Smith’s financial situation after lost pages: According to Vogel (2004):
“Despite his [Smith’s] later assertion that he filled the season of penitence with farm work, Joseph and Emma found themselves in extreme poverty as winter approached. Emma’s family had little desire to help them, so Joseph reached out to his nearest friend, Joseph Knight. Knight remembered that Joseph and Emma came to Colesville about “the first of the winter of 1828” seeking financial help. “But I was not in easy circumstances,” he recalled, “and I did not know what [Joseph’s translation of the gold plates] might amount to and my wife and family [were] all against me about helping him.”
Recalled Joseph Knight:
“Now he [Smith] Could not translate But little Being poor and nobody to write for him But his wife and she Could not do much and take Care of her house and he Being poor and no means to live But work. His wifes father and family were all against him and would not h[e]lp him. He and his wife Came up to see me the first of the winter 1828 and told me his Case. But I was not in easy Circumstances and I did not know what it mite amount to and my wife and familey all against me about helping him. But I let him have some little provisions and some few things out of the Store a pair of shoes and three Dollars in money to help him a litle.”