Three Witnesses
The Three Witnesses is the collective name for three men—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris—in the early Latter Day Saint movement who stated that an angel showed them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. They also stated that they heard God's voice, informing them that the book had been translated by divine power.
Their joint statement, along with the Eight Witnesses statement, has appeared in every edition of the Book of Mormon since its publication in 1830. They are collectively known as the Book of Mormon witnesses.
All three men eventually broke with Smith’s church, although Harris and Cowdery were later rebaptized into the church after Smith's death. Whitmer founded his own Church of Christ. All three men upheld their testimony of the Book of Mormon at their deaths.
Testimony and early role in the movement
The Three Witnesses were early adherents to the Latter Day Saint movement, and had aided Joseph Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon through various means: Harris made a significant financial contribution to the printing of the Book of Mormon; Oliver Cowdery served as a scribe, while the Whitmer family home hosted the translation, at the request of Cowdery.On June 28, 1829, Joseph Smith and the three men went into the woods near the home of Peter Whitmer Sr. and prayed to receive a vision of the golden plates. After some time, Harris left the other three men, believing his presence had prevented the vision from occurring. The remaining three again knelt and said they soon saw a light in the air overhead and an angel holding the golden plates. Smith then went after Harris, and after praying at some length with him, Harris said he also saw the vision.
The three men provided a single written statement titled "Testimony of Three Witnesses", published at the end of the first edition of the Book of Mormon:
File:ThreeWitnesses.jpg|thumb|165px|Three Witnesses Monument, by Avard Fairbanks
The testimony was moved to the beginning of the Book of Mormon in later editions, with standardized spelling.
Oliver Cowdery
Early association with Smith
Oliver Cowdery was a schoolteacher and an early convert to Mormonism who served as scribe while Smith dictated the Book of Mormon.Cowdery had been offered a teaching position in the Palmyra area in 1828. Possibly because of Hyrum Smith’s connection with the teacher’s committee. Cowdery rented a room from Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.
In early 1829, his growing interest in the stories circulating about the golden plates led him to "deep study all day, and it had been put into heart that would have the privilege of writing for Joseph." Cowdery left Palmyra for Harmony in spring of 1829 to meet Joseph Smith, stopping in Fayette to meet with his long-time friend, David Whitmer.
Cowdery would write several letters to Whitmer to report on the translation and eventually requested to use his home to finish the translation. He would write down the dictation of the Book of Mormon in about three months; additionally, he would copy nearly the entire manuscript to prepare for publication later that fall.
Cowdery would later recount that he had experienced two other important visions before his Three Witness testimony; Cowdery said that he and Smith were ordained by laying of hands by John the Baptist in May 1829, after which they had baptized each other in the Susquehanna River. Later that year, Cowdery and Smith had gone 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." They identified the three persons as apostles Peter, James and John, who similarly ordained them to the Melchizedek priesthood.
Cowdery, like Joseph Smith, was also a treasure hunter who had used a divining rod in his youth. Cowdery asked questions of the rod: if it moved, the answer was yes; if not, no. Cowdery also told Smith that he had seen the golden plates in a vision before the two ever met.
Kirtland and Missouri
Shortly after the publication of the Book of Mormon, Cowdery was instrumental in the nascent church’s missionary efforts. In 1830, Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt were called to serve a mission primarily aimed at Native Americans, which expanded the church into areas like Kirtland and Jackson County.Cowdery settled in Jackson County in 1831, but moved to Kirtland after the 1833 expulsion of the Mormons from the county. In Kirtland, he served as the editor of the church's newspaper, Messenger and Advocate, and was ordained Assistant President of the Church, a largely ceremonial role. In 1835, Cowdery was designated to serve a mission to Canada.
