 |
| Portrait of Oliver Cowdery. |
Oliver Cowdery
Born in Vermont in 1806, Oliver Cowdery was the eighth and final
child of William and Rebecca Fuller Cowdery. He grew up in a religious family
that endured many hardships during his early life, such as crop failures and
several moves. Before Cowdery’s third birthday, his mother passed away of
tuberculosis, the same illness that would eventually claim his life. Records
indicate Cowdery lived with relatives for long periods as a young man, probably
for economic reasons. As a youth, he attended school, studying the Bible and
acquiring skills in writing and language that would serve him later in life.1
In 1828, when Oliver Cowdery was in his early twenties, he moved
to western New York, where he was offered a position as a schoolteacher near
Palmyra. There he heard rumors about Joseph Smith and the gold plates. Joseph
Smith’s earliest written history records that the Lord appeared to Cowdery and
“shewed unto him the plates in a vision and also the truth of the work.”2 After boarding for a short
time with Joseph Smith’s parents in Manchester, he determined to travel to
Harmony, Pennsylvania, to meet Joseph in person. Almost immediately after his
arrival, Cowdery began working as Joseph’s scribe on the translation of the
Book of Mormon.
{Desiring to translate like
Joseph, God grants Oliver the opportunity ( D&C 6:25). Within a month,
Oliver had given up (D&C 9:1-11).
Compare that to the YEARS Joseph had put into preparing, studying, and
even seeking help (in 1828, thinking the BOM might have been written in a
native American language, JS had sent Martin Harris off to get help from the
leading expert in those languages, Charles Anton at Columbia University in NYC
[see
https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/martin-harriss-1828-visit-luther-bradish-charles-anthon-samuel-mitchill
]). Eventually, Joseph learned how to
read the translation from light emitting from a stone he put into his hat. Cowdery quit after only a few weeks.
{God did remind
Oliver that he had other gifts, including “the gift of Aaron.” Please note that this was not what the
revelation now in D&C 8 actually said.
Quoting Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “What it originally
said was, “Oliver, you have the gift of working with the sprout.” We learn that
the sprout is the branching end of a stick, and Sidney Rigdon wasn’t too
pleased with this, so when they were ready to publish the Doctrine and
Covenants (or the Book of Commandments in 1833), he changed it to “the gift of
Aaron,” which sounded a little better. It could go back to the Old Testament.
Now you’ve got a Urim and Thummim and a gift of Aaron, and that’s how Moses, of
course, led the children of Israel.
{Then we get a bit more information in a book that’s
not linked in Come, Follow Me but that I have on my bookshelf,
which is a fabulous book by Richard Bushman on Joseph Smith and the Gold Plates. It’s
really relevant to these sections of the Doctrine and Covenants because it’s
about the gold plates, translation, and the process.
{He gives us a little bit more information: The term
“Urim and Thummim” did not come into common use among the Latter-day Saints
until 1834. Before that, they were talked about as “the interpreters” or “the
breastplate.” Bushman suggests that the name Urim and Thummim came into usage
because it was familiar to non–Latter-day Saints—it was in the Bible. Oliver
Cowdery, interestingly enough, was the first one to use that term in 1834. https://www.dialoguejournal.com/podcasts/revelations-and-revolutions-in-context-gospel-study-with-laurel-thatcher-ulrich/ RHS note}
Cowdery received priesthood authority from angelic ministers,
was one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon plates, helped supervise
the publication of the Book of Mormon, and was a founding member of the Church
on April 6, 1830. Of his involvement in these miraculous events, Cowdery
later wrote, “I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior’s goodness
with wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry.”3
 |
| Painting depicting the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist. Oliver Cowdery is kneeling to the right. |
In 1830, Cowdery led a group of four missionaries to American Indian settlements on what was then the western border of the United States. They passed through Ohio, where their preaching led to a surge of conversions that helped establish Kirtland as a center of the Church.4 Two years later, Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer. The couple had six children, but only a daughter, Maria Louise, lived past early childhood. Elizabeth and Maria Louise died two days apart in 1892 and were buried together. Oliver Cowdery had no other descendants.5
During the Church’s early years, Cowdery served prominently as
the Second Elder, the Assistant President of the Church, and an assistant
counselor to the First Presidency.6 He also played a key role
in preparing Joseph Smith’s revelations for publication in the Book of
Commandments and, later, the Doctrine and Covenants. With Joseph Smith and
Sidney Rigdon, Cowdery opened the doors to the House of the Lord in Kirtland in
1836 and welcomed Latter-day Saints to the dedicatory session. He presided over
the proceedings as one of the presidents of the high priesthood and witnessed
the appearance of Jesus Christ and angelic ministers in the temple a week after
the dedication.
