Josiah Stowell Sr. (also spelled 'Stoal') was an associate of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon movement.
[1] Josiah was born on March 22, 1770, in Winchester, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, to Israel Stowell (1732–1801) and Mary Butler (1736–1777).
[1] The couple had eight children, with their youngest named Josiah Jr.[2] In October 1825, Stowell traveled to visit his eldest son in Palmyra.
[1] He hired Joseph Smith Jr. to act as a seer to locate a lost Spanish silver mine that was believed to exist in Harmony, Pennsylvania.
[1] Smith later dictated a revelation that Stowell, Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, and Joseph Knight Sr. would sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in Canada, but they failed to do so, leading Smith to suggest that "some revelations are of the devil.