Eber D. Howe

Howe was the author of one of the first books that was critical of the spiritual claims of Joseph Smith Jr, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

His 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed [sic] was based largely on affidavits collected by Latter Day Saint dissenter Doctor Philastus Hurlbut and on the letters of dissenter Ezra Booth, which in 1831 had been published in the Ohio Star.

In 1804 the family moved to Ovid, New York and 1811 relocated to Upper Canada, living a few miles west of Niagara Falls.

[citation needed] On January 11, 1831, Howe wrote a letter to W. W. Phelps, a newspaper publisher in Canandaigua, New York, asking about the origins of the new religion.

After leaving the newspaper, Howe remained a publisher and a manufacturer of woollen goods.