Early Beliefs and Lucy Harris’s Schemes
By 1828 Martin Harris was convinced that the Lord had endowed Joseph Smith with “spectacles for to read the Book.” (Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 15). As for his spouse, Lucy Harris, there were few options left short of embracing Joseph Smith’s talk of gold plates or continuing her strenuous efforts to undermine Martin’s relationship with him. Ultimately, she would choose separation from Martin to show her disdain for the whole affair. For now, she pursued a course of subtle rejection.
Flanders Dyke, a prospective son-in-law, became her willing accomplice. Flanders wanted permission to court Lucy’s oldest daughter and namesake, Lucy Harris. Martin was amenable and quite liked him, as did his daughter. Lucy, however, was “decidedly upon the negative” until, according to Lucy Mack Smith, “a scheme entered her brain that materially changed her deportment to Mr. Dikes.” The scheme was deceptive and unscrupulous, a “cloak and dagger” agreement in which Flanders would take “the Egyptian characters from Mr. Harris’s possession, and procure a room in Palmyra for the purpose of transcribing them, and then bring her the transcript.” His reward for such devious plagiarism was her “consent to his marriage with her daughter.” It does not speak well of her future son-in-law that Flanders “cheerfully consented” or that he would so willingly betray the confidence placed in him by Martin. Flanders stole the facsimile, procured a room in Palmyra, and copied the characters with expert precision. Lucy fulfilled her part of the deception by giving consent to his marriage to her daughter or, as Mother Smith wrote, “Suffice it to say [Flanders Dyke] succeeded to her satisfaction, and thus received the promised reward” (Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Plano, Ill.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1880), 122).
Feeling smug, if not jubilant, about the success of her scheme, Lucy tucked Flanders’s transcription of the Egyptian characters in her pocket and waited for the right moment to bring the transcription forward. Such a moment presented itself soon after Martin rented his farmland out on shares and announced that he was making “preparations to start for Pennsylvania the second time, with the view of writing for Joseph.” Seizing the moment, Lucy remarked that “she had fully decreed in her heart to accompany him.” Martin had “no particular objections” and “informed her that she might do so,” perhaps thinking that a stay in Harmony could somehow mend their marital discord. Martin anticipated that Lucy would not want to stay long and informed her that within “one or two weeks” he would bring her back to Palmyra. Lucy, like Flanders Dyke before her, “cheerfully agreed,” confident the moment to show her Egyptian characters would soon present itself (Smith, Biological Sketches of Joseph Smith, 122).
As the journey to Susquehanna County began in March 1828, Martin did not suspect the events that would soon transpire. Upon first showing a stranger the facsimile that Joseph had copied from the gold plates, to his surprise Lucy presented “an exact copy of the same” and announced “that ‘Joe Smith’ was not the only one who was in possession of this great curiosity, that she had the same characters, and they were quite as genuine as those shown by Mr. Harris.” The next time Martin showed his copy of the characters, Lucy responded in the same way. “This course she continued to pursue, until they arrived at Joseph’s” small farmhouse in Harmony (Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, 122).
Lucy Harris’s Actions in Harmony and Her Search for the Plates
Upon entering the house, Lucy informed Joseph that her sole “object in coming, was to see the plates, and that she would never leave until she had accomplished it.” Joseph refused to acquiesce to her demand. “Without delay, [Lucy] commenced ransacking every nook and corner about the house—chests, trunks, cupboards, &c.” Unable to find the plates inside the home, “she concluded that Joseph had buried them” out-of-doors. It is interesting that Lucy believed there were actual plates to be seen and was in serious pursuit.
Early the next morning, Lucy searched for the plates in the woods. It was not until two o’clock in the afternoon that she returned to the house “rather ill-natured.” After warming herself by the fire for a few moments, Lucy asked Joseph’s wife, Emma, if snakes were commonly seen in the area. Emma assured her that snakes were not present during the cold season. Lucy countered Emma’s words by relating a brief tale of her morning exploits. At a spot of ground “where she judged, from the appearance of things” the plates were buried, she stooped “down to scrape away the snow and leaves.” While clearing the area, a “horrible,” “tremendous” black snake “stuck up his head before me, and commenced hissing at me,” she said. Lucy explained that this “gave her a terrible fright” and she “ran with all possible speed to the house” (Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, 123).
