FOOTNOTE
The following is written in the book, Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 2, edited by Dean C. Jessee, pg. 11 as a footnote to Joseph’s journal entry:
This phenomenon was widely observed. Exiled Latter-day Saints driven from Jackson County, Missouri, and encamped on the north bank of the Missouri River also reported the spectacular incident: “An unmeasurable shower of stars were dancing about in every direction, with the velocity of lightning,” wrote one. Another noted, “I witnessed the beautiful scene of the falling of the stars and went from house to house waking up the people to have them see it.” (See Max H. Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837” [Ph.D. diss., Grigham Yound University, 1976], 44-47.)
Newspapers throughout the country reported the incident. It was described as “a constant succession of fire balls, resembling sky rockets, radiating in all directions from a point in the heavens near the zenith, and following the arch of the sky towards the horizon. They proceeded to various distances from the radiating point, leaving after them a vivid streak of light, and usually exploding before they disappeared. The balls were of various sizes, and degrees of splendour; some were mere points, but others were larger and brighter than Jupiter or Venus…. The flashes of light, though less intense than lightning, were so bright as to awaken people in their beds. One ball that shot in a northwest direction, and exploded near the star Capella, left, just behind the place of explosion, a phosphorescent train, of peculiar beauty.” (“Atmospheric Phenomenon,” the Maryland Gazette [Annapolis, Maryland], 21 November 1833.]
In the wake of a cholera epidemic that had kiilled millions, one observer saw the phenomenon as “the action of the Almighty… visibly restoring to our atmosphere some unknown principle of health which had been lost or injured.” Another saw it as “a sure forerunner – a merciful SIGN of that great and dreadful Day which the inhabitants of the earth shall witness when the SIXTH SEAL SHALL BE OPENED.” (“Meteoric Phenomenon,” The Oswego Palladium [Oswego, New York], 27 November 1833.]
