buried. One of the locals remarked that the play is much shorter and to the point. I think they actually cut out some important parts.
In 1837, dissension arose in Kirtland over the failure of the church’s Kirtland Safety Society bank. Harris called it a “fraud” and was among the dissenters who broke with Smith and attempted to reorganize the church. Led by Warren Parrish, the reformers excommunicated Smith and Sidney Rigdon, who relocated to Far West, Missouri. In December 1837, Smith and the Kirtland High Council excommunicated twenty-eight individuals, Harris among them.
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The set with the scenic backdrop of the beautiful mountains of Clarkston.
After Smith’s death, Harris continued this earlier pattern, remaining in Kirtland and accepting James J. Strang as Mormonism’s new prophet, who claimed to have a new set of supernatural plates and witnesses to authenticate them. In August 1846, Harris traveled on a mission to England for the Strangite church, but the Mormon conference there declined to listen to him; when he insisted on preaching outside the building, police removed him.[36]
By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and accepted the leadership claims of fellow Book of Mormon witness David Whitmer. Mormon ApostleWilliam E. McLellin organized a Whitmerite congregation in Kirtland, and Harris became a member. By 1851, Harris had accepted another Latter Day Saint factional leader, Gladden Bishop, as prophet and joined Bishop’s Kirtland-based organization.[37] In 1855, Harris joined with the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith, William Smith and declared that William was Joseph’s true successor. Harris was also briefly intrigued by the “Roll and Book,” a supernatural scripture delivered to the Shakers.[38] By the 1860s, all of these organizations had either dissolved or declined. In 1856, his wife Caroline left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah Territory while he remained in Kirtland and gave tours of the temple to curious visitors.[39]
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In 1870, at age 87, Harris moved to the Utah Territory and shortly thereafter was rebaptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Harris, who had been left destitute and without a congregation in Kirtland, accepted the assistance of members of the LDS Church, who raised $200 to help him move west. Harris lived the last four-and-a-half years of his life with relatives in Cache Valley. He died on July 10, 1875, in Clarkston, Utah Territory, and was buried there.
What are your thoughts about Martin Harris? I know that there are Mormon Pageants in Mesa, Arizona and Nauvoo, Illinois. Have you attended any of these or other Mormon Pageants?
In the end, he associated with a community where he found the most respect and admiration. Who wouldn’t do that?
Are there any good biographies written about Martin Harris? I would love to read more about him.
I saw the pageant in 1999 or so, and distinctly remember the manuscript burning. At the time, this was the first I’d heard of that theory of where the manuscript ended up.
I’m still holding out hope that when the Church is ready, the 116 pages will show up in some previously uncatalogued university collection or something, similar to the Spaulding manuscript (presumed lost, but rediscovered in the 1880s) or the Book of Abraham illustrations (presumed burned, but found in the 1960s)
Just as Joseph Smith once inquired of Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris got tired of living on husks. At least he was able to live out his final days and die in peace, which a (fictional) Klingon would regard as a horrible way to go.
There’s a part of me that’d like to go out like the “half man”, aka Tyrion Lannister…only eighty, which for medieval times was rather aged, would be too soon…but the belly full of wine and the other condition would definitely leave me going out with an ear-to-ear smile…
I saw the relocated, redone Nauvoo pageant about three years ago, Lovely, overblown, multimedia, everything you’ve come to expect and be bored by from the Church(TM). I mean, it was nice, but it was a major production. The prominent cast members (Joseph, Emma, etc.) spent the next week or so going around Nauvoo doing little vignettes with the summer theatre missionaries. It was all a little much, and a far cry from a humble bearing of testimony.
The Independence, MO Pagent, “A Frontier Story” ended over 2 decades ago. I don’t know why, but it died. It was the story of the saints in Independence. You would expect it to be a persecution story, but the main characters were two families with little boys . . . one LDS family and one non-LDS family whose friendship endures despite the larger context of the two worlds sparring. (Image the Disney movie ‘Tod and Copper’ and re-make it with pioneer bonnets and wagons.)
It was held on the hillside behind the Independence MO Visitor’s Center and supported by the Community of Christ, the LDS Church, and the city. I lament that it is gone. It’s sad to see arts de-funded. The pagent featured a unique soundtrack which incorporated rare LDS folk tunes composed in the Independence and Adam-andi-ohman area, tunes you rarely hear today.
This year my family has tried to attend several pageants (Manti Pageant, Hill Cumorah Pageant) but schedules haven’t worked out. Last night, we attended the Clarkston Pageant. Never heard of it? Neither had my wife.
Wheat & Tares 
In the end, he associated with a community where he found the most respect and admiration. Who wouldn’t do that?
Are there any good biographies written about Martin Harris? I would love to read more about him.
I saw the pageant in 1999 or so, and distinctly remember the manuscript burning. At the time, this was the first I’d heard of that theory of where the manuscript ended up.
I’m still holding out hope that when the Church is ready, the 116 pages will show up in some previously uncatalogued university collection or something, similar to the Spaulding manuscript (presumed lost, but rediscovered in the 1880s) or the Book of Abraham illustrations (presumed burned, but found in the 1960s)
Just as Joseph Smith once inquired of Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris got tired of living on husks. At least he was able to live out his final days and die in peace, which a (fictional) Klingon would regard as a horrible way to go.
There’s a part of me that’d like to go out like the “half man”, aka Tyrion Lannister…only eighty, which for medieval times was rather aged, would be too soon…but the belly full of wine and the other condition would definitely leave me going out with an ear-to-ear smile…
I saw the relocated, redone Nauvoo pageant about three years ago, Lovely, overblown, multimedia, everything you’ve come to expect and be bored by from the Church(TM). I mean, it was nice, but it was a major production. The prominent cast members (Joseph, Emma, etc.) spent the next week or so going around Nauvoo doing little vignettes with the summer theatre missionaries. It was all a little much, and a far cry from a humble bearing of testimony.
The Independence, MO Pagent, “A Frontier Story” ended over 2 decades ago. I don’t know why, but it died. It was the story of the saints in Independence. You would expect it to be a persecution story, but the main characters were two families with little boys . . . one LDS family and one non-LDS family whose friendship endures despite the larger context of the two worlds sparring. (Image the Disney movie ‘Tod and Copper’ and re-make it with pioneer bonnets and wagons.)
It was held on the hillside behind the Independence MO Visitor’s Center and supported by the Community of Christ, the LDS Church, and the city. I lament that it is gone. It’s sad to see arts de-funded. The pagent featured a unique soundtrack which incorporated rare LDS folk tunes composed in the Independence and Adam-andi-ohman area, tunes you rarely hear today.
Does anyone know why it was axed?