Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery (3 October 1806 – 3 March 1850) was the primary participant with Joseph Smith, Jr. in the early formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement from 1829 through 1836. He was one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates. After the organization of the Church of Christ — as the early Latter Day Saint church was known — he became the church's Second Elder.
Life
LDS Standard Works Oliver Cowdery was born October 31806 in Wells, Vermont. His family were members of the Congregational Church and attended in Poultney, Vermont. Ethan Smith was a member of the congregation and in 1823, he published a book called View of the Hebrews that speculated that Native Americans were of Hebrew origin, a common belief in New England.
Book of Mormon Scribe and Witness
An acquaintance of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s father, Joseph Smith, Sr., Cowdery met Joseph Smith on April 5, 1829, (one year and a day before the official founding of the church) after the Smith family told him that the younger Smith had received Golden Plates containing ancient Native American writings. (See Joseph Smith--History 1:66). From April 7 to June 1829, Cowdery acted as Smith's scribe for the translation of the plates into what would later become the Book of Mormon. Cowdery also attempted to translate part of the Book of Mormon, but was unsuccessful. (See History of the Church 1:36-38).
During the translation of the Golden Plates, Cowdery and Smith claimed they were present together on May 15, 1829 and a second time that month, when angels gave them priesthood authority. (See History of the Church 1:39-42). In June of 1829, Cowdery reported experiencing a vision along with Smith and David Whitmer in which an angel showed him the Golden Plates. Martin Harris said he saw a similar vision later that day and Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris signed a statement to that effect. They became known as the Three Witnesses and their testimony has been published with nearly every edition of the Book of Mormon. Also in 1829, Cowdery received a revelation entitled "Articles of the Church of Christ", which directed the formation of the Church of Christ, as the Latter Day Saint or Mormon church was originally known.
Second Elder of the Church
When the Church was organized on April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr. was named "First Elder" and Cowdery was designated the "Second Elder." Cowdery was technically second in authority to Smith in the church from its organization through 1836. In practice, however, Sidney Rigdon, Smith's "spokesman" and his counselor in the First Presidency, had begun to supplant Cowdery as early as 1831.
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.. Oliver and Elizabeth had only one child live to maturity, Maria Louise Cowdery, who was born August 11, 1835. They had four other children who died in infancy or early childhood.
Cowdery helped Smith revise and publish Smith's revelations for the Book of Commandments. This book was later revised and expanded into the Doctrine and Covenants. Cowdery 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 in 1837, Cowdery obtained the money-printing plates. He later was sent to Monroe, Michigan where he became President of the Bank of Monroe, which the Church bought as a partner to the bank in Kirtland. Both banks had failed by March of 1837. Later that year, Oliver moved to the newly founded Latter Day Saint settlement in Far West, Missouri. All through the winter of 1837-38 Cowdery suffered from ill health.
Early History of the Church
In 1834 and 1835, Cowdery, with Smith's aid, published a "history" of the Church as a series of articles in the Church's "Messenger and Advocate." The history, written in close proximity to the events it described, does not always line up perfectly with the "official" history of the Church. For instance, Cowdery does not mention the First Vision in his narrative or the restoration of the Church. He associates instead Smith's first spiritual manifestation with a visitation of the angel Moroni, who Cowdery said appeared to Smith in September 1823. Although not acquainted with the Smith family at the time of the events, Cowdery places the religious revival that is alleged to have caused Smith to question which church he should join in 1823, not 1820, and corrected himself when he claimed that it occurred in the year 1821, when Smith was 15. In this correction, Cowdery stated that the revival occurred after Smith's brother Alvin had died in 1823. Cowdery also said that the final battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites had occurred in the vicinity of the Hill Cumorah, where Smith claimed he found the golden plates. Some critics claim this is troubling for Book of Mormon geography, as there is little evidence for mass graves for tens of thousands of soldiers at the site. Most Mormon apologists and scholars now argue that the events described in the Book of Mormon likely took place in Central America or Mesoamerica, based on multiple statments from Smith that led to the "limited geography theory." Needless to say, this theory does not line up with Cowdery's statement identifying the New York "Cumorah" as the site of the last battle in the Book of Mormon.
Excommunication
In 1835, Joseph Smith Jr. initiated a relationship with a young woman living in his home as a maid, named Fanny Alger. It was later reported that this was the restoration of the ancient, patriarchal order of marriage and that Fanny was the first of Smith's plural wives. Cowdery was extremely opposed to this relationship and this doctrine. Cowdery later wrote to his brother, Warren:
- "When [Joseph Smith] was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that which I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nastly, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger's was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deserted from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself."
