old in 1787 to Oliver Phelps and Daniel
Gorman for one million dollars. Phelps and Gorman immediately proceeded
to Canandaigua and obtained the Indian title to one third of the tract.
A land-office was opened in that village, the first of its kind in
America. But the sales, although rapid, prevented the ruin neither of
the purchasers nor of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution,
who came forward to help them. The Holland Land Company profited by
these misfortunes. The rich valleys of the Genesee and its tributaries
more than made good its promises to actual settlers, as is readily
proved by the waving fields of grain which greet the traveller through
that section to-day.

In the year 1815 there came to the town of Palmyra, in Wayne county, a
family by the name of Smith. Their former home was Sharon, Vermont. The
father's name was Joseph, the mother's maiden name was Lucy Mack, and
they were both of Scotch descent. Their son Joseph, afterward "the
Prophet," was born on December 23, 1805. Hyrum, another son, helped his
father at the trade of a cooper. Joseph, Jr., grew up with the
reputation of being an idle and ignorant youth, given to
chicken-thieving, and, like his father, extremely superstitious. Both
father and sons believed in witchcraft, and they frequently "divined"
the presence of water by a forked stick or hazel rod. Orlando Sanders of
Palmyra, a well-preserved gentleman of over eighty, tells us that the
Smith family worked for his father and for himself. He gives them the
credit of being good workers, but declares that they could save no
money. He also states that Joseph, Jr., was "a greeny," both large and
strong. By nature he was peaceably disposed, but when he had taken too
much liquor he was inclined to fight, with or without provocation.

The profession of a water-witch did not bring enough ducats to the Smith
family; so the attempt was made to find hidden treasures. Failing in
this, the unfolding flower of Mormonism would have been nipped in the
bud had not Joe's father and brother been engaged in digging a well upon
the premises of Clark Chase in September, 1819. Joseph, Jr., stood idly
by with some of the Chase children when a stone resembling a child's
foot was thrown from the well. The Chase children claimed the curiosity,
as it was considered, but Joe seized and retained it. Afterward, for a
series of years, he claimed that by the use of it he was enabled to
discover stolen property and to