Empirical Witnesses of the Gold Plates

1. Grant Underwood, “The Dictation, Compilation, and Canonization of Joseph Smith’s Revelations,” in Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Sources, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, and Sharalyn D. Howcroft (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 107.

2. James D. Tabor, “Do Historians of Religion Exclude the Supernatural?,” HuffPost, Sept. 5, 2016, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/do-historians-of-religion-exclude-the-supernatural_b_57cda5cde4b06c750ddb3815.

3. Lyman E. Johnson and Mary Whitmer also offered “religious” accounts of the plates. Johnson left no firsthand account of his experience, but others heard him discuss it. Benjamin Stokely wrote: “An angel brought the Mormon Bible and laid it before him (the speaker); he therefore knows these things to be true” (cited in William Shepard and H. Michael Marquardt, Lost Apostles: Forgotten Members of Mormonism’s Original Quorum of Twelve [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2014], 43—see Lost Apostles, 46 and 91, for similar examples). In interviews given in 1878, 1887, and 1889, David Whitmer told how he, Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery met a “messenger with the plates,” as they traveled from Pennsylvania to the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, in June 1829. Variously described as “an old man,” “one of the three Nephites” and “the angel Moroni,” this personage showed the plates to Whitmer’s mother, Mary Musselman Whitmer, who told her family of the experience but left no first-hand account. (See Lyndon W. Cook, ed., David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness [Orem, Utah: Grandin Book, 1991], 27, 215–16, 217–18.)

Lucy Harris, Martin’s wife, is also sometimes mentioned as a religious witness of the plates because Lucy Mack Smith’s memoir includes a description of Lucy Harris reporting a dream in which a personage appeared to her and showed her the plates. See Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S. W. Richard, 1853), 112. In an 1833 affidavit, however, Lucy Harris indicated that she never believed Joseph’s story about the angel and the plates.

4. Terryl L. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 4. Accounts from those who claimed to have simply lifted the plates inside a container are not included in this discussion.

5. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26, no. 19, Oct. 1, 1879, 289–90.

6. “The Old Soldier’s Testimony. Sermon preached by Bro. William B. Smith, in the Saints’ Chapel, Deloit, Iowa, June 8th, 1884. Reported by C. E. Butterworth,” Saints’ Herald 31, no. 40, Oct. 4, 1884, 643–44.

7. Janiece L. Johnson, “‘The Scriptures Is a Fulfilling’: Sally Parker’s Weave,” BYU Studies 44, no. 2 (2005): 115–16. The original text reads as follows: “she told me the hole story the plates wass in the house and some times in the woods for eight monts and on acount of peopel trying to git them thay had to hide them wonce thay hide them under the hearth they took up the brick and put them in and put the brick back the old lady told me this hur self wih tears in hur eyes and they run down hur cheeks too she put hur hand upon her stomack and said she o the peace of god that rested upon us all that time she said it wass a heaven below I axter if she saw th pates she said no it wass not for hur to see them but she hefted and handled them.”

8. Henry Caswall, The City of the Mormons: or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842 (London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1842), 26–27.

9. In his interview with Joel Tiffany, Martin Harris said, “When he [Joseph] arrived at home, he handed the plates in at the window, and they were received from him by his mother” (“MORMONISM—No. 2,” Tiffany’s Monthly, May–July 1859, 167).

10. H. S. Salisbury, “Things the Prophet’s Sister Told me,” Church History Library, MS 4122, folder 2. Salisbury typed this statement in 1945.

11. “The Prophet’s Sister Testifies She Lifted the B. of M Plates,” The Messenger (Berkeley, Calif.), Oct. 1954, Church History Library, MS 4134. The narrative that Katharine “rippled her fingers up the edge of the plates” is problematic because the residence Katharine presumably would have been cleaning was the Smith frame home in Manchester. However, it is quite unlikely—given the efforts of hostile neighbors to steal the plates—that Joseph would have left the plates on a table. Also, this account is remarkably similar to one (reprinted above) related by Emma. Both accounts mention dusting the room, feeling the edge of the plates, perceiving separate leaves, and hearing the metallic sound created when the leaves were thumbed. See Joseph Smith III to Mrs. E. Horton, letter, Mar. 7, 1900, in Early Mormon Documents, edited by Dan Vogel, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996–2003), 1:546. Such similarity in detail raises the distinct possibility that Katharine initially told of Emma’s experience but that over the interim of several decades, Herbert Salisbury mistakenly attributed it to his grandmother rather than his great-aunt.

