The Story of the Mormons:

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"In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by
the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango County, State of
New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been
opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of
Pennsylvania, and had, previous to my hiring with him, been
digging in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went
to live with him he took me, among the rest of his hands, to dig
for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a
month, without success in our undertaking, and finally I
prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging for it. Hence
arose the very prevalent story of my having been a moneydigger."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 6.

Mother Smith's account says, however, that Stoal "came for Joseph
on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by
which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye"; thus
showing that he had a reputation as a "gazer" before that date.
It was such discrepancies as these which led Brigham Young to
endeavor to suppress the mother's narrative.

The "gazing" which Joe took up is one of the oldest--perhaps the
oldest--form of alleged human divination, and has been called
"mirror-gazing," "crystal-gazing," "crystal vision," and the
like. Its practice dates back certainly three thousand years,
having been noted in all ages, and among nations uncivilized as
well as civilized. Some students of the subject connect with such
divination Joseph's silver cup "whereby indeed he divineth"
(Genesis xliv. 5). Others, long before the days of Smith and
Rigdon, advanced the theory that the Urim and Thummim were clear
crystals intended for "gazing" purposes. One writer remarks of
the practice, "Aeschylus refers it to Prometheus, Cicero to the
Assyrians and Etruscans, Zoroaster to Ahriman, Varro to the
Persian Magi, and a very large class of authors, from the
Christian Fathers and Schoolmen downward, to the devil."* An act
of James I (1736), against witchcraft in England, made it a crime
to pretend to discover property "by any occult or crafty science.
"As indicating the universal knowledge of "gazing," it may be
further noted that Varro mentions its practice among the Romans
and Pausanias among the Greeks. It was known to the ancient
Peruvians. It is practised to-day by East Indians, Africans
(including Egyptians), Maoris, Siberians, by Australian,
Polynesian, and Zulu savages, by many of the tribes of American
Indians, and by persons of the highest culture in Europe and
America.** Andrew Lang's collection of testimony about visions
seen in crystals by English women in 1897 might seem convincing
to any one who has not had experience in weighing testimony in
regard to spiritualistic manifestations, or brought this
testimony alongside of that in behalf of the "occult phenomena"
of Adept Brothers presented by Sinnett.***

* Recent Experiments in Crystal Vision," Vol. V, "Proceedings of
the Society for Psychical Research."

** Lang's "The Making of Religion," Chap. V.

*** "The Occult World."

"Gazers" use different methods. Some look into water contained in
a vessel, some into a drop of blood, some into ink, some into a
round opaque stone, some into mirrors, and many into some form of
crystal or a glass ball. Indeed, the "gazer" seems to be quite
independent as to the medium of his sight-seeing, so long as he
has the "power." This "power" is put also to a great variety of
uses. Australian savages depend on it to foretell the outcome of
an attack on their enemies; Apaches resort to it to discover the
whereabouts of things lost or stolen; and Malagasies, Zulus, and
Siberians" to see what will happen. "Perhaps its most general use
has been to discover lost objects, and in this practice the seers
"have very often been children, as we shall see was the case in
the exhibition which gave Joe Smith his first idea on the
subject. In the experiments cited by Lang, the seers usually saw
distant persons or scenes, and he records his belief that
"experiments have proved beyond doubt that a fair percentage of
people, sane and healthy, can see vivid landscapes, and figures
of persons in motion, in glass balls and other vehicles."

It can easily be imagined how interested any member of the Smith
family would have been in an exhibition like that of a
"crystal-gazer," and we are able to trace very consecutively
Joe's first introduction to the practice, and the use he made of
the hint thus given.

Emily C. Blackman, in the appendix to her "History of Susquehanna
County, Pennsylvania" (1873), supplies the needed important
information about Joe's visits to Pennsylvania in the years
preceding the announcement of his Bible. She says that it is
uncertain when he arrived at Harmony (now Oakland), "but it is
certain he was here in 1825 and later. "A very circumstantial
account of Joe's first introduction to a "peep-stone" is given in
a statement by J. B. Buck in this appendix. He says:--

"Joe Smith was here lumbering soon after my marriage, which was
in 1818, some years before he took to 'peeping', and before
diggings were commenced under his direction. These were ideas he
gained later. The stone which he afterward used was in the
possession of Jack Belcher of Gibson, who obtained it while at
Salina, N. Y., engaged in drawing salt. Belcher bought it because
it was said to be a 'seeing-stone.' I have often seen it. It was
a green stone, with brown irregular spots on it. It was a little
longer than a goose's egg, and about the same thickness. When he
brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy
was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so, he
said he saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed,
'I've found my hatchet' (it had been lost two years), and
immediately ran for it to the spot shown him through the stone,
and it was there. The boy was soon beset by neighbors far and
near to reveal to them hidden things, and he succeeded
marvellously. Joe Smith, conceiving the idea of making a fortune
through a similar process of 'seeing,' bought the stone of
Belcher, and then began his operations in directing where hidden
treasures could be found. His first diggings were near Capt.
Buck's sawmill, at Red Rock; but because the followers broke the
rule of silence, 'the enchantment removed the deposit.'"

