Isaac Butts was born on January 4, 1807 in Palmyra, Wayne County, New York. The Butts family lived in Palmyra during the Joseph Smith Sr. family residence. Isaac wrote of Joseph Smith Jr. possessing a witch-hazel rod used to find buried money. He made mention of Joseph’s “peep-stone.”[1] Isaac claimed that Joseph Smith Jr. dug for money in orchards at night using the hazel stick.[2] He claimed to attend school with young Joseph and to work with him on numerous occasions.[3]
Isaac moved to Ohio in the 1820s.[4] In Ohio, he married Cynthia Woods on August 31, 1829 in Geauga County. To their union were born seven children. Isaac died on July 15, 1888 in Newbury, Geauga County, and was buried in the Maple Shade Cemetery in Auburn, Ohio.
[1] D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), p. 33.
[2] Roger I. Anderson, Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Reexamined (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), pp. 67, 99.
[3] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:202.
[4] US Federal Census, 1830–1850, 1870–1880.