Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)
| Martin Harris | |
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| Latter Day Saint Apostle | |
| date unknown – ca. 1837 | |
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Martin Harris May 18, 1783 Eastown, New York, United States |
| Died | July 10, 1875 (aged 92) Clarkston, Utah Territory, United States |
| Resting place | Clarkston City Cemetery, Utah, United States 41°55′52.08″N 112°2′24.74″W / 41.9311333°N 112.0402056°W |
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Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated.
Harris was born in Eastown, New York, the second of the eight children born to Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham.
According to historian Ronald W. Walker, little is known of his youth, "but if his later personality and activity are guides, the boy partook of the sturdy values of his neighborhood which included work, honesty, rudimentary education, and godly fear." In 1808, Harris married his first cousin Lucy Harris.
Harris served with the New York militia in the War of 1812. Harris inherited 150 acres.
Until 1831, Harris lived in Palmyra, New York, where he was a prosperous farmer. Harris's neighbors considered him both an honest and superstitious man. A biographer wrote that Harris's "imagination was excitable and fecund." For example, Harris once perceived a sputtering candle to be the work of the devil. An acquaintance said that Harris claimed to have seen Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles. The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic." A friend, who praised Harris as being "universally esteemed as an honest man," also declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness'" and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy. Another friend said, "Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks." Nevertheless, even early anti-Mormons who knew Harris believed that he was "honest," "industrious," "benevolent," and a "worthy citizen."
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Wikipedia