Criticism of Mormonism/Websites/MormonThink/Joseph Running with the Plates/Source quotes without commentary

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Resources.png    MormonThink web page "Joseph Running with the Plates" content without commentary

This page simply displays all of the source quotes and citations used on the critical web page in the order that they appear. There are no "Critic's comment," "Apologetic response," or "Our Thoughts" sections. We make no attempt to explain, summarize or draw conclusions from these quotes. We will provide additional context by including additional text from these quotes when necessary. We also attempt to add sources and links to the full original text, rather than links to other websites which simply quote the text.

Source quotes

Critical website's source quote
William Smith, a brother of the Prophet who had handled and hefted the plates in a pillow-case, claimed on several occasions that the set of plates weighed about sixty pounds.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Robert F. Smith, The 'Golden' Plates, pp 276 Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed., John W. Welch ( Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992

Critical website's source quote
I did not see them uncovered, but I handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a tow frock and judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds. ... Father and my brother Samuel saw them as I did while in the frock. So did Hyrum and others of the family.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Zion'sEnsign, p. 6, January 13, 1894

Critical website's source quote
I was permitted to lift them... . They weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgement.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. William Smith William Smith, William Smith on Mormonism (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Steam, 1883), 12.

Critical website's source quote
I ... judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. William Smith interview with E. C. Briggs. Originally written by J. W. Peterson for Zions Ensign ( Independence, Mo.); reprinted in Deseret Evening News, 20 January 1894, 11.

Critical website's source quote
They were much heavier than a stone, and very much heavier than wood... . As near as I could tell, about sixty pounds.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. William Smith interview, The Saints' Herald, 4 October 1884, 644.

Critical website's source quote
weighing altogether from forty to sixty lbs.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Martin Harris interview, Iowa State Register, August 1870, as quoted in Milton V. Backman Jr., Eyewitness Accounts of the Restoration (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 226.

Critical website's source quote
I hefted the plates, and I knew from the heft that they were lead or gold.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Martin Harris "Interview with Martin Harris," Tiffany's Monthly, May 1859, 169.

Critical website's source quote
My daughter said, they were about as much as she could lift. They were now in the glass-box, and my wife said they were very heavy. They both lifted them.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Martin Harris "Interview with Martin Harris," Tiffany's Monthly, May 1859, 169.

Critical website's source quote
hefted those plates [which were covered with a cloth] and found them very heavy.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. I. B. Bell interview with H. S. Salisbury (grandson of Catherine Smith Salisbury), Historical Department Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Critical website's source quote
Evidence of the Prophet's extraordinary character emerged early in his life. The Smiths were living in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, when a deadly epidemic of typhoid fever attacked many in the community, including all the Smith children. While the other children recovered without complication, Joseph, who was about seven years old, developed a serious infection in his left leg. Dr. Nathan Smith of Dartmouth Medical School at nearby Hanover, New Hampshire, agreed to perform a new surgical procedure to try to save the boy's leg. As Dr. Smith and his colleagues prepared to operate, Joseph asked his mother to leave the room so she would not have to witness his suffering. Refusing liquor to dull the pain and relying only on his father's reassuring embrace, Joseph bravely endured as the surgeon bored into and chipped away part of his leg bone. The surgery was successful, although Joseph walked the next several years with crutches and showed signs of a slight limp the rest of his life.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. "The Life and Ministry of Joseph Smith," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2007), p xxii

Critical website's source quote
After removing the plates from the stone box, Joseph hid them in a birch log until preparations could be made at home for the plates. then he went to retrieve them.

"The plates were secreted about three miles from home...Joseph, on coming to them, took them from their secret place, and wrapping them in his linen frock, placed them under his arm and started for home."

After proceeding a short distance, he thought it would be more safe to leave the road and go through the woods. Traveling some distance after he left the road, he came to a large windfall, and as he was jumping over a log, a man sprang up from behind it, and gave him a heavy blow with a gun. Joseph turned around and knocked him down, then ran at the top of his speed. About half a mile further he was attacked again in the same manner as before; he knocked this man down in like manner as the former, and ran on again; and before he reached home he was assaulted the third time. In striking the last one he dislocated his thumb, which, however, he did not notice until he came within sight of the house, when he threw himself down in the corner of the fence in order to recover his breath. As soon as he was able, he arose and came to the house."

Critical website's source(s)


  1. Lucy Mack Smith, mother of Joseph Smith, in Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1853, pp. 104-105; Comp. reprinted edition by Bookcraft Publishers in 1956 under the title History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, pp. 107- 108

Critical website's source quote
That on the 22d of September, he arose early in the morning, and took a one horse wagon, of some one that had stayed over night at their house, without leave or license; and, together with his wife, repaired to the hill which contained the book. He left his wife in the wagon, by the road, and went alone to the hill, a distance of thirty or forty rods from the road; he said he then took the book out of the ground and hid it in a tree top, and returned home. He then went to the town of Macedon to work. After about ten days, it having been suggested that some one got his book, his wife went after him; he hired a horse, and went home in the afternoon, staid long enough to drink one cup of tea, and then went for his book, found it safe, took off his frock, wrapt it round it, put it under his arm and run all the way home, a distance of about two miles. He said he should think it would weigh sixty pounds, and was sure it would weigh forty. On his return home, he said he was attacked by two men in the woods, and knocked them both down and made his escape, arrived safe and secured his treasure. -- He then observed that if it had not been for that stone, (which he acknowledged belonged to me,) he would not have obtained the book.

Critical website's source(s)


  1. H. Michael Marquardt, Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (1994)