Mormon Quotes

Money-digging

Brigham Young
These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 19:36
Brigham Young
Ten years ago, it was called heresy for Joseph Smith to be a money digger, and receive revelations; it actually became treason; and the people killed him for it: and now I see hundreds of reverend gentlemen going to dig money. I despise a man who won't dig for gold, he is a lazy man, and intends to spunge on others. Do not think that I blame you; all I have to say is, that you have to follow in the wake of 'Old Joe Smith,' and paddle away to dig gold.
Brigham Young, June 23, 1850, Deseret News, June 29, 1850, p. 20
Brigham Young
These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them. He has his messengers at his service, and it is just as easy for an angel to remove the minerals from any part of these mountains to another, as it is for you and me to walk up and down this hall. I relate this because it is marvelous to you. But to those who understand these things, it is not marvelous.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 19:37
Brigham Young
The seer stone which Joseph Smith first obtained He got in an Iron kettle 25 feet under ground. He saw it while looking in another seers stone which a person had. He went right to the spot [and] dug [and] found it.
Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833‑1898 Typescript, 9 vols., ed. by Scott G. Kenney, v. 5, September 11, 1859, pp. 382‑383
Joseph Smith
Joe claimed he could tell where money was buried, with a witch hazel consisting of a forked stick of hazel. He held it ‑‑ one fork in each hand ‑‑ and claimed the upper end was attracted by the money.
Joseph Smith, March 23, 1885, Naked Truths About Mormonism; April 1, 1888; Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Re‑examined, p. 166; Mormonism Unvailed, by E.D. Howe, p. 12
Joseph Smith
Was not Joseph Smith a money digger? Yes, but it was never a very profitable job for him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.
Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 120; History of the Church 3:29; Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 271
Joseph Smith Sr.
Joseph went to the town of Harmony, in the State of Pennsylvania, at the request of some one who wanted the assistance of his divining rod and stone in finding hidden treasure...
Joseph Smith Sr., Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, p. 307
Joseph Smith Sr.
[Joseph Smith, Jr.] claims and believes that there is a [seer] stone of this quality, somewhere, for every one.
Joseph Smith Sr., Fayette Lampham, The Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, p. 306, also Kirkham, New Witness for Christ in America, v. 2, p. 384
Joseph Smith Sr.
He [Joseph Smith] also believed that there was a vast amount of money buried somewhere in the country; that it would some day be found: that he himself had spent both time and money searching for it, with divining rods, but had not succeeded in finding any, though sure that he eventually would.
Joseph Smith Sr., Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, p. 306, also see Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America, v. 2, p. 384
B. H. Roberts
Now, most historians, Mormon or not, who work with the sources, accept as fact Joseph Smith's career as village magician. Too many of his closest friends and family admitted as much, and some of Joseph's own revelations support the contention.
B. H. Roberts, Mormon historian, Treasure‑seeking Then and Now, Sunstone, v. 11, September 1987, p. 5
Martin Harris
The money‑diggers claimed that they had as much right to the plates as Joseph had, as they were in company together. They claimed that Joseph had been [a] traitor, and had appropriated to himself that which belonged to them.
Martin Harris, Tiffany's Monthly, no. 6, 1859, p. 163‑170
Martin Harris
Consequently long before the idea of a Golden Bible entered their minds, in their excursions for money‑digging, which I believe usually occurred in the night, that they might conceal from others the knowledge of the place, where they struck their treasures, Jo used to be usually their guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had through which he looked to decide where they should begin to dig. It was after one of these night excursions, that Jo, while he lay upon his bed, had a remarkable dream. An angel of God seemed to approach him, clad in celestial splendor.
Martin Harris, Testimonies of Book of Mormon Witnesses, by John Clark, 1842, p. 226
Martin Harris
Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase, twenty‑four feet from the surface. In this stone he could see many things to my certain knowledge. It was by means of this stone he first discovered these plates.
Martin Harris, Tiffany's Monthly, Aug. 1859 (v. 5, no. 4), p. 163
Martin Harris
There was a company there in the neighborhood, who were digging for money supposed to have been hidden by the ancients. Of this company were old Mr. Stowell ‑‑ I think his name was Josiah ‑‑ also old Mr. Beman, also Samuel Lawrence, George Proper, Joseph Smith, jr., and his father, and his brother Hiram Smith. They dug for money in Palmyra, Manchester, also in Pennsylvania, and other places... and they took Joseph to look in the stone for them, and he did so for a while, and he then told them the enchantment was so strong that he could not see, and they gave it up.
Martin Harris, Tiffany's Monthly, MORMONISM‑No. II, p. 164; also in New Witness, by Kirkham, v. 2, p. 377
Marvin S. Hill
Many of the earliest Mormons, including [Oliver] Cowdery, Martin Harris, Orrin P. Rockwell, Joseph Knight and Josiah Stowel, were rodsmen or money diggers but became Mormons for religious reasons.
Marvin S. Hill, Mormon historian, Secular or Sectarian History: A Critique of No Man Knows My History, Church History, v. 43, p. 86, March 1974
Isaac Butts
Young Jo[seph Smith] had a forked witch‑hazel rod with which he claimed he could locate buried money or hidden things. Later he had a peep stone which he put into his hate and looked into. I have seen both.
Isaac Butts, Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1, January 1888, p. 2, reprinted in Anderson, Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined, p. 154
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