I wanted to give a great example of a believing Mormon twisting the facts in order to play the persecution card. This is from LDS historian and apologist Richard Turley’s critique of Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaver that the church has posted on its official website:
"Krakauer presents a decidedly one-sided and negative view of Mormon history.
"Referring to Joseph Smith’s well-known 1826 trial, for example, Krakauer asserts that “a disgruntled client filed a legal claim accusing Joseph of being a fraud”. This assertion shows Krakauer’s unfamiliarity with basic aspects of the trial in question, as well as his tendency to spin evidence negatively. In actuality, the trial resulted not from “a disgruntled client” but from persecutors who had Joseph hauled into court for being a disorderly person because of his supposed defrauding of his employer, Josiah Stowell. As a modern legal scholar who carefully studied the case has noted, however, Stowell “emphatically denied that he had been deceived or defrauded” (Gordon A. Madsen, “Joseph Smith’s 1826 Trial: The Legal Setting,” Brigham Young University Studies 30 [spring 1990], 105). As a result, Joseph was found not guilty and discharged (ibid.)."
First, Turley characterizes this proceeding as “Joseph Smith’s well-known 1826 trial” as if this is no big secret. I went to BYU law school and I have practiced law for over 24 years now in the State of Washington. I spent ten of those years working as a staff attorney for the Washington Supreme Court and I have served as a judge for 8 years. In addition, I have been a church history buff since I was a teenager and I even read Edwin Firmage’s book on the history of the church in court. Yet, I did not know about this trial until I read an account of it as well as the court records of it seven years ago in a non-LDS source. The church never mentions the trial in any of its approved publications probably because as Hugh Nibley once wrote, "if this court record is authentic it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith." To characterize this “trial” as “well-known” is deceptive and dishonest, particularly when it is not common knowledge among most Mormons.
Second, Turley claims that this “trial” was based on charges brought by “persecutors.” In actuality, members of Josiah Stowell’s family presented a written complaint against Joseph Smith that led to Smith’s arrest and to criminal charges being filed against him. Stowell’s relatives filed their complaint because they were concerned that Smith was preying on Stowell’s gullibility with his money-digging and peepstoning schemes to defraud Stowell out of his money. More importantly, the court records say nothing about any religious claims made by Smith. The whole proceeding focused exclusively on Joseph’s money digging scams. Clearly, Stowell’s family members were simply doing what any reasonable person would have done under the same or similar circumstances. There is no evidence whatsoever that religious persecution played any role at all in this proceeding. If the 1826 proceeding had involved anyone other than Joseph Smith as the perpetrator, no one would even question the motives of Stowell’s relatives in filing a complaint under these circumstances.
Third, Turley claims that Smith was found not guilty and discharged. This is not true. The proceeding in question was not an actual trial. It was a preliminary hearing to determine whether or not there was adequate cause for trying Joseph Smith on these charges. The judge determined that adequate cause existed, but instead of ordering Smith to be held in jail pending trial, the judge gave Smith “leg bail” – meaning that the Judge simply told Smith to get out of town.
If anyone has spinned the evidence regarding Joseph Smith's money-digging practices -- it is Joseph Smith himself. Smith had the following to say in his 1838 history about his involvement in money-digging:
"In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal [Stowell], 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 to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went to live with him, he took me, with 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 after it. Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money-digger." Joseph Smith History 1: 56.
Smith's creates a number of false impressions. First, the 1838 history creates the impression that prior to October 1825 Joseph Smith had no involvement with searching for buried treasure. But the historical record establishes that the Smith family was well known throughout the Palmyra region for their treasures hunts and money digging activities. The historical record also shows that the Smith family relied on occult practices and the use of peep stones in their money digging activities. Affidavits gathered from 50 of Joseph Smith’s friends and neighbors establish beyond question that Joseph Smith and his family had a reputation in the Palmyra, New York area as hunters for buried treasure. These affidavits all describe Smith as a peep stoner or glass looker (similar to a confidence man like Professor Marvel and his glass ball in the Wizard of Oz), whose chief source of income was hiring out to local farmers to help them find buried treasure by the use of folk magic and "seer stones."
