Martin Harris

A Palmyra landowner who was Joseph Smith’s first scribe, one of the Three Witnesses, and the man whose farm secured the printing of the Book of Mormon.

Martin Harris (1783–1875) was a prosperous farmer at Palmyra, New York, when he became Joseph Smith’s first financial supporter. His role in the record is unusual: he was a witness to the book and the guarantor of its printing, and in 1834 he sat on the church’s first high council.

Background

Born 18 May 1783 at Easton, Albany County, New York. Married his cousin Lucy Harris in 1808 and became the owner of some 320 acres at Palmyra. In February 1828 he took a transcript of characters to scholars including Charles Anthon, and he served as scribe for the first portion of the translation that spring.

1829

Named in the revelation of March 1829 that promised three witnesses, and one of the Three Witnesses in June. In August he mortgaged his farm to E. B. Grandin to guarantee the cost of printing the Book of Mormon.

1830

Baptized by Oliver Cowdery on 6 April, and ordained a priest by June. He later paid the printing debt by selling 151 acres of his land.

1831

Led members of the Manchester branch from Palmyra to Kirtland in May. Ordained a high priest on 4 June, and appointed that month to travel to Missouri. Named to what became the Literary Firm in November.

1832

Appointed to the United Firm in April.

1834

Named to the Kirtland high council when it was organized in February, and marched with Zion’s Camp in May.

Reading the record

Harris’s place in the record is defined by what he gave rather than by an office: his testimony in 1829 and his land in 1829–1831. It is a reminder that the church’s first publication depended on a single private guarantor before any firm or bishop existed to bear the cost.

After 1834

He was excommunicated in December 1837, rebaptized in 1842, and moved to Utah in 1870; he died at Clarkston, Utah, in 1875. The Joseph Smith Papers biography covers the rest of his life.

Biographical details follow the biographical entry for Martin Harris in the Joseph Smith Papers, checked against the dated documents cited on this site’s chronology pages. This page links out to primary sources rather than reproducing them at length.