29 Facts About Oliver Cowdery

Oliver Cowdery 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.

Oliver Cowdery 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.

Oliver 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 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.

At age 20, Oliver Cowdery left Vermont for upstate New York, where his older brothers had settled.

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 them 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.

Oliver Cowdery felt that Smith's integration of economic and political plans into religious matters was encroaching on the separation of church and state.

Oliver Cowdery expressed his concerns of Smith's relationship with Alger, a teenage maid living with the Smiths in Kirtland in a January 1838 letter to his brother Warren:.

Nine excommunication charges were presented against Oliver 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.

Oliver 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.

Between 1838 and 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 to meet with followers of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve, asking to be reunited with the church.

Oliver Cowdery then traveled to meet with Whitmer in Richmond, Missouri to persuade him to move west and rejoin the Saints in Utah Territory.

Oliver Cowdery succumbed to tuberculosis and died March 3,1850 in David Whitmer's home in Richmond.

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.

Additionally, the Printer's Manuscript, which Oliver Cowdery assisted in producing, contains significant copyist errors in his handwriting, suggesting he was not fully aware of the book's content beforehand.