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Emer Harris
Birth: 29 May 1781, Cambridge, Washington County, New York. Son of Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham.
Death: 28 November 1869, Logan, Cache County, Utah.
In 1793 twelve-year-old Emer Harris moved with his parents to Palmyra, New York, where his father purchased a six-hundred-acre farm for three hundred dollars. His father sold Emer fifty acres of his holdings for two hundred dollars on 2 January 1806 and another parcel of land on 17 February 1807.1 Within a few years Emer sold his acreage and moved to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where he purchased shares in a sawmill.
It is assumed that his younger brother Martin Harris told him of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as early as 1828. Family tradition purports that "Emer walked twenty-five miles to hear more about the new 'golden Bible' from his brother" in Harmony, Pennsylvania.2 He and Martin were together when the first bound copy of the Book of Mormon came off the Grandin Press in 1830. It is said that Martin picked up the book and presented it to Emer.3
Emer read the book and was baptized on 10 February 1831 by Hyrum Smith. He soon rented his property in Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio to be with the Saints. He was ordained a high priest on 25 October 1831 by the Prophet and said on that occasion that "he was determined to be for God & none else & with his assistance to do his will."4 Two days later he was appointed "scribe for Joseph Smith, while they are employed writing and copying the fullness of the scriptures."5
On 25 January 1832 he was called to preach the gospel with Simeon Carter (see D&C 75:30). It appears that the two men initially left together but that Simeon later joined Jared Carter while Emer went with his brother Martin. Of this mission Emer penned, "Brother Martin is with me & has been the grater part of the time since we left Kirtland. We have traveled mutch & Preached mutch. Eighty two have been baptised and many more have believed. We find no end to the call for our labours."6 The Evening and Morning Star reported that "brothers Martin and Emer Harris have baptized 100 persons at Chenango point, New York [south of Oneida Lake], within a few weeks."7 They also organized a branch of the Church with seventy members in Springville, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.8
In midsummer 1833 Emer returned from his mission, having preached the gospel and, to the joy of his family, having sold his land in Pennsylvania for $550. The money was used to purchase a farm in Florence township, Ohio. When not working on the farm, Emer labored as a carpenter and a joiner on the Kirtland Temple. He created the window sash in the temple and other intricate details within the sacred building.
In 1838 he moved his family to Missouri. They arrived in October, the same month Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order. Among his "meager possessions was a chest containing copies of the Book of Mormon. Emer had fitted the books under a false bottom, lined with Fuller's cloth, in case they were searched by the mobs."9 They were searched and the books were preserved by his advance preparation.