Harrison Burgess
Harrison Burgess was an early convert to the Church that left this account:
I was born September 3rd 1814 in the town of Putnam, Washington County, State of New York. I lived with my parents until I was upwards of fourteen years of age, and a part of the time afterwards, and being the oldest of my father’s family I was kept constantly at work and had but little opportunity in acquiring an education. My father made no profession of Religion but led a moral and virtuous life. My childhood was not marked with any crime although I paid but little or no attention to religion until the seventeenth year of my age, in July 1832, when I first heard the fullness of the Gospel proclaimed by Elder Simeon Carter. At this time I was convinced that the scriptures were true and that the Book of Mormon was a Divine Revelation from Heaven. I was baptized by Elder Simeon Carter and confirmed a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints by Orson Pratt. I spent the following winter in going to school, working for my board, and in meeting with the Saints. In the spring of 1833 I started in company with John S. Carter to the State of Vermont, where we labored about two months and then returned to New York. We came to the Benson Branch where I was ordained a Priest under the hands of Brother Carter with whom I continued to travel and preach for about two months in the State of New York.
On the third Sabbath of May while speaking to a congregation I declared that I knew the Book of Mormon to be true and the work of God. The next day while I was laboring in the community something seemed to whisper to me, “Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?” My mind became perplexed and darkened and I was so tormented in Spirit that I left my work and retired into the woods. The misery and distress that I there experienced cannot be described. The tempter all the while seemed to say, “Do you know the Book of Mormon is True?” I remained in this situation about two hours. At last it came into my mind the Faith that the Brother of Jared had in obtaining a knowledge of God for himself and others also. I resolved to know whether I had proclaimed the truth or not, and commenced praying to the God of Heaven for a testimony of these things. When all at once the vision of my mind opened and a glorious personage clothed in white stood before me and exhibited to my view the plates from which the Book of Mormon was proclaimed and taken. In June I took a short mission in the State of New York where I proclaimed the truth in great boldness.
Harrison died firm in his faith in 1883 in Pine Valley, Washington County, Utah. He had seen many hardships, served as missionary and in other capacities, and witnessed of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Notes
“A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HARRISON BURGESS, SON OF WILLIAM AND VIOLATY BURGESS,” Autobiography (1814-1848) in Kenneth Glyn Hales, ed. and comp. Windows: A Mormon Family [Tucson, Arizona: Skyline Printing, 1985]; http://burgess.forefamilies.com/harrison.html
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