Despite this conflict, Cowdery and Smith had continued to work together in the church. However, by early 1838 further conflicts arose between them. In March 1838, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon moved to Far West, which had been under the presidency of Cowdery's brothers-in-law, David and John Whitmer. Smith and Rigdon took charge of the Missouri church and initiated a number of policies which Cowdery and the Whitmers felt violated the separation of church and state.
On April 12, 1838, a church court excommunicated Cowdery after he failed to appear at a hearing on his membership and sent a letter resigning from the Church instead. He summed up his objections in the following words:
- "...but the bare notice of these charges, over which you assume the right to decide, is, in my opinion, a direct attempt to make the secular power subservient to Church direction-to the correctness of which I cannot in conscience subscribe-I believe that principle never did fail to produce anarchy and confusion. This attempt to control me in my temporal interests, I conceive to be a disposition to take from me a portion of my Constitutional privileges and inherent right-I only, respectfully, ask leave, therefore, to withdraw from a society assuming they have such right." (Mehling, p.181)
The Whitmers, W.W. Phelps and Book of Mormon witness Hiram Page were also cut off from the church. (Far West Record, pp. 165-66). According to church records, Cowdery was cut off for inactivity, accusing Smith of adultery — due to Smith's secretive practice of plural marriage, to which Cowdery was opposed — and three charges of beginning law practice and seeking to collect debts after the Kirtland bank failure.
Cowdery and the Whitmers became known as "the dissenters," but they continued to live in and around Far West, where they owned a great deal of property. Fervent members of the Church including Sampson Avard, Lyman Wight and Hyrum Smith organized a confraternity which became known as the "Danites" whose first stated goal was to expel the "dissenters." On June 17, 1838, President Sidney Rigdon announced to a large Mormon congregation that the dissenters were "as salt that had lost its savor" and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast the dissenters out "to be trodden beneath the feet of men." Cowdery and the Whitmers took this Salt Sermon as a threat against their lives and fled the county. Reports of their treatment was one of the early factors which led to the Mormon War.
"Book of Mormon Denied by Oliver"
A poem by J.H. Johnson, in the Times and Seasons (an LDS newspaper) appeared in 1841, a part of which reads:
“The wise shall understand.” Daniel.
Amazed with wonder! I look round
To see most people of our day,
Reject the glorious gospel sound,
Because the simple turn away.
Or does it prove there is no time,
Because some watches will not go?
But does it prove there is no crime
Because not punished here below?
...Or prove that Christ was not the Lord
Because that Peter cursed and swore?
Or Book of Mormon not his word
Because denied, by Oliver?
(Times and Seasons, Vol.2, p.482.)
Some claim that this shows Oliver recanted his affidavit, while others say that the denial referred to his abandoning the LDS religion. Even if the former is what the poem means, this is the only known evidence of Oliver recanting. It may simply that the poem's author was misinformed or posing a hypothetical question.
Life apart from the Church
From 1838–1848, Cowdery put the Latter Day Saint church behind him. He began to study law, passed the bar and began to practice law in Tiffin, Ohio. While in Tiffin, Oliver gained a reputation as an excellent lawyer, educator and political figure. In 1840, he was selected as editor of the local Democratic newspaper until it was learned that he was one of the Book of Mormon witnesses. Rather than recant his testimony, he was demoted to assistant editor. In 1846, Cowdery was nominated as his district's Democratic party candidate for the state senate. However, when his Mormon background was discovered, he was defeated.
Later Latter Day Saint Contacts
After Joseph Smith was assassinated, Cowdery's brother Lyman recognized James J. Strang as Smith's successor to the church presidency. In 1847, Oliver moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin near Strang's headquarters in Voree and went into law practice with his brother. He became co-editor of the Walworth County Democrat and in 1848 he ran for state assemblyman. However, his Mormon ties were once again discovered and he was defeated.
In 1848, Cowdery traveled to meet with followers of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve who were encamped at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. On November 12, 1848, Oliver was rebaptized into the LDS church by Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He acknowledged the authority of the leaders of the church as presently constituted.
Cowdery developed a respiratory illness and on March 3, 1850 he died in Whitmer's home in Richmond, Missouri.
References
- Legg, Phillip R., Oliver Cowdery: The Elusive Second Elder of the Restoration, Herald House: Independence, Missouri, 1989.
- Morris, Larry E. (2000). ""Oliver Cowdery's Vermont Years and the Origins of Mormonism" (PDF). BYU Studies. 39(1): 105–129.
- Mehling, Mary, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy p. 181, Frank Allaben: 1911.