Edward Stevenson, "The Thirteenth Witness to the Plates of the Book of Mormon," Juvenile Instructor 24, no. 1 (1 January 1889): 22-23.
It is well known that the three witnesses, as well as Joseph Smith, testify of seeing an angel and hearing his voice... [Stevenson, recalling his January 1887 visit with David Whitmer at Richmond, Missouri, recounts:]
While in this mood of conversation he related to me a visit of the angel Moroni to his mother. Uncle David said: "My mother went to the barn to milk the cows, where she met a mysterious personage who showed her the golden plates, turning them over leaf by leaf, with the exception of a portion of them which were fastened together with rings (sealed part of the plates)."
David said this occurred after he had seen the same messenger on the way from Harmony to Fayette. When he brought Joseph and Oliver in his wagon from Harmony, Pa., he appeared walking with a knapsack on his back with the straps crossed on his breast.
Uncle David asked him to ride with them, to which he replied, "No, I am going over to Cumorah," and suddenly disappeared in the midst of a plain.
David said that they felt a very strange feeling come over them, and Joseph, the Prophet, inquired of the Lord concerning it, and then said to the brethren that the mysterious stranger was Moroni with the plates of gold.
[Stevenson concludes:] We have related with a degree of joy these precious incidents as we have received them.