| Show MORMONISM authentic account of the origin of this sect from one of the patriarchs DISCOVERY of tyre THE P and the tho translation ol 01 the of mor Nor mormon nion from the tho kansas city Jour journal journals nals june 5 1881 tn in view 0 of f tho the large mormon immigration that is now pouring into this county and also in view of the difficulties that have heretofore existed between that sect and the people of jacksen county the he journal has lias taken the trouble to ascertain th the e fret fads s as to th the e origin of tit tile 0 sect as well as the history of their expulsion from jackson county in 1833 the translation of the book is JR said to have beon been witnessed by eleven per fer persons dons Lons as follows martin harris david whitmer oliver cowdery christian whitmer hiram page jacob whitmer joseph smith sr fir peter whitmer jr john whitmer hyrum smith and samuel hsmith all of whom except david whitmer are long since dead david whitmer THE ONLY LIVING WITNESS has resided since 1838 in richmond ray ilay county mo and the journal dispatched a reporter to richmond to interview the last of the eleven the reporter called at the regi residence dence of mr sir whitmer and found the patriarch resting C in an anS a invalids chair looking very pale an and t I 1 feeble he having but just recovered from a long and severe liine s in person he is about medium height of massive frame though not at all corpulent his shoulders slightly bent as with the weight of years yeara his manly benevolent face was closely shaven his is hair snow white and nis his is whole appearance appe arance aranco denoted on one of natures noblemen the education acquired during his boyhood days and his long life devoted to study and thought have stored his mind with a va vast fund of information after introducing himself the reporter opened the conversation as follows mr whitmer knowing that you are the only living witness to the translation of tile the book of mormon and also that you were wore vete vere a resi rosi dent nent of jackson county during tile the mormon troubles in I 1 have been sent to you by the jou journal nal zal to get from your lips THE TRUE state STATEMENT ment OF FACTS in regard to theae these matters for nearly half a century the tho world has had but one side only and it Is now our desire to present to our readers for the tiie first time timo the other side bide young man you are right I 1 am ani the only living witness to the book hook of mormon Bl ormon but I 1 have been imposed upon and misrepresented so many time times by persons claiming to be honor honorable ablo newspaper men ined that I 1 feel a delicacy in allowing my name to come before the public in newspaper print again iam ilam lam clam sorry to hear that but I 1 promise you that we shall only alv give your statement as you make it and will not misrepresent you la in any manner after a few other remarks of the same tenor the ie porter leporter at last jast induced the patriarch to furnish the desired facts which ho he did in the following language biographical 1 l was born near harrisburg pa january 7 1805 but when wilen only four years of or age my parents removed to the tile state of new york settling at a point midway between the northern extremities of lakes cayuga and seneca two rullel from waterloo seven miles from geneva and twett ty seven miles from pal pai I 1 lived until the year 1831 in fit I 1 ile the year 1830 1 I was married to miss aliss julia A jolly who is still living the fruit of our union was a s son david J whitmer now aged 48 and a daughter now mrs julia schweich now aged 48 46 years both of whom are now living with me I 1 first heard beard of what is now termed mormonism in iq the year 1828 1 I made a business trip to palmyra J NY and while there stopped with ono one oliver cowdery A great many people in the tilo neighborhood were talking about the finding C of certain golden plates by one joseph smith jr a young man of the neighborhood cowdery and 1 I aa as weli will as many others talked about the matter but at tit that time I 1 paid but little attention to it supposing C it to be only THE IDLE GOSSIP of the neighborhood cowdery said he was acquainted with the smith family and lie believed there must be somo some truth in the story of the plate plates and that he intended to 1 investigate n vesti gate the matter I 1 had conversation bation with several young men who said that joseph smith had certainly golden plates and that before he had attained them he had promised to share with them but hail had not done so and they were very much ancen in incensed cen ed with him said 1 I how do you know that joe smith has the plat piat plates esy esl they replied wo ve saw the plates in the hill that he lice took them out of just as lie he described it to us before ho he obtained them these parties were so positive in their statements that I 1 began to believe there must be some foundation for the stories then in circulation all over that part of the country I 1 had bad never seen any of the smith family up to that time and I 1 began to inquire of the people in regard to them and learned that one night during the year 1827 joseph smith jr had a vision and an angel of god appeared to him and told lihn him where certain plates were to be ie lound found and