- Oliver Cowdery
- David Whitmer
- Martin Harris
- Christian Whitmer
- Jacob Whitmer
- Peter Whitmer, Jun.
- John Whitmer
- Hiram Page
- Joseph Smith, Sen.
- Hyrum Smith
- Samuel H. Smith
When Joseph and Emma moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, they transported a wooden box, which Smith said contained the plates, hidden in a barrel of beans.[122] For a time the couple stayed in the home of Emma's father Isaac Hale; but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, Hale banished the concealed objects from his house.[123] Afterward, Smith told several of his associates that the plates were hidden in the nearby woods.[124] Emma said that she remembered the plates being on a table in the house, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores.[125] According to Smith's mother, the plates were also stored in a trunk on Emma's bureau.[126] However, Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates in order to translate them.[127]
In April 1828, Martin Harris' wife, Lucy, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods. According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large black snake and thus prevented from digging up the plates.[128] As a result of Martin Harris' loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man."[129] According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the autumn equinox and the anniversary of the day he first received them.[130]
In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself." Harris followed these directions but could not find the plates.[131]
In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer and his parents in Fayette, New York. Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house where Smith could recover them. The translation was completed at the Whitmer home.[132]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_plates (WIKIPEDIA: footnotes can be verified at the link)
Usually the plates/book were hidden or obscured. Smith translated them while they were inside a cloth sack. It's not like they were out in the open and people could stop by and see them.
Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery were excommunicated from the church, then later returned. The Whitmer family were also excommunicated and never returned. The stories of their witnessing the Golden Plates differ.
Usually the plates/book were hidden or obscured. Smith translated them while they were inside a cloth sack. It's not like they were out in the open and people could stop by and see them.
Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery were excommunicated from the church, then later returned. The Whitmer family were also excommunicated and never returned. The stories of their witnessing the Golden Plates differ.