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“Some time previous to 1825, a man by the name of Wm. Hale, a distant relative of uncle Isaac Hale [Emma Smith’s Father], came to Isaac Hale and said that he had been informed by a woman named Odle, who claimed to possess the power of seeing under ground, (such persons were then called peepers), that there were great treasures concealed in the hill northeast from Isaac Hale’s house, and by her directions Wm. Hale commenced digging. But being too lazy to work, and too poor to hire, he obtained a partner by the name of Oliver Harper, of York state, who had the means to hire help. But after a short time operations were suspended for a time; during which Wm. Hale heard of PEEPER Joseph Smith, jr., and wrote to him and soon visited him; he found Smith’s representations were so flattering that Smith was either hired or became a partner with Wm. Hale, Oliver Harper and a man by the name of Stowell, who had some property.”

Joseph and Hiel Lewis (cousins of Emma Smith), W. Wyl’s Mormon Portraits I (Salt Lake City, UT: Tribune Printing & Pub., 1886), 78.