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The Critics Respond
As Joseph Smith and his followers arrived in the Western Reserve and started to establish the Church's headquarters there, many non-Mormons began to respond negatively and even aggressively to the growth of this new faith. Newspaper articles generally misrepresented the history, beliefs, ambitions, and goals of the Saints, as reporters often confused improper beliefs and conduct with orthodox doctrines and behavior.
Alarmed by the spirited anti-Mormon campaign, Joseph Smith recorded in his history that in the spring of 1831, "many false reports, lies, and foolish stories, were published in the newspapers, and circulated in every direction, to prevent people from investigating the work, or embracing the faith."
Reports on the Church printed in the Ohio papers before the first missionaries arrived in the Western Reserve were more favorable and unbiased than those published during the 1830s, the period of the gathering in the state. Initially the religion was more a topic of curiosity than of scorn. But after the missionaries baptized some 130 converts in Kirtland and vicinity, the number of articles relating to the Church multiplied rapidly (in fact, more articles appeared in Ohio papers between November 1830 and December 1831 than during any other period), and most of them contained derogatory statements about the Latter-day Saints, setting the tone for a propaganda offensive that continued for a number of years.
The editor who, more than any other, planted the seeds for Mormon persecution in Geauga County was Eber D. Howe, who was born in Saratoga County, New York, in 1798. Following the War of 1812, Howe was apprenticed to the publisher of the Buffalo Gazette. He later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and helped establish the Cleveland Herald in 1818. In 1822 he moved to Painesville, where he founded the Painesville Telegraph. He was editor of that paper (sometimes working alone, sometimes with the help of a partner) until January 1835.
During the years that E. D. Howe was editor of the Telegraph, more disparaging articles on Mormonism appeared in that publication than in any other Ohio newspaper. He personally wrote only a few of the articles, but he also accepted for publication many critical accounts (with truth and error garbled together) about the restored Church. Some of the articles were reproduced in other Ohio publications.
Latter-day Saints were not the only targets of Howe's denunciations. He also brought his profusely slanderous language to bear against the Masons and members of various dissident or unorthodox religious societies. He opposed all secret societies in which men "swear to extricate each other . . . whether right or wrong."