Josiah Stowell appears the first person aside from Joseph Smith to catch a glimpse of the plates. This was apparently unknown to Joseph until Brother Stowell testified in court of the experience in June of 1830.
Martha Campbell, on December 19, 1843 wrote a letter to Joseph Smith in behalf of Brother Stowell whose health was beginning to fail. In this letter she wrote
“if I under stood him wright he was the firs person that took the Plates out of your hands the morning you brought them in & he observed blessed is he that seeth & believeeth & more blessed is he that believeeth without seeing & says he has seen & believeed”
Josiah passed away the following spring on May 12, 1844 in Smithburro, New York having hoped to join the saints in Nauvoo that summer. Joseph Smith himself would be murdered the next month in June of 1844.
