Meantime Oliver was writing his friend, David Whitmer, his findings as to the truth of the Prophet Joseph having the plates. He wrote soon after his arrival in Harmony that he was convinced that Joseph Smith had the records.[[7]] Shortly after this, doubtless immediately after Joseph received the revelation in which the secret meditations and prayers of Oliver respecting the work before he saw the Prophet were made known, Oliver wrote a second letter to David, in which he enclosed a few lines of what had been translated, and assured him that he knew of a surety that Joseph Smith had a record of a people that inhabited the American continents in the ancient times: and that the plates they were translating gave a history of these people; he moreover assured David that he had "revealed knowledge" concerning the truth of what he affirmed. These letters young Whitmer showed to his parents, and to his brothers and sisters.
Mr. Joseph Knight, Sen., of Colesville, Broome county, New York, several times brought the young men provisions—food—which enabled them to continue the work of translation without interruption. But for this timely assistance the work of translation must have been relinquished from time to time in order to secure supplies. Mr. Knight knew the Smith family and had called upon them a number of times at their home in Manchester. He evidently had considerable faith in the claims of Joseph concerning the Book of Mormon; for on the occasion of his visit to him in May, 1829, he desired to know what his duty was with reference to the work that the Lord was about to bring forth. The prophet inquired of the Lord and, as in the case of Oliver Cowdery, after declaring that a great and marvelous work was about to come forth, the revelation said:
Keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion. Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work; and no one can assist in this work, except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things whatsoever shall be entrusted in his care.[[8]]
For a time the Prophet had been permitted to pursue the work of translation at Harmony without interference. But now there began to be mutterings of an approaching storm of persecution. Threats were frequent, and the young men were only preserved from actual violence by the blessing of the Lord and the influence of Mr. Isaac Hale, father of the Prophet's wife; who, though he had no faith in the Prophet's work, and in the past had manifested some hostility towards him, still believed in law and order; was opposed to mob violence; and was willing that Joseph and his associates should be permitted to complete their work without interference.[[9]]
On account of the manifestation of this unfriendly spirit in the community, however, Joseph and Oliver kept secret for a time the circumstance of their ordination to the priesthood and their baptism. They could not, however, long continue silent on such a subject, and in a few days, under a sense of duty, they commenced to reason out of the scriptures with their friends and acquaintances concerning the work of God. But Joseph was evidently uneasy concerning their safety at Harmony, and under his direction Oliver wrote to David Whitmer at Fayette, asking him to come down to Harmony and take them to the elder Whitmer's home, giving as a reason for their rather strange request that they had received a commandment from God to that effect.[[10]] This request found David Whitmer in the midst of his spring work. He had some twenty acres of land to plow and concluded to do that and then go. "I got up one morning to go to work as usual," he says, "and on going to the field, found that between five and seven acres of my land had been plowed under during the night. I don't know who did it; but it was done just as I would have done it myself, and the plow was left standing in the furrow. This enabled me to start sooner."[[11]] Nor was this the only assistance of like character given to him. While harrowing in a field of wheat before starting on his journey he found to his surprise that he had accomplished more in a few hours than was usual to do in two or three days. The day following this circumstance he went out to spread plaster over a field, according to the custom of the farmers in that locality, when, to his surprise, he found the work had been done, and well done. David Whitmer's sister, who lived near the field, told him that three strangers had appeared in the field the day before and spread the plaster with remarkable skill. She at the time presumed that they were men whom David had hired to do the work.[[12]]
This assistance, provided through some divine agency—it can be accounted for in no other way, enabled David Whitmer to respond sooner than he otherwise could have done to the call to go and bring the Prophet and his associate from Harmony, where mob violence was impending, to the home of his father, Peter Whitmer, where the work of translation could be finished in peace and security.
When David Whitmer was approaching the little village of Harmony with his two-horse team and wagon, he was met some distance from it by the Prophet and Oliver. "Oliver told me," says David Whitmer, in relating the circumstance, "that Joseph had informed him when I started from home, where I had stopped the first night, how I read the sign at the tavern; where I stopped the next night, etc.; and that I would be there that day before dinner, and this was why they had come out to meet me; all of which was exactly as Joseph had told Oliver, at which I was greatly astonished."[[13]]
The day following David Whitmer's arrival at Harmony the plates were packed up and delivered into the care of the Angel Moroni, that they might be safely conveyed to Fayette. "When I was returning to Fayette," says David Whitmer, "with Joseph and Oliver, all of us riding in the wagon, Oliver and I on an old fashioned, wooden spring-seat, and Joseph behind us, when traveling along in a clear, open place, a very pleasant, nice looking old man suddenly appeared by the side of our wagon and saluted us with, 'Good morning; it is very warm;' at the same time wiping his face or forehead with his hand. We returned the salutation, and by a sign from Joseph, I invited him to ride if he was going our way. But he said very pleasantly, 'No, I am going to Cumorah.' This name was somewhat new to me, and I did not know what 'Cumorah' meant. We all gazed at him and at each other, and as I looked round inquiringly of Joseph, the old man instantly disappeared, so that I did not see him again."
Replying to the question, "Did you notice his appearance?" David Whitmer replied: "I should think I did. He was, I should think, about five feet eight or nine inches tall and heavy set, about such a man as James Cleve there (a gentleman present at the Whitmer, Pratt and Smith interview), but heavier. His face was as large; he was dressed in a suit of brown woolen clothes, his hair and beard were white, like Brother Pratt's, but his beard was not so heavy. I also remember that he had on his back a sort of knapsack with something in it shaped like a book. It was the messenger who had the plates, who had taken them from Joseph just prior to our starting from Harmony."[[14]]
Soon after the arrival at the Whitmer residence, in the garden near by, Moroni once more delivered the sacred record to Joseph, and the work of translation was renewed with even greater vigor than at Harmony; for when Oliver would tire of writing, one of the Whitmers or Emma Smith would relieve him.