I met David J. Whitmer, son of David Whitmer, one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. ... He pointed out the track of a cyclone which had visited the town in 1878 and which had left their house, rather the room in which the manuscript of the Book of Mormon was kept, in such a condition as to astonish all the people--the roof was taken off, but nothing was disturbed and the glass was not broken even. ... He had his son bring in the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which he says is the only manuscript of which he knows anything. It is in the handwriting of several persons which he says were Oliver Cowdery, Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and perhaps some of it in that of his brother Christian, who assisted the Prophet somewhat. This is the manuscript from which the printers, he says, set the type of the Book, and he pointed out to me where it had been cut for convenience as copy. ... But with this was another paper which I thought of surpassing interest. It was the characters drawn by Joseph Smith himself for Martin Harris to show to Professors Mitchell and Anthon. There were seven lines, the first four being about twice as long in size as the three last. Here was the very paper which Is[a]iah saw in vision years before, and which he called the "words of a book [Isa. 29:11]." Though evidently long written, the characters were as clear and distinct as though just written. This was also the case with the manuscript of The Book of Mormon. It was wonderfully well preserved and clear. This, David Whitmer and the family think (in which belief I share), is due to the power of God. I cannot describe the characters particularly. They were glyphs and contained many forms. In speaking of the translating he said that Joseph had the stone in a hat from which all light was excluded. In the stone the characters appeared and under that the translation in English and they remained until the scribe had copied it correctly. If he had made a mistake the words still remained and were not replaced by any other. In describing the visit of the angel he said that it was shortly before the completion of the translation when there were but few pages left. He was plowing when Joseph and Oliver came to him and the former told him that he was chosen to be one of the three witnesses to whom the angel would show the plates. He also told him that the Lord had promised to make this manifest and now was the time. They went out and sat upon a log conversing upon the things to be revealed when they were surrounded by a glorious light which overshadowed them. A glorious personage appeared and he showed to them the plates, the sword of Laban, the Directors, the Urim and Thummim and other records. Human language could not, he said, describe heavenly things and that which they saw. The language of the angel was: Blessed is he that believeth and remaineth faithful to the end. He had his hours of darkness and trial and difficulty, but however dark upon other things that [vision] had ever been a bright scene in his mind and he had never wavered in regard to it; he had testified fearlessly always of it, even when his life was threatened. Martin Harris was not with them at the time that he and Oliver saw the angel, but he and Joseph afterwards saw the same, and he thus became a witness also. I spent the afternoon with them till 5 p.m. when I took the hack [old horse] to return to Lexington Junction. ...
[Source: George Q. Cannon, Journal, 27 February 1884, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah]
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