28 Facts About Oliver Cowdery

Oliver Cowdery was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, the Assistant President of the Church.

In 1838, as Assistant President of the Church, Oliver Cowdery resigned and was excommunicated on charges of denying the faith.

Oliver Cowdery became a Methodist, but was rebaptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1848.

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.

Oliver Cowdery clerked at a store for just over two years and in 1829 became a school teacher in Manchester.

Oliver Cowdery lodged with different families in the area, including that of Joseph Smith, Sr.

Oliver Cowdery told Smith that he had seen the golden plates in a vision before the two had met.

Later that year, Oliver Cowdery reported sharing a vision, along with Smith and David Whitmer, in which an angel showed him the golden plates.

Oliver Cowdery held the position of Assistant President of the Church from 1834 until his excommunication in 1838.

Oliver Cowdery was a member of the first presiding high council of the church, organized in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834.

On December 18,1832, Oliver Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, the daughter of Peter Whitmer, Sr.

Oliver Cowdery helped Smith publish a series of revelations first called the Book of Commandments and later, as revised and expanded, the Doctrine and Covenants.

Oliver Cowdery was 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.

In 1834 and 1835, with the help of Smith, Oliver Cowdery published a contribution to an anticipated "full history of the rise of the church of Latter Day Saints" as a series of articles in the Messenger and Advocate.

Oliver Cowdery's version was not entirely congruent with the later official history of the church.

For instance, Oliver Cowdery ignored Smith's first vision but described an angel who called Smith to his work in September 1823.

Oliver Cowdery placed the religious revival that inspired Smith in 1823 and stated that this revival experience had caused Smith to pray in his bedroom.

Further, after first asserting that the revival had occurred in 1821, when Smith was in his "fifteenth year", Oliver Cowdery corrected the date to 1823 and stated that it was in Smith's seventeenth year.

Finally, in January 1838, Oliver Cowdery wrote his brother Warren that he and Smith:.

Between 1838 to 1848, Oliver Cowdery studied and practiced law in Tiffin, Ohio, where he became a civic and political leader.

Oliver Cowdery joined the local Methodist church and served as secretary in 1844.

Oliver Cowdery, 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.

Oliver Cowdery 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.

In 1848, Oliver Cowdery traveled to the frontier settlement of Winter Quarters meet with followers of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve, asking to be reunited with the church.

On March 3,1850, Oliver Cowdery died in David Whitmer's home in Richmond, Missouri.

Oliver Cowdery was a third cousin of Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother.

The Oliver 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.