Now, to try to answer the questions in your letter:

1.A. I could find no specific reference to Oliver Cowdery, but he was undoubtedly in the Rev. Mr. Smith's congregation if he did not leave Poultney until 1825.

In the baptismal records of the congregational Church we find: "Aug. 2, 1818–Mr. Cowdry's children, viz. Rebecka Maria Lucy and Phebe." This was, of course, just prior to the Rev. Mr. Smith's pastorate.

There is no further reference to any Mr. Cowdry.

1.B. There is no record of Oliver being exposed to Ethan Smith's writings.

1.C. There is no way of knowing from here about any correspondence between E. Smith and Oliver.

2. There are no personal papers of Ethan Smith's in the possession of the historical Society. Perhaps I should indicate here that our Society is (comparatively) of recent origin, having been established in the early 1930s. The Museum archives are even more recent than that. Anything that is in the museum is material donated by the descendants of the early families, or materials salvaged from someone's attic. It is therefore by no means a complete historical record of Poultneyana.

3A The articles on "The History of the Jews" appeared prior to and/or concurrently with Ethan Smith's first book. The articles appeared in 1822 and 1823; the first book, in 1823.

3B It is not true that the contents of the articles are necessarily the same as his book. The newspaper articles were mostly factual, with no inferences drawn, nor any personal ideas set forth. There seemed to be little comparison.

4. There is no record of the reason for the resignation of Ethan Smith. My own guess is that the reason was probably a combination of personal and doctrinal disputes. These early Vermonters were pretty set in their ways (we still are!) and Ethan Smith, after all, was a "foreigner." One has to have been born in Vermont, or have lived here for at least 3 generations to qualify as anything else.