A year later, economic troubles in Kirtland, including the
failure of the Kirtland Safety Society bank, dealt a crushing blow to Oliver
Cowdery’s finances, and he reacted by pursuing his own enterprise rather than
continuing to consecrate his property to the Church.7 Cowdery further challenged
Church leaders by accusing them of mismanaging funds and by spreading rumors
that Joseph Smith had committed adultery.8 In 1838, Joseph called on
the high council to investigate Cowdery’s allegations. The council eventually
convened and considered several charges against Cowdery, ultimately voting to
uphold most of them and excommunicating Cowdery.9 A revelation later
directed that Hyrum Smith would replace Cowdery as Assistant President of the
Church.10
Cowdery spent the next few years studying and practicing law in
Kirtland, eventually being admitted to the Ohio Bar as an attorney. He then
moved a hundred miles west to Tiffin, Ohio, where he continued to practice law
for the next seven years. While in Tiffin, he corresponded with Latter-day
Saints who hoped to reunite him with the Church. Brigham Young’s brother (and
Cowdery’s brother-in-law) Phineas Young visited Cowdery and learned that “his
heart is still with his old friends.”11 On hearing this and other
reports, Joseph encouraged the Quorum of the Twelve to invite Cowdery back into
fellowship. Cowdery told members of the Twelve his disaffection had resulted
mostly from aggressive Latter-day Saints in Missouri threatening him and not
from any personal misgivings with the Apostles or other leaders.12 Cowdery hoped his
published testimony of the Book of Mormon could withstand his own shortcomings
and reputation. For a time, it appeared that Cowdery might rejoin the Saints in
Nauvoo. Joseph Smith received and read a letter from Cowdery hours before being
killed in Carthage Jail.13
In 1847, Cowdery moved to Wisconsin, hoping a change in climate
would benefit his health. There he ran for the state assembly but lost the
election by 40 votes and immediately contemplated joining the companies of
Latter-day Saint pioneers migrating to Utah. Cowdery spoke at a conference in
nearby Iowa and pledged his support to the Quorum of the Twelve. Days later,
the High Council voted to readmit Cowdery into full fellowship. Orson Hyde of
the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles rebaptized, reconfirmed, and reordained
Cowdery, who then made plans to reunite with the Saints in Utah. His health
continued to decline, however, and he passed away in 1850 before he could
travel west.14
Church Resources
Jeffrey G. Cannon, “Oliver
Cowdery’s Gift: D&C 6, 7, 8, 9, 13,” in Matthew McBride and James Goldberg, eds., Revelations
in Context: The Stories behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt
Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016), 15–19.
“Oliver
Cowdery,” josephsmithpapers.org.
Larry C. Porter, “The
Testimony of Oliver Cowdery,” Ensign, Dec. 1996, 40.
Bibliography
The following publications provide further information about this
topic. By referring or linking you to these resources, we do not endorse or
guarantee the content or the views of the authors.
Alexander L. Baugh, ed., Days Never to Be
Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center,
Brigham Young University, 2009).