Joseph Smith’s 1838 history also creates the impression that Smith was merely a hired hand who helped with the digging in Stowell’s treasure hunting endeavor. Contrary to the impression created by his statement, the evidence establishes that Joseph Smith was recognized as the leading glass looker or peep stone seer in the New York region. It was because of Joseph’s reputation as a peep stone seer that Josiah Stowell traveled over 100 miles from his farm in southern New York next to the Pennsylvania border to Palmyra in order to hire Joseph to locate buried Spanish treasure on his farm through his peep stone.
Joseph Smith’s 1838 description of Stowell’s treasure hunting venture also strongly hints that he, Smith, viewed this money-digging activity as foolishness, particularly given Smith’s claim that he “prevailed” with Josiah Stowell to give up his hunt for treasure. But the records of the “well-known 1826 trial” show that Smith was forced to abandon his money digging activities with Josiah Stowell under the threat of going to jail, not because Smith prevailed upon Stowell to quit as he reports in his 1838 history.
Joseph Smith cover-ups the true extent of his money-digging and the Josiah Stowell affair in the same 1838 document in which he reports the First Vision. If the credibility of the rest of Joseph Smith’s 1838 history is judged by the credibility of verse 56, Joseph Smith’s reliability as a witness fails miserably. The bottom line is that Joseph Smith was not truthful about his involvement with money digging and Josiah Stowell in his 1838 history. Based on Smith’s lack of credibility regarding this incident, the credibility of the rest of Smith’s 1838 history becomes highly questionably.
I did not discuss the most important aspect of the 1826 trial, the part of the proceeding that will never be discussed in church approved materials. According to the court record of the trial made by the court's clerk, William Purple, Joseph Smith stated in court "That he had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel[l] several times, and had informed him where he could find these treasures, and Mr. Stowel[l] had been engaged in digging for them. That at Palmyra he pretended to tell by looking at this stone where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was of various kinds; that he had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account ofits injuring his health, especially his eyes, made them sore..."
The court record has Smith all but admitting that he was a con man. This is by far the most significant part of the 1826 "trial". Whether the charges brought against Smith were based on persecution or merely to protect Josiah Stowell from Smith does not really matter. Neither does the outcome of the proceeding really matter nor does it really matter whether or not the "trial" is well known. The only reason that I addressed these issues was because people like Turley try to obscure the real significance of the 1826 proceeding by throwing out these red herrings. The key point that Turley does not address is Smith's admission in court that he pretended to see things in his seer stone. Even a Mormon apologist cannot spin this admission, except to challenge the authenticity of the court record.* This is why Nibley wrote that "if this court record is authentic it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith."
* I find it ironic that by claiming that the 1826 proceeding is well-known and relying on the court record to make his claims, Turley accepts the court record as authentic.
Just for interest sake, here is an excerpt on the 1826 trial from Marquardt & Walters, Inventing Mormonism, Ch.4, pgs.67-72 (footnotes omitted):
"Josiah Stowell was a farmer with substantial holdings in the town of Bainbridge, Chenango County, in southern New York and a member of the local Presbyterian church. In the mid-1820s Stowell organized a money digging company to search for a mine he believed had been hidden by Spaniards in northern Pennsylvania near the home of Isaac Hale. Stowell hired Joseph Smith and his father to help. It was while digging and boarding at the home of Isaac Hale that Smith met his future wife Emma Hale. She was born in July 1804 and was a year and a half older than Smith.
"Two of Emma's cousins, Joseph and Hiel Lewis, later recalled how the possibility of a treasure came to light:
"We are unable at this time to give precise dates, but some time previous to 1825, a man by the name of Wm. Hale, a distant relative of our uncle Isaac Hale, came to Isaac Hale, and said that he had been informed by a woman named Odle, who claimed to possess the power of seeing under ground, (such persons were then commonly called peepers) that there was great treasures concealed in the hill north-east from his, (Isaac Hale's) house. By her directions, Wm. Hale commenced digging, but being too lazy to work, and too poor to hire, he obtained a partner by the name of Oliver Harper, of [New] York state, who had the means to hire help. But after a short time, operations were suspended for a time.
