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| Warren A. Cowdery (1788–1851) |
| Physician. Presiding high priest of Freedom,
New York. Criticizes the Twelve §. The Twelve reply in kind and he apologizes §. Edits Messenger and Advocate §. Joseph Smith's scribe §. Kirtland dissident §. Anti-authoritarian editorial §. Justice of the Peace §. Slandered in Elders' Journal §. §. §. |
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| Born |
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October 17, 1788 in Poultney, Rutland County,
Vermont (first child). |
|
About this time,
the family
probably moved 8 miles south to Wells. Source
Ancestry.com |
| Died |
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February 23, 1851 in Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio. |
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| Father |
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William Cowdery (September 5, 1765–February 26, 1847) |
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| Mother |
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Rebecca Fuller (January 2, 1768–September 3, 1809) |
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| Doctor |
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[1812] studies to become a doctor in Rutland County; may
have been licensed physician and pharmacist. |
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Source |
| Marries |
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September 22, 1814 marries Patience Simmonds. |
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| Freedom, New York |
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[November] 1815 moves to Freedom, Cattaraugus County,
New York. |
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| Ontario County commissioner |
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July 1818 appointed one of commissioners for Ontario County, New York. |
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Geneva Gazette, July 11, 1818. Source |
| Le Roy, New York |
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1820 living in Le Roy, Genesee County, New York. |
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| Oliver visits |
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[Mid-October] 1833 Oliver drops in on his way to New
York City to buy a printing press. |
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| Book of Mormon |
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October 30, 1833 Oliver writes William, testifying of the
Book of Mormon. |
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"Letters of Oliver Cowdery,"
New Mormon studies
New Mormon Studies CD-ROM: A Comprehensive Resource Library (Smith Research Associates, 1988).
. |
| Presiding high priest |
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November 25, 1834 appointed presiding high priest over Freedom, New York
branch and region (full-time position). |
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D&C 106 |
| |
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April 1835 first installment of a lengthy letter of doctrine published
in the
Messenger and Advocate: God, the great First Cause, author of
Scripture, promises to mankind; Catholic church no worse than Protestants;
apostasy, dispensations, judgments to come. |
|
MA
Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate
1,
no. 7, (Mar. 1835): 90–92. |
| |
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June 6, 1835 Oliver presides and Warren serves as secretary for conference
at New Portage, Ohio. |
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Minutes of June 6, 1835 |
| Negative report of Twelve |
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August 4, 1835 criticism of the Twelve prompts a meeting of the high council in Kirtland, including seven presidents (Joseph,
Oliver, Sidney, Frederick,
Hyrum, David, John,
and William). By letter they severely
chastise the Twelve for neglecting their fund-raising responsibilities. |
|
Minutes of August
4, 1835
"In Kirtland, Jared Carter, Dr. Cowdery, and others tried to ruin the Twelve
in the eyes of Joseph. The very first mission the Twelve took we went forth like
men of God and travelled to the East and back again, without purse or scrip,
and held Conferences through all the New England States, and exhorted and taught
the people to go to Jackson County and purchase that land; and those men so prejudiced
the mind of the First Presidency that two of the Twelve were suspended. But there
were enough left to form a Quorum and do business." Heber C. Kimball, Dec. 13,
1857, JD 6:127. |
| Son work with Oliver? |
|
October 1835 Oliver suggests Warren send one of
his sons to Kirtland to learn the printing trade from Oliver. |
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Source |
| Twelve accuse Warren of unbecoming language |
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January 16, 1836 Twelve lash out at Warren for reporting negatively on
them during mission, accuse him of using language "unchristian and
unbecoming any man." |
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¶ Meeting
of January 16, 1836 |
| Arrives Kirtland |
|
February 25, 1836 arrives in Kirtland with family. May have
assisted his father and step-mother, William Cowdery, Sr. and Keziah, in
their move from Arcadia, Wayne County, New York, sending William along
ahead of his own family by several days or weeks. Olive Cowdery Wilbur
and her husband, Winslow Shepherd Wilbur, probably accompanied Warren.
