- Accordingly as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year and at each time I found the same messenger there and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days.
- As my father’s worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring by days, works, and otherwise as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home and sometimes abroad, and by continued labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.
- In the year eighteen hundred and twenty-four my father’s family met with a great affliction by the death of my eldest brother Alvin.
- In the month of October, eighteen hundred and twenty-five I hired with an old gentleman by name of Josiah Stowell who lived in Chenango County, state of New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna County, state of Pennsylvania, and had, previous to my hiring with him, been digging in order if possible to discover the mine. After I went to live with him he took me among the rest of his hands to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a month without success in our undertaking, and finally I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it. Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.
Part 4 (1824–1827)