Evidently, the print shop had a “corrected copy” and an uncorrected copy which was stored at the Spalding home at Amity (presumably in the hair-covered trunk described by Spalding’s daughter Matilda). Redick McKee reported that while he was boarding with the Spalding family in Amity, PA, he heard Spalding tell of “Manuscript Found,” but that “he [McKee] did not read a copy that was in the house because there was a corrected copy at Patterson’s Printing Office in Pittsburgh, Pa., and he intended to purchase a copy when published.”
http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/CA/natruths.htm#010088-1g
According to Joseph Miller, a friend of Spalding’s in Amity, Spalding left “a copy of the manuscript in Patterson’s hands, after being at Amity some time he went back to Pittsburg, took his title page, he called it the lost manuscript found, when he went to Pittsburg the manuscript could not be found, he said there was or had been a man by the name of Sidney Rigdon had stole it”.
http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs2/1885DicE.htm#pg240b
Only one statement is available for the time period when Spalding lived in Pittsburgh. On April 2, 1842, Robert Patterson Sr., owner of the publishing operation where Spalding deposited his manuscript, made the following statement to Rev. Samuel Williams:
“R. Patterson had in his employment Silas Engles at the time a foreman printer, and general superintendent of the printing business. As he (S. E.) was an excellent scholar, as well as a good printer, to him was entrusted the entire concerns of the office. He even decided on the propriety or otherwise of publishing manuscripts when offered — as to their morality, scholarship, &c., &c. In this character he informed R. P. that a gentleman, from the East originally, had put into his hands a manuscript of a singular work, chiefly in the style of our English translation of the Bible, and handed the copy to R. P., who read only a few pages, and finding nothing apparently exceptionable, he (R. P.) said to Engles, he might publish it, if the author furnished the funds or good security. He (the author) failing to comply with the terms, Mr. Engles returned the manuscript, as I supposed at that time, after it had been some weeks in his possession with other manuscripts in the office.
“This communication written and signed 2d April, 1842, “ROBERT PATTERSON.”