HISTORIC DISCOVERIES

What may in time become considered to be some of the more important discoveries presenting new thought and considerations in the context of the religious order of Mormon are now and further to be provided here for public access in an effort to disseminate new knowledge and understanding through the presence of core documents and artifacts of Mormon interest that have only been recently discovered.

Some of these artifacts and documents are in private collections and used by permission.

All artifacts and are being brought forth to be presented in detail and will be unveiled over the course of the next few years, with primary details to be made available in the "paid subscriber access" section of MormonKey.com as time permits and as financial support becomes generated through the paid subscriber access area after it is established and is in functionable order.  

This MormonKey.com 'project' began almost two decades ago and at great financial expense and untold thousands of hours of research and extensive 'field work' at most all of the major early Mormon sites.

The genesis for MormonKey.com began with a circa 1870's "Scrap-Book" journal and manuscript archives of Mormon interest discovered by sheer happenstance during the travels of author and historian Richard Warren Lipack, almost two decades ago.

This journal and archives came to include a handwritten letter by Mormon co-founder John Whitmer that bore full testimony to statements he gave as one of the "Eight Witnesses" found reproduced in the 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon.

Besides the John Whitmer Book of Mormon testimony, the journal and archives included extensive manuscript material executed in the form of a very obscure cryptic cipher or code.  

Further discoveries were made that led this author to finally identify this cryptic code found in the journal and archives, which was found to be known as "Old Pitman" shorthand.    This occurred after a long circuitous path of investigation.    A more detail account of this activity will be explained in another discussion found on this website.

"Old Pitman" shorthand was a practice of stenography introduced  and known as "Pitman" shorthand in the United Kingdom in 1837 by Isaac Pitman, the inventor of this form of stenography practice.

The Pitman stenography practice came to America in the mid-1840's via Benn Pitman, who was the brother of Isaac Pitman, the stenography inventor.

However, when Isaac Pitman took on his two sons in 1886 to form Isaac Pitman and Sons, Benn Pitman had already as early as 1880 lost interest and completely abandonded teaching and promoting what fast became known as "Old Pitman."   This was due mainly to other outside interests that Benn Pitman had developed.   Thus, in America the practice of "Old Pitman" shorthand began to fade from use around 1880 and today it is a completely lost form of transcription.

With regard to the 1870's Mormon "Scrap - Book" that was found, an exhaustive effort to locate one person still capable of transcribing the  cryptic "Old Pitman" or "Early Pitman's Shorthand" was needed to be carried out.

Thankfully, for the Mormon faith, one such person capable of carrying out the "Old Pitman" transcription was ultimately located.

With the sanctity of this occurrence occuring amidst recorded incidences of what can be perceived as none other than actions working under a synchronicity of 'divine providence' - all of which will be revealed later herein MormonKey.com - the author, although not a practitioner of the Mormon faith, has become under the belief that Mormonism is nothing short of real divine purpose.    Such will be demonstrated very clearly as MormonKey.com begins to take both faithful believers and the non-believers alike into the very fold and vortex of a most amazing religious journey that one can ever come to imagine in these modern times.

In this area of this Internet website that deemed as "public access" and not managed under the "paid subscriber access" section protocols, several portions of these newly discovered documents and / or artifacts are being presented for educational purpose and for the cohesive dissemination of general knowledge surrounding the early fundamental years of the Mormon faith; which MormonKey.com is presenting for the public consideration.

Please refer to the section under "MormonKey.com Site Use" for express avenues guiding further use of the "free" sections of this Internet website.

What follows herein in the MormonKey.com's "Historic Discoveries" section hereof is just the beginning of much more to come.    Return visits to this site by those interested in learning more about the historical developmental roots of Mormonism are encouraged.    More delightful gleenings of major 'significa' will be added on routine basis to the this "public access" area of MormonKey.com - the website window that the reader hereof is engaged in now.

The "paid subscriber access" area, when established - will be operating on a more frequent level.   MormonKey.com and this author Richard Warren Lipack's primary goal is to release over one hundred of pages of unpublished 19th century core documentation  from the 1870's "Scrap-Book" and archives which bore the "lost"  Book of Mormon testimony by John Whitmer - one of the "Eight Witnesses:"

The only handwritten full testimony in all of Mormonism, extant.

It is this and other significant and compelling history on the Mormon faith that has yet to be revealed, that will in following, come forth.  

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