"Joe Smith was here lumbering soon after my marriage, which was in 1818, some years before he took to 'peeping', and before diggings were commenced under his direction. These were ideas he gained later. The stone which he afterward used was in the possession of Jack Belcher of Gibson, who obtained it while at Salina, N. Y., engaged in drawing salt. Belcher bought it because it was said to be a 'seeing-stone.' I have often seen it. It was a green stone, with brown irregular spots on it. It was a little longer than a goose's egg, and about the same thickness. When he brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so, he said he saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed, 'I've found my hatchet' (it had been lost two years), and immediately ran for it to the spot shown him through the stone, and it was there. The boy was soon beset by neighbors far and near to reveal to them hidden things, and he succeeded marvellously. Joe Smith, conceiving the idea of making a fortune through a similar process of 'seeing,' bought the stone of Belcher, and then began his operations in directing where hidden treasures could be found. His first diggings were near Capt. Buck's sawmill, at Red Rock; but because the followers broke the rule of silence, 'the enchantment removed the deposit.'" One of many stories of Joe's treasure-digging, current in that neighborhood, Miss Blackman narrates. Learning from a strolling Indian of a place where treasure was said to be buried, Joe induced a farmer named Harper to join him in digging for it and to spend a considerable sum of money in the enterprise. "After digging a great hole, that is still to be seen," the story continues, "Harper got discouraged, and was about abandoning the enterprise. Joe now declared to Harper that there was an 'enchantment' about the place that was removing the treasure farther off; that Harper must get a perfectly white dog (some said a black one), and sprinkle his blood over the ground, and that would prevent the 'enchantment' from removing the treasure. Search was made all over the country, but no perfectly white dog could be found. Then Joe said a white sheep would do as well; but when this was sacrificed and failed, he said The Almighty was displeased with him for attempting to palm off on Him a white sheep for a white dog." This informant describes Joe at that time as "an imaginative enthusiast, constitutionally opposed to work, and a general favorite with the ladies." In confirmation of this, R. C. Doud asserted that "in 1822 he was employed, with thirteen others, by Oliver Harper to dig for gold under Joe's direction on Joseph McKune's land, and that Joe had begun operations the year previous."