pointed out the spot pot tolila to him and that shortly afterward he went to that place and found the plates which were still in his possession after thinking over the matter for a long time and talking with cowdery who also gave me a history of the we finding of the plates I 1 went home and after several months cowdery mold told me he was going to harmony Pa PR whither joseph smith had llad gone with the plates on account of the persecutions of his neighbors and see isee him about the matter he did go and on his way stopped at my fathers house and told me that as soon as he found out anything ea either elther tb er OR OP he be would let mo me know after he be got there lie he became acquainted with joseph smith and shortly after wrote to me telling me that he was convinced that smith had the records and that he smith had told him that it was the will of heaven that he be cowdery should be his to assist in the translation of the plates he went on and joseph translated from the plates and he wrote it down shortly after this cowdery wrote me another letter in which he gave mo me a few lines of what they had bad translated and he assured me that he be knew of a certainty that he had a record of a people that inhabited this continent and that the plates they were translating gave a complete history of these people when cowder cowdery y wrote me these things and told me that he had fiad reve revealed aled luc inc the truth of them I 1 showed these letters to my parents and brothers and sisters soon after I 1 rec received elved another letter from cowdery telling me to come down into pennsylvania and bring him and joseph to my fathers house giving as a reason that they had llad received a commandment from god to that effle effect ct I 1 went down to harmony and found everything just as they had written mo me the neut neat dby day after I 1 got there they packed up the plates and we proceeded on our journey to my fathers house chero where we arrived in due time and the day after we commenced upon the translation of the remainder of the plates I 1 as well as all of my fathers a family smiths wife oliver cowdery and martin harris were present during luring the translation the translation was way by smith and THE MANNER AS FOLLOWS ho he had two small email stones stoned of a chocolate color nearly egg shape and find perfectly smooth but not transparent called interpreters which were given him with tho the plates he did not use the plates in the translation but would hold the interpreters terp reters to his eyes and cover his face with a hat excluding all light and before his eyes would appear what seemed to be parch parchment men t on which would appear the characters of the plates in a line at the immediately below would appear the translation I 1 in n english which smith would read to his 1118 scribe who wrote it down exactly as it fell from his lips the scribe would then tilen read the sentence written and if any mistake had llad been made the characters would remain visible to smith until corrected when they faded from bight eight I 1 to be replaced by line the translation at my fathers occupied about one month that is from juno june I 1 to july 11 were the plates under the tiie immediate control of smith all the time no they were not I 1 will explain how that was when joseph first received the plates lie ho translated pages of the book of lehl ehl ehi with martin harris as scribe when this had been completed they rested for a time and harris wanted to take tile the manuscript home homo with him to show to his family and friends to this joseph demurred but finally ASKED tue TUB if harris might be allowed to take it the answer was 41 0 to o I 1 harris teased joseph for a long time and fin anally ally aily persuaded him to ask the lord a second time pledging himself to he be responsible for its safe keeping to this second inquiry the lord told J joseph harris might mani mana take taro the manuscript which lie he did showing it to a great many people but through some carelessness allowed it to be stolen from him tills incurred the lords displeasure and he sent an angel to joseph demanding the plates and until joseph had thoroughly repented of his transgressions gres woud would not allow him to have the use of them again when joseph soseph was again allowed to resume the translation trans trant lation the plates platea were taken care of or by a messenger of god and when joseph wanted to see the dilates plates this messenger was always at hand and the tile 1 ages of the book of f lehi lehl elli which were stolen were never recovered nor would the lord permit joseph to make a second translation of it A few months after the translation was completed that is in tile the spring of 1830 joseph had the book published and this showing a well worn volume is is 0 a copy of the farst edition which I 1 have had bad in my F possession ever since it was printed when did you see the plates it was in the latter part of june juno 1829 joseph oliver cowdery and myself were together and the angel showed them to us we not only saw tho the plates of the book of mormon bu but t h ho 0 also ab showed owed us the braka braga brasa plates of the book of or ether and many others they were shown to us in this way joseph and oliver and I 1 were SITTING ON A LOG when we were