“Q: Did you ever hear Jo[s]e[ph Smith, Jr.] give an account of finding the plates?

“A: Yes. He made the statement in gave the account in my father’s house. He said he was in the woods at prayer and the angel touched him on the shoulders and he arose, and the angel told him where the plates were and he could take his oldest Brother [Alvin] with him in a year from that time and go and get them. But his oldest Brother died before the year was out.”

Lorenzo Saunders interview – 17 September 1884, in Dan Vogel’s Early Mormon Documents – Volume 2 (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1998), 131.