More than 50 guests attended an open house at the historic homes of Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight in the Susquehanna region of upstate New York. The event was hosted Saturday, May 8, by the six members of the LDS Church who make up the Colesville Branch Limited Liability Company.
The Stowell home, which is south of Afton, N.Y., has been restored, revealing, among other things, beautiful wide board floors. The home is simple but elegant and is adorned on the outside with a statue of a young Joseph Smith. The Stowell home was purchased about five years ago with one of the original 600 acres that Stowell owned.
It was Josiah Stowell who brought the young Joseph Smith to the Susquehanna region where he subsequently met Emma Hale. Emma and Joseph stayed at the Stowell home after their marriage before they went to Palmyra. Stowell stayed behind due to poor health when the saints went to Nauvoo.
The Knight home is located about three miles away across the Susquehanna River from Nineveh, N.Y. The Colesville Company now owns 10 of the original 140 acres. The Knight farm is a more recent purchase and restoration is still in progress.
The Knights were part of the Colesville branch, the first branch of the church. They remained stalwart and faithful through the many trials of the early Saints. Today there are many Knight descendants active in the church.
Joseph worked for both Knight and Stowell while he was in the area. Both men believed his story enough to travel the long distance to Palmyra when Joseph received the golden plates in 1827. Joseph took the Knight wagon to the Hill Cumorah to get the plates, and Stowell always said that he was the first person after Joseph to hold the plates.