John Matzko

JOHN MATZKO teaches history at Bob Jones University and is a member of Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. 211 from the University of Virginia and is the author of Reconstructing Fort Union (Lin￾coln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001). He expresses gratitude to the National Endowment for the Humanities for supporting the preparation of this essay and to the co-directors and participants in the 2005 NEH Seminar on “Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormonism” for criticism of an earlier draft. Especially valu￾able were the comments of Richard Bushman, seminar co-director, and Mark Sidwell, the author’s colleague at BJU. Nevertheless, the views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of his colleagues or the National En￾dowment for the Humanities.