Description

This book chronicles the evidence that early Mormon leaders, starting with Joseph Smith Sr., dealt in counterfeit money beginning in Vermont, and continuing throughout Joseph and Hyrum's careers. It places the Smith brothers in the early American context where counterfeiting networks and some of their CEO-like bosses posed as preachers. It is the only book of its kind that uncovers the problems counterfeiters caused in early America and what really happened before, during and after the Book of Mormon appeared on the scene. Both fact-based and fast moving, supported by more than 1400 footnotes and over 100 photos and illustrations. Based on nearly 10 years of research, conducted in Vermont, New York, Illinois, Missouri, and Utah.

Table of Contents

About the Author
Acknowledgements and Sources
Introduction

Chapter One: The Shadowy World of Counterfeiters in Early America

1. The Puritans, the Pilgrims, and Antinomian Dissenters
2. Radical Sects and Counterfeiting After the Revolutionary War
3. Counterfeiting Was a Serious, Often Capital Offense
4. Counterfeiters Worked in Secret Oath-Bound Networks
5. "Disorderly Persons" Were Often Found with Counterfeit Money
6. Criminal Networks in the Jacksonian Era
7. Imposters, Rogue Ministers, and Horse-Thieving Counterfeiters
8. Stephen Burroughs: "Preacher" and Emperor of Counterfeiters
9. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Two: Joseph Smith Sr.'s Counterfeiting Comrades

1. The Revolutionary Generation
2. Early Ties of Mormon Founders
3. Joseph Smith Sr.'s Money-Digging/Counterfeiting in Vermont
4. Ransford Rogers and the "Morris Town Ghost" Money-Digging Scam
5. Samuel Ford and the Morristown Counterfeiters Preceded Rogers and His Tricks
6. There Was a Method to His Madness
7. Money-Digging and Counterfeiting — "Spiritual Quests?"
8. Justus Winchell, Joseph Smith Sr. and the Wood "Scape" with the Law
9. Joseph Smith Sr. is Arrested for Passing Counterfeits
10. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Three: The Seeds of Mormonism Were Sown in Vermont

1. Professor John Smith and the Culture War at Dartmouth
2. Hiram/Hyrum Smith Attends Moor's Academy
3. The Idea of a Spurious History of the Native Americans
4. Joseph Smith Sr. Becomes Estranged from Both Christianity and Masonry
5. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Four: Joseph Smith Jr.'s Early Career as a Treasure-Seer

1. The Smiths Relocate to Palmyra to Join Others in Their Network
2. The Anti-Masonic Storm Brews, 1823-1826
3. The Extent of Joseph Smith Jr.'s Money-Digging
4. Laws Against Swindling People With a Seer Stone
5. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Five: The "Providential" Murder of Oliver Harper

1. Oliver Harper Hired Joseph Smith Jr. as a Treasure-Seer
2. The Bleeding Ghosts Made a Ghoulish Demand When No Money Was Found
3. The Arrest, Trial and Execution of Jason Treadwell
4. Eleven Witnesses Testify That Treadwell Was Counterfeiting
5. Jason Treadwell Sentenced to Death
6. What Was Treadwell's Motive, and Was He in the Money-Digging Group?
7. Why the Counterfeiting Cover-Up?
8. Ten Witnesses in the Trial Were Associates of Joseph Smith Jr.
9. Why Did the Money-Diggers Call Harper's Death a "Providential Occurrence?"
10. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Six: The Strange "Providential" Death of Alvin Smith

1. The House Alvin Was Building
2. Alvin's Death Described
3. Why the Confusion Over the Death Date?
4. The Unknown Doctor Forces Calomel on Alvin
5. The Smith Family Believed Alvin Had Been Murdered
6. The Continuing Significance of Alvin's Death
7. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Seven: Joseph Smith Jr.'s Later Career as Treasure Seer (and Counterfeiter)?

1. Was Abner Cole One of Luman Walter's "Marks"?
2. Members of the Money-Digging Band Later Became Inner-circle Mormons
3. Joseph Smith Arrested as Disorderly Person and Imposter
4. Ways That the Smiths Acted Like Counterfeiters
5. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Eight: The William Morgan Affair and the Gold Bible Company

1. What Was Masonry in Early America?
2. William Morgan Kidnapped
3. What Happened to Morgan?
4. The Anti-Masonic Movement
5. Mormonism's Ties to the William Morgan Affair
6. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Nine: The Book of Mormon Project

1. Hyrum's Choice
2. Hyrum, Joseph, and Oliver Intrigued by the Morgan Trials
3. The Gold Bible Company
4. Writing the Book in the Cave
5. Smith Begins Receiving Revelations
6. A Revelation From God Says Hyrum Is Translator
7. A Revelation to Sell the Copyright in Canada
8. Hyrum Had Pricks of Conscience
9. Abner Cole Associates the Gold Bible Company with Counterfeiters
10. The Perilous Escape From Palmyra
11. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Ten: Stop off at "The Kingdom"

1. A Temple is Not Built in Hiram, Ohio
2. A Question of Politics—Were the Mormons Anti-Masonic?
3. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Eleven: The Kirtland Caper

1. The Prophet/Politician Persona
2. Running Up Debts—The Kirtland Temple
3. Anti-Banking and Counterfeiting in Ohio
4. The Law Presses Down Again
5. Were Mormon Leaders In League with the Brown Brothers?
6. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Twelve: "Reverend" John A. Murrell and the Year of the Riot

1. Blacklegs, the Vicksburg Gamblers, and "Reverend" John A. Murrell
2. What is a War of Extermination?
3. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Thirteen: The Missouri Mohammed

1. Missourians Were Tough Customers
2. The Danite Band or "Big Fan"
3. Counterfeiting Charges Set Off an Election Day Battle
4. Governor Boggs Calls out the State Militia
5. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Fourteen: The Counterfeiting Kings

1. Why Did the Smith Brothers Choose the Nauvoo Site?
2. Old Pal John C. Bennett Joins Them
3. The City of Joseph
4. Nauvoo "Security Forces"
5. Why Did Joseph Smith Join the Masons?
6. Key Players Adams, Jonas, and Bennett
7. Did Nauvoo Become a Center for Theft and Counterfeiting?
8. Why Did Joseph and Hyrum Begin the Risky Scheme of Polygamy?
9. Joseph H. Jackson's Sting Operation
10. The Secret Council of Fifty is Packed with Counterfeiters
11. Jackson Allies with William and Wilson Law
12. William Law Endorsed Jackson's Disclosures of Counterfeiting
13. The End of the Road for Joseph and Hyrum Smith
14. Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Fifteen: The Federal Government Cracks Down on the Nauvoo Bogus Makers

1. Others Corroborate Jackson's Startling Revelations
2. Murders Cause a Schism in the Danite Band
3. More Civil Unrest and "Secret Combinations"
4. Brigham Young Defies the State Guard and the Federal Marshall
5. The Federal Grand Jury Indicts the Nauvoo Bogus Makers
6. Profiles of the Nauvoo Counterfeiters
7. Joseph H. Jackson and the "Firm of Jackson, Heaton and Bonney"
8. Other Mormon Counterfeiters
9. The Mormons Leave Nauvoo in the Middle of Winter Afraid of Federal Troops

Epilogue