Joseph Smith, Money-Digger

[CHESTERTONRULES]

One of many stories of Joe’s treasure-digging, current in that neighborhood, Miss Blackman narrates. Learning from a strolling Indian of a place where treasure was said to be buried, Joe induced a farmer named Harper to join him in digging for it and to spend a considerable sum of money in the enterprise. "After digging a great hole, that is still to be seen, "the story continues, "Harper got discouraged, and was about abandoning the enterprise. Joe now declared to Harper that there was an ‘enchantment’ about the place that was removing the treasure farther off; that Harper must get a perfectly white dog (some said a black one), and sprinkle his blood over the ground, and that would prevent the ‘enchantment’ from removing the treasure. Search was made all over the country, but no perfectly white dog could be found. "Then Joe said a white sheep would do as well; but when this was sacrificed and failed, he said "The Almighty was displeased with him for attempting to palm off on Him a white sheep for a white dog. This informant describes Joe at that time as “an imaginative enthusiast, constitutionally opposed to work, and a general favorite with the ladies.”

In confirmation of this, R. C. Doud asserted that “in 1822 he was employed, with thirteen others, by Oliver Harper to dig for gold under Joe’s direction on Joseph McKune’s land, and that Joe had begun operations the year previous.”

F. G. Mather obtained substantially the same particulars of Joe’s digging in connection with Harper from the widow of Joseph McKune about the year 1879, and he said that the owner of the farm at that time “for a number of years had been engaged in filling the holes with stone to protect his cattle, but the boys still use the northeast hole as a swimming pond in the summer.”*

• Lippincott’s Magazine, August, 1880.

globusz.com/ebooks/Mormons/00000014.htm

 

[paarsurrey]

Hi

I don’t get it; what it has to do with Joseph Smith or the Mormons, please?

Thanks

 

[CHESTERTONRULES]

Hi

I don’t get it; what it has to do with Joseph Smith or the Mormons, please?

Thanks

It illustrates that Joseph Smith was a liar and fraud who sought power and money.

He eventually found a group of people who weren’t concerned with truth.

 

[William_M]

This is pretty good one chestertonrules. Maybe it is even true. Of course, by 1880, the Prophet was quite a controversial figure. That leads to at least two concerns as to the reliability of this magazine article.

First, back then, exactly as now, people liked to tell a good story if they were interviewed by the press, even regardless of whether they were hostile or sympathetic to the person discussed. Based upon the 1822 date of at least some of the events reported, and the 1880 publication date you have provided, it appears that at least some of the events reported occurred occurred about 58 years earlier. Stories do get better over time.

Second, much of the press of that time was highly interested in attacking Joseph Smith and the Mormons. I do not know anything about this specific journal, but, at the time, press standards for honest reporting, much less objective reporting, about the Mormons were, to put it most mildly, abysmal. You might try reading U. of Richmond english professor Terryl Givens’ book Viper on the Hearth, published by Oxford University Press, which reviews the 19th Century press defamation and villification of the Mormons.

Now here is something the Prophet himself wrote on this point. On May 8, 1838, Joseph Smith published what we would today call “frequently asked questions” with answers. One stated:

"Was not Joseph Smith a money digger?

Yes, but it was never a very profitable job for him, as he got only fourteen dollars a month for it."

If he was a liar and a fraud, it sounds like he is doing a lot better lying and defrauding today, with a middle-aged East Coast lawyer like me, than he ever did with 19th Century farmers.

You can find the whole list of the 1838 “FAQs” in The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith at pages 119-122.

Here is another one, bit off the topic of this thread, but one of my favorites:

"Do the Mormons baptize in the name of Joe Smith?

No, but if they did, it would be as valid as the baptism administered by the sectarian priests."

BTW and none of my business if you do not care to answer, are you just interested in warning Catholics off of the Mormons, or do you have some other mission?

 

[Rbt_Southwell]

Stories do get better over time.

William H:

Especially the ones about translating the ‘golden plates’ into the Book of Mormon.

But one question has always bothered me: why does your group keep ‘retranslating’ it into English. I know the Isaiah excerpt from the KJV was a bit embarrassing but all that goofy stuff about hundreds of thousands of dead (with their weapons) near hill Cumorah is just too much to take!

And the stories keep changing.

Res ipsa loquitur.

Robert