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MARTIN HARRIS
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4
Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 - July 10, 1875) was the first financier of The Book of Mormon. He was also one of Three Witnesses of The Book of Mormon who testified they were shown the Golden Plates in a vision (although Martin's version of the vision was not recorded). Born in Eastown, New York on May 17, 1783. He married his first cousin, Lucy, on March 27, 1808. From that time through 1831, he lived in Palmyra, New York, where he became a respected and prosperous farmer. He was a religious seeker; a neighbor later noted that Martin "was first an [orthodox] Quaker, then a Universalist, next a Restorationist, then a Baptist, next a Presbyterian, and then a Mormon.
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 | Martin Harris Lost His Wife, Home And Reputation
Thursday, Feb 24, 2005, at 07:35 AM
Original Author(s): Jeffh, Puli, Bill Clark, Randy J
Topic: MARTIN HARRIS -Guid- | ↑ | Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to pay for the first printing of the Book of Mormon. Does anyone have information about whether or not he was able to pay back the mortgage? Did Harris lose his farm because of his support of JS? Did proceeds from sale of the book pay the mortgage or did Harris repay the debt from his farm revenues? I never heard in SS what ever became of the Harris farm.
Does anyone know about this tidbit of Mormon history?
With Joe Smith's reputation in the area, he could not get the Book of Mormon published. Finally, Palmyra printer, Egbert B. Grandin, agreed to print the Book of Mormon after Harris agreed to mortgage some of his farm for $3,000 as security. The book was published in 1830. After the book sales failed to materialize to pay for the printing, on April 7, 1831, upon pressure from the printer (and a revelation from Joe), Harris mortgaged part of his farm to pay the printing bill. It was later repossessed when he could not pay the mortgage. It was also about this time that Martin left Palmyra and moved to Kirkland, Ohio (without his wife)
Harris was mean and often beat his wife. She grew tired of this treatment, his association with the mormonites and divorced him. As part of the settlement, I believe she received the remainer of the farm that was not repossessed.
Basically, Martin Harris lost his wife, home, reputation and left the state of New York.
Whenever this subject comes up, I usually quote this letter:
In February, 1852, I was snowbound in a hotel in Mentor, Ohio, all day. Martin
Harris was there, and in conversation told me he saw Jo Smith translate the
"Book of Mormon" with his peep-stone in his hat. Oliver Cowdery, who had been
a schoolteacher, wrote it down. Sidney Rigdon, a renegade preacher, was let in
during the translation. Rigdon had stolen a manuscript from a printing office
in Pittsburgh, Pa., which Spaulding, who had written it in the early part of
the century, had left there to be printed, but the printers refused to publish it,
but Jo and Rigdon did, as the "Book of Mormon." Martin said he furnished the
means, and Jo promised him a place next to him in the church. When they had
got all my property they set me out. He said Jo ought to have been killed
before he was; that the Mormons committed all sorts of depredations in the
towns about Kirtland. They called themselves Latter-Day Saints, but he called
them Latter-Day Devils.
Claridon, Geauga Co., Ohio,
Dec 25, 1884
R.W. Alderman
Alderman could easily have known about the Spalding and Rigdon claims.
They were in print from as early as 1834, and they (or some form of them) were the most commonly accepted explanation for BoM origins in the 1800s. Anyone taking interest in the origins of mormonism in 1884 should have been made aware of them early on in their studies. Therefore, anyone who wished to fabricate additional evidence in favor of such claims could have easily done so by providing false testimony that was already consistent with the claims. I'm sure apologists rely on that possibility in cases like this and point their fingers at Alderman, or at Deming who collected such statements.
The problem as I see it is that there are many statements like Alderman's. They can be shot down individually by pointing out the weaknesses in each one, but when you put the whole pile together, it's hard to think that their existence isn't explained by some underlying general approximate truth to what they say.
| | | It Is Very Doubtful That Charles Anthon Could Have Read Any Egyptian, Let Alone Smith's "Reformed Egyptian."
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007, at 07:12 AM
Original Author(s): Randy Jordan
Topic: MARTIN HARRIS -Guid- | ↑ | Harris reportedly took a piece of paper upon which some characters had been from the gold plates to Anthon at Columbia. Here, depending upon which account you buy, Anthon either 1) told Harris the marking were bogus and not to hand over his money or 2) Anthon states that the characters were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyric and Arabic, and they were true characters, but tears up the certification on hearing of the angel.... sealed book....Harris gives the money to J. Smith.
If I am not mistaken this same list of characters is owned by the Community of Christ.
http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/saga/a...
Does anyone know if anything on this document resembles Egyptian? Have any reputable Egyptologists looked at the Caracter Transcript? If so, what was the response?
What do the characters say?
If the characters can't be recognized as Egyptian by experts nowadays how did Anthon read it as being Egyptian in 1828?
Belive it or not, this issue actually confirms the deception of Martin Harris.
This segment is from Arza Evan's book, "The Keystone of Mormonism."