"Josiah Stowell eventually took up the search. In the fall of 1825 he went north to the Manchester area to visit his son Simpson Stowell. While there he heard about the Smiths' ability to locate buried treasure. Reportedly Joseph Jr. told Stowell that he could see the treasure Stowell had been looking for in Harmony through his peep stone even while still in Manchester. He also, according to Stowell's account, "described Josiah Stowel[l]'s house and outhouses" accurately. Stowell was impressed and hired Smith and his father to help locate the treasure.
"Oliver Cowdery, who became a friend of the Smith family in 1829, wrote of Stowell's project and of his hiring Joseph Smith:
"This gentleman, whose name is Stowel[l], resided in the town of Bainbridge, on or near the head waters of the Susquehannah river. Some forty miles south, or down the river, in the town of Harmony, Susquehannah county, Pa. is said to be a cave or subterraneous recess. . . . where a company of Spaniards, a long time since, when the country was uninhabited by white settlers, excavated from the bowels of the earth ore, and coined a large quantity of money. . . . Enough, however, was credited of the Spaniard's story, to excite the belief of many that there was a fine sum of the precious metal lying coined in this subterraneous vault, among whom was our employer [Stowell]; and accordingly our brother [Joseph Smith] was required to spend a few months with some others in excavating the earth, in pursuit of this treasure.
"In his own history Joseph Jr. also mentioned this work with Stowell:
"In the month of October Eighteen hundred and twenty five I hired with an old Gentleman, by name of Josiah Stoal [Stowell] 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, Susquahana [sic] County, State of Pen[n]sylvania, and had previous to my hiring with him been digging in order if possible to discover the mine. After I went to live with 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 after it. Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.
"Smith's father and mother indicated that he was more than a hired hand for Stowell. Joseph Sr. reportedly told Fayette Lapham that his son went to Harmony, Pennsylvania, "at the request of some one who wanted the assistance of his divining rod and stone in finding hidden treasure, supposed to have been deposited there by the Indians or others." Similarly Lucy recalled that Stowell had sought her son's help because he heard Joseph "possessed certain keys, by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye."
"In other words it was because of Smith's reputation that father and son made the trip of over one hundred miles to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Stowell employed them to help locate the mine. Smith was now nineteen, and his father fifty-four.
"On 1 November 1825, soon after their arrival in Harmony and in anticipation of their discoveries, Stowell's treasure digging company drew up "Articles of Agreement." This agreement stipulated, "if anything of value should be obtained at a certain place in Pennsylvania near a Wm. Hale's, supposed to be a valuable mine of either Gold or Silver and also to contain coined money and bars or ingots of Gold or Silver," each member would receive a share, including a share to Oliver Harper's widow. According to this agreement, Joseph Sr. and his son Joseph (who both signed the agreement) would receive "two elevenths of all the property that may be obtained."
"It was while they were away in southern New York that the new land agent in Canandaigua agreed to sell the Smith's delinquent Manchester farm to their neighbor to the south who wanted to add it to his holdings. Only panic-stricken appeals by Lucy and Hyrum Smith to sympathetic neighbors and the return of Joseph Sr. prevented eviction. A kindly Quaker, Lemuel Durfee, bought the land and allowed the Smiths to remain as tenants.
"In 1834 Isaac Hale recalled the treasure-seeking venture:
"[Joseph] Smith, and his father, with several other "money-diggers" boarded at my house while they were employed in digging for a mine that they supposed had been opened and worked by the Spaniards, many years since. Young Smith gave the "money-diggers" great encouragement, at first, but when they had arrived in digging, to near the place where he had stated an immense treasure would be found--he said the enchantment was so powerful that he could not see. They then became discouraged, and soon after dispersed. This took place about the 17th of November, 1825; and one of the company gave me his note for $12[.] for his board, which is still unpaid.
"Others in the area also recalled Smith's activities and placed them within the context of religious and supernatural practice. Michael Morse described the treasure forays around Harmony to an interviewer in 1879:
"Joseph came into Harmony with a Mr. Stowell, to dig for treasure - silver in oars [ores] - which was said to have be[e]n mined & hid by Spaniards a long time before. He thinks three different companies had been digging for it in all and that Mr. Stowell with his company were one of the three Says Joseph at that time (about 1825) was a green, awkward, and ignorant boy of about 19 yrs of age Says he made no profession of religion. Said Mr. Stowell was a religious man, as was also Mr. Isaac Hale at whose house Mr. Stowell, Joseph and the other hired men boarded, and that prayers were had of mornings before the company set off to work.
