I don't know if Joseph Smith was arrested on this particular charge or not. However, all things considered, it would not surprise me if he had been. However, I would like to use this question as an opportunity to address a couple of larger issues in connection with it. First of all, let's look at the legal aspects of this question. As I wrote in response to another question (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/35884), Joseph Smith had, for a short time worked for a man who was hunting for buried treasure. However, I would ask, what is illegal about this. Assuming that Joseph Smith was arrested on a charge of "money digging" (treasure hunting), this shows the way in which the legal system was abused in order to persecute him. If Joseph and his employer had been looking on land belonging to someone else, the proper charge would have been trespassing, but that is not the accusation here. What we have here is an example of people using the legal system to harass Joseph for something that was not a crime. The second point I want to make is to address the other accusation with which the Church's enemies invariably follow this one up, namely that Joseph Smith created the Church as a scam to get rich. In order to make this accusation, the accusers have to ignore what actually happened during that part of Joseph's life. If he had started this church as a get rich scheme, then it was an abysmal failure. From the time that he let it be known that he had spoken to God, he had to endure the derision of most of his neighbors. This derision only got worse as time went on. It ultimately led to his being led before various courts of law accused of a number of different "crimes". In all of these cases, there is only one actual conviction. Joseph was convicted of the "crime" of casting a devil out of Newel Knight (another non-crime). As a result of the increasing persecution in the east, Joseph moved the Church to Ohio. In Kirkland, Ohio, Joseph opened and attempted to run his own general store. This enterprise failed fairly quickly because Joseph gave too much of the inventory away to people who couldn't pay for it. This left him several thousand dollars in debt (a huge sum back then). The persecution of him personally continued in Ohio. In one incident, a mob broke into the home in which he was living at the time, and dragged him and Sidney Rigdon outside with the intent to kill them. When the mob was unable to force Joseph's mouth open to administer poison (they did chip a tooth in this attempt), they decided to try tar and feathers. (This actually included filling the mouth and nose with tar so that the victim could not breath and then using the remaining hot tar to cover the victims bare skin. Fortunately both Joseph and Sidney were able to spit the tar out of their mouths thus enabling them to survive the ordeal.) Additionally, Joseph's infant son, who was already ill, was exposed to the cold as a result of the break-in and eventually died as a result of complications this brought on. Various attempts to improve the financial standing of the members of the Church failed as many made unwise decisions and, when the financial house of cards that they had created collapsed, many lost a lot of money. Joseph was not immune to this either. Joseph also lost money. This financial collapse led to even more persecution finally forcing Joseph to leave Ohio for Missouri. The situation in Missouri was already going down hill by the time he arrived. Persecution on the part of the Missourians was increasing. The economic situation in the Mormon settlements was not all that great either. There were many times during this period that Joseph did not even know from where his family's next meal would come. This period ended with Governor Lilburn W. Boggs signing an order for the militia to murder and drive the Saints from the state. As part of this, Joseph along with several other leaders were arrested, illegally court-martialed, and sentenced to death by firing squad. It was only the threat of a subordinate general, Alexander Doniphan, to bring his commander, General Lucas, up on charges if he went through with the execution that caused him to back down. In stead, Joseph (along with several others) was imprisoned in a number of different jails. They spent all of the winter in these jails while their families were forced to flee the state. They had no heat, no blankets, and very poor food. When the "trials" began witnesses for the defense were arrested and jailed to prevent them from testifying on Joseph's behalf. Despite this, the various courts in Missouri were not able to convict Joseph of a single crime. Eventually, Joseph was allowed to escape as he and a number of others were being transported to yet another jail and kangaroo court and he and his companions were able to make their way to Illinois and their families. This rather long, but highly abbreviated, account of Joseph's life covers almost 20 years. Joseph didn't begin to see any personal prosperity for himself and his family until after the establishment of Nauvoo (1839). So, from the first vision (1820) to Nauvoo, Joseph Smith struggled to provide for his family as well as lead the Church. Each time he and his family had to relocate, it was under wintertime conditions (the worst time to move when you have to rely on draft animals for transportation). Each time they were forced to leave most of their worldly possessions behind. (When they left Missouri, Emma (Joseph's wife), didn't even have a quilt that she could send to keep Joseph warm in the jail.) Joseph endured all of this financial hardship on top of the persecution and attempts on his life. If you ask me, this does not seem like a very good scam. A true con artist would have given this up as a bad idea long before this point and tried something else. One last thing to consider here, if Joseph Smith had set up the Church as a means of getting rich, then why did he set it up with an unpaid ministry. No one in any position of authority gets paid out of the church coffers. They are all expected to provide for themselves. If you want to get rich by creating a religion, you create one with a paid ministry because then you can justify skimming off some of the church's funds for your own private use. As the church grows, the leader can skim off more riches for himself. Now don't try to twist this to say that I am implying that those churches that do have paid ministries were formed by con men. I am not. I happen to think that most of their founders were sincere men who were trying to do what was right. I am just saying that if a con man did set up a church as a means of getting rich, it doesn't make sense for him to create one with an unpaid ministry, like this one. So, when the actual history is examined, we can see that the accusation that Joseph smith was just a con man out to make money doesn't hold water. He endured too much financial hardship and persecution to make it worthwhile to continue as long as he did if it were all just a scam. He also organized the Church in such a way as to prevent him, or anyone else, from profiting from donations to the Church. Whether you believe his claims of a prophetic calling or not, the only reasonable explanation for his enduring what he did is that he actually believed that he was doing God's work. He was not seeking to get rich by forming the Church. *************** "Science Geek: Canned, one sided information. Did you even write this or just copy it? Is it memorized?" Note how Science Geek simply attacks me. He does not provide any counter arguments. He doesn't even offer another answer to provide a counter to mine. He just simply attacks me. Typical strategy of those that can't argue against facts.

I can't understand why adherents and apologetics from this faith try to keep something going that is obviously already been debunked. Respected Mormon archaeologist Professor Dee F. Green stated the first myth we need to eliminate is that the Book of Mormon archaeology exists. If one is to study the book of Mormon archaeology, then one must have a corpus of data with which to deal. We do not. Also look within Nephi who allegedly wrote 600 to 500 b.c and his accuracy of quoting Mathew, mark, Luke, Peter, and Paul verbatim centuries before they wrote their gospels exactly identical to the King James Version with the italics (italics is added for the reader not direct translation within King James). One explanation for this the characters in th Book of Mormon were purely fictitious, and everything they said, including quotations from the Old and New Testments, was certainly written by Joseph Smith. 1971 Guilty Smith records found for pretending to find buried treasure by "glass looking'.

YES. Joseph hired himself out for farm work, and one boss employed Joseph in money digging, too. That man's family brought charges against Joseph, but the man refused to testify, so Joseph was freed after the trial. I'd have to do some digging myself to come up with the man's name.

He was accused of a number of things including that one, arrested for a few of them, possibly that one. But no satisfactory proof can be shown that he was ever convicted of anything. . Let us then consider the man innocent until proven guilty.