81 treasure digging
Claims that Joseph Smith victimized Josiah Stowell are not supported by available documentation. Josiah remained a staunch supporter of the Prophet throughout his life.
- In a letter written by his son, Josiah Stowell Jr., to John S. Fullmer in February 1843, Josiah Stowell expressed his belief in the Prophet and the Book of Mormon.
- Josiah Stowell dictated a letter to the Joseph smith in Nauvoo on December 19, 1843, and told him of his desire “to come to Zion the next season”; however, conditions prevented his doing so. Josiah Stowell died in Smithboro, Tioga County, New York, on May 12, 1844.
- The nephew who brought charges seems to have had religious issues with Joseph: “Within a month after the trial he was licensed as an exhorter by the Methodists and within three years had helped establish the West Bainbridge Methodist Church. Upon his death in 1872 his fellow ministers characterized him as ‘an ardent Methodist and any attack upon either the doctrines or the polity of the Methodist Episcopal Church, within his field of labor, was sure to be repelled by him with a vigorous hand.” Is it possible that the trial of Joseph Smith was just one of his first attempts to apply a “vigorous hand?” Click here.
- Success stories were reported:
“One gentleman…digging…ten to twelve years, found a sufficient quantity of money to build him a commodious house.
“Digging for money hid in the earth is a very common thing and in this state it is even considered as honorable and profitable employment”
“. . .another…dug up…fifty thousand dollars!”See Palmyra Herald (24 July 1822); cited in Russell Anderson, “The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith,” (2002 FAIR Conference presentation.) Click here: FairMormon link - Money was found “by the help of a mineral stone, (which becomes transparent when placed in a hat and the light excluded by the face of him who looks into it).”
- See “Wonderful Discovery,” Wayne Sentinel [Palmyra, New York] (27 December 1825), page 2, col. 4. Reprinted from the Orleans Advocate of Orleans, New York; cited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet,” (Master’s Thesis, University of Utah, Logan, Utah, 2000), 170–171. Click here
Additional References:
Was Joseph Smith’s involvement with “money digging” a blot on his character?—
Brief Summary: Did Joseph “retrofit” his “treasure seeking” to have a religious explanation? For example, was Moroni originally conceived of as a treasure guardian by Joseph, and only later came to be seen as a divine messenger, an angel? (Click here for full article)
Practitioner of occultism and magic?—
Brief Summary: It is claimed that Joseph Smith’s spiritual experiences began as products of “magic,” the “occult,” or “treasure seeking,” and that only later did Joseph describe his experiences in Christian, religious terms: speaking of God, angels, and prophethood. (Click here for full article)
Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian– by Mark Ashurst-McGee
Seer Stones and Treasure Digging– Fair Mormon Podcast
Matthew B. Brown, “Revised or Unaltered?: Joseph Smith’s Foundational Stories,” 2006 FAIR Conference lecture.
o pt 1 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
o pt 2 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
o pt 3 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
o pt 4 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
o pt 5 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
o pt 6 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Reappraised,” Brigham Young University Studies 10 no. 3 (1970), 285.
Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Review of Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Reexamined by Rodger I. Anderson,” FARMS Review of Books 3/1 (1991): 52–80.
Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Reliability of the Early History of Lucy and Joseph Smith,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 4 no. 2 (Summer 1969), 16, 19.
Leonard J. Arrington, “The Human Qualities of Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Ensign 1 (January 1971), 35ff.
Richard L. Bushman, “Joseph Smith Miscellany,” (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, 2005 FAIR Conference).
o pt 1 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
o pt 2 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
o pt 3 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 Fair Conference address
o pt 4 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
o pt 5, Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
o pt 6 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
Richard L. Bushman, Dean C. Jessee and Truman G. Madsen, “Smith, Joseph,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 3:1331–1348.
Donald L. Enders, “The Joseph Smith, Sr., Family: Farmers of the Genesee,” in Joseph Smith, The Prophet, The Man, edited by Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate, Jr., (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1993), 213—25.
Alan Goff, “Dan Vogel’s Family Romance and the Book of Mormon as Smith Family Allegory (Review of: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet),” FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 321–400.
Alan Goff, “How Should We Then Read? Reading Mormon Scripture After the Fall,” FARMS Review 21/1 (2009): 137–178.
Andrew H. Hedges and Dawson W. Hedges, “No, Dan, That’s Still Not History (Review of: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, by Dan Vogel),” FARMS Review 17/1 (2005): 205–222.
Louis Midgley, “Editor’s Introduction: Knowing Brother Joseph Again,” FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): xi–lxxiv.
Louis Midgley, “Two Stories—One Faith,” FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 55–79.
Larry E. Morris, “Joseph Smith and “Interpretive Biography”, review of Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel,” FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 321–374.
Daniel C. Peterson and Donald L. Enders, “Can the 1834 Affidavits Attacking the Smith Family Be Trusted?,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 286—87.
These articles contain useful background information. They were published prior to the disclosure of the Hofmann forgeries, so they may cite forged documents as genuine:
Ronald W. Walker, “The Persisting Idea of American Treasure Hunting,” Brigham Young University Studies 24 no. 4 (1984): 429–460.
Marvin S. Hill, “Money-Digging Folklore and the Beginnings of Mormonism: An Interpretative Suggestion,” Brigham Young University Studies 24 no. 4 (Fall 1984): 473–488.
Richard L. Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” Brigham Young University Studies 24 no. 4 (1984): 489.
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