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Show ( ( The epi,ode in -Ml1ch a Nephi te allegedly helped design the American Flag. (No. 84) is the only other "early" story besides the Col-ambus incident which does not ccncem Church members or persona later to join the Church. Identification of the mysterious stranger who helped with the fla.g seems to be quite recent. Another retro-apeetive identi fioa.tion is -~n "The Mysterious ~lowing of David . Whitmer's Field" (Analo~e No. A-1Q7a and A-l67b). Whitmer was asked b;r Joseph Smith to go to Harmony, New York, on a certain dq, but he was reluctant to leave before he had finished plowing twenty acres tba.t urgently needed attention. One morning he fotmd that part of the gromd bad been mysteriously plowed, a fact that enabled him to do as the Prophet had asked. In the beginning, this was a faith-promoting incident ealing with the supernatural without reference to specific beings, but today it is generally conceded by L. D. S. speakers that the miracle was performed. by ons of the Three . In all the other versions dated before 185 '(Nos. 20, 61, 62, and 63), it is important to note that the Nephite was identified by an official of the Church, not by the subject himself. Tbis fact lends credence to the theory expressed in Cbapt er I that the Three Nephi tes did not aottally become the property of the foL'lc thanselvea until about 1855. The most recent Nephite episode occurred in 1944 (No. 57a), and is obviously a version of the "Hitchhiking Ghost" stories that were so popular throughout America during the recent war. In view of the belief that Utah was a center of incidence for the hitch/ 4) hiking ghost, the fact that a fn of the Nephit e stories (Nos. 137, l38a., 138b, 150,in a general 98.1, and Nos. 57a, 17b, and 57e quite specifically) absorb characteristics of the hitchhiking ghost Richard K. :Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey, "A History of the Vanishing Hitchhiker," CaliforniA_Folklore". Quartet).y, Vol. 2 (January, 1943), pp. 13-25. |
