It turns out there was a report in a newspaper that ran before any LDS quotes. They were weighing in on this issue of the day… and taken in by the hoax:
Brigham Young’s discourse on people living on the moon and the stars
Ironically, this was used to show that the LDS people were more learned than those around them.
Journal of Discourses 13:271-272, Brigham Young, July 24, 1870:
We are called ignorant; so we are: but what of it? Are not all ignorant? I rather think so. Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed “the man in the moon,” and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized.
Joseph and Quakers
According to Oliver B. Huntington (Journal of Oliver B. Huntington, Vol. 3, p. 166; as recorded at the Utah State Historical Society), Joseph Smith taught that:
The inhabitants of the moon are more of a uniform size than the inhabitants of the earth, being about 6 feet in height.
They dress very much like the Quaker style and are quite general in style, or fashion of dress.
They live to be very old; coming generally, near a thousand years.
This is the description of them as given by Joseph the seer, and he could “See” whatever he asked the father in the name of Jesus to see.
In The Young Woman’s Journal (published by the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations of Zion 1892, vol. 3, pp. 263-64), it reads:
Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half century have, in one way or another, either directly or indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet.
As far back as 1837, I know that he said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a greater age than we do — that they live generally to near the age of 1000 years.
He described the men as averaging near six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style.
In my Patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the Prophet, in Kirtland, 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and to the inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can now behold with your eyes.
Scroll down to “Our Sunday Chapter” to read the entire account.