"In 1842 Joel K. Noble of Colesville, New York, placed the money digging within the context of occult ritual. He recalled that young Joseph "came here when about 17-18 Y[ears]. of age in the capacity of Glass Looker or fortune tel[l]er." Noble summarized the story of the company's alleged sprinkling the ground with a dog's blood while offering prayers to obtain a buried treasure.
"While Joseph Smith was working for Josiah Stowell, he was brought before a court on charges sworn against him by a nephew of Josiah Stowell, Peter G. Bridgman (or Bridgeman). Apparently Bridgman became concerned that his uncle's money was being spent in the pursuit of elusive treasure. Accounts of these charges corroborate Smith's treasure hunting in southern New York and Pennsylvania.
"In 1831 Abram W. Benton, a young man about the same age as Joseph Jr., recalled the arrest for disorderly conduct and the judgement of guilt, adding, "considering his youth, (he then being a minor,) and thinking he might reform his conduct, he was designedly allowed to escape. This was four or five years ago." In Noble's 1842 recollection, Smith was charged with vagrancy, condemned, and "whisper came to Jo. off off--took Leg Bail (or Gave [Leg Bail])."
"For over a hundred years three different published printings of the actual 1826 court record taken from Albert Neely's docket book have been available as well as an account by William D. Purple. But because the pages from the original docket book had been lost, the authenticity of these published accounts was questioned. However, in 1971 two itemized bills were discovered which had been submitted by Justice Neely and Constable Philip De Zeng to cover costs incurred in the arrest and examination of Joseph Smith, and they confirm many of the details of both the Purple account and the published versions of the record. (For a detailed description of each of these documents, see the Appendix.)
"Because of the multiplicity of documents concerning the 20 March 1826 examination of Joseph Smith, it is possible to reasonably reconstruct the order of events as the young glass-looker would have experienced them. When Smith was arrested, he would have been brought before Neely for a preliminary examination, often referred to loosely as a "trial" but specified by Neely on his bill as an "examination." The examination was to determine whether Smith should be released as innocent of the charges or, if the evidence seemed sufficient, actually brought to trial. During the examination Smith's statement was taken (not under oath), and witnesses for and against the accused were sworn in and examined and their statements taken down. Both before and during the examination Joseph remained under guard by Constable De Zeng, who charged the county for "attendance with Prisoner two days & 1 nigh[t]"--the day of the examination and the day and night preceding.
"As indicated, Bridgman had sworn out the warrant. Neely's court record begins with the complaint: "State of New York v. Joseph Smith. Warrant issued upon written complaint upon oath of Peter G. Bridgeman, who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly person and an impostor." New York law collected various types of vagrancy under the broad heading of "Disorderly Persons" and included, along with beggars, prostitutes, and those who neglect their wives and children, "all persons pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palmistry, or like crafty science, or pretending to tell fortunes, or to discover where lost goods may be found." Since Smith had never actually led the diggers to anything of value, Bridgman considered that Joseph was indeed pretending to discover lost items.
"According to Neely's court record, as published in Fraser's Magazine, Smith first made a statement in his own defense:
"Prisoner examined: says that he came from the town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of Josiah Stowel[l] in Bainbridge most of time since; had small part of time been employed in looking for mines, but the major part had been employed by said Stowel[l] on his farm, and going to school. That he had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel[l] several times, and had informed him where he could find these treasures, and Mr. Stowel[l] had been engaged in digging for them. That at Palmyra he pretended to tell by looking at this stone where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was of various kinds; that he had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account of its injuring his health, especially his eyes, made them sore; that he did not solicit business of this kind, and had always rather declined having anything to do with this business.
"Joseph Smith made a passing remark about attending school and Josiah Stowell, Jr., who was almost seventeen years old at the time remembered, "I also went to schoal [school] with him one winter he was a fine likely young man & at that time did not Profess religion."
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