John W. Welch and Larry E. Morris, eds., Oliver
Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell
Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2006).
 |
| Daguerreotype of Oliver Cowdery found in the Library of Congress, taken in the 1840s by James Presley Ball |
Oliver Cowdery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oliver H. P. Cowdery[2] (October 3, 1806 – March 3, 1850) was an American religious leader who, with Joseph Smith, was an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles and the Assistant President of the Church.
Cowdery's relationship with Joseph Smith and the church's
leadership began to deteriorate in the mid-1830s. He was excommunicated in 1838 along with several other
prominent Missouri church leaders on allegations of misusing church property
amid tense relations between them and Smith.[3]
After his excommunication, Cowdery moved to Wisconsin, where he
practiced law and became involved in local politics. Cowdery became a Methodist, but later returned to the Latter Day Saint
movement and was rebaptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1848.
Biography
Early life
Oliver Cowdery was born October 3, 1806, in Wells, Vermont; his father, William, moved the family to the
nearby town of Poultney when Cowdery was three years old.[4] His mother,
Rebecca Fuller Cowdery, died on September 3, 1809. In his youth, Cowdery hunted
for buried treasure using a divining rod, a common practice at the time.[5]
At age 20, Cowdery left Vermont for upstate New York, where his older brothers had settled. He
clerked at a store for just over two years and in 1829 became a school teacher
in Manchester.[6] Cowdery lodged
with different families in the area, including that of Joseph Smith, Sr., who was said to have provided Cowdery with
additional information about the golden plates of which Cowdery said he had heard
"from all quarters."[7]
Book of Mormon scribe and witness
Cowdery met Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 5, 1829—a year and a day before
the official founding of the Church of Christ—and heard from him how he had received golden plates containing
ancient reformed
Egyptian writings.[8] Cowdery told
Smith that he had seen the golden plates in a vision before the two had met.[9]
Before meeting Cowdery, Smith had virtually stopped translating
after the first
116 pages had been lost
by Martin Harris. Working with Cowdery, however, Smith completed the manuscript
of what would become the Book of Mormon between April 7 and June 1829, in
what Richard
Bushman later called a
"burst of rapid-fire translation."[10] Cowdery also
unsuccessfully attempted to translate part of the Book of Mormon by himself.[11]
Cowdery and Smith claimed that on May 15, 1829, they received
the Aaronic priesthood from the resurrected John the Baptist, after which they baptized each other in the Susquehanna River.[12] Cowdery said
that he and Smith later went into the forest and prayed "until a glorious
light encircled us, and as we arose on account of the light, three persons
stood before us dressed in white, their faces beaming with glory." One of
the three announced that he was the Apostle Peter and said the others were the
apostles James and John.[13]
Later that year, Cowdery reported sharing a vision, along with
Smith and David
Whitmer, in which an angel
showed him the golden plates. Harris said he saw a similar vision later that
day. Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris signed a statement to that effect and became
known as the Three
Witnesses. Their testimony has
subsequently been published in nearly every edition of the Book of Mormon.
Second Elder of the church
When the Church of Christ was organized on April 6, 1830, Smith
became "First Elder" and Cowdery "Second Elder." Although
Cowdery was technically second in authority to Smith from the organization of
the church through 1838, in practice Sidney Rigdon, Smith's "spokesman" and counselor
in the First
Presidency, began to supplant
Cowdery as early as 1831. Cowdery held the position of Assistant President of the Church from 1834 until his excommunication in 1838.[14][15] He was also a
member of the first presiding
high council of the church,
organized in Kirtland, Ohio,
in 1834.
On December 18, 1832, Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, the
daughter of Peter
Whitmer, Sr. and sister
of David, John, Jacob and Peter
Whitmer, Jr. They had six
children, of whom only one daughter survived to maturity.[16][17]
Cowdery helped Smith publish a series of revelations first
called the Book
of Commandments and later, as
revised and expanded, the Doctrine
and Covenants. He was also the
editor, or on the editorial board, of several early church publications,
including the Evening
and Morning Star, the Messenger
and Advocate and the Northern
Times.
