One of my great-grandmothers was Isabella Livsey. William Pilkington, Jr., was her brother. When William was a young man he went to work for the Martin Harris family on their farm. Martin Harris gave his last dying testimony of the Book of Mormon to William. Martin Harris was one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon. He also mortgaged part of his farm to help print the Book of Mormon. Martin handled the plates shown to him and Joseph Smith by Moroni.
When L. Tom Perry was Deacon's Quorum President in his ward he remembers vividly a trip tot he dedication of the Martin Harris grave site in Clarkston, Utah. Elder Perry often spoke of this event and in 2003 gave a CES Fireside talk to young people about the importance of studying the scriptures. He has a BYU professor by the name of Lael Woodbury come and play the part of William Pilkington as he told about the story of William working for the Harris family and his experiences with Martin Harris. Lael nailed it. William often spoke of his experiences in LDS sacrament meetings. He even filed a legal affidavit relating the testimony that Martin Harris gave to him.
Every year there is a pageant at the Clarkston Cemetery. It is called the Martin Harris Pageant. It tells about the early history of the LDS Church and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. William Pilkington is mentioned in this pageant.
Below are some links to some of this information more especially a video of the 2003 CES Fireside.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2003-11-05-the-scriptures-and-the-restoration?category=ces-devotionals/2003-ces-firesides&lang=eng
Fair Mormon Documents. See page 17.
http://www.fairmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2006-Daniel-Peterson.pdf
- Quotes to Keep
- http://quotestokeep.blogspot.com/2013/06/testimony-of-martin-harris.html
- L. Tom Perry on William Pilkington
- http://www.deseretnews.com/article/525035368/LDS-told-to-study-scriptures.html?pg=all
- First Vision Refernce LDS Studies
- http://lds-studies.blogspot.com/2012/04/first-vision.html
- Iva Lou Groutage Video
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWiIm0Sit8
- The Early Anthology
- http://theearlyanthology.tripod.com/1828/id5.html
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