By Mark L. McConkie

Joseph Knight Jr.

My father bought three farms on the Susquehanna River, in Broome County, New York. In 1827, he hired Joseph Smith, Jr. Joseph and I worked and slept together. My father said that Joseph was the best hand he ever hired. We found him a boy of truth. He was about twenty-one years of age.

I think it was in November, 1827, he made known to my father and me that he had seen a vision, that a personage had appeared to him and told him where there was a gold book of ancient date buried, and if he would follow the directions of the angel he could get it. We were told it in secret. My father and I believed what he told us. I think we were the first after his father’s family.

At last he got the plates, and rode in my father’s wagon and carried them home.

Joseph then commenced to translate the plates. Father and I often went to see him, to carry him some things to live upon. After many trials and troubles, he got the plates translated. By this time, my mother and many of my relations believed.

Joseph and Oliver came to Colesville, in May, 1830, where we lived, and Oliver baptized my father’s family, and a few of my relatives. When we were going from the water, we were met by many of our neighbors, who pointed at us and asked if we had been washing our sheep. Before Joseph could confirm us, he was taken by the officers to Chenango County for trial, for saying that the Book of Mormon was a revelation from God.

My father employed two lawyers to plead for him, and they cleared him. That night our wagons were turned over and wood piled on them, and some sunk in the water. Rails were piled against our doors, and chains sunk in the stream, and a great deal of mischief done. Before Joseph got to my father’s house, he was taken again to be tried in Broome County. Father employed the same lawyers, who cleared him there.

Four weeks passed before Joseph could get a chance to confirm us. Then we had the greatest time I ever saw. The house was filled with the Holy Ghost, which rested upon us.

Orson Pratt: “An impostor might indeed predict the raising of Three Witnesses, but he could never call down an angel from heaven, in the presence of these Witnesses, to fulfill his prediction.”

Catherine Smith Salisbury

Catherine Smith Salisbury told me she was present at home when her brother, Joseph Smith, came in nearly exhausted, carrying the package of gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. He was carrying the package clasped to his side with his left hand and arm, and his right hand was badly bruised from knocking down at least three men who had leaped at him from behind bushes or fences as he ran until out of breath. She said he entered the house running and threw himself on a couch panting from his extraordinary exertion.

She told me Joseph allowed her to “heft” the package but not to see the gold plates, as the angel had forbidden him to show them at that period. She said they were very heavy.

She told me that she was one of the first eight members baptized into the Church. She said the first six members were Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Samuel H. Smith, Hyrum Smith, David Whitmer, and Peter Whitmer, Jr.

Lucy Mack Smith

Not long subsequent to his [Joseph’s] return [from Pennsylvania], my husband had occasion to send him to Manchester on business. As he set off early in the day, we expected him home at most by six o’clock in the evening, but when six o’clock came he did not arrive. We always had a peculiar anxiety about him whenever he was absent, for it seemed as though something was always taking place to jeopardize his life. But to return. He did not get home till the night was far spent. On coming in he threw himself into a chair, apparently much exhausted. My husband did not observe his appearance and immediately exclaimed, “Joseph, why are you so late? has anything happened to you? we have been much distressed about you these three hours.” As Joseph made no answer he continued his interrogations, until, finally, I said, “Now, Father, let him rest a moment-don’t trouble him now-you see he is home safe and he is very tired, so pray wait a little.”

The fact was I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph, for I was accustomed to see him look as he did on that occasion, and I could not easily mistake the cause thereof.

Presently he smiled and said in a calm tone, “I have taken the severest chastisement that I have ever had in my life.”

My husband, supposing that it was from some of the neighbors, was quite angry and observed, “I would like to know what business anybody has to find fault with you!”

“Stop, Father, stop,” said Joseph, “it was the angel of the Lord. As I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel met me and said that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the record to be brought forth; and that I must be up and doing and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do. But, Father, give yourself no uneasiness concerning the reprimand which I have received, for I now know the course that I am to pursue, so all will be well”

The Book of Mormon

Martin Harris

This calls to my mind a little incident or two that he [Martin Harris] related to me [Edward Stevenson] while we were on our journey from Ohio to Utah.

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He said that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was very poor, and had to work by the day for his support, and that he [Harris] often gave him work on his farm, and they had hoed corn together many a day, Brother Harris paying him fifty cents per day. Joseph, he said, was good to work and jovial and they often wrestled together in sport, but the Prophet was devoted and attentive to his prayers. Brother Harris gave Joseph $50.00 on one occasion to help translate the Book of Mormon. This action on the part of Martin Harris so displeased his wife that she threatened to leave him. Martin said that he knew this to be the work of God, and that he should keep the commandments of the Lord, whatever the results might be. His wife, subsequently, partially separated from him, which he patiently endured for the gospel’s sake.

Edward Stevenson: “He said, ‘When I speak as a man it is Joseph only that speaks. But when the Lord speaks through me, it is no more Joseph Smith who speaks; but it is God, and let all Israel hear.'”

Oliver B. Huntington

Sunday, June 13, 1897-I conversed with one old lady eighty-eight years old who lived with David Whitmer when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon in the upper room of the house, and she, only a girl, saw them come down from [the] translating room several times when they looked so exceedingly white and strange that she inquired of Mrs. Whitmer the cause of their unusual appearance, but Mr. Whitmer was unwilling to tell the hired girl the true cause, as it was a sacred, holy event connected with a holy, sacred work which was opposed and persecuted by nearly everyone who heard of it.

The girl felt so strangely at seeing so strange and unusual appearance, she finally told Mrs. Whitmer that she would not stay with her until she knew the cause of the strange looks of these men.