Martin Harris told lies. Apparently, Smith was right about the dishonesty of his witnesses. For example, in 1827, Martin Harris took some of Smith's "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics to Charles Anthon, a language expert at Columbia College in New York. Harris said that Anthon declared the hieroglyphics authentic and then certified that Smith's translation "....was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from Egyptian." There are some serious problems with this story. Anthon was an expert only in Greek and Latin. Egyptian was considered a dead, unreadable language until the French scholar Jean Francois Champollian, using the Rosetta Stone and other resources, discovered the difference between ideograms and phonetic complements which established the connection between Coptic and ancient Egyptian.
Most of Champollian's work, including a book on grammar and dictionary on Egyptian hieroglyphics (picture language), were published several years after Harris made his visit to Anthon. It is very doubtful that Anthon could have read any Egyptian, let alone Smith's "reformed Egyptian." And how could Anthon have certified that Smith's translation was the most correct that he had ever seen translated from Egyptian? It would have been impossible. Harris was obviously lying in order to promote the sales of Smith's book. Later, when word got back to Anthon that Harris was using his name to prove the authenticity of Smith's book he became very angry and told his version of their meeting: "He requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined.... This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him... a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks and evidently copied after the Mexican calendar, given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived."
Not only this statement but the fact that Anthon could not have read Smith's "reformed Egyptian" anyway is strong evidence that Anthon was telling the truth. After all, Harris had a financial interest in The Book of Mormon, but Anthon had no reason to lie. Apparently Smith and Harris were both In on this deception. It seems that they were pretending to fulfill a prophesy recorded in the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah: "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: and the book is delivered unto him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned....Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." But in the story told by Harris and Smith does not fulfill Isaiah'sprophesy. Isaiah said that some "men" would first deliver "a book that is sealed" to a learned man who would say that he could not read a sealed book. Later, these men would deliver this same book to a man who was not learned who would at first say, " I am not learned", but then would read it by he power of God. Anthon never saw these men nor any sealed book. All he ever saw was Harris and his piece of paper.
Also, Isaiah said that after the learned man had his chance to read the sealed book, it would be " delivered unto him that is not learned." But Smith obtained the book first, not after Anthon had his chance as Isaiah prophesied. Despite all of these problems, conflicts and contradictions, the Martin Harris and Joseph Smith version of this event is still canonized in The Pearl of Great Price as sacred to Mormon scripture.
Oliver Cowdery, another witness to the gold plates, fell out of favor with Smith in 1838 when he accused Joseph of adultry. If Cowdery was lying, this creates a serious question about his personal honesty. If he was telling the truth, it calls into question the honesty and morality of Smith. Whether Cowdery was lying or telling the truth, the position of The Book of Mormon is weakened. Smith loses either way. Most of Joseph Smith's eleven witnesses eventually turned against him and left the Church. David Whitmer even claimed that God commanded him to leave. Some of Smith's witnesses later claimed that they had seen the gold plates with their spiritual eyes, which may have simply have meant their imaginations. But would these men have left Mormonism if they really believed that Smith had exclusive priesthood authority from God necessary for their eternal salvation and exaltation?
One more very important point.
The alleged account of Harris's visit to Anthon which appears in Joseph Smith's "history" was written circa 1838, by Smith. By that time, Smith had dumped Harris, and so Smith's re-writing of the event was undoubtedly embellished to make the golden plates story appear more miraculous.
Since Anthon was present during the event, his version is more credible than the known liar and fraud Joseph Smith's. Read Anthon's own version at
http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs/1...
Note his statement:
The whole story about my having pronouncd the Mormonite inscription to be "reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics" is perfectly false.
Anthon made other statements, which you can read at
http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs1/...
http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/...
As for the "facsimile" of the alleged characters on the golden plates: That was created in Kirtland circa 1835 to use on placards advertising the BOM for sale. As Anthon had written his letter in 1834 in which he refuted the Mormon version of events, it's possible that Joseph Smith concocted his "facsimile" to counter Anthon's description of what Harris had shown him. Smith needed to create a facsimile that didn't resemble any known ancient language, so that he couldn't be discredited by any other scholars like Anthon in the future.
And no, Smith's "facsimile" has never been associated with any known language, certainly not any kind of Hebrew or Egyptian. It can't be "translated" into anything meaningful. It's just gibberish.
| | | The Impact Of Martin Harris - Turning The Plates Of Gold Into Scripture
Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011, at 08:54 AM
Original Author(s): Jod3:360
Topic: MARTIN HARRIS -Guid- | ↑ | More than any other person, Martin Harris seems to have been responsible for the fact that Joseph's concept of the golden plates [p.275] came to have a religious content. It is clear from other sources that Harris did not view the golden bible with the eye of the spirit exclusively; he got the village silversmith to give him an estimate of the value of the plates, taking as a basis Joseph's account of their dimensions;58 and he listened raptly when Joseph's mother expatiated on the profits the work might bring, not merely from sales of the translation to be published by Joseph, but from public exhibition of the plates, the price of admission to be twenty-five cents.59 To be enriched for doing the work of the Lord suited the inclination of Harris exactly.