overshadowed by a light more glorious than that of the sun in the midst of this light but a few feet from us appeared a table u upon on which were many golden pates plates also the sword of laban and the directors I 1 saw them ns as plain as I 1 see you now and distinctly heard beard the tb e voice of the lord declare hig ing that the records of the plates of the book of mormon were translated by the gift and the pow power 16 r of god 14 who else saw tho the plates at this time no one ono maitin martin harris the other witness saw them thera the same day and the eight witnesses christian chrisi whitmer hiram page ja jacob I 1 co b whitmer joseph smith br sr peter whitmer hyram smith jno whitmer and samuel H smith saw them next day did you see the angel yes ho he stood before us our testimony as recorded in the book of mormon is absolute absolutely fy true just as it is written there can you describe the plates f they appeared to be beof of gold about six by nine inches in size about as thick as parchment a great many in number and bound together in the leaves of a book by massive massly ri rid rin 11 passing through th the e b baek back ac k wea wet ed the engraving upon them werey seret g plain and of very curious appear bac anft smith made in facsimiles similes of some the plates and sent them by ilar f v tin harris lo 10 anson angon mitchell 11 I 1 teh ell eli of new kew york city for amirin animation tion they characters reformed egyptian were e unable to reid re d them thew did jos joseph ah smith ever relate ui you the circumstance of his FINDING THE PLATES yes he lie told me that he rm fira found round the tho the plates in the early smriti of 1823 that during the fall of til is he had bad vision a an angel alpearl to him three times timen in one night 9 telling him that there was a record ild of an ancient people deposited jg in hill near his fathers howe home ca elii cali by y the ancients 16 eo in in the township of manchester 0 4 tario N Y county the u a point pointed ld out the exact edof Ep of U sometime after he be the records or plates depol depoi deposited ston stone e box in the hill J as hai haa described to liim win by the angel was some little time however er n foro fore the angel would allow smie remove the plates from their p ak of deposit when was the church first a we had preaching during 1 time the tho book was being translate tran slata but our church was not regularly until after the boon book V printed rin ted in the winter of 18 1829 1811 11 i arh the first organization was in sech seca county new york under the lin ban of tho the e church of christ chri q T I 1 first elders were joseph smith ver cowdery martin harris B rum smith john whitmer pei Whit merand myself of april 1830 the church was ea together M and the elders ed accord according i n g to th the e laws of K N york our instructions from lord were to teach nothing elep elop ci the aldand old oid and new kew testaments Testament sc n thet thel the book look of mormon from tl time the church spread abroad multiplied very rapidly in summer of 1830 parley pra rf whitmer and S peterson ven ver kirtland 0 and established ei branch of the church which j grew very fast and soon te temple templo mple was erected which is 1 standing during nie hie winte 1830 the same parties went ton tob to h pen denee dence mo and establishes church and purchased very to le tracts of land in all parts of jath jacb county as well as a largo large amt amu I 1 of property in the town of indea dence denee ine ino including luding the site for fori I 1 tr t mple the reason of the ed emd emp tion to jackson county was it 4 smith had llad received a from god designating In Inde depends penda as the place of the tile gathering of saint saints together in the Jatter da joseph smith and elder sidi rigdon of tho the kirtland cho established the church in jah jacb county but soon after petuna ohio the rho temple lias has never te le built bulit at independence but the still remains vacant and thet thel deeds are held heid by the church ar have no doubt but that at soda sona ture day clay BE jie BUILT about people emigrated fil ohio to jackson county and A 1 church there increased 1 in n with extraordinary rapidity to 1 tho the ensuing two years thym them thel R in peace in jackson early in the summer of or inels 1833 difficulties arme between the dhus ehla and citizens of the county wa W first firs occasioned these ellit am unable to say except that tilt church was composed principally eastern and northern people peopled si were opposed to slavery and th 0 there were among us a few ignola and simpleminded simple minded persons v T were continually making boasts the jackson county people it tb they intended to possess the ent county erect a temple etc course occasioned occa cloned hard feelings 9 exited ox sited the bitter jealousy d other otiz religious denominations the church at established a newspaper called JV morning orning and evening stared Star vh published the tho revelations and anda an dp prok cles cies of joseph smith and the a trines of the church which caused a great deal of hard fees fess among the citizens I 1 was at u time living three miles east of afi IV port and fahe the first intimation ir I 1 had that the people in tended intended 0 us out of the thel country |
