The second most important man in early Church history,

the second elder, the second witness, Oliver Cowdery,

he's been called by some

the co-founder of this dispensation. Coming up next.

Cage has television in cooperation with the Church History department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of The Joseph Smith Papers. And now your host, Glenn Rozen.

Can we appreciate the power of an eyewitness,

Oliver Cowdrey stood second only to the prophet Joseph Smith and spiritual privileges early on in this dispensation. He described the Book of Mormon.

He received the priesthood with Joseph under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter James and John.

He was also with Joseph in the Kirtland Temple when the Savior came and accepted it.

And also more priesthood keys were received.

And yet, after all of that, Oliver left the church.

How can that be today? Will join the scholars as they talk about some of the reasons why Oliver left. And we'll also get to see him return.

Now, it's important to understand that while Oliver was out of the church, he not only never denied his testimony, the Book of Mormon, but he never discredited Joseph either.

Oliver Cowdery.

Is the second most important.

Person in the early events of the church,

Joseph didn't receive these alone,

but the what Joseph Fielding Smith calls the law of witnesses was in effect.

So you had the equivalent equivalent of Moses and Aaron,

the equivalent of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and all of her. Cowdery as a second witness to all of these early events of the restoration, Oliver Cowdery had it within his power to expose Joseph Smith if he could have been exposed.

Oliver Cowdery was put under tremendous pressure and left the church for a short time. But his testimony is powerful.

These events are true.

Oliver was born in Wells, Vermont, on October 3rd, 1896.

He was almost a year younger than Joseph Smith.

And it's interesting that when Oliver Cowdrey died in 1850, we believe he died of tuberculosis

and his mother also died of tuberculosis when he was about three years old.

And we believe that he then went to live with an aunt and uncle,

but they apparently died of typhoid fever a few years after that. And his father eventually remarried

and Oliver grew up in western Vermont.

He arrived in New York, probably about 18, 27.

And he as far as we know, he lived in the community of Lyons,

which is about 15 miles east of Palmyra.

And he first met the Joseph Smith senior family.

In the fall of 1828. He was hired to teach school in the Manchester District in October of

1828 and.

He and David Wittmer both started asking people about the rumors of a gold Bible.

Oliver soon lived with the Smith family as part of his role as a teacher. He was provided with room and board by the parents of the students he taught.

The family was quite reluctant to tell people about Joseph Smith's experiences, but all of us kept on trying to get information.

Joseph Smith senior finally decided to tell Oliver the story of how Joseph had received the plates.

And this was before Oliver had met Joseph Smith.

Joseph was married by that time and he and Emma were living down in Harmony, Pennsylvania.

But after Oliver heard the story from Joseph Smith, senior.

He said that. He was thinking about this all the time, and he even said it was working in my bones and I couldn't think of anything else.

And he made it a matter of prayer and he was converted to the truthfulness of Joseph Smith story before he ever met Joseph Smith. This is in the spring of 1829,

Oliver was living with the Smith family at the time that they lost their farm and the frame home that they had built

when the Smiths moved. Lucy told Oliver that

they didn't have a place for him to stay anymore, but he said, I don't want to leave you and father and I'll live in

a log hut as long as I can stay with you.

And when Oliver was done teaching.

He told Lucy and Joseph Smith, senior, that he was going to go to Harmonie to help

Joseph Smith translate.

And Joseph Smith later said that the Lord appeared to Oliver.

And showed him a vision of the plates.

It was about 130 miles down to Harmonie.

It was right in the late spring and they traveled through.

Rain and snow and bad weather

and all of her even suffered frostbite by the time they arrived.

But he first met Joseph Smith on April 5th, 1829.

It's really interesting that two days later they started translating on April 7th, 1829,

and the church was organized exactly one year later, April 6th, 1830, the Book of Mormon is about 270000 words long and 100000 words is considered a substantial book.

And the speed at which Joseph and Oliver produced the Book of Mormon is really amazing

and they had to produce about 4000 words a day.

To translate the book that quickly,

Oliver acted as scribe for the translation,

then he copied the original manuscript and produced the printer's manuscript. That was in the summer of 1829.

Then in the fall of 1829, Joseph returned to Pennsylvania.

Oliver stayed in Palmyra and basically took charge of delivering the manuscript to the printer and checking the proofs that were produced by the printer. So he was actually more involved in the printing of the Book of Mormon than Joseph Smith was

when Oliver returned to Kirtland from Missouri.

He was appointed as the church's editor over the messenger, an advocate. Now, it was in there in late 1834 that, along with Joseph Oliver, published some of those early events of the restoration,

making known some of those details for the very first time.

Now, it's there also that Oliver's own independent second witness is recorded. That testimony can be found in the pearl of great price

and all of the proceeds to tell about the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.

Today, we can find that section which was published in the new church newspaper in 1835.

If you look at the in the footnote at the end of the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith won.

All of Cowdrey's testimony appears and it says in the footnote, this comes from the message of an advocate.

And so we're reading all of his recollection.

Joseph's recollection is powerful. Olivers is more detailed. He talks about the sunlight. He talks about the voice of of Christ speaking from heaven.

He talks about kneeling and saying who would not have kneel before such a magnificent personage as John the Baptist?

And he gives his own parallel recollection of how the priesthood was restored.

And here is the second witness of the restoration of the priesthood.

The lord declared that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established with that.

Oliver Cowdery was with Joseph Smith when priesthood authority was received from Peter James and John and John the Baptist.

Indeed, Oliver was designated by Revelation as the second elder to act in concert with Joseph.

Oliver was ordained to be the second elder of the church.