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.

Confirmation of the important parts of these statements has been
furnished by Joseph's father. When the reports of the discovery
of a new Bible first gained local currency (in 1830), Fayette
Lapham decided to visit the Smith family, and learn what he could
on the subject. He found the elder Smith very communicative, and
he wrote out a report of his conversation with him, "as near as I
can repeat his words, "he says, and it was printed in the
Historical Magazine for May, 1870. Father Smith made no
concealment of his belief in witchcraft and other things
supernatural, as well as in the existence of a vast amount of
buried treasure. What he said of Joe's initiation into
"crystal-gazing" Mr. Lapham thus records:--

"His son Joseph, whom he called the illiterate,* when he was
about fourteen years of age, happened to be where a man was
looking into a dark stone, and telling people therefrom where to
dig for money and other things. Joseph requested the privilege of
looking into the stone, which he did by putting his face into the
hat where the stone was. It proved to be not the right stone for
him; but he could see some things, and among them he saw the
stone, and where it was, in which he could see whatever he wished
to see.... The place where he saw the stone was not far from
their house, and under pretence of digging a well, they found
water and the stone at a depth of twenty or twenty-two feet.
After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone,
telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for
money and other hidden treasures."

* Joe's mother, describing Joe's descriptions to the family, at
their evening fireside, of the angel's revelations concerning the
golden plates, says (p. 84): "All giving the most profound
attention to a boy eighteen years of age, who had never read the
Bible through in his life; he seemed much less inclined to the
perusal of books than any of the rest of our children."

If further confirmation of Joe's early knowledge on this subject
is required, we may cite the Rev. John A. Clark, D.D., who,
writing in 1840 after careful local research, said: "Long before
the idea of a golden Bible entered their [the Smiths'] minds, in
their excursions for money-digging.... Joe used to be usually
their guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had, through
which he looked to decide where they should begin to dig."*

* "Gleanings by the Way" (1842), p. 225.

We come now to the history of Joe's own "peek-stone" (as the
family generally called it), that which his father says he
discovered by using the one that he first saw. Willard Chase, of
Manchester, New York, near Palmyra, employed Joe and his brother
Alvin some time in the year 1822 (as he fixed the date in his
affidavit)* to assist him in digging a well. "After digging about
twenty feet below the surface of the earth, "he says, "we
discovered a singularly appearing stone which excited my
curiosity. I brought it to the top of the well, and as we were
examining it, Joseph put it into his hat and then his face into
the top of the hat. It has been said by Smith that he brought the
stone from the well, but this is false. There was no one in the
well but myself. The next morning he came to me and wished to
obtain the stone, alleging that he could see in it; but I told
him I did not wish to part with it on account of its being a
curiosity, but would lend it. After obtaining the stone, he began
to publish abroad what wonders he could discover by looking in
it, and made so much disturbance among the credulous part of the
community that I ordered the stone to be returned to me again. He
had it in his possession about two years. "Joseph's brother Hyrum
borrowed the stone some time in 1825, and Mr. Chase was unable to
recover it afterward. Tucker describes it as resembling a child's
foot in shape, and "of a whitish, glassy appearance, though
opaque."**

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 240.

** Tucker closes his chapter about this stone with the
declaration "that the origin [of Mormonism] is traceable to the
insignificant little stone found in the digging of Mr. Chase's
well in 1822." Tucker was evidently ignorant both of Joe's
previous experience with "crystal-gazing" in Pennsylvania and of
"crystal-gazing" itself.

The Smiths at once began turning Chase's stone to their own
financial account, but no one at the time heard that it was
giving them any information about revealed religion. For pay they
offered to disclose by means of it the location of stolen
property and of buried money. There seemed to be no limit to the
exaggeration of their professions. They would point out the
precise spot beneath which lay kegs, barrels, and even hogsheads
of gold and silver in the shape of coin, bars, images,
candlesticks, etc., and they even asserted that all the hills
thereabout were the work of human bands, and that Joe, by using
his "peek-stone," could see the caverns beneath them.* Persons
can always be found to give at least enough credence to such
professions to desire to test them. It was so in this case. Joe
not only secured small sums on the promise of discovering lost
articles, but he raised money to enable him to dig for larger
treasure which he was to locate by means of the stone. A Palmyra
man, for instance, paid seventy-five cents to be sent by him on a
fool's errand to look for some stolen cloth.

* William Stafford's affidavit, Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p.
237.