They had lived in Ellery, Chautauqua, NY. Winslow Wilbur (and perhaps
Olive) was baptized into the church at about this time. Winslow was
a Seventy in 1837 and he accompanied the Kirtland Camp to
Missouri in 1838. |
|
Source |
| Apology to Twelve |
|
March 6, 1836 apologizes in the Messenger and Advocate for getting
the Twelve in trouble for reporting they had not taught "the necessity
of contributing of their earthly substance for the building of the House
of the Lord in this place." He has learned they did not omit this
in their instructions after all, and regrets that he was the "innocent" cause
of "wounding the best of feelings, and depressing spirits buoyant
with hope, while in the field of useful labor at a distance from home." |
|
W. A. Cowdery, "Notice,"
MA
Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate
2, no. 5 (Feb. 1836): 263. |
| Editor, Messenger and Advocate |
|
March 1836 Oliver resumes editorship
of the Messenger and Advocate, but Warren gradually takes over
most of the day-to-day operations. |
|
Source |
| Dedication scribe |
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March 27, 1836 serves as scribe with Warren Parrish at dedication
of the House of the Lord in Kirtland. |
|
HC
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, edited by B. H. Roberts, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1902-1912, 1932).
2:411. |
| Joseph's scribe |
|
April 3, 1836 begins what I refer to as Diary-2 rev., a
third-person re-write of Joseph Smith diary originally written in first
person by Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith,
Warren Parrish, and Frederick G. Williams. |
|
Diary-2
Joseph Smith diary (Sept. 22, 1835-Apr. 3, 1836). Selected Collections, 1:20 // Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, rev. ed., 221-225. Original, Church Archives, MS 155.
in
Papers
Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1: Autobiographical and Historical Writings, edited by Dean C. Jessee (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1989).
, 271.
Scribes |
| Helps warn out justice of the peace |
|
November 7, 1836 signs warning to non-Mormon justice of the peace to
"depart forthwith out of Kirtland." Also signed by Joseph, Oliver,
Sidney, Frederick, Uncle
John Smith, Brigham Young, William Smith,
Parley P. Pratt (h),
Joseph Young, Zebedee Coltrin, Lyman
R. Sherman, Leonard Rich, and many
others. |
|
Origins
Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, D. Michael Quinn (Salt Lake City: Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, 1994).
, 31, 331–332n43. |
| Messenger and Advocate |
|
February 1, 1837 Oliver Cowdery & Co. is
dissolved, its printing office turned over to Joseph and Sidney. Warren
remains as manager of the print shop and book bindery, and officially becomes
editor of the
Messenger and Advocate. |
|
Source
RLDS history
History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 8 vols. Compiled and edited by Heman C. Smith, et al. (Independence: Herald Publishing House, 1967-1976).
2:99 //
HC
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, edited by B. H. Roberts, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1902-1912, 1932).
2:475. |
| Smiths, Rigdon vs. Cowderys, David Whitmer, Lyman E. Johnson |
|
[April–May] 1837 A bitter quarrel originated in these [Kirtland Safety Society] transactions between the Smith's and S. Rigdon on one part and the Cowderies Johnson and David Whitmer on the other and each party having their particular friends the church in Kirtland became partially divided and their anamosities carried many of them to great extremes, producing confusion and cruel oppression when either party could wield the balance of power |
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Peck manuscript
Reed Peck manuscript. Holograph dated Quincy, Adams county, Illinois, September 18, 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Photocopy, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah. References on this site from the version on New Mormon Studies CD-ROM: A Comprehensive Resource Library (Smith Research Associates), 1998.