When the church created a bank known as the Kirtland
Safety Society (KSS) in 1837,
Cowdery obtained the money-printing plates. Sent by Smith to Monroe, Michigan, he became president of the Bank of Monroe,
in which the church had a controlling
interest.[18] Both banks
failed that same year. Cowdery moved to the newly founded Latter Day Saint
settlement in Far
West, Missouri, and suffered ill health through the winter
of 1837–38.
1838 split with Smith
By early 1838, the relationship between Smith and Cowdery had
deteriorated significantly. Cowdery felt that Smith's integration of economic
and political plans into religious matters was encroaching on the separation of
church and state. In January 1838, Smith and Rigdon left Kirtland and took over
the Far
West, Missouri church in March
1838, which had previously been under the presidency of W.
W. Phelps and David
Whitmer—a close friend and brother-in-law to Cowdery. Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patten, and Brigham Young, were ordained as the new stake presidency in
Missouri. The new presidency requested John Whitmer, who had been the Church
historian and recorder, and a member of the
stake presidency in Missouri, to turn in his historical notes and writings.
When he failed to comply, Whitmer was removed from his position, and prompted
an investigation into the financial handlings of the Missouri leadership.[20]
Nine excommunication charges were presented against Cowdery,
which included selling lands in Jackson County without authorization, trying to
destroy the character of Joseph Smith, and disregarding his ecclesiastical
duties for the practice of law. On April 12, 1838, a church court
excommunicated Cowdery.[21] David Whitmer
was also excommunicated at the same time, and apostle Lyman E. Johnson was disfellowshipped;[22] John Whitmer and Phelps had been
excommunicated a month earlier.[23] Cowdery refused
to appear before the council, but sent a letter of resignation, reiterating his
desire to live his religious beliefs independent from his economic and
political decisions.
These men were became collectively known as
"dissenters", but continued to live in and around Far West, where
they owned a great deal of property, much of which was purchased when they were
acting as agents for the church.[24] Possession
became unclear and the dissenters threatened the church with lawsuits.
[ After Joseph received a revelation commanding him to not sell
land in Missouri, Cowdery was in a bind. He was listed as legal owner of
properties and was legally responsible for taxes due on the land. Oliver decided to sell some of the property
in order to have money to pay the taxes on the bulk of the properties.RHS note
]
After Rigdon delivered a sermon [the Salt Sermon] that implied
dissenters had no place in the Latter-Day Saint community, the Cowdreys and
Whitmers left Far West. The Danite Manifesto,
a letter addressed to Cowdery and the other dissenters, was signed by some
eighty-four Latter-Day Saints (but not Smith or Rigdon[25]). It warned:
“you shall have three days after you receive
this communication to you, including twenty-four hours in each day, for you to
depart with your families peaceably; which you may do undisturbed by any
person; but in that time, if you do not depart, we will use the means in our
power to cause you to depart”.[26]
Cowdery and the dissenters fled the county. Reports about their
treatment circulated in nearby non-Mormon communities and increased the tension
that led to the 1838 Mormon War, which ultimately resulted in the Latter-Day
Saints' expulsion from Missouri.[19]: 349–353
1838–48
Between 1838 and 1848, Cowdery studied and practiced law
in Tiffin,
Ohio, where he became a
civic and political leader. He joined the local Methodist church and served as secretary in 1844.[27] Cowdery, also
edited the local Democratic newspaper until it was learned that he was one of the
Three Witnesses, at which time he was reassigned as assistant editor. He was
nominated as his district's Democratic Party candidate for the Ohio State Senate in 1846, but was defeated when his
Mormon background was discovered.[28]
After the Smiths’
death on June 27,
1844, a succession crisis split the Latter-Day Saint movement. Cowdery's father and
brother were followers of James J. Strang, who pressed his claim as the movement's
successor by claiming that he had found and translated ancient records engraved
upon metal
plates, similar to the
golden plates Smith had translated in the 1820s.[29] In 1847, Cowdery
and his brother moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, about twelve miles away from Strang's
headquarters in Voree.