Certain ceremonies were always connected with these money-digging
operations. Midnight was the favorite hour, a full moon was
helpful, and Good Friday was the best date. Joe would sometimes
stand by, directing the digging with a wand. The utmost silence
was necessary to success. More than once, when the digging proved
a failure, Joe explained to his associates that, just as the
deposit was about to be reached, some one, tempted by the devil,
spoke, causing the wished-for riches to disappear. Such an
explanation of his failures was by no means original with Smith,
the serious results of an untimely spoken word having been long
associated with divers magic performances. Joe even tried on his
New York victims the Pennsylvania device of requiring the
sacrifice of a black sheep to overcome the evil spirit that
guarded the treasure. William Stafford opportunely owned such an
animal, and, as he puts it, "to gratify my curiosity, "he let the
Smiths have it. But some new "mistake in the process" again
resulted in disappointment. "This, I believe," remarks the
contributor of the sheep, "is the only time they ever made
money-digging a profitable business. "The Smiths ate the sheep.

These money-seeking enterprises were continued from 1820 to 1827
(the year of the delivery to Smith of the golden plates). This
period covers the years in which Joe, in his autobiography,
confesses that he "displayed the corruption of human nature. "He
explains that his father's family were poor, and that they worked
where they could find employment to their taste; "sometimes we
were at home and sometimes abroad. "Some of these trips took them
to Pennsylvania, and the stories of Joe's "gazing" accomplishment
may have reached Sidney Rigdon, and brought about their first
interview. Susquehanna County was more thinly settled than the
region around Palmyra, and Joe found persons who were ready to
credit him with various "gifts"; and stories are still current
there of his professed ability to perform miracles, to pray the
frost away from a cornfield, and the like.*

* Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880.

CHAPTER IV. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOLDEN BIBLE

Just when Smith's attention was originally diverted from the
discovery of buried money to the discovery of a buried Bible
engraved on gold plates remains one of the unexplained points in
his history. He was so much of a romancer that his own statements
at the time, which were carefully collected by Howe, are
contradictory. The description given of the buried volume itself
changed from time to time, giving strength in this way to the
theory that Rigdon was attracted to Smith by the rumor of his
discovery, and afterward gave it shape. First the book was
announced to be a secular history, says Dr. Clark; then a gold
Bible; then golden plates engraved; and later metallic plates,
stereotyped or embossed with golden letters.* Daniel Hendrix's
recollection was that for the first few months Joe did not claim
the plates any new revelation or religious significance, but
simply that they were a historical record of an ancient people.
This would indicate that he had possession of the "Spaulding
Manuscript" before it received any theological additions.

* "Gleanings by the Way," p. 229.

The account of the revelation of the book by an angel, which is
accepted by the Mormons, is the one elaborated in Smith's
autobiography, and was not written until 1838, when it was
prepared under the direction of Rigdon (or by him). Before
examining this later version of the story, we may follow a little
farther Joe's local history at the time.

While the Smiths were conducting their operations in
Pennsylvania, and Joseph was "displaying the corruption of human
nature, "they boarded for a time in the family of Isaac Hale, who
is described as a "distinguished hunter, a zealous member of the
Methodist church, "and (as later testified to by two judges of
the Court of Common Pleas of Susquehanna County)" a man of
excellent moral character and of undoubted veracity."* Mr. Hale
had three daughters, and Joe received enough encouragement to his
addresses to Emma to induce him to ask her father's consent to
their marriage. This consent was flatly refused. Mr. Hale made a
statement in 1834, covering his knowledge of Smith and the origin
of the Mormon Bible.** When he became acquainted with the future
prophet, in 1825, Joe was employed by the so-called "money-
diggers," using his "peek-stone." Among the reasons which Mr.
Hale gave for refusing consent to the marriage was that Smith was
a stranger and followed a business which he could not approve.

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 266.

** Ibid., p. 262.

Joe thereupon induced Emma to consent to an elopement, and they
were married on January 18, 1827, by a justice of the peace, just
across the line in New York State. Not daring to return to the
house of his father-in-law, Joe took his wife to his own home,
near Palmyra, New York, where for some months he worked again
with his father.

In the following August Joe hired a neighbor named Peter Ingersol
to go with him to Pennsylvania to bring from there some household
effects belonging to Emma. Of this trip Ingersol said, in an
affidavit made in 1833:--

"When we arrived at Mr. Hale's in Harmony, Pa., from which place
he had taken his wife, a scene presented itself truly affecting.
His father-in-law addressed Joseph in a flood of tears: 'You have
stolen my daughter and married her. I had much rather have
followed her to her grave. You spend your time in digging for
money--pretend to see in a stone, and thus try to deceive
people.' Joseph wept and acknowledged that he could not see in a
stone now nor never could, and that his former pretensions in
that respect were false. He then promised to give up his old
habits of digging for money and looking into stones. Mr. Hale
told Joseph, if he would move to Pennsylvania and work for a
living, he would assist him in getting into business. Joseph
acceded to this proposition, then returned with Joseph and his
wife to Manchester....