The tale ended as quickly as Lucy’s search for the gold plates. Feeling “perplexed and disappointed in all her undertakings,” she left the Smith farmhouse and ventured to a neighbor’s dwelling, seeking goodwill and lodging. During her remaining days in Harmony, she lived with a neighbor and “did all that lay in her power to injure Joseph in the estimation of his neighbors—telling them that he was a grand impostor, and, that by his specious pretensions, he had seduced her husband into the belief that he (Joseph Smith) was some great one, merely through a design upon her husband’s property.” Visibly upset by her words and actions, a disgruntled and very embarrassed Martin took his wife, Lucy, back to Palmyra. Along the route, she “endeavored to dissuade her husband from taking any further part in the publication of the Record; however, Mr. Harris paid no attention to her” (Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, 123-24).
Return to Palmyra and Further Attempts to Discredit Joseph Smith
Once she was situated at home, Martin “arranged his affairs, and returned” to the Smith home in Harmony “about the 12th of April, 1828.” Immediately after her husband’s departure, Lucy Harris continued her personal assault on the character of Joseph Smith in Palmyra. The Prophet’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, informs us that Lucy Harris had gone
"from house to house, telling her grievances, and declaring that Joseph Smith was practising [sic] a deception upon the people, which was about to strip her of all that she possessed, and that she was compelled to deposit a few things away from home in order to secure them. So she carried away her furniture, linen, and bedding; also other movable articles, until she nearly stripped the premises of everything that could conduce either to comfort or convenience, depositing them with those of her friends and acquaintances, in whom she reposed sufficient confidence to assure her of their future safety" (Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, 124 It is very likely that the late recording of the November 29, 1825, deeding of eighty acres to Lucy by Martin Harris through Peter Harris on May 13, 1828, is closely related to the further quieting of Lucy’s anxieties for a sense of security under her dower rights. See Martin Harris to Peter Harris, November 29, 1825, recorded May 13, 1828, Wayne County Land and Property Deeds, book 5, 531–32, Wayne County Historical Office, Lyons, New York; and Peter Harris to Lucy Harris, November 29, 1825, recorded May 13, 1828, Wayne Co., New York Land and Property Deeds, vol. 5, pp. 530–31).
Martin Harris’s Continued Support for Joseph Smith and the Translation Process
As soon as he returned to Harmony, Martin commenced writing as Joseph translated the Book of Lehi, the first book in a series of books inscribed on the gold plates. The writing and translation process took place in the east end of an upstairs room of the Joseph Smith farmhouse. According to Martin, “a thick curtain or blanket was suspended” from the ceiling in the room. Once Joseph “concealed [himself] behind the blanket,” he looked “through his spectacles, or transparent stones” to read the inscriptions (John A. Clark, Gleanings by the Way (Philadelphia: W. J. and J. K. Simon, 1842), 230). Various secondhand accounts of the translation indicate that Joseph was translating with either the interpreters or a seer stone in his hat (See John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 77–213).
Martin, himself, later explained the translation process in which Joseph employed both the Urim and Thummim and a seer stone to accomplish the task. He reported, “The Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.” Martin further explained, “By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, ‘Written,’ and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place.” However, Martin affirmed that if the sentence was “not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used” (Edward Stevenson to the editor of the Deseret News, November 30, 1881, published as “One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret News, December 28, 1881, 763). Thus, the mechanics of translating and scribing commenced.
Martin said that after extended periods of translation, the pair would become weary and take a break down by the Susquehanna River where they could “exercise by throwing stones out on the water” [skipping on the surface]. On one such occasion Martin explained that he found a stone that closely resembled the one being used in the translation process. On returning to their labors Martin substituted the new stone for the old and awaited the reaction. He observed, “The Prophet remained silent unusually and intently gazing in darkness, no traces of the usual sentences appearing.” Greatly surprised at the result, Joseph exclaimed, ‘Martin! What is the matter? All is as dark as Egypt.” At this point “Martin’s countenance betrayed him,” causing Joseph to inquire why he had acted in this fashion? Martin replied, “To stop the mouths of fools, who had told him that the Prophet had learned those sentences and was merely repeating them” (Edward Stevenson to the editor of the Deseret News, November 30, 1881, published as “One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret News, December 28, 1881, 763). Martin would continue to query Joseph in the future about the nature of the translation process, his own scribal labors, and desire to see the plates themselves, but for now he had just experienced a very satisfying moment.