In Elkhorn he entered law practice with his brother and became co-editor of
the Walworth County Democrat. In 1848 he ran for state assemblyman
but was again defeated when his Mormon ties were disclosed.[28]
LDS Church rebaptism
In 1848, Cowdery traveled to the frontier settlement of Winter
Quarters (in
present-day Nebraska) to meet with followers of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve, asking to be reunited with the church.[30] The Twelve
referred the application to the high council in Pottawattamie
County, Iowa,
which convened a meeting with all high priests in the area to consider the matter. After Cowdery
convinced the meeting attendees that he no longer maintained any claim to
leadership within the church, his application for rebaptism was unanimously
approved.[31] On November 12,
1848, Cowdery was rebaptized by Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve into—what
had become following the succession crisis—the LDS Church in Indian Creek
at Kanesville,
Iowa.
After his rebaptism, Cowdery desired to relocate to the State of Deseret (present-day Utah)
in the coming spring or summer, but due to financial and health problems he
decided that he would not be able to make the journey in 1849.[31] Because he was
not with the LDS settlement in the State of Deseret, he was not immediately
given a position of responsibility in the church. However, in July 1849, Young
wrote Cowdery a letter inviting him to travel to Washington, D.C., with Almon W. Babbitt to press the
State of Deseret's desire for statehood and to draft a formal application.[31] Cowdery's
deteriorating health did not allow him to accept this assignment, and within
eight months he had died.
In 1912, the official church magazine Improvement Era published a statement by Jacob F. Gates,
son of early Mormon leader Jacob Gates, who had died twenty years prior. According
to the recollection by his son, the elder Gates had visited Cowdery in 1849 and
inquired about his witness testimony concerning the Book of Mormon. Cowdery
reportedly reaffirmed his witness:
"Jacob, I want you to remember what I say
to you. I am a dying man, and what would it profit me to tell you a lie? I
know," said he, "that this Book of Mormon was translated by the gift
and power of God. My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched,
and I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain
imagination of the mind—it was real".[32][33]
On March 3, 1850, Cowdery died in David Whitmer's home in Richmond,
Missouri.[34]
As purported co-author of the Book of Mormon
See also: Origin of the Book of Mormon
Critics who doubt the origin theory of the Book of Mormon have
speculated that Cowdery may have played a role in the work's composition. LDS
scholar Daniel
Peterson argues against
this theory noting that analysis of the manuscripts indicates that the Book of
Mormon was primarily the product of Joseph Smith's dictation, rather than a
collaborative effort — it contains aural errors, typical of a transcription
process. Additionally, the Printer's Manuscript, which Cowdery assisted in
producing, contains significant copyist errors in his handwriting, suggesting
he was not fully aware of the book's content beforehand.[35]
Speculation of pre-1829 connection between Cowdery and Smith
Cowdery was a third
cousin of Lucy Mack
Smith, Joseph Smith's mother.[36] There is also a
geographical connection between the Smiths and the Cowderys. During the 1790s,
both Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, and two of Cowdery's relatives were
living in Tunbridge,
Vermont.[citation
needed]
New Israelites
See also: New Israelites
Joseph Smith, Sr. and Cowdery's father, William, may have been
members of a Congregationalist sect known as the New Israelites, organized in Rutland
County, Vermont. The Cowdery family
lived in Rutland County in the early 19th century and later attended a Congregationalist
church in Poultney, Vermont. Witnesses from Vermont connected William
