CHAPTER III. Sketch of Joseph Smith's early life and the printing of the "Book of Mormon.' MORMONISM was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr., in the year 1830, at Palmyra, N. Y. He has been called "the American Mahomet," and he himself declared the 66 Book of Mormon" to be the Bible of the Western Continent, and the word Mormon to be derived from several languages, and to mean "more good." He was born at Sharon, Vt. The date of his birth is not accurately known, but is supposed to be about the year 1800, possibly a little earlier. His father's name was Joseph, and his mother's maiden name was Lucy Mack, and both were of Scotch descent. They had nine children-Hyrum, Alvin, Joseph, Samuel, Harrison, William, Don Carlos, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy. The family removed to Palmyra, central New York, while Joseph was still a lad of nine or ten years of age. Mrs. Smith was a woman who was full of odd conceits and superstitions, while possessing a great deal of natural talent, and she ruled her husband, who was a weak character. Before the family left Vermont the parents had agreed that one of their several children was to be or would be a prophet; and as Joseph resembled his mother more than the others in a certain mental quickness and in his powers of dissimulation, they settled upon him as the "genius" of the household. It is said that Joseph at an early age could read, but not write; and when quite young committed these lines to memory from the story of Captain Kidd, the notorious pirate, which seemed to give him great pleasure : 66 "My name was Robert Kidd As I sailed, as I sailed; As I sailed, as I sailed." The Smiths lived two or three miles from the town of Palmyra, then in Ontario County, now Wayne, and were the terror and torment of the neighborhood. They seemed to have no regular occupation, to have been everything by turns, and nothing long." The father was a cooper by trade, and he dug wells and worked on the neighboring farms when he could; he also peddled beer and ginger bread, doing a thriving business on training days. The whole family made baskets and maple sugar, and raised and sold garden stuff, at odd times, and the mother washed by the day; but her employers were careful to have the clothes in before dark, as experience had taught them they would disappear if left on the lines over night. The youthful Joseph assisted generally, and was an adept in robbing hen-roosts and orchards; indeed, from all accounts, the Smiths were considered a thoroughly disreputable family. A certain superstitious feeling concerning them also existed in the minds of their more ignorant neighbors on account of the reputation Mrs. Smith had for "telling fortunes" (see Appendix No. 9). Mr. Seth W. Chapman at present owns the property that was then known as the Smith farm. What is now the dining-room of the dwelling was the living-room of the numerous Smiths, with two attic chambers above and a cellar underneath. Later a bedroom was added on the ground floor. Very early Mrs. Smith instructed her son Joseph to set up a claim for miraculous powers, which he willingly adopted. While he was watching the digging of a well, or himself digging it, he found, or pretended to find, a peculiarly shaped stone that resembled a child's foot in its outlines. It has been said that this little stone, afterward known as the "peek stone" and the "Palmyra seer stone," had been in the possession of Mrs. Smith's family for generations, and that she merely presented it to Joseph when he was old enough to work miracles with it; and that he hid it in the earth to find it again when it was convenient. As has been written, this "seer stone" was the acorn of the Mormon oak.’ 66 66 From that time on Joseph Smith fooled the credulous residents of the sparsely settled vicinity with the peeker" in his white stove-pipe hat, which he held close to his face; he saw very remarkable sights—buried treasures of gold and silver, etc.; he could trace stolen property, tell where herds of cattle had strayed, and where water was to be found. With the peek stone" he carried a rod of witch-hazel, to assist in the discovery of water; and between the stone and the rod he eked out a precarious subsistence. A personage of this peculiar type was sure to find followers; and "Joe Smith," as he was called, soon became the head of a band that slept during the day and wandered in the night-time to such places as they were directed to by their leader to dig for hidden treasures. Joe laid down certain laws to his "phalanx" in their operations; and if they disobeyed his rules, the charm of the proceeding was broken. So it frequently happened, when he assured his friends that they were close to the coveted prize, if the commanded silence, which may have lasted for hours, was broken by the slightest mani ( festation of gratified pleasure, he declared the gold, or silver, had been "spirited away," and he must again "follow the lead of the witch-hazel and 'peek stone' to see where it had located.'" When Joe wanted fresh meat for his family, he gave out that it would be necessary to insure the success of the "diggers," as these worthies were called, by having a black sheep killed, as a sacrificial offering, before going to work. This state of affairs continued for some time, and his reputation extended to the adjacent counties, which he often visited. He disappeared for four years, which are involved in mystery; but he is known to have been during that time in both Onondaga and Chenango counties, as his name appears in the criminal records of both as a vagabond. It must have been during this absence from Ontario (now Wayne) County that he was employed by William H. Sabine, Esq., at Onondaga Valley, in 1819 or 1820. Smith, by his own statement, at one time worked for a man by the name of Stowell, near Hartwick, where the trunk containing Spaulding's manuscript and other writings was at the time deposited. He is also known to have been in Broome County, and at Harpersville, Penn., visiting some relatives of his mother's. At that time there was a peddler named Parley P. Pratt, afterward distinguished for his connection with Mormonism, who was familiar with the affairs of the day, and knew everybody of the slightest note in western New York and northern Ohio. He frequently extended his trips into northern Pennsylvania. His family resided at Mentor, Ohio. Sidney Rigdon made mysterious journeys to Pennsylvania; but exactly when and where Smith, Rigdon, and Pratt met, it is now impossible to determine. There is conclusive evidence, however, that they did meet, Pratt being, it is supposed, the medium of Rigdon's and Smith's knowledge of each other, the first having copied the Spaulding romance at Pittsburg, and soon after retiring from his trade "to study the Scriptures, as he said, and avowing his intention to become a preacher. His ostensible residence was also at Mentor, Ohio, and it is an established fact that he visited Pittsburg and the interior of Pennsylvania. Smith is known to have had a copy of the Spaulding manuscript in his possession about the year 1820, or at the time these three worthies met, as it is certain that the scheme of the great Mormon fraud was determined about this period between Smith and Rigdon, and arrangements made to develop it as quickly as circumstances would permit and money could be procured for the purpose. Smith was wandering through the country during these years of mystery a portion of the time, and was occasionally seen at Palmyra. He heard the theories (as it was a common topic of conversation at the time) that were afloat to account for the peopling of America; the traditions collected from the Indians; the Hebrew traditions among them; the discovery of ruined cities and temples in Central America; the relics of pottery, bricks, and stumps of axe-cut trees, buried far beneath the surface of the Mississippi Valley. He had the wit to understand when Rigdon said a book elucidating such theories would pay, especially with the addition of the biblical language of the Spaulding manuscript and its quaint ro mance. Either there, or elsewhere, he pretended to be interested in the great revivals that were common at the time in the churches of the different religious denominations. In 1821 there was a revival in the Methodist, |