Sister Whitmer then told her what the men were doing in the room above and that the power of God was so great in the room that they could hardly endure it; at times angels were in the room in their glory, which nearly consumed them.

This satisfied the girl and opened the way to embracing the gospel.

Note: The “hired girl” here referred to was Sally Heller Conrad, who later became the wife of David Edwin Bunnell, and the mother of Stephen Ithamar Bunnell, “an active elder of the Lake View Ward, Utah County, [who] was born Feb. 1, 1834, in Detroit, Michigan” (Andrew Jenson, 1971, 2:600). Stephen Bunnell died in Provo, Utah, on 23 July 1925 (Susan Easton Black, Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1830-1848, BYU Religious Studies Center). Sally was born 19 September 1810 in Elmira, Tioga County, New York (LDS Family Search: Ancestral File), and thus would have been about 18¹?2 years of age when working in the Whitmer home, for Joseph and Oliver arrived there about 1 June 1829 and stayed until the translation was completed 1 July 1829 (Conkling, 1979, p. 12); she would have been almost eighty-seven in June 1897, when Huntington recorded this memory. She died 23 July 1903 in Provo, Utah.

Governor Thomas Ford: “It is to be feared that in course of a century, some gifted man like Paul, some splendid orator…[may] make the name of the martyred Joseph ring as loud, and stir the souls of men as much, as the mighty name of Christ itself.”

Vilate M. Kimball

On the night of the 22nd of September, 1827, while living in the town of Mendon, after we retired to bed, John P. Green, who was then a traveling Reformed Methodist preacher, living within one hundred steps of our house, came and called my husband to come out and see the sight in the heavens. Heber awoke me, and Sister Fanny Young (sister of Brigham), who was living with us, and we all went out-of-doors.

It was one of the most beautiful starlit nights so clear we could see to pick up a pin. We looked to the eastern horizon, and beheld a white smoke arise towards the heavens. As it ascended, it formed into a belt, and made a noise like the rushing wind, and continued southwest, forming a regular bow, dipping in the western horizon.

After the bow had formed, it began to widen out, growing transparent, of a bluish cast. It grew wide enough to contain twelve men abreast. In this bow an army moved, commencing from the east and marching to the west. They continued moving until they reached the western horizon. They moved in platoons, and walked so close the rear ranks trod in the steps of their file leaders, until the whole bow was literally crowded with soldiers.

We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets, and knapsacks of the men, who wore caps and feathers like those used by the American soldiers in the last war with Great Britain.  We also saw their officers with their swords and equipage, and heard the clashing and jingling of their instruments of war, and could discern the form and features of the men.  The most profound order existed throughout the entire army.  When the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time.  We could hear their steps.

When the front rank reached the western horizon, a battle ensued, as we could hear the report of the arms, and the rush.

None can judge of our feelings as we beheld this army of spirits as plainly as ever armies of men were seen in the flesh. Every hair of our heads seemed alive.

We gazed upon this scenery for hours, until it began to disappear.

After we became acquainted with Mormonism, we learned that this took place the same evening that Joseph Smith received the records of the Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni, who had held those records in his possession.

Father Young, and John P. Green’s wife (Brigham’s sister Rhoda), were also witnesses of this marvelous scene. Frightened at what we saw, I said, “Father Young, what does all this mean?” He answered, “Why it is one of the signs of the coming of the Son of Man.”

The next night a similar scene was beheld in the west, by the neighbors, representing armies of men engaged in battle.

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Emma Hale Smith

Emma Smith: “I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the [Book of Mormon] manuscript unless he was inspired….It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and for one so ignorant and unlearned as [Joseph] was, it was simply impossible.”

[In the winter of 1856 Emma] remarked of her husband Joseph’s limited education while he was translating the Book of Mormon, and she was scribe at the time, “He could not pronounce the word Sariah.” And one time while translating, where it speaks of the walls of Jerusalem, he stopped and said, “Emma, did Jerusalem have walls surrounding it?” When I informed him that it had, he replied, “O, I thought I was deceived.”

Brigham Young

I lived right in the country where the plates were found from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and I know a great many things pertaining to that country. I believe I will take the liberty to tell you of another circumstance that will be as marvelous as anything can be. This is an incident in the life of Oliver Cowdery, but he did not take the liberty of telling such things in meeting as I take. I tell these things to you, and I have a motive for doing so. I want to carry them to the ears of my brethren and sisters, and to the children also, that they may grow to an understanding of some things that seem to be entirely hidden from the human family.

Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates. Joseph did not translate all of the plates; there was a portion of them sealed, which you can learn from the book of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the Hill Cumorah, which he did.

Oliver Cowdery: “On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the veil was parted and the angel of God came down clothed with glory.”

Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: “This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ.”

Doctrine and Covenants

Zebedee Coltrin

[Zebedee] testified of seeing the Prophet come from the translating room after receiving the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom. “His face shone with brilliance,” Zebedee later said.

Parley P. Pratt

Feeling our weakness and inexperience, and lest we should err in judgment concerning these spiritual phenomena, myself, John Murdock, and several other elders, went to Joseph Smith, and asked him to inquire of the Lord concerning these spirits or manifestations.

After we had joined in prayer in his translating room, he dictated in our presence the following revelation: [D&C 50]. Each sentence was uttered slowly and very distinctly, and with a pause between each, sufficiently long for it to be recorded, by an ordinary writer, in long hand.

This was the manner in which all his written revelations were dictated and written. There was never any hesitation, reviewing, or reading back, in order to keep the run of the subject; neither did any of these communications undergo revisions, interlinings, or corrections. As he dictated them so they stood, so far as I have witnessed; and I was present to witness the dictation of several communications of several pages each.