Solomon Chamberlain Becomes the First Missionary — Preaching from the Book of Mormon Before Its Publication

After his spirit-directed stop at Palmyra in the spring of 1829, Solomon Chamberlain spent two days with the Smith family, where he read the first 64 printed pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript — the book was not yet published. Moved by what he read and heard, and convinced this was the fulfillment of his sixteen-year spiritual witness, he obtained copies of the pages and resumed his journey.

As he traveled along his route, he preached the message of the Restoration — the coming forth of a new scripture, the restoration of priesthood authority, and the establishment of the Lord's church — to whoever he could find willing to listen. He did this months before the Book of Mormon was officially published (March 1830) and nearly a year before the Church was formally organized (April 6, 1830).

Church historian Larry C. Porter and others have described Chamberlain as arguably the first missionary of the Restoration — a man who preached the gospel of the restored Church before the Church itself existed, based solely on the promptings of the Spirit and the manuscript pages he had read.

He was baptized shortly after the Church was organized, baptized by Joseph Smith himself in the waters of Seneca Lake, and went on to be one of the earliest settlers in Missouri, Nauvoo, and eventually the Utah Territory.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I was living about 20 miles east of where the gold record was found, on the Erie Canal. I had occasion to go on a visit into Upper Canada. I took boat for Lockport, when the boat came to Palmyra, I felt as if some genie or good spirit told me to leave the boat. This was a few miles from where the record was found. I left the boat and walked into the country. I inquired of the people if they had heard of any strange things. They said they had not. I traveled on until I came to a place called Manchester. I stayed there a few days. I heard of a family by the name of Smith that had found a gold record. I had a desire to see them. I went to the house and found Hyrum Smith. I told him I had a desire to know about the record. He told me they had the record and were translating it. I stayed with them two days. They then sat down and read my pamphlet. Hyrum read first, but was so affected he could not read it. I then opened my mouth and began to preach to them, in the words that the angel had made known to me in the vision, that all churches and denominations on the earth had become corrupt, and no church of God on the earth, but that he would shortly raise up a church that would never be confounded nor brought down and be like unto the Apostolic Church. They wondered greatly who had been telling me these things, for said they we have the same things wrote down in our house, taken from the Gold record, that you are preaching to us. They then made known to me that they had obtained a gold record, and just finished translating it here. Now, the Lord revealed to me by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost that this was the work I had been looking for. I went with Hyrum and some others to Palmyra printing office where they began to print the Book of Mormon, and as soon as they had printed 64 pages, I took them with their leave and pursued my journey to Canada, and I preached all that I knew concerning Mormonism, to all both high and low, rich and poor, and thus you see this was the first that ever printed Mormonism was preached to this generation.