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Criticism
Critics claim that Joseph Smith misled investors in the Kirtland Safety Society by collecting boxes full of sand with money placed on top, in order to make it appear that the bank had more hard money than it did.
Source(s) of the Criticism
- Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 196–197. ( Index of claims )
- Oliver H. Olney, The Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed (Hancock County, IL: N.p., 1843), 4.
- Cyrus Smalling letter in E. G. Lee, The Mormons, or Knavery Exposed (Frankford, Philadelphia: Webber & Fenimore, 1841), 14.
- Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits Volume First: Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), 36.
Response
Brodie quotes apostate Mormons for this claim. It does not, however, seem to match other facts in the historical record. In October 1836, Joseph Smith purchased a safe for use in the bank he and other Church leaders were planning:
- The safe measured only 25 by 24 by 29 inches. The dimensions of the safe cast a serious shadow on the validity of stories of various apostates cited by Brodie. They claimed that the shelves of the bank vault were lined with many boxes each marked $1,000. These many boxes were supposedly filled with sand, lead, old iron, and stone with only a thin layer of coins on top. As will be pointed out later [in the article], the founders of the bank probably had enough genuine specie when the bank was opened to fill the several small boxes that might have occupied this very modest safe.[1]
It is also telling that such apostates never disclosed Joseph's dishonesty before the bank's collapse, and some may have even participated in the bank. Why would they keep this a secret, and why would they risk their own financial well-being if they knew Joseph was up to no good?
Conclusion
The Kirtland bank safe was not large enough to accomodate the claims which apostates later made. It seems plausible that in an effort to discredit Joseph Smith, they fabricated a story about him distorting the bank's reserves. Since such tales grow in the telling, and because a larger scam is more memorable, their creativity betrayed them—had they been more modest in their claims, the implausibility would be less apparent.
Without other evidence, this claim should be regarded as spurious.
Endnotes
- [back] Dale W. Adams, "Chartering the Kirtland Bank," Brigham Young University Studies 23:4 (Fall 1983): 479, n. 8.. PDF link
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
| | Joseph Smith and legal issues wiki articles
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| | Joseph Smith, Jr. wiki articles
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| | Joseph Smith and legal issues wiki articles
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Post-Joseph Smith and non-Joseph Smith prophecies
| | First Vision wiki articles
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Overview
Leading up to the vision:
The vision:
After the vision:
Others' accounts:
Other criticisms:
| | Joseph Smith other visionary issues wiki articles
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Moroni's visit:
Video
| | Revised or Unaltered?: Joseph Smith's Foundational Stories, Matthew Brown, 2006 FAIR Conference
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FAIR web site
| | Joseph Smith FAIR articles
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- FAIR Topical Guide: Joseph Smith FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Character FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Consent for others to enter heaven? FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Family and Background FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Status of Joseph Smith FAIR link
- FAIR Topical Guide: Prophets: Infallibility FAIR link
| | Joseph Smith other visionary issues FAIR links
|
- Craig Ray, "Joseph Smith's History Confirmed," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, August 2002) FAIR link
External links
- Dale W. Adams, "Chartering the Kirtland Bank," Brigham Young University Studies 23:4 (Fall 1983): 467–482. PDF link
- Marvin S. Hill, Keith C. Rooker and Larry T. Wimmer, "The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics," Brigham Young University Studies 17:4 (Summer 1977): 389–471. PDF link
- Paul Sampson and Larry T. Wimmer, "The Kirtland Safety Society: The Stock Ledger Book and the Bank Failure," Brigham Young University Studies 12:4 (Summer 1972): 427–436. off-site
- Scott H. Partridge, "The Failure of the Kirtland Safety Society," Brigham Young University Studies 12:4 (Summer 1972): 437–454. PDF link
- Images of KSS scrip and other "Mormon Money" off-site
Printed material
- James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2nd edition revised and enlarged, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1992[1976]), 117–125. ISBN 087579565X. (subscript. required) GospeLink
- Milton V. Backman, Jr., The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1983), 313–317. ISBN 0877479739 (subscript. required) GospeLink
- R. Kent Fielding, "The Mormon Economy in Kirtland, Ohio,," Utah Historical Quarterly 27/4 (October 1959): 331–356.
- R. Kent Fielding, " The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio," PhD Dissertation, Indiana University, 1957.
