Eber Howe in Mormonism Unvailed (1834):
Henry Lake (1833): “the so frequent use of the words “And it came to pass,” “Now it came to pass” rendered it ridiculous.”
Martha Spalding (1833): “The old, obsolete style, and the phrases of “and it came to pass,” &c. are the same.”
John Spalding (1833): “I have recently read the Book of Mormon, and to my great surprise I find nearly the same historical matter, names, &c. as they were in my brother’s writings. I well remember that he wrote in the old style, and commenced about every sentence with “and it came to pass,” or “now it came to pass,” the same as in the Book of Mormon”
In 1880 Abner Jackson said that when the Book of Mormon “was brought to Conneaut and read there in public, old Esq. Wright heard it, and exclaimed, ‘Old Come to Pass has come to life again’” (Davis, Scales, and Cowdrey 1977, 64). In 1882 Joseph Miller wrote: “The words ‘Moreover,’ ‘And it came to pass,’ occurred so often that the boys about the village called him ‘Old Came to Pass’ ” (Davis, Scales, and Cowdrey 1977, 72).
