Is is true that Joseph Smith was a magical treasure hunter before he became the Mormon leader?

Question

From Wikipedia: The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging. Joseph claimed an ability to use seer stones for locating lost items and buried treasure.[23] To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white stovepipe hat and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone.[24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith

Answer 1

Yes this is true and documented. This should be evidence enough for people to know without a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith was a charlatan and con man.



He used this same trick to translate the golden plates that no one else saw. I don't know how anyone in their right man could follow this criminal.

Answer 2

Joseph Smith Treasure Hunter

Answer 3

What I find interesting is that at this point nearly all of the answers have received huge amounts of thumbs downs except the best contributors/mormons who have answered the question. In view of this observation, which is there for all to see, I have to wonder if some of these people have multiple accounts and are booting their own answers several times over. Is this legal in Answers!? My own opinion is that the question itself is weak. For one, even the Mormons recognize that not all the prophecies are 100% true, or they would not keep providing "new revelations" to replace the old ones. Secondly, because this old revelation about white supremacy was "fixed" with a new revelation when it became a civil rights issue, the point is now moot. I was told back in the early 80s by a Mormon elder in Portland, Oregon that the LDS would be courting a massive black mormon population to give the Mormons new credibility in this area, and see that this has been accomplished. Don't be confused, just keep up with the new revelations and stay current. And yes, I know the difference between LDS and Mormons, and in this instance, the differences don't affect the answer. Also note that in the topics of religion, politics, and evolution here on Yahoo Answers!, the only constant is change, and the only truth that seems to matter is perception. I am seeing that questioners often vote for Best Answers of those who agree with them, not necessarily those who have the best answers to the questions. This is unfortunate, as I would hope that if you want an answer to your question, you would want to consider your options, not just vote for someone who jumps on your bandwagon. We shall see here soon enough who will get Best Answer to this question. I do take issue with the posters who globally claim that Christians are bashers and then do the same thing. Why is this allowed? Everyone is entitled to his opinion, even the many posters are allowed to be abusive and sarcastic just because they are not Christians. Anyone who truly believes in his faith would defend it to his death, and I would expect nothing less. We should all be respectful of another's beliefs, but be strong enough to defend our own. The Bible tells us to be ready to give an answer to any man who asks about the hope that is in us. In doing so, someone who disagrees will tend to take offense, but this cannot be avoided and is sometimes a good thing in that it makes us consider our options. We all need to be able to 'sift the wheat from the shaff', and every answer should give us something to think about. After all, isn't our spiritual condition the point of all this discussion, Renee, me, and nighttree? And yes, I am a Christian. Because my opinion doesn't match yours, how does this fact automatically make me a basher?

Answer 4

Partially correct...



Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805. He came from a poor farming family. Joseph had a 3rd grade education...



As a young man in the 1820s, and to earn money for his family, he participated in a "craze for treasure hunting"...



Gold seeking and treasure hunting, using all kind of devices, were widespread and fairly common, even among the educated, during this time period...



In May 1838, Joseph Smith admitted that as a very young man he once was what was called a "money digger", working for a wealthy farmer, but said that it "was never a very profitable job, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it".





The "ability to use seer stones" came from his use of the Urim and Thummim (read the Bible) in his translation work on the Book of Mormon...



And, yes, during his short life he was taken to court several times for some claimed reason or another, yet there was never a conviction ever recorded...





If you want to know more...



www.lds.org and/or www.mormon.org



If you really want to know more...

Answer 5

The short answer is no, and the Wikipedia article appears to be biased, and based on the so-called scholarship of individuals like D. Michael Quinn and Richard Bushman. Quinn I have found to be dishonest and extremely deceptive, manipulating quotes and information to present a picture often directly contrary to the facts. I also have no respect for Bushman.



There is probably a grain of truth to the accusations, involving Joseph Smith being employed by someone who was convinced that Joseph Smith had special talents in finding lost treasures and other items. And it may be that Joseph Smith actually had these talents. The word "magical" however is pejorative and I don't believe applies. I think the "white stovepipe hat" thing is an invention of a much later time. There may be some evidence he had a seer stone.



