just found out this little gem. This is a testimoney of judge Daniel woodard of the court of windsor,vermont, a former neighbor of the smith family. Judge woodard went on record in the historical magazine in 1870 with a statement to the effect that smith senior definitely was a treasure hunter and that " he also became implicated with one Jack Downing, in counterfeiting money,but turned states evidence and escaped the penalty" so, smith senior was a con man, counterfeiter and rat snitch. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree does it ?

and shamelessly scamming their neighbors at every turn. If you were driving through their town and stopped at their house to ask directions, one of the boys would stick nails under your tires and then poppa smith would drive behind you (hanging back a bit to avoid being too obvious) until you realized that your tires had gone flat.

"Well, mister. Looks like it's your lucky day! I just happen to have some tire repair equipment here in my truck. It'll cost you though. Repairs are expensive out here in the middle of nowhere."

That's pretty much the type of folks they were.

Oh, but they did take care of each other. Joe set his ma up in a nice business charging people to see his Egyptian artifacts--you know, all the stuff that was included with Abraham's personal papyrus diary. ;o)

in a farmer's outfit, or plowing, or harvesting....hmmmmm

I think the evidence shows the Smiths were lethargic, lazy, and hanging by thread.

I imagine winters at their house in the 1815 to 1825 time frame were lean indeed.

I think JS was a way better con man than say P.T. Barnum who coined the phrase there's a sucker born every minute. Joe's con is the longest running one I know of with the most devout/rabid suckers known to man.

The whole business fell apart when the charismatic leader finally got what was coming to him. If it were not for Brigham Young moving the whole scheming, screwing lot of them far, far away and restructuring the scam, it would have been the last we would have heard of lyin', scheming Old Joe and his pervert buddies.

Just think about it- that model has worked before. The pilgrims came here, Jonestown went to Ghana, etc.

We have Brigham Young to thank for the perpetuation of Mormonism into modern times. Which he did by prayer and fasting? Noooooo, by blood.

Anagrammy

I'm reading the book "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View" right now and the whole entire family was definitely into magic and finding buried treasure, which was a pretty popular hobby back then anyways.

But yes, the family were very, very, poor so no wonder why they were always looking for buried treasure!

Apparently a lot of the time they would be digging for the treasure and if they bothered the spirit that was guarding the treasure, or didn't say the spell right, they would hear a "rumbling" noise, which was the earth sucking the treasure even deeper in the ground (or moving it further away). Apparently this happened quite often because Martin Harris, Porter Rockwell, and Brigham Young were some of the people who talked about their experiences with Joseph and their treasure sinking further into the earth or moving.

I'm now beginning chapter 3 where it will talk about ritual magic, astrology, amulets, and talismans. Very detailed and well documented book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=eyvftt-1F_kC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=Joseph+Smith+Sr.+counterfeiting&source=bl&ots=GI5S0hnNZE&sig=GS052CxIkqgxxiJJzxSuf9QJ8Ac&hl=en&ei=YSJsTr27JuniiAL8wP2hCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Smith%20Sr.%20counterfeiting&f=false

Fascinating stuff. The family was often desperate from money and Smith Sr. went from one get-rich-quick scheme to the next. He also had a problem with drinking. He seems to have been a fairly unstable person. The family suffered a lot.