He never worked a NORMAL job. He was hired as a laborer and worked around the family property doing what most kids living off their parents do...whatever his mommy told him to do each day.

He started doing the night shift work of digging for gold with his Dad who was also a con man when he was 12-13. But that ain't work either and they never found any of their promised burried treasure.

Thank you.

The reason I ask is because this weekend I was doing some research on the papyri and they were reading his journals of his "translating" day after day after day. This along with his "translating" that b of m, and the Kirtland temple construction and the banking fraud and the nauvoo and Independence time...I literally could not find any concrete time where he worked a regular 8 to 5 day on a farm or anything else. I think if he hadn't conned people to pay his way through life, he would have been destitute.

My overall feeling after studying his life a few years back was that he didn’t start out to be a prophet; he was just pulling a con for a while to keep from having to do honest work. A days honest work just kind of sucked in his mind, so he was always looking for a con to pull that would put some money in his pocket a while longer.

It seemed that he started the Book of Mormon nonsense as just a way to build excitement and sell a book. It went from selling a book, to thinking that there might be something more in it for him, and it might be even more lucrative than a book con.

So he morphed into being a Prophet type just to avoid having to do hard work like farming. Hard work sucked, and pulling cons was easier. It took a lot of work to pull the cons off, but that kind of work was invigorating and didn’t feel so much like work.

How a lazy conman became adored and worshiped by millions is one of the biggest wins ever for pulling a con.

and if a person reads documents in the order they were written, it confirms what you've said. A lot of "mormon history" was made up after the fact.

The rise of mormonism isn't miraculous any more than the Watchtower Society's rise to where they are. Considering the people, conditions, timing, etc., a few of such organizations from that time and place survived and grew.

Joseph can tell us himself...

"It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty."

The more I learn about Joseph Smith, the more I think he faked that leg surgery as a kid as part of some scam. No proof, I just think the Smith's are the kind of parents who would fake their kids having cancer, in order to get money from everyone else.

Apparently from the moment he could talk.

Some people are born to a life of @$$hattery, others aspire to it. Smith was genetically hardwired to be an @$$hat.

I'm so lucky that my ancestor, who was sealed to Joseph Smith, only had kids with her real husband. I could have ended up with those genes (shudder).

Scary. I share some ancestry.

They believed a combination of standard Christianity, biblical mysticism, folk magic, alchemy, astrology and other crap they thought would unlock the secret back door to God, who would be obliged to rain wealth upon them.

Why did the Smiths leave Vermont? Sure, wagonloads of respectable people went west seeking greater opportunities. But a lot of failures and scammers left town ahead of creditors and the law, too. The Smiths were not known for their agricultural or commercial success. Was that because of bad luck, or because of insufficient skills, or because of lack of interest?

It's because they were like a lot of the scammers today. They would find someone who was trying to start a business, go in with them, have the other person take out a bunch of loans, drain all the capital into pay for themselves without ever providing anything, then skip out before the bills came due. Sound familiar? It's the standard Mormon business model.

When I was a missionary, I knew a bunch of Mormon Engineers who had a bunch of really smart ideas for some really cool gear, who got taken in by such a scam artist. Later I saw the same thing happen all the time with housing developments in Florida. The smart Mormons who went to school to learn a useful skill set always get bilked by the Mormons who are masters of BS.

In an affidavit signed by Hale and published in the Susquehanna Register, May 1, 1834, Joseph’s father-in-law said:

"'I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, Jr. in November, 1825. He was at that time in the employ of a set of men who were called ‘money diggers’; and his occupation was that of seeing, or pretending to see by what means of a stone placed in his hat, and his hat closed over his face. In this way he pretended to discover minerals and hidden treasure.

"'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. Young Smith made several visits at my house, and at length asked my consent to his marrying my daughter Emma. This I refused . . . [H]e was a stranger, and followed a business that I could not approve. . . . Smith stated to me, that he had given up what he called "glass-looking," and that he expected to work hard for a living . . .

"'Soon after this, I was informed that they had brought a wonderful book of plates down with them . . . The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods.'"

Testimony of Smith family neighbor and friend of Joseph Smith:

"In the month of August, 1827, I was hired by Joseph Smith, Jr. to go to Pennsylvania, to move his wife's household furniture up to Manchester, where his wife then was."

"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 (Mr. Hale) 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 he could not see in a stone now, nor never could; and that his former pretensions in that respect, were all false. He then promised to give up his old habits of digging for money and looking into stones."

"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 be hard for me, for they 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."
- Peter Ingersoll Affidavit, Palmyra, Wayne County. N. Y. Dec. 2, 1833, http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs2/1914Shk1.htm#pg016a

Isaac Hale, Joseph Smith's father-in-law separately testified:

"Emma wrote to me inquiring whether she could have her property, consisting of clothing, furniture, cows, &c. I replied that her property was safe, and at her disposal. In short time they returned, bringing with them a Peter Ingersol[l], and subsequently came to the conclusion that they would move out, and resided upon a place near my residence."

"Smith stated to me, that he had given up what he called "glass-looking," and that he expected to work hard for a living, and was willing to do so."
- Affidavit of Isaac Hale, given at Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania on 20 March 1834, http://www.xmission.com/~research/about/docum3.htm

http://www.visitpalmyrany.com/attractions.html

Google Palmyra New York

The web sites have some Smith family information and will give you a much better idea of what was going on aroung Joseph Smith than any church information ever gave us.