Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?

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Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?

William Stafford claimed that Joseph could see "spirits" guarding treasures

(uncle to C.R. Stafford)

• Claimed that the family of Joseph Smith, Sr. devoted a "great part of their time" to "digging for money."
• Claimed that he was told that Joseph Smith, Jr. could see "large caves" in "nearly all the hills in this part of New York."
• Claimed that Joseph could see "spirits" guarding great treasures.
• Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. told him that treasure could "sink" into the ground.
• Claimed that Joseph Smith, Sr. took one of his sheep on the pretense of using it to search for money by cutting its throat.
• Claimed that Joseph promised to show him the gold plates.

Response to these claims

• Stafford's claim that Joseph promised to show him the gold plates directly contradicts Peter Ingersoll's claim that Joseph said that nobody could see the gold plates and live.
• Stafford's oldest son John would later say "I have heard that sotry [about the black sheep] but don't think my father was there at the time they say Smith got the sheep. I don't know anything about it....They never stole one [a sheep], I am sure; they may have got one sometime....I don't think it [the story of the sheep] is true. I would have heard more about it, that is true."
• For a detailed response, see: Lazy Smiths?
• Mark Ashurst-McGee, "Moroni as Angel and as Treasure Guardian," FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 34–100. [{{{url}}} off-site] wiki
• Larry E. Morris, "'I Should Have an Eye Single to the Glory of God’: Joseph Smith’s Account of the Angel and the Plates (Review of: "From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism")," FARMS Review 17/1 (2005): 11–82. off-site

Notes (click to expand)

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