In 1827, Joseph Smith began translating the record which would be known as the Book of Mormon, with Martin Harris, a wealthy New York farmer, as his scribe. After the first manuscript was lost, translation did not resume for more than a year and a half. Because the plates were in danger in New York, Joseph Smith moved down to Pennsylvania in 1828 and 1829, in order to protect the plates and translate them in peace, without constant interruption. At Harmony, Pennsylvania, just south of the New York border, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery translated the Book of Mormon, producing a manuscript in only seventy days. 

The following is a short chronology of the Church in Pennsylvania:

• 1828: Joseph Smith resides and farms in Harmony, Pennsylvania
• 1829: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery produce the Book of Mormon manuscript in about seventy days
• 1830-1831: many Pennsylvania residents believe the gospel and are baptized; many of these join the body of the Church in Ohio
• 1839: on his trip to Washington, D.C., Joseph Smith preaches in Philaedelphia 

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