Claims of "historical documents" and "proven facts" are greatly exaggerated. Mostly what we have are statements years later from those whose avowed agenda was to discredit Mormonism and destroy Joseph Smith if they could. They only pass the test of being believable and authentic if you are determined to believe anything at all that makes Joseph Smith look bad.

Answer 6

Yes it is true. Historical documents amply support this.



Interestingly, Joseph also used this stone in finding and translating the gold plates (according to one of the Book of Mormon "3 witnesses", Martin Harris).



The Mormon church still has Joseph's "seer stone". Joseph Fielding Smith (tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1970-72) wrote, “The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated. The Urim and Thummim so spoken of, however, was the seer stone which was in the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith in early days. This seer stone is currently in the possession of the Church.” Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-56)

Answer 7

yea. not so much treasure as lost objects and water for farming....he was like an old time 'water witcher' - and from all reports was very good @it. JS was considered something of a 'village seer' and it was a common and accepted practice in the time and culture.

his mother indicated that JS was sought out by some, including josiah stoal (this is the guy whose nephew charged JS in court for this because he thought his uncle was being unduly influenced in his "religious" views. stoal testified in joseph's defense.) to use the stone to find hidden valuables. she said he "came for Joseph on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye"....so you can see that many in the area used him and accepted this ability......some interesting observations from brant gardner make this clear and clarifies the role that JS and his stone played within the community of palmyra......

"Young Joseph Smith was a member of a specialized sub-community with ties to these very old and very respected practices, though by the early 1800s they were respected only by a marginalized segment of society. He exhibited a talent parallel to others in similar communities. Even in Palmyra he was not unique. In D. Michael Quinn's words: "Until the Book of Mormon thrust young Smith into prominence, Palmyra's most notable seer was Sally Chase, who used a greenish-colored stone. William Stafford also had a seer stone, and Joshua Stafford had a 'peepstone which looked like white marble and had a hole through the center.'" Richard Bushman adds Chauncy Hart, and an unnamed man in Susquehanna County, both of whom had stones with which they found lost objects."

more from gardener....

"Joseph Smith, long before golden plates complicated his position as a local seer, appears to have functioned just as Sally Chase did. Quinn reports that: "E. W. Vanderhoof [writing in 1905] remembered that his Dutch grandfather once paid Smith seventy-five cents to look into his 'whitish, glossy, and opaque' stone to locate a stolen mare. The grandfather soon 'recovered his beast, which Joe said was somewhere on the lake shore and [was] about to be run over to Canada.' Vanderhoof groused that 'anybody could have told him that, as it was invariably the way a horse thief would take to dispose of a stolen animal in those days.'" While Vanderhoof reported a positive result of the consultation, it is interesting that his statement includes a qualifier....By the end of the century, one wouldn't want to actually credit a village seer when describing their activities. Nevertheless, it isn't the effectiveness that is important—it is the nature of the consultation. Sally Chase's clients consulted her to find things which were lost, and Joseph Smith had at least one client who did the same."

Answer 8

Partially true. He was not a 'magical' treasure hunter, just a plain treasure hunter. You have to realize that during the 1800s, a treasure hunter was a legitimate profession. Today, you can even find people who are water witches, but that is not considered legitimate.



One of Joseph's first trials was because of the children of the man who hired him, took him to court. Not because he said he was a treasure seeker, but because he had talked their father out of further searching for the treasure believed to be on his property. The father testified in Joseph's behalf in that trial.

Answer 9

The information is somewhat inaccurate, although the family did supplement its meager income by hiring out as laborers, including being hired to dig for treasure.

Answer 10

Yes. He was a treasure hunter.



Joseph Smith said God the Father and Jesus appeared to him and spoke with him.



But when Moses was talking with God but not seeing him, Moses asked God to let Moses see God. God told Moses, "No man can see my face and live."



So then, how did Joseph Smith see God, and live to tell about it? Well, he didn't, of course.



Fred Hoehn, www.livingwater.bugs3.com

Reference: The Holy Bible, King James Version

Answer 11

Mormon answer: No.

Non-Mormon answer: Yes.

Answer 12

what your talking about is the Golden scriptures. the stone guided him to his destination.

Answer 13

A uranium prospector, no doubt.