Transcribed from PDF rasterization (400 dpi) and Tesseract OCR of the Utah Journal, page 3, 10 March 1886. The original column is heavily worn and OCR is noisy; the transcription below normalizes obvious OCR artifacts against the parallel narrative in the Edward Stevenson series "The Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon" (Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star vol. 48, May–July 1886) and the underlying Stevenson diary entry of 9 February 1886. Words that remain unreadable in the source are marked [illegible]. The full original column is preserved in raw/I56_1886_Edward_Stevenson.UtahJournal.pdf and the raw OCR in raw/I56_1886_Edward_Stevenson.ocr.txt.
[salutation: "Editor Journal,"]
I believe the last you heard from me, the Cannon Ball [Railroad] train was running away with me at lightning speed. [Well,] the ball struck the Lexington Junction, where I took a slower coach, 63 miles, 47 miles in all, and arrived at the [Hagink? — likely "Shotwell"/local hotel] House. Tuesday morning, [9th?], after an early breakfast, I called on David Whitmer. It was 8 years since my last visit to him, and the change in him was very perceptible. A few months previous, he was at death's door, but, as he said to me, his time had not come. About 7:20 a. m., soon after breakfast, I called on the venerable old gentleman. He had just turned 81 years of age. The first to meet me were the colored servants, both male and female, who reminded me of the times gone by, some 49 years past — right here in this very town and surrounding country, when this soul of humanity was bought and sold at auction, to the highest bidder; and I am forcibly reminded of an occurrence which took place in this very town just before the war, where I was then a temporary resident. A slave [trader/dealer] from the south was about to close a bargain for a copper-colored boy, when the mother interfered, saying, "Now, Mass[a], you knows you promise[d] me you no sell dat boy, you knows it as well as me." The yellow boy was not sold. This was not very uncommon, and the disease has not yet altogether disappeared, only the selling part, for the half caste, as well as the quadroon, tells its own tale [—] surely this is an adulterous generation, and it was this class who drove the Latter-day Saints out of this beautiful state. [Missouri.]
Well, these domestics very courteously bade me into the dining room and the [presence] of David Whitmer, and I, as on this former visit, [was?] cordially received. But what a change 8 years had made in him — see feeble and so [emaciated?] that his frame would weigh, he said, less than 130 lbs. But when it came to his testimony of the visitation of the angel, and other [incidents] of those early times, he fired up and manifested zeal and power so positive that it seemed to take him right back to [the] presence of the angel. His testimony was undeviating from that which I [heard from] him 22 years ago, and also 8 years past. He stated to me that, while he was in his field plowing, he heard a voice and saw a personage who said, "Blessed is the name of the Lord, and they who keep his commandments." While reflecting on this subject and plowing, the Prophet came along and told David that he was chosen to be one of three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. He tied his team to the fence, and proceeded with the Prophet across an opening or clearing into the edge of the woods, and there, Joseph, Oliver, and David sat upon a log, talking upon the coming forth of this work. When [a] light began to shine around them, [and it] increased in lustre until a heavenly messenger appeared before them, and before him was a table on which was placed the plates of the Book of Mormon, [breast]plate and Urim and Thummim, and other [things]. The leaves of the plates were shown [to] them, and a voice from the heavens declared these things to be true, and they were commanded to bear testimony of [them?] to the world. David Whitmer was so feeble that I was compelled to leave him occasionally lest he became exhausted. He said even as he sent silence, while he should [stand?] upon the earth he should [defend?] the speed and [bear?] [my? his?] voice. Although this would be one [more?] additional testimony as of the last one of the [three?] [witnesses?] [—remainder of column heavily damaged—]
[A few lines at the end are too damaged to recover; signature line "EDWARD STEVENSON" is implied.]
[Richmond, [MO?], Feb. [9?], '86.]