, 17. |
| Lower expectations |
|
May 1837 warns readers of the
Messenger and Advocate planning to move to Far West not to
expect a perfect society, for they will be disappointed. Be cautious. Swindlers
promise high rates of return. Reform is needed, but the honest in heart need not be discouraged. |
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Managing Zion Expectations |
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[Some expect to live] on the labor or alms of their friends or brethren,
and complain if they do not receive a support. … They disobey or
disregard the revelations and all words of wisdom which the Lord has given
for the benefit of his saints; they join affinity with the adversary, strike
hands with the world, sigh for the flesh pots of Egypt, and finally fall
away and become apostates. … Others have managed their temporal concerns
as if they had no precedents upon which to act, or beacons on the page
of history or in the annals of by gone years, to light their path. |
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| Anti-authoritarian editorial |
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[July 1837] If we give all our privileges to one man, we virtually give
him our money and our liberties, and make him a monarch, absolute and despotic,
and ourselves abject slaves or fawning sycophants. If we grant privileges
and monopolies to a few, they always continue to undermine the fundamental
principles of freedom, and, sooner or later, convert the purest and most
liberal form of Government into the rankest of aristocracy. … whenever
a people have unlimited confidence in a civil or ecclesiastical ruler or
rulers, who are but men like themselves, and begin to think they can do
no wrong, they increase their tyranny and oppression and establish a principle
that man, poor frail lump of mortality like themselves, is infallible.
Who does not see a principle of popery and religions tyranny involved in
such an order of things? Who is worthy [of] the name of a freeman, who
thus tamely surrenders the rights, the privileges, and immunities of an
independent citizen? |
|
W. A. Cowdery, editorial,
MA
Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate
3, no.
10 (July 1836): 538. |
| |
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1838 elected Justice of the Peace in Kirtland. |
|
Kirtland Township Record Book qtd. in note
1 to "Fire,"
Painesville Republican, May 31, 1838.
Source |
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| Slandered in Elders' Journal |
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[August 1838 Elders' Journal:] This poor pitiful beggar came to Kirtland
a few years since with a large family, nearly naked and destitute. It was
really painful to see this pious doctor's (for such he professed to be)
rags flying when he walked the streets. He was taken in by us in this pitiful
condition and we put him into the printing office and gave him enormous
wages, not because he could earn it, or because we needed his service,
but merely out of pity. We knew the man's incompetency all the time and
his ignorance and inability to fill any place in the literary world with
credit to himself or to his employers. But notwithstanding all this, out
of pure compassion, we gave him a place … |
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¶ Argument
to Argument ... Scorn to Scorn |
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he began to use all his influence to our injury, both in his savings
and doings. We have often heard it remarked by slave holders that you should
not make a negro equal with you or he would try to walk over you. We have
found the saying verified in this pious doctor, for truly this niggardly
spirit manifested itself in all its meanness. Even in his writings (and
they were very mean at best) he threw out foul insinuations, which no man
who had one particle of noble feeling would have condescended to. But such
was the conduct of this master of meanness. … |
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For examples of Warren's writing, see Minutes
of June 6, 1835, ¶ Minutes
of August 4, 1835, Managing Expectations
of Zion. |
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Family |
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| Wife |
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Patience Simmons b. April 6, 1794 in Pawlet, Rutland
County, Vermont
d. May 14, 1862 in Erie County, New York
md. September
22, 1814 in Pawlet. |
|
Ancestry.com |
| Children |
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Marcellus F. (b. August 31, 1815 in Pawlet, Rutland
County, Vermont)
Warren Franklin (b. September 12, 1817)
Martius Dyar (b. October 20, 1819)
Mary O. (b. April 26, 1823)
Martha M. (b. May 11, 1825)
Lyman Hervey (b. November 23, 1826 in LeRoy, Genesee County, New York)
Oliver Pliny (b. January 15, 1827)
Eleanor Caroline (b. March 10, 1829)
Jay William (b. July 28, 1831)
John Simmonds (b. January 12, 1839)
Sarah E. (b. January 12, 1839)
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Ancestry.com
Source for
Marcellus and Lyman. |
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Biographies
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