Cowdery to the sect before these witnesses could have known that his son,
Oliver, was a dowser.[37]
Vermont residents interviewed by a local historian said that
Joseph Smith, Sr. was also a member of the New Israelites and was one of its
"leading rods-men".[38] But although
residents said that he lived in Poultney, Vermont, "at the time of the Wood movement
here",[39] there are no other records placing Smith
closer than about 50 miles away. On the other hand, Smith's involvement with
the New Israelites would be consistent with his links to Congregationalism and
the report from James C. Brewster than in 1837 Smith, Sr. admitted that he
entered the money digging business "more than thirty years" ago.[40]
Cowdery and View of the Hebrews
See also: View
of the Hebrews
For several years, Cowdery and his family attended the
Congregational Church in Poultney, Vermont, when its minister was the Rev. Ethan
Smith, author of View
of the Hebrews, an 1823 book
suggesting that Native Americans were of Hebrew origin, a not uncommon
speculation during the colonial and early national periods.[41][42] In 2000, David Persuitte argued that Cowdery's knowledge of View
of the Hebrews significantly contributed to the final version of the
Book of Mormon,[43] a connection
first suggested as early as 1902.[44] Fawn Brodie wrote that it "may never be proved
that Joseph saw View of the Hebrews before writing the Book of
Mormon, but the striking parallelisms between the two books hardly leave a case
for mere coincidence."[45] Richard Bushman and John W. Welch reject the connection and argue that
there is little relationship between the contents of the two books.[46]
Footnotes
[edit]
1.
^ On January 24, 1841, Hyrum Smith was ordained and
replaced Cowdery as Assistant President of the Church.
2.
^ Prior to the winter of 1830–31, Cowdery
generally signed his name "Oliver H P Cowdery", likely representing
the names Hazard and Perry. Oliver Hazard Perry was a recent war hero who
decisively defeated the British on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Criticism of
his use of this "pretentious moniker" by the Palmyra Reflector (June 1, 1830)
probably influenced Cowdery to abandon his temporary usage of the initials. See
Ryan N. Cramer, "The Elusive Middle Names of Oliver H. P.
Cowdery" John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 42,
No. 1 (2022), 79-87 .
3.
^ Marquardt 2005, p. 463; Remini
2002, p. 128; Quinn 1994, p. 93; Bushman 2005, pp. 324,
346–348.
4.
^ Preston Nibley, Oliver
Cowdery: His Life, Character and Testimony (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 1958).
5.
^ EMD, 1: 603–05, 619–20; Quinn, 37.
6.
^ Lucy Cowdery Young to Andrew Jenson, March 7,
1887, Church Archives
7.
^ Dan Vogel, Joseph
Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books,
2004), 154; Junius F. Wells, "Oliver Cowdery", Improvement Era XIV:5 (March
1911); Lucy
Mack Smith, "Preliminary Manuscript," 90 in Early Mormon
Documents 1: 374–75.
8.
^ Joseph
Smith–History 1:66.
9.
^ Palmer, Grant (2002). An Insider's View
of Mormon Origins. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books.
p. 179. According to Lucy Mack Smith, the "Lord
appeared unto a young man by the name of Oliver Cowdery and showed unto him the
plates in a vision."
10.
^ Bushman 2005, p. 70.
11.
^ History of the Church 1:36-38; D&C 8, 9.
12.
^ Messenger
and Advocate 1:14–16 (October 1834); Bushman, 74–75.
13.
^ Charles M. Nielsen to Heber Grant, February
10, 1898, in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake
City, Utah: Signature Books, 1998), 2: 476; History of the Church 1:39–42.
14.
^ Bushman, p. 124
15.
^ Vogel, Dan (2004). Joseph Smith: The
Making of a Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 548. ASIN B07NTCYDQB.
16.
^ Maria Louise Cowdery, born August 11, 1835.
17.
^ Anderson, Richard; Ludlow, Daniel
(1992). Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan.
pp. 335–340. ISBN 9780029040409. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
18.