12. William S. Sayre to James T. Cobb, letter, Aug. 31, 1878, Theodore A. Schroeder Papers, Archives, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin, in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 4:144–45.

13. “Additional Testimony of Martin Harris (One of the Three Witnesses) to the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon,” Millennial Star 21, Aug. 20, 1859, 545.

14. “MORMONISM—No. 2,” 166, 165.

15. “Reuben Miller journals, 1848–1849,” Church History Library, MS 1392. David Whitmer stressed that he, Cowdery, and Joseph saw but did not handle the plates. See Lyndon W. Cook, ed., David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, Utah: Grandin, 1991), 152, 188.

16. “Letter from Martha Campbell, 19 December 1843,” The Joseph Smith Papers, Church History Library.

17. Stowell’s being the first other than Joseph to handle the plates is not consistent with William Smith’s claim that Joseph Sr. received them or with Harris’s claim that Lucy Mack Smith did.

18. “Mormonism,” Morning Star (Limerick, Maine), Nov. 16, 1832, available at http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/BOMP/id/1369/rec/16.

19. Ann Taves, “History and the Claims of Revelation: Joseph Smith and the Materialization of the Golden Plates,” Numen 61, nos. 1–2 (2014): 192n13. Copper turns green when exposed to the elements, also true of bronze (an alloy of copper and zinc), brass (an alloy of copper and tin), and some types of tumbaga (an unspecified alloy of gold and copper).

20. Mary Adeline Noble reminiscence, circa 1836, in Joseph B. Noble reminiscences, 1836–1866, autograph document, p. 3, Church History Library.

21. “MORMONISM—No. 2,” 167.

22. Background information from Middletown Daily Argus, Dec. 10, 1894 and from McKune family genealogical records at Ancestry.com.

23. “Early Days of Mormonism,” Chenango Union, Apr. 12, 1877.

24. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon, 40, 42.

25. Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, Grant Underwood, Robert J. Woodford, and William G. Hartley, eds., Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, vol. 1 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2013), 387.

26. Hiram Page married Catherine Whitmer on November 10, 1825.

27. 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, 590. David Whitmer said each witness “signed his own name” to the testimonies (Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 44).

28. Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:464. One important question is whether the Eight saw the plates together or in smaller groups. P. Wilhelm Poulson, who inter-viewed John Whitmer in April 1878, reported in a July 31, 1878 letter that Whitmer said the Eight examined the plates in a room at the Smith home, four at one time and four at another (Deseret News, Aug. 14, 1878). This report is uncorroborated, however; nor was it approved by Whitmer before his death on July 11, 1878.

29. See Smith, Biographical Sketches, 140–41; John Corrill, Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Commonly Called Mormons;) Including an Account of Their Doctrine and Discipline; with the Reasons of the Author for Leaving the Church (St. Louis: For the Author, 1839), 11–12; and “History of Luke Johnson [By Himself],” History of Brigham Young, Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star 26, no. 53, Dec. 31, 1864, 835.

30. “The Book of John, Whitmer kept by Comma[n]d,” ca. 1838–ca. 1847, handwriting of John Whitmer, ninety-six pages, in Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Historical Writings, 1831–1847, edited by Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, vol. 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 37, emphasis added.

31. John Whitmer, “Address,” Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 2, no. 6, Mar. 1836, 286–87.

32. John Whitmer to H. C. Smith Esq., letter, Dec. 11, 1876, in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 5:244.

33. Johnson, “Sally Parker’s Weave,” 115. The original document reads as follows: “wee wass talking about th Book of mormon which he is ons of the witnesses he said he had but too hands and too eyes he said he had seene the plates with his eyes and handeled them with his hands and he saw a brest plate and he told how it wass maid … why I write this is because they dispute the Book so much.”

34. Hyrum Smith “to the Saints scattered abroad,” letter, Times and Seasons 1, no. 2, Dec. 1839, 20, 23.

35. Hiram Page to “Bro. William” [William E. McLellin], letter, May 30, 1847, Ensign of Liberty 1, Jan. 1848, 63.

36. Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Vintage Books, 1995), 79.

