What did those who worked with and employed the young Joseph Smith think of him?

I’m continuing on with my little series about the character of Joseph Smith and his family.  These posts are drawn from a yet-unpublished book manuscript with which I tinker from time to time:

Newell Knight described Joseph in particular as “kind,” and others who knew him recalled his compassionate actions and attitude.[1] “We found him a boy of truth,” remembered Joseph Knight, Jr., of the twenty-one-year-old farmer’s son.[2] “So honest and plain were all his statements that there was no room,” said Newell Knight, “for any misgivings with me on the subject.”[3] Knight recalls the testimony of Josiah Stoal during a hearing against Joseph Smith in South Bainbridge, New York, in 1826, when the question of Joseph’s honesty arose in connection with the purchase of a horse:

Q.—“Have you had your pay?”

A.—“That is not your business.”

The question being repeated, the witness replied, “I hold his note for the price of the horse, which I consider as good as the money; for I am well acquainted with Joseph Smith, Jun., and know him to be honest, and, if he wishes, I am ready to let him have another horse on the same terms.” [4]

[1] See the account of Newell Knight (at Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, 7); also anecdotes related by Heber C. Kimball (ibid, 42-43) and George A. Smith (ibid, 53).

[2] Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, 5.

[3] Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, 7.

[4] LeRoi C. Snow, “How Lorenzo Snow Found God,” Improvement Era 40/2 (February 1937): 82-84, 105. It should be kept in mind that this transaction and examination took place in an era when, in the United States, horse theft was a capital offense.