of Joseph Smith), he also said the angel commanded him "that the plates must be translated, printed and sent before the world". To do so, however, he needed money, and at the time he was penniless. Therefore, Smith sent his mother to the home of Martin Harris, a local landowner said at the time to be worth about $8,000 to $10,000. Harris had been a close confidant of the Smith family since at least 1826, and he may have heard about Smith's attempts to obtain the plates from the angel even earlier from Joseph Smith Sr. He was also a believer in Smith's powers with his seer stone. When Lucy visited Harris, he had heard through the grapevine in Palmyra that Smith said he had discovered a book of Golden Plates, and he was interested in finding out more. Thus, at Lucy Smith's request, Harris went to the Smith home, heard the story from Smith, and hefted a glass box that Smith said contained the plates. Smith convinced Harris that he had the plates, and that the angel had told him to "quit the company of the money-diggers". Convinced, Harris immediately gave Smith $50, and committed to sponsor the translation of the plates. The money provided by Harris was enough to pay all of Smith's debts in Palmyra, and for him to travel with his new bride Emma and all of their belongings to Harmony Township, Pennsylvania (now in Oakland Township), where they would be able to avoid the public commotion in Palmyra over the plates. Thus, in late October 1827, they moved to Harmony, with the glass box purportedly holding the plates hidden during the trip in a barrel of beans. Early transcription and translation When Joseph and Emma arrived in Harmony, they stayed temporarily in the home of Emma's father Isaac Hale, while Hale set them up in a home on an adjoining property a few hundred yards from the Susquehanna River. Skeptical that Smith had found golden plates, Hale asked to see them, but was only allowed to lift the glass box in which Smith said they were kept. Nevertheless, Hale refused to allow the plates in his home if he could not see them, so the glass box was hidden in the woods nearby, where the plates are said to have remained during much of the translation process that followed. After a short stay in the