CHAPTER III.
HOW JOSEPH SMITH BECAME A
MONEY-DIGGER
His Use of a Divining Rod--His First Introduction to Crystal-gazing--Peeping after Hidden Treasure--How Joseph obtained his own "Peek-stone"-- Methods of Midnight Money-digging
The elder Smith, as we have seen, was known as a
money-digger while a resident of Vermont. Of course that subject as a matter
of conversation in his family, and his sons were a character to share in his
belief in the existence of hidden treasure. The territory around Palmyra was
as good ground for their explorations as any in Vermont, and they soon let
their neighbors know of a possibility of riches that lay within their reach.
The father, while a resident of Vermont, also
claimed ability to locate an underground stream of water over which would be a
good site for a well, by means of a forked hazel switch,1 and in
this way doubtless increased the demand for his services as a well-digger, but
we have no testimonials to his success. The son Joseph, while still a young
lad, professed to have his father's gift in this respect, and he soon added to
his accomplishments the power to locate hidden riches, and in this way began
his career as a money-digger, which was so intimately connected with his
professions as a prophet.
1 The so-called "divining rod" has received a good deal of attention from persons engaged in psychical research. Vol. XIII, Part II, of the "Proceedings of the Society Of Psychical Research" is devoted to a discussion of the subject by professor W. F. Barrett of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, in Dublin, and in March, 1890, a commission was appointed in France to study the matter.
Writers on the origin of the Mormon Bible, and the gradual development of Smith the Prophet from Smith the village loafer and money-seeker, have left their readers unsatisfied on many points. Many of these obscurities will be removed by a very careful examination of Joseph's occupations and declarations during the years immediately preceding the announcement of the revelation and delivery to him of the golden plates.
The deciding event in Joe's career was a trip to
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, when he was a lad. It can be shown that it
was there that he obtained an idea of vision-seeing nearly ten years before
the date he gives in his autobiography as that of the delivery to him of the
golden plates containing the Book of Mormon, and it was there probably that,
in some way, he later formed the acquaintance of Sidney Rigdon. It can also be
shown that the original version of his vision differed radically from the one
presented, after the lapse of another ten years spent under Rigdon's tutelage,
in his autobiography. Each of these points is of great incidental value in
establishing Rigdon's connection with the conception of a new Bible, and the
manner of its presentation to the public. Later Mormon authorities have shown
a dislike to concede that Joe was a money-digger, but the fact is admitted
both in his mother's history of him and by himself. His own statement about it
is as follows: --
"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
money-digger."2
2 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."3 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 Ame rican
Indians, and by persons of the highest culture in Europe and
America.4 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.5
3 Recent Experiments in Crystal
Vision," Vol. V, "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research."
4 Lang's "The Making of
Religion," Chap. V.
5 "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 succe eded 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."6.
6 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,7 when he was about fourteen years of age, happened to
be where a man was looking into a dark stone, and telling people there from
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."
7 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."8
8 "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),9 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. "
9 Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 240.
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."10
10 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.11 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 Pal myra man, for instance, paid seventy-five cents to be sent by him on a fool's errand to look for some stolen cloth.
11 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.12
_________________________
12
Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880.