^ See Mark L. Staker, "Raising Money in
Righteousness: Oliver Cowdery as Banker," in Days Never to Be
Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery, ed. Alexander L. Baugh (Provo, UT: Religious
Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2009), 143–254.
19.
^ Jump up to:a b Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph
Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
20.
^ Romig, Ronald E. (November 24,
2014). Eighth Witness: The Biography of John Whitmer. John Whitmer
Books. ISBN 978-1-934901-28-1.
21.
^ Bushman, 347–48. Among other things, Cowdery
was accused of "virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not
be governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor Revelations whatever in his
temporal affairs."
22.
^ History of the Church 3:16–20.
23.
^ History of the Church 3:7.
24.
^ Hamer 2004,
p. xv–xvii
25.
^ Missouri Documents (Report).
p. 106. Document containing the correspondence, orders &c. in
relation to the disturbances with the Mormons; and the evidence given before
the Hon. Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of
Missouri, at the Courthouse in Richmond, in a criminal court of inquiry, begun
November 12, 1838, on the trial of Joseph Smith, Jr. and others for high
treason and other crimes against the state (Missouri. Office of the Secretary
of State; Missouri. General Assembly (1840–1841))[full citation needed]
26.
^ "Document Showing The Testimony
... on the Trial of Joseph Smith, Jr". olivercowdery.com.
Joseph Smith's History Vault. (Washington D. C.: Blair & Rives, 1841)
27.
^ Vogel, ed. EMD, 2: 504. Gabriel J.
Keen, a leading member of the Tiffin Methodist Church, swore in 1885 that
Cowdery had publicly renounced Mormonism before being admitted as a member, but
there is no corroborative evidence for Keen's claim. The document is at 2:
504-07.
28.
^ Jump up to:a b Stanley R. Gunn, Oliver Cowdery,
Second Elder and Scribe (Salt Lake City, 1962)
29.
^ Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of
Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 208–13.
30.
^ "Brethren, for a number of years, I have
been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humble and
be one in your midst. I seek no station. I only wish to be identified with you.
I am out of the Church, but I wish to become a member. I wish to come in at the
door; I know the door, I have not come here to seek precedence. I come humbly
and throw myself upon the decision of the body, knowing as I do, that its
decisions are right." (Stanley R. Gunn, "Oliver Cowdery Second Elder
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: A Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the Division of Religion, Brigham Young University," (1942),
166, as cited in Improvement Era, 24, p. 620.)
31.
^ Jump up to:a b c Scott H. Fauling, "The Return of Oliver
Cowdery" Archived October 21,
2011, at the Wayback Machine, Maxwell Institute, byu.edu.
32.
^ "Jacob Gates". Grampa Bill.
Archived from the original on August 14,
2018. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
33.
^ Scott H. Faulring, The Return of Oliver Cowdery, Maxwell Institute, archived from the original on October 21,
2011, retrieved April 10, 2012; Gates, Jacob F. (March 1912).
"Testimony of Jacob Gates". Improvement Era 15. p. 92.
34.
^ Of Cowdery's death, Whitmer said: "Oliver
died the happiest man I ever saw. After shaking hands with the family and
kissing his wife and daughter, he said 'Now I lay down for the last time; I am
going to my Saviour'; and he died immediately with a smile on his face."
(Stanley R. Gunn, Oliver Cowdery Second Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints: A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Division of
Religion, Brigham Young University. (Stanley R. Gunn: 1942), 170–71, as cited
in Millennial
Star, XII, p. 207.)
35.
^ "The Logic Tree of Life, or,
Why I Can't Manage to Disbelieve - FairMormon conference 2016". FairMormon.
Retrieved May 3, 2019.
36.
^ Cowdery genealogy;
Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, (Champaign:
University of Illinois Press, 1984), 222; Bushman, RSR, 578, n.51.
There is also a distant geographical connection between the Smiths and the
Cowderys. During the 1790s, both Joseph Smith, Sr. and two of
Oliver Cowdery's relatives were living in Tunbridge, Vermont.