Split with Smith
By 1838, Cowdery and Smith had a number of disagreements, including doctrinal differences about the role of faith and works, the Kirtland Safety Society, and what Cowdery called Smith's "dirty, nasty, filthy affair" with Fanny Alger. Smith's growing reliance on Sidney Rigdon as his first counselor and differences over the management of finances and land in Missouri and Kirtland. Nine excommunication charges were brought against him in April, but Cowdery refused to attend the disciplinary session. Cowdery also refused a high council decision that he not sell lands on which he hoped to make a profit.After Cowdery's excommunication on April 12, 1838, he taught school, practiced law, and became involved in Ohio political affairs. He joined the Methodist church in Tiffin, Ohio. He was chosen as editor for the Democratic paper in Seneca County, a position he lost as his association with Mormonism was discovered.
After moving to Wisconsin, he was nominated for the state assembly, a race which he narrowly lost. His role in early Mormonism was hotly debated during the campaign; however, the Democrats upheld and defended Cowdery’s nomination, arguing he was "a man of sterling integrity, sound and vigorous intellect, and in every way worthy, honest and capable."
Rebaptism
Later, Cowdery showed willingness to reconcile with the church. After offering in 1842 to assist in the legal defense of John Snyder, a Mormon convert arrested in New Orleans, he would engage in correspondence with the Quorum of the Twelve. He expressed "no unkindly feelings" towards them, but insisted on having his charges cleared before reconciling completely. Confident that he would be exonerated of any false charges, he wrote, "I am fully, doubly, satisfied, that all will be right—that my character will be fully vindicated."In 1844, after hearing of Smith's assassination, William Lang, an attorney who worked with Cowdery, recalled he "immediately took the paper over to his house to read to his wife. On his return to the office we had a long conversation on the subject, and I was surprised to hear him speak with so much kindness of a man that had so wronged him as Smith had." After years of exchanging letters with church leaders, Cowdery requested to be readmitted to the church. He never held another high office in the church, in part because he died sixteen months after his rebaptism.
David Whitmer
David Whitmer first became involved with Joseph Smith and the golden plates through his friend, Cowdery, and became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses because of his longevity.In 1831, Whitmer moved with early Mormons to Kirtland, Ohio. In 1832, he was one of the earliest Mormon settlers in Jackson County, Missouri, and was named "President of the Church in Missouri", where he would often be at odds with Smith.
By December 1837, a movement led by Warren Parrish plotted to overthrow Smith and replace him with Whitmer. After the collapse of the Kirtland Bank, confrontation grew between the dissenters and those loyal to Smith. Whitmer, his brother John, Cowdery, and others were harassed by the Danites, a group of Mormon vigilantes, and were warned to leave the county. Whitmer was formally excommunicated on April 13, 1838, his main charge being "possessing the same spirit as the dissenters", and never rejoined the church.
Whitmer continued to affirm his testimony of the Book of Mormon, though he considered Joseph Smith a fallen prophet. He settled in Richmond, Missouri, where he ran a livery stable. In 1858, he was selected as city councilman, and in 1867 was elected to fill an unexpired term of mayor—but refused nomination for a full term, instead recommending the election of a "younger, more energetic man". When anti-Mormon lecturer Clark Braden came to town and publicly branded him as disreputable, the Richmond Conservator responded with a front-page editorial:
"the forty six years of private citizenship on the part of David Whitmer, in Richmond, without stain or blemish"After Smith's death, Whitmer briefly organized his own church in 1847, which was quickly dissolved. He reorganized it in 1870, and in 1887, Whitmer published "An Address to All Believers in Christ", where he reaffirmed his witness to the golden plates, but he also criticized Smith, including the introduction of plural marriage. "If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon, if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice," wrote Whitmer, "then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to 'separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints, for as they sought to do unto me, should it be done unto them.
Whitmer was frequently visited by all sorts of people, and in the latter years of his life, by newspaper representatives especially, who came to inquire concerning his testimony. In his famous recounting to Orson Pratt in 1878, Whitmer claimed to have seen not only the golden plates but the Brass Plates, "... the sword of Laban, the Directors and the Interpreters." On other occasions, Whitmer's vision of the plates seemed less corporeal. James Henry Moyle, a young Mormon lawyer, interviewed Whitmer in 1885 and asked if there was any possibility that Whitmer had been deceived. "His answer was unequivocal... that he saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness." But Moyle went away "not fully satisfied.... It was more spiritual than I anticipated."