Concerns about Lucy Harris
Yet Martin was not without concerns, especially about his wife Lucy who was very apprehensive of the validity of the work he was performing on the Susquehanna. William Pilkington reported Martin’s declaration of Lucy’s contempt for the Prophet Joseph Smith and recounted the conditions:
Martin’s wife said that Joe Smith was deluded, and crazy, and [she] was unalterably opposed to her Husband having anything to do with him. She was terrible bitter against Joseph Smith, and forbid her husband having anything to do with him. But he knowing by this time that it was true persisted in helping the Prophet[.] [A]fter the Translation commenced his wife wanted him to ask Joseph “Joe as she called him” if he would let him bring the manuscript home with him so that she could see it. Martin loved his Wife and wanted to satisfie her in relation to the matter (William Pilkington (1860–1942), Autobiography and statements 1934–39, MS 1041, fd. 1, p. 15, Church History Library).
Martin Harris Asks to Take Home the Writings
Hoping to quiet the intense degree of disbelief exhibited by Lucy, the Prophet recorded that Martin “began to importune me to give him liberty to carry the writings home and show them; and desired of me that I would inquire of the Lord, through the Urim and Thummim, if he might not do so”(History of the Church, 1:21; Joseph Smith Papers). Joseph posed the question, but Martin’s request was denied. Martin was unquestionably very disappointed because he had risked his reputation and marriage to support Joseph Smith and did not view his request as unreasonable. A disheartened Martin left Harmony and made a hurried trip to Palmyra. Although not stated, it is conceivable that his journey was to attend to a family matter of importance. His eldest daughter, Lucy, was married to Flanders Dyke on May 8, 1828, by the Reverend Mr. Blakesley in the town of Palmyra (“Married,” Wayne Sentinel, May 9, 1828, p. 2, col. 5). Martin would very likely have taken occasion to be present.
It may be that at the time of the wedding that Martin received another sound scolding from his wife. William Pilkington reported: “When he arrived home [at Palmyra] he related the answer to his Wife [that his request to take the manuscript had been denied], he told me she became very angry, and persuaded him to ask Joseph again, which he did, with the same result. She still persisted, and wanted him to ask ‘Joe’ the third time, at this time Martin said she was awfully worked up, and threatened to kick him out of the House if he didn’t bring the manuscript.” Martin again reiterated to Pilkington, “Willie I loved my Wife and wanted to please her. So I told her I would ask the Prophet the Third Time” (Pilkington, Autobiography and statements, 16).
Upon returning to the Smith homestead in Harmony, Martin scribed the remainder of the book of Lehi translation as dictated by the Prophet. Their work comprised a total of 116 foolscap pages or the English translation of one book from a series of ancient books inscribed on the gold plates. The 116 pages probably represented five complete “gatherings” of pages (See Jack M. Lyon and Kent R. Minson, “When Pages Collide: Dissecting the Words of Mormon,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 4 (20012): 120–36). If so, a benchmark had been reached, perhaps a momentary stopping point, and in Martin’s way of thinking, the right time to ask Joseph again. With unabashed boldness, Martin asked the third time for permission to take the manuscript to Palmyra. Pilkington wrote, “Joseph again took the Urim and Thummim and Enquired of the Lord.” Martin then mused, “I found out Willie that the Lord could get out of patience as well as a human, but this time, Joseph was told that at his own peril he was [to] let Martin take them” (Pilkington, Autobiography and statements, 16).
The response to Martin’s third plea was thus positive—but conditional. Joseph explained to him that only a limited number of family members were to view the manuscript, namely “his brother, Preserved Harris, his own wife [Lucy Harris], his father [Nathan Harris] and his mother [Rhoda Lapham Harris], and a Mrs. Cobb [widow Polly (Mary) Harris], a sister to his wife.” Joseph then stipulated that it was imperative that he bind himself in a solemn covenant that he would not vary from this agreement. Martin agreed to the specified conditions. He entered into a written covenant with Joseph “in a most solemn manner that he would not do otherwise than had been directed . . . [and] required of him.” He then “took the writings, and went his way” on June 14, 1828, about two months after the translation process had begun (Joseph Smith Papers; History of the Church, 1:21).