37.
^ Quinn 1998,
pp. 25–26; Brooke 1994, p. 133
38.
^ Quinn 1998,
pp. 35–36; Brooke 1994, pp. 133.
39.
^ Quinn 1998,
pp. 25–26; Brooke 1994, p. 133.
40.
^ Brooke 1994, pp. 133, 39.
Brewster reported that in 1837, Smith, Sr. boasted that "I know more about
money-digging than any man in this generation for I have been in the business
for more than thirty years!"
41.
^ Grant H. Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake
City: Signature
Books, 2002), 58–60.
42.
^ Richard Bushman, Rough
Stone Rolling, 94–97.
43.
^ David Persuitte, Joseph Smith and the Origins of the
Book of Mormon (McFarland & Company, 2000), 125: "Oliver Cowdery
surely had a copy of View of the Hebrews—a book that was published
in his home town of Poultney, Vermont by the minister of the church his family
was associated with. Considering his joint venture with Joseph Smith in
'translating' The Book of Mormon and the common subject
matter, Cowdery could have shared his copy of Ethan Smith's book with Joseph,
perhaps even sometime before Joseph began the 'translation' process."
44.
^ I. Woodbridge Riley, The Founder of
Mormonism (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1902), 124–26.
45.
^ Fawn Brodie, No
Man Knows My History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), 47.
46.
^ John W. Welch, Reexploring
the Book of Mormon, 83–87, and A Sure Foundation: Answers to
Difficult Gospel Questions (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988); John W. Welch, "An
Unparallel" (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1985); Spencer J. Palmer and William L.
Knecht, "View of the Hebrews: Substitute for Inspiration?" BYU Studies 5/2 (1964):
105–13.
References
[edit]
·
Brooke, John L. (1994), The Refiner's
Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
·
Cowdrey, Wayne L. Davis, Howard A. Vinik, Arthur Who
Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Spalding Enigma Concordia
Publishing House: St. Louis, 2005.
·
Gunn, Stanley R. Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder and Scribe. Bookcraft: Salt Lake City, 1962.
pp250–251
·
Hamer, John (2004). Northeast of Eden: A
Historical Atlas of Missouri's Mormon County. Mirabile, Missouri: Far West
Cultural Center. OCLC 62190715.
·
Legg, Phillip R., Oliver Cowdery: The Elusive Second
Elder of the Restoration, Herald House: Independence, Missouri, 1989.
·
Marquardt, H. Michael (2005). The Rise of
Mormonism: 1816–1844. Grand Rapids, MI: Xulon Press. ISBN 1-59781-470-9.
·
Mehling, Mary, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy p. 181,
Frank Allaben: 1911
·
Morris, Larry E. (2000). "Oliver Cowdery's Vermont Years
and the Origins of Mormonism" (PDF). BYU Studies. 39 (1): 105–129.
Retrieved June 23, 2009.
·
Quinn, D. Michael (1998), Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (2nd ed.),
Salt Lake City: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-089-2
·
Quinn, D. Michael (1994). The
Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-056-6.
·
Remini, Robert V. (2002). Joseph Smith. Penguin Lives. New York, NY: Penguin
Group. ISBN 0-670-03083-X.
·
Smith, Joseph, B. H. Roberts, ed., History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1902), seven volumes
·
Vogel, Dan, ed., Early Mormon Documents [EMD] (Salt
Lake City: Signature
Books, 1998), five volumes
·
Welch, John W. and Morris, Larry E., eds., Oliver
Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness (Provo, UT: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for
Religious Scholarship, 2006); ISBN 0-8425-2661-7
Further reading
[edit]
·
Baugh,
Alexander (2009), Days Never to Be Forgotten: Oliver
Cowdery, BYU, ISBN 978-0-8425-2742-2
·
Welch, John (2006), Oliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder,
Witness, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for
Religious Scholarship, ISBN 0842526617
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