4 Good Old Fashioned Cain Encounters
An awful lot of 3 Nephite sightings are journal entries.
First hand accounts. We can learn the accounts straight from the pen of the
person claiming to have had the experience. The Cain stories are generally
related second or third hand. Plenty of room for the telephone game. None of
the below stories are first hand.
Also - almost all Cain-sighting references found online
spawn from the same source. This source. It’s a compilation thrown together by
Mathew Bowman. He did a great job. Three of the four stories listed below can
be found there.
As for #1 here, like I said, it’s probably the best known of
the lot. But most other places where it’s posted don’t have this much detail:
1)
David
Patten
“[David Patten] was making his home with Levi
Taylor, the step-father of Abraham O. Smoot, at the time and had been to Paris,
some sixteen miles away, holding a meeting. Riding home in the evening, just
where his road lay through a dense growth of brush, called in those parts a
"barren," he suddenly became aware that a person on foot by his side
was keeping pace with the mule on which he rode.
“But the subjoined letter, dated at
Provo, Utah, will explain the matter:
President Joseph F. Smith, Salt
Lake City:
“Dear Brother:
“In relation to the subject of the
visit of Cain to Brother David W. Patten in the State of Tennessee, about which
you wrote to me, I will say that ac- cording to the best of my recollection it
was in the month of September, 1835.
It was in the evening, just twilight, when
Brother Patten rode up to my father's house, alighted from his mule and came
into the house. The family immediately observed that his countenance was quite
changed. My mother having first noticed his changed appearance said:
“"Brother Patten, are you sick?"
He replied that he was not, but had just met with a very remarkable personage
who had represented himself as being Cain, who murdered his brother, Abel. He
went on to tell the circumstances as near as I can recall in the following
language:
“"As I was riding along the
road on my mule I suddenly noticed a very strange personage walking beside me.
He walked along beside me for about two miles. His head was about even with my
shoulders as I sat in my saddle.
“He wore no clothing, but was covered
with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt and he re- plied
that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and
fro. He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought
death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his
mission was to destroy the souls of men. About the time he expressed himself
thus, I rebuked him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the
Holy Priesthood, and commanded him to go hence, and he immediately departed out
of my sight. When he left me I found myself near your house."
“There was much conversation about
the circumstances between Brother Patten and my family which I don't recall,
but the above is in substance his statement to us at the time. The date is, to
the best of my recollection, and I think it is correct, but it may possible
have been in the spring of 1836, but I feel quite positive that the former date
is right.” (https://archive.org/details/lifeofdavidwpatt00wilsrich starts on P.
45)
This next one made an appearance on the
blog before. It was on a list of miraculous temple dedications. This isn’t the
sort of thing one thinks of when imagining a temple being committed to God. It
is the sort of thing that should be on a list just like this:
2)
E. Wesley Smith
“E. Wesley Smith, son
of Prophet Joseph F. Smith, was serving as a mission president in Hawaii when
he had his own encounter. According to Matthew Bowman's article published in
the Journal of Mormon History, "A
Mormon Bigfoot: David Patten’s Cain and the Concept of Evil in LDS
Folklore," the night before the Laie Hawaii Temple was dedicated in
1921, E. Wesley experienced the following events: "A man came through the
door. He was tall enough to have to stoop to enter. His eyes were very
protruding and rather wild looking, his fingernails were thick and long. He
presented a rather unkempt appearance and wore no clothing at all. . . . There
suddenly appeared in [Smith’s] right hand a light which had the size and
appearance of a dagger. . . . A voice said, “This is your priesthood.” He
commanded the person in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to depart. . . .
Immediately when the light appeared the person stopped and on being commanded
to leave, he backed out the door." (http://zionarise.org/ldsarticlesoctober14.pdf)
The materializing weapon is definitely unique. I’d like to
hear this account straight from the mouth of E. Wesley to see if the original
had a materializing Voltron sword. Unfortunately it’s lost to the ages.
Kind of following suit, here is another encounter with a
large, hairy aggressor:
3) Non-Specific Apostle
“One 1984 tale spoke
of an unnamed apostle from the 1920s whose car had broken down while he was in
Mexico “checking up on the mission there.” While walking through the desert to
find help, the apostle encountered “a very large man about 7 feet tall and very
dark and harry [sic] coming towards him. . . . The Apostle asked him who he
was. This man said he was Caine [sic] . . . [and tried] to over power [the
Apostle, but] . . . the Apostle cast him out with the authority of the
Priesthood.”” (https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://www.ldsliving.com/When-Cain-Appeared-to-Joseph-Fielding-Smith-s-Brother-And-Talked-with-Apostle-David-W-Patten/s/83424&httpsredir=1&article=1051&context=mormonhistory)
I’m proud of this next one – because it’s not already on the
Bowman list. Quite a feat, believe you me. It sounds a lot like a typical
Bigfoot sighting – but the creature asks questions! Speaking is much more Cain-sighting-esque, from what I’ve seen, than Bigfoot-sighting-esque:
4)
An
Unspecified Grandfather
“1981 B/M class, fall semester, a student said that her grandfather
told her of this incident when he was fishing (in Montana). The age of the
grandfather would place this incident in the 1940’s or 50’s.
“He said he was in an open valley with mostly open land around him
and a hill behind him which ran down to the river. As he was fishing he sensed
something coming up behind him because the hair on the back of his neck started
to tingle. He turned and saw a very large black man, covered with hair and
wearing no clothes, coming down the hill toward him.
“He immediately realized that there was no place to run or hide
and the river was too big to allow him escape, so he stood there and waited for
the creature to approach. It came directly to him and asked him “What time is
it?” He replied with the time and was told, “No. Not the time. What time [year]
is it?” upon hearing the answer he returned up the side of the hill and
disappeared.” (http://emp.byui.edu/davisr/121/Cain.htm)
Simple request, right? Sounds like someone lost in time.
Is there anything to any of these stories? I have no idea. I like knowing they're out there though.
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