... In regard to the stories Father knew of only the one, that the golden plates <<and a stone>> through which he <<Smith>> had to look to read them were found in the side of a hill near Palmyra while he was diggin[g] for buried treasure. Father had nothing to do with making of the plates, they and never saw them; as a great favor he was allowed to "heft" them and to feel them in the bag in which they were kept and which was made like a pillow case. He does not think that any one besides "Joe Smith" ever saw the plates ... Father says that he never knew of their being dishonest accordin[g] to the common acceptation of the word. They were a good natured, ignorant, shif<<t>>less family, disliking hard work, spending their time in selling gingerbread, telling fortunes, locating water for wells, and digging for hid <<buried>> treasures; it was the ridicule, which people thought, which made him into he received for dig=ging whi that made <<him>> invent the story of the golden plates. ...
[Source: Philana A. Foster to E. W. Taylor, 16 July 1895, Theodore A. Schroeder Papers, Archives, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Philana A. Foster To E. W. Taylor]
EMD 3:218-220.
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