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Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits claim about the Smith family and treasure digging?
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Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits claim about the Smith family and treasure digging?
Statements of individuals who claimed to have assisted Joseph Smith, Sr. in digging operations
Several individuals who had participated with Joseph Smith, Sr. on treasure digging activities made some unique claims regarding Joseph Smith, Jr.
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Question: What did Peter Ingersoll claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
Peter Ingersoll
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- Claimed that the Smith family's general employment was "digging for money."
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. taught him to use a divining rod.
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. and Alvin Smith used a stone in a hat to see things.
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. said that there had been a book found in a hollow tree in Canada that described the "first settlement of this country before it was discovered by Columbus."
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Jr. admitted to his father-in-law that he only pretended to be able to see things in the stone.
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Jr. fooled his family into thinking that a frock full of sand was the "Gold Bible."
- Claimed that Joseph told his family that nobody could see the "Gold Bible" and live.
- Claimed that Joseph made up the story of the gold plates on the spot, after which he is supposed to have said, "I have got the damned fools fixed, and will carry out the fun."
- Claimed that Joseph told him that "he had no such book, and believed there never was any such book."
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr., was engaged in "divination."
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- On the threat that no one could see the "gold bible" and live, see: Viewing gold plates would result in death
- Ingersoll is discredited on his claim that Joseph made the story of the "gold bible" up on the spot as a way to have "fun" with his family. Joseph was telling various people about his Moroni visits well before recovering the plates (see for example various Knight family recollections). Note also that the name "Moroni" appears in the claim made by Lemon Copley.
- It is very difficult to believe that Joseph would have privately confided to Ingersoll that the plates didn't exist, when he told everyone else that they did.
- Joseph Smith and seer stones
- Joseph Smith and "magick"
- Joseph Smith, Sr., and "divination"
- Mark Ashurst-McGee, "Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian," FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 34–100. [{{{url}}} off-site] wiki
- Larry E. Morris, "'I Should Have an Eye Single to the Glory of God’: Joseph Smith’s Account of the Angel and the Plates (Review of: "From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism")," FARMS Review 17/1 (2005): 11–82. off-site
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Question: What did C.R. Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
C.R. Stafford
(nephew of William, below) ||
- Claimed that "Jo Smith, the prophet, told my uncle, William Stafford, he wanted a fat, black sheep. He said he wanted to cut its throat and make it walk in a circle three times around and it would prevent a pot of money from leaving."
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- This is hearsay; it provides no additional evidence than the original claim, see below.
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Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
William Stafford
(uncle to C.R., above) ||
- Claimed that the family of Joseph Smith, Sr. devoted a "great part of their time" to "digging for money."
- Claimed that he was told that Joseph Smith, Jr. could see "large caves" in "nearly all the hills in this part of New York."
- Claimed that Joseph could see "spirits" guarding great treasures.
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. told him that treasure could "sink" into the ground.
- Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. took one of his sheep on the pretense of using it to search for money by cutting its throat.
- Claimed that Joseph promised to show him the gold plates.
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- Stafford's claim that Joseph promised to show him the gold plates directly contradicts Peter Ingersoll's claim that Joseph said that nobody could see the gold plates and live.
- Stafford's oldest son John would later say "I have heard that sotry [about the black sheep] but don't think my father was there at the time they say Smith got the sheep. I don't know anything about it....They never stole one [a sheep], I am sure; they may have got one sometime....I don't think it [the story of the sheep] is true. I would have heard more about it, that is true." [1]
- For a detailed response, see: Lazy Smiths?
- Mark Ashurst-McGee, "Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian," FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 34–100. [{{{url}}} off-site] wiki
- Larry E. Morris, "'I Should Have an Eye Single to the Glory of God’: Joseph Smith’s Account of the Angel and the Plates (Review of: "From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism")," FARMS Review 17/1 (2005): 11–82. off-site
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Notes
- ↑ William H. Kelly, "The Hill Cumorah, and the Book of Mormon," Saints' Herald 28 (1 June 1881): 167; cited in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 2:121–122. The material removed by ellipses consists of questions being asked by the interviewer.
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