Nevertheless, the fact that the book was the work of God, that he, Martin Harris, was an instrument in the hands of the Lord, was the consideration which moved him most powerfully.
In this fact Joseph could find matter for meditation. Men could be moved by their religious beliefs as by no other means, for religious faith dignified and enobled what it touched.
A man who gave him five dollars to search out in his peepstone the whereabouts of a lost cow was discontent and wanted his money back if the cow could not be found. A man who gave him fifty dollars to do the work of the Lord rejoiced in his soul over his own generosity and counted the money well spent.
Joseph seems to have been quick to see the implication of this truth, and ordered his life accordingly. Not folk magic but religion should henceforth be his sphere, his plates of gold found to comprise, in all truth, a golden bible.
http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/...
| | | The Gullibility Of The Early Saints
Monday, May 16, 2011, at 08:06 AM
Original Author(s): Nate
Topic: MARTIN HARRIS -Guid- | ↑ | Martin Harris was anything but a skeptical witness. He was known by many of his peers as an unstable, gullible and superstitious man. Reports assert that he and the other witnesses never literally saw the gold plates, but only an object said to be the plates, covered with a cloth. Here's some accounts that show the superstitious side of Martin Harris:
Ronald W. Walker, "Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19 (Winter 1986): 34-35. "Once while reading scripture, he reportedly mistook a candle's sputtering as a sign that the devil desired him to stop. Another time he excitedly awoke from his sleep believing that a creature as large as a dog had been upon his chest, though a nearby associate could find nothing to confirm his fears. Several hostile and perhaps unreliable accounts told of visionary experiences with Satan and Christ, Harris once reporting that Christ had been poised on a roof beam."
John A. Clark letter, August 31, 1840 in EMD, 2: 271: "No matter where he went, he saw visions and supernatural appearances all around him. He told a gentleman in Palmyra, after one of his excursions to Pennsylvania, while the translation of the Book of Mormon was going on, that on the way he met the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked along by the side of him in the shape of a deer for two or three miles, talking with him as familiarly as one man talks with another." According to two Ohio newspapers, shortly after Harris arrived in Kirtland he began claiming to have "seen Jesus Christ and that he is the handsomest man he ever did see. He has also seen the Devil, whom he described as a very sleek haired fellow with four feet, and a head like that of a Jack-ass." Vogel,EMD 2: 271, note 32.
The Reverend John A. Clark, who knew Harris, said Martin "had always been a firm believer in dreams, and visions and supernatural appearances, such as apparitions and ghosts, and therefore was a fit subject for such men as Smith and his colleagues to operate on." Lorenzo Saunders said Harris was a "great man for seeing spooks." Presbyterian minister Jesse Townsend of Palmyra called Harris a "visionary fanatic."
http://www.mormonthink.com/witnessesw...
Mrs. Abigail Harris: a sister-in-law of Martin Harris:
"... Martin Harris and Lucy Harris, his wife, were at my house [early part of winter, 1828]. In conversation with the Mormonites, she [Lucy Harris] observed that she wished her husband would quit them, as she believed it all false and a delusion. To which I heard Mr. Harris reply: 'What if it is a lie; if you will let me alone I will make money out of it!' I was both an eye- and ear-witness of what has been above stated, which is now fresh in my memory, and I speak the truth and lie not, God being my witness."
Lucy Harris: wife of Martin Harris:
"Whether the Mormon religion be true or false, I leave the world to judge; for its effects on Martin Harris have been to make him more cross, turbulent and abusive to me. His whole object was to make money out of it. I will give a proof of this. One day at Peter Harris' house (Abigail Harris' husband) I told him he had better leave the company of the Smiths, as their religion was false. To this he replied, "If you would let me alone, I could make money out of it.' It is in vain for the Mormons to deny these facts, as they are well known to most of his former neighbors."
The field David [Whitmer] plowed
David plowed a field in less time than it normally took him and jumped to the conclusion that it was a sign from God, a miracle. His father planted the suggestion that "there must be an overruling hand in this" so David immediately concluded that there must be a supernatural explanation to his rapid work – the only other explanation David or his father could think of. This is odd and disturbing on many levels since David plowed the field himself. He based his supernatural explanation on nothing other than the time he spent working in the field vs the time he remembers he did it in the past - and his father suggesting an unworldly explanation. Those familiar with statistics call that superstitious practice, counting the hits and ignoring the misses. Church leaders like to tell this story with an air of objectivity, though none is present.
Of course there are plenty more plausible explanations. He was likely excited about the trip he was going to make, to actually meet the prophet, and so he worked faster than normal. There are many other variables which can't be examined such as the density of his crops that year, how much help his father was to him, when he started, how good of a job he did this year compared to other years, how much time it actually took him to do it in prior years vs how much time he remembered that it took, etc.
http://www.mormonthink.com/witnessesw...
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