"Joseph told me on his return that he intended to keep the
promise which he had made to his father-in-law; 'but,' said he,
it will he hard for me, for they [his family] will all oppose, as
they want me to look in the stone for them to dig money'; and in
fact it was as he predicted. They urged him day after day to
resume his old practice of looking in the stone. He seemed much
perplexed as to the course he should pursue. In this dilemma he
made me his confidant, and told me what daily transpired in the
family of Smiths.

"One day he came and greeted me with joyful countenance. Upon
asking the cause of his unusual happiness, he replied in the
following language: 'As I was passing yesterday across the woods,
after a heavy shower of rain, I found in a hollow some beautiful
white sand that had been washed up by the water. I took off my
frock and tied up several quarts of it, and then went home. On
entering the house I found the family at the table eating dinner.
They were all anxious to know the contents of my frock. At that
moment I happened to think about a history found in Canada,
called a Golden Bible;* so I very gravely told them it was the
Golden Bible. To my surprise they were credulous enough to
believe what I said. Accordingly I told them I had received a
commandment to let no one see it, for, says I, no man can see it
with the natural eye and live. However, I offered to take out the
book and show it to them, but they refused to see it and left the
room. 'Now,' said Joe, 'I have got the d--d fools fixed and will
carry out the fun.' Notwithstanding he told me he had no such
book and believed there never was such book, he told me he
actually went to Willard Chase, to get him to make a chest in
which he might deposit the Golden Bible. But as Chase would not
do it, he made the box himself of clapboards, and put it into a
pillow-case, and allowed people only to lift it and feel of it
through the case."**

* The most careful inquiries bring no information that any such
story was ever current in Canada.

** Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 234.

In line with this statement of Joe to Ingersol is a statement
which somewhat later he made to his brother-in-law, Alva Hale,
that "this 'peeking' was all d--d nonsense; that he intended to
quit the business and labor for a livelihood."*

* Ibid., p. 268.

Joe's family were quite ready to accept his statement of his
discovery of golden plates for more reasons than one. They saw in
it, in the first place, a means of pecuniary gain. Abigail Harris
in a statement (dated "11th mo., 28th, 1833") of a talk she had
with Joe's father and mother at Martin Harris's house, said:--

"They [the Smiths] said the plates Joe then had in possession
were but an introduction to the Gold Bible; that all of them upon
which the Bible was written were so heavy that it would take four
stout men to load them into a cart; that Joseph had also
discerned by looking through his stone the vessel in which the
gold was melted from which the plates were made, and also the
machine with which they were rolled; he also discovered in the
bottom of the vessel three balls of gold, each as large as his
fist. The old lady said also that after the book was translated,
the plates were to be publicly exhibited, admission 25 cts."*

* Ibid, p. 253.

But aside from this pecuniary view, the idea of a new Bible would
have been eagerly accepted by a woman like Mrs. Smith, and a mere
intimation by Joe of such a discovery would have given him, in
her, an instigator to the carrying out of the plot. It is said
that she had predicted that she was to be the mother of a
prophet. She tells us that although, in Vermont, she was a
diligent church attendant, she found all preachers
unsatisfactory, and that she reached the conclusion that "there
was not on earth the religion she sought. "Joe, in his
description of his state of mind just before the first visit of
the angel who told him about the plates, describes himself as
distracted by the "war and tumult of opinions. "He doubtless
heard this subject talked of by his mother in the home circle,
but none of his acquaintances at the time had any reason to think
that he was laboring under such mental distress.

The second person in the neighborhood whom Joe approached about
his discovery was Willard Chase, in whose well the "peek-stone"
was found. Mr. Chase in his statement (given at length by Howe)
says that Joe applied to him, soon after the above quoted
conversation with Ingersol, to make a chest in which to lock up
his Gold Book, offering Chase an interest in it as compensation.
He told Chase that the discovery of the book was due to the
"peek-stone," making no allusion whatever to an angel's visit. He
and Chase could not come to terms, and Joe accordingly made a box
in which what he asserted were the plates were placed.

Reports of Joe's discovery soon gained currency in the
neighborhood through the family's account of it, and neighbors
who had accompanied them on the money-seeking expeditions came to
hear about the new Bible, and to request permission to see it.
Joe warded off these requests by reiterating that no man but him
could look upon it and live. "Conflicting stories were afterward
told," says Tucker, "in regard to the manner of keeping the book
in concealment and safety, which are not worth repeating, further
than to mention that the first place of secretion was said to be
under a heavy hearthstone in the Smith family mansion."