Ensign Magazine, 2015/09
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Lake Ontario 77° W 70° W PALMYRA Rochester TOWNSHIP WAYNE Erie Canal Erie Canal Palmyra NEW MONROE Area YORK 43° N Smith farm 43° N Shown Hill Cumorah SENECA FALLS 6 MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP TOWNSHIP Waterloo Seneca Falls PENNSYLVANIA Canandaigua Whitmer farm ONTARIO 5 Fayette Seneca Lake FAYETTE Cayuga Lake Canadice TOWNSHIP SENECA NEW YORK CHENANGO Chemung River BAINBRIDGE TOWNSHIP Bainbridge BROOME 3 South Josiah Stowell home Bainbridge Harpursville Finger Lakes Region and Upper COLESVILLE Joseph Knight Sr. farm TOWNSHIP 2 Colesville Susquehanna Valley Susquehanna River 4 Harmony-Colesville 1828–1831 road 42° N 42° N Joseph Smith home 1 HARMONY 0 10 20 Km TOWNSHIP Albers Equal Area Projection 1:1.200.000 PENNSYLVANIA SUSQUEHANNA 0 5 10 15 Mi Montrose 77° W 70° W MAP COURTESY OF THE JOSEPH SMITH PAPERS (RESEARCH BY RICHARD L. JENSEN; CARTOGRAPHY BY HEIDI SPRINGSTEED) MAP COURTESY OF THE JOSEPH SMITH PAPERS 1. Harmony: Joseph and Emma here often, and a large branch Joseph and Oliver Cowdery received 6. Manchester: Immediately after Smith made their home in Harmony was established in the area. Many a visitation from Peter, James, and their marriage, Joseph and Emma Township from December 1827 were baptized on the Knight farm, John, who restored priesthood keys, moved to the Smith family farm. until early September 1830, when including Emma. The Colesville including “the keys of the kingdom, After Joseph obtained the golden they left permanently and moved Branch moved to Ohio together in and of the dispensation of the plates from the angel Moroni and to Fayette Township, New York, April 1831. fulness of times” (D&C 128:20; see pressures began to mount, they because of increasing opposition in also D&C 27:12). Neither the exact returned to Harmony to begin the 3. South Bainbridge: Joseph Harmony. location nor the exact date of this translation. Family members often Smith continued working for Josiah event is known. traveled the 130 miles between 2. Colesville: Joseph first came to Stowell Sr. on his farm at South Manchester and Harmony. Colesville in 1826 when he took a Bainbridge in 1825–26. Joseph and 5. Fayette: Joseph and Emma, job as a day laborer working for Emma married here in 1827. accompanied by Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Knight Sr. The Knight family moved temporarily to the home of 4. Road between Harmony were among his earliest supporters Peter and Mary Whitmer in and Colesville: While traveling and converts. Joseph preached June 1829 to finish the translation between Colesville and Harmony, of the Book of Mormon. and they hid the box containing the plates in a barrel, filled Book of Mormon Translation the barrel one-third full of beans, and sealed the lid. They After the couple settled into their new home, Joseph arrived in Harmony in December.11 resumed translating, with Emma as his scribe. To Emma, the Not long after, Emma’s father had the opportunity to translation process was “a marvel and a wonder,” especially hold the box containing the plates. However, when Joseph because her husband was so unlearned. Indeed, she related told him he could not open it to look at the plates, Isaac that Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and became frustrated and said that if he couldn’t see the plates, well-worded letter; let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Joseph would have to take them away. Joseph then hid the Mormon.” 13 Further, she said that Joseph “had such a limited plates in a nearby hillside. In February 1828, Joseph and knowledge of history at that time that he did not even know Emma moved into a small home built by Emma’s brother that Jerusalem was surrounded by walls.” 14 Nevertheless, as Jesse on a modest farm divided from Isaac’s land.12 Joseph labored diligently, he found that the Lord blessed him 54 Ensign.