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An Interview With David Whitmer

In 1881 David Whitmer was interviewed by a reporter of the Kansas City Journal. After an article was published in that paper, based on this interview, David Whitmer identified what he considered to be the major errors in the article and his corrections were published in a subsequent issue. In a letter written by Whitmer on November 18, 1881, Whitmer asserted that the article with the corrections was "substantially correct." The following are excerpts from that article as it was published on June 5, 1881. Corrections that appeared on June 19, 1981, and those noted in his letter of November 18 have been inserted in brackets. The importance of this selection, therefore, is that it was written by a competent non-Mormon reporter; and after David Whitmer had an opportunity to correct the major mistakes in the article, he verified the general accuracy of the report. See Kansas City Journal, June 5 1881; David Whitmer to S. T. Mouch, November 18, 1881, Whitmer Papers, typescript, RLDS Church Library Archives; MS (1881):421-23, 437-39.

MORMONISM.

Authentic Account of the Origin of This Sect from One of the Patriarchs.

Discovery of the Plates, And the Translation of the Book of Mormon-

I first heard of what is now termed Mormonism in the year 1828. I made a business trip to Palmyra, N. Y., and while there stopped with one Oliver Cowdery. A great many people in the neighborhood were talking about the finding of certain golden plates by one Joseph Smith, jr., a young man of that neighborhood. Cowdery and I, as well as others, talked about the matter, but at that time I paid but little attention to it, supposing it to be only the idle gossip of the neighborhood. Cowdery said he was acquainted with the Smith family, and he believed that there must be some truth in the story of the plates, and that he intended to investigate the matter. I had conversations with several young men who said that Joseph Smith had certainly golden plates and that before he attained them he had promised to share with them, but had not done so and they were very much incensed with him. Said I, 'how do you know that Joe Smith has the plates?' They replied, 'we saw the plates in the hill that he took them out of just as he described it to us before he obtained them.' [place (not the plates) from which the plates were taken just as he described them to us before he obtained them.] These parties were so positive in their statements that I began to believe there must be some foundation for the stories then in circulation all over that part of the country. I had never seen any of the Smith family up to that time, and I began to inquire of the people in regard to them, and learned that one night during the year 1827 Joseph Smith, jr., had a vision, and an angel of God appeared to him and told him where certain plates were to be found, and pointed out the spot to him, and that shortly afterward he went to that piece and found the plates which were still in his possession. After thinking over the matter for a long time, and talking with Cowdery, who also gave me a history of the finding of the plates, I went home, and after several months Cowdery told me he was going to Harmony, Pa.-whither Joseph Smith had gone with the plates on account of persecutions of his neighbors-and see him about the matter. He did go and on his way stopped at my father's house and told me that as soon as he found out anything either