37. Thomas Ford, A History of Illinois, From Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847 (Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1854), 256–58.

38. John Phillip Walker, ed., Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1986), 304.

39. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830 (Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2016), 359–61.

40. John Smith, president of the Kirtland High Council, wrote: “The spiritual condition at this time is gloomy also. I called the High Council together last week and laid Before <them> the case of a company<y> of Decenters 28 persons[,] where upon mature Discussion [we] proceeded to cut them off from the ch[urc]h; the Leaders were Cyrus Smalling Joseph Coe Martin Harris Luke Johnson John Boyton and W[arren] Parrish” (John and Clarissa Smith to George A. Smith, letter, Jan. 1, 1838, cited in Shepard and Marquardt, Lost Apostles, 158).

41. If Harris indeed used the phrase “in vision,” what he meant by that is open to debate. Speaking of his experience with Oliver and Joseph, for example, David Whitmer wrote: “Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time.” (David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalf, letter, April 1887, in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 247.) Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, letter, Apr. 15, 1838, Joseph Smith Papers, Letterbook 2, 65, Church History Library.

42. Warren Parrish to E. Holmes, letter, Aug. 11, 1838, The Evangelist 6, Oct. 1, 1838, 226, available at https://user.xmission.com/~research/central/parrishletters.pdf.

43. “MORMONISM—No. 2,” 166, emphasis added.

44. See Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:253–393.

45. Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Studies, 2018).

46. A footnote in the original reads as follows: “See Doctrine and Covenants, sec. cxviii.”

47. Joseph Smith Jr., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, edited by B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1980 printing), 3:306–08. The original document, entitled “Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” is in Bullock’s hand, making this a thirdhand source—with the account going from Whitmer to Turley to Bullock. Furthermore, the document offers no information about possible interaction between Turley and Bullock and does not contain Turley’s signature or any other indication that he approved it.

48. Grant H. Palmer, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 206.

49. “Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” Church History Library, transcription by Larry E. Morris.

50. Myron H. Bond to Editors, letter, Aug. 2, 1878, Saints’ Herald, Aug. 15, 1878, 253, emphasis added.

51. “The Book of John, Whitmer kept by Comma[n] d,” ca. 1838–ca. 1847, handwriting of John Whitmer, ninety-six pages, CCLA, in Joseph Smith Papers, H2:37.

52. Samuel Bogart biography, available at https://josephsmithpapers.org/person/samuel-bogart.

53. Taves, “History and the Claims of Revelation,” 185, 186–87.

54. Ibid., 185–86.

55. Ibid., 183, 182.

56. Ibid., 190. Taves mentions Joseph Sr. and Hyrum Smith but not in the context of their role as witnesses.

57. Ibid., 189.

58. John A. Clark, an acquaintance of Martin Harris, wrote that a “gentleman in Palmyra” told Clark that in answer to the question of whether Harris saw the plates with his “bodily eyes,” Harris replied that he saw the plates “just as distinctly as I see any thing around me,—though at the time they were covered over with a cloth.” (John A. Clark, Gleanings by the Way [Philadelphia: W. J. & J. K. Simon; New York: Robert Carter, 1842], 257.) Of course, this is a weak source because it is third hand and includes an anonymous witness.

59. Ibid., 203, 297, 203.

60. Seth Perry, review of Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths, by Ann Taves, Mormon Studies Review 5 (2018): 99.

61. The forgery of the so-called Kinderhook plates, “discovered” in 1843 and considered ancient by many until 1980, shows that it was possible in the nineteenth century for a group of men, including a blacksmith working in his shop, to use plates of brass and acid to create an artifact having the “appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship,” with “engravings thereon.” See Brian M. Hauglid, “Did Joseph Smith Translate the Kinderhook Plates?” in No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues, edited by Robert L. Millet (Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2011), 93–103, available at https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/no-weapon-shall-prosper/did-joseph-smith-translate-kinderhook-plates.

62. Although Josiah Stowell judged the plates to be “about one foot square,” that estimate is suspect because he only claimed to see “a corner” of the plates.

63. Vogel, Making of a Prophet, xi.