And that's a very interesting story with significant insight in Princeton administration,

because after Oliver was close to Joseph Smith at

the Organization of the church and early missionary work,

Oliver led the first major mission of the church west when the mob came and threatened to kill the Latter day Saints and they didn't move out of Jackson County.

Then Oliver went to Kirtland and he became prominent at Kirtland.

And not only was he the major church printer and Kirtman from that time, but he reacquired, if you will,

the status that he had had a second elder.

And this took place in a

on the 5th of December of 18 34. And Oliver was asked by

the office of assistant president is to assist in presiding over the whole church to officiate in the absence of the president, according to his rank and appointment,

namely President Kountry first,

President Rigdon second and President Williams third. If you'll put up the 1835 first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, we'll see the title page.

And now you read the first presidency as it existed in 1835.

Joseph Smith Jr. is the president.

The second is Oliver Coutry.

Third is Sydney Regarded and Frederick G. Williams fourth.

So Oliver County has been inserted as the second in the in the council or ship of the first presidency. Oliver is more than a counselor because he received the keys with Joseph, with Peter, James and John.

But he functions as a counselor

and there is no word in church history that describes Oliver

as as a companion president with Joseph. That's what he did.

That was really his right.

But I would just say this is more analogous in church history

to the status of apostles. Today, they have what I might call a latent or a hidden passive power to preside over the church.

But that's not activated until the senior president dies.

And all of her had that position and that authority, which was given according to Section 124, about 99 and 100 to Hiram, after all of her left the church

Olivers important role as a second witness standing beside Joseph is especially illustrated in the Kirtland Temple in March of eighteen thirty six.

We have Oliver's own journal account of some of

the things that happened there

in the evening. I met with the officers of the church in the Lord's House. The spirit was poured out.

I saw the glory of the God of God like a great cloud, come down and rest upon the house and feel the same, like a mighty rushing wind.

I also saw cloven tongues, like as a fire rest upon many,

for there were 316 present.

While they speak with other tongues and prophesied on the following Sunday,

all of us stood with Joseph and received the great visions of the four celestial beings that appeared in the current temple the savior to accept it.

Elijah, to return the case of Elijah and Moses, to return the case of missionary work to go to the world.

So Oliver completed his function as a second witness to the restoration of priesthood in Keys in the Kerlin Temple in 1836.

Later, there were a number of early church leaders that broke with Joseph Smith and left the church.

Unfortunately, Oliver was among them.

So how could it be that a man who knew and saw so much,

how could he find himself outside of the church?

We may never know all the answers,

but this much we do know from the record,

Oliver was not and never became an enemy to the church.

I think that Oliver Cowdrey probably began to think of himself, understandably, as kind of an equal to Joseph Smith because he had had the very same experiences that Joseph had had.

And I believe

this tendency to kind of view himself as an equal with Joseph Smith was a factor in his leaving the church

all of her life. The church in 1838,

he and Joseph Smith disagreed on

a number of administrative points in extenuation of of Oliver as he left the church. I simply

point out that he was a partner with Joseph Smith in the enterprise of the church that attempted to sell goods and pay for the Kirtland Temple, and he was heavily in debt.

I've calculated the notes that he signed in New York where he went on church business and he's in debt for about one hundred and twenty three thousand dollars. And so he feels victimized. He feels sorry for himself and with reason.

But at the same time, he never wavered in that testimony. And one of the beautiful letters that he wrote out of the church to his brother in law, Phineas Young, is saying,

My character should be cleared because I'm a lawyer and I know how important it is to be respected.

And I want to be respected, respected as a witness.

And if you had stood in the presence of John with our departed brother Joseph, he's writing this in 1846 and received

the lesser priesthood and stood in the presence of Peter to receive the greater,

you'd be very concerned. Were men trying to smear your name. Joseph Smith was not involved in all of her Cowdrey's excommunication. I was.

That was the high counsel in far west Missouri.

Who excommunicated Oliver

and he felt that they were trying to dictate certain elements of his personal life, such as his finances.

And that's where a lot of the disagreement came up, was actually between him and the high council, not necessarily between him and Joseph Smith.

So one of the charges of the high council basically amounted to the charge that he was making money for himself when he should have just been giving it.

To the Saints. But he was really trying

to take care of his personal debts, as well as debts that he owed on behalf of the church,

and Oliver did not attend his excommunication trial,

but he wrote a letter defending himself.

And the last words of that excommunication,

of that letter that was read in the high council was take no view of my position.

Other than my difference with the policies of the church.

And so Oliver is saying,

I still believe I don't doubt that I am angry,

frustrated and don't know what to do except become inactive,

and he wasn't active as an excommunicating person for four, 10 years and six months.

To us, it's kind of a contradiction that

a person who had experienced all these miraculous things with Joseph Smith could find himself out of the church,

but in some ways, Oliver did it as a matter of principle. And.

His staying out of the church was in some ways a matter of principle. Because he did not want to admit

that he had done something wrong when he really didn't believe it in his heart,

so Oliver left the church.

But again, if ever there was a man in a position to discredit Joseph's claims to divine authority

and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon,

that man would have been all over Calgary. But Oliver never did.

He not only never denied his testimony,

he supported Joseph's testimony of these things.

Oliver never did become an enemy to the church,

as some others did.

He continually made it clear that he considered his testimony to the Book of Mormon.

As one of the most important things in his life.

And while he was separated from the church,

he was living an honorable life. And was in many ways.

Helping to strengthen his testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Because the people that he associated with had such a high opinion of him.

We have many of his letters preserved

and it's clear that he's a he's a man of integrity who takes things very seriously.

And he took his role as a witness very seriously.

It's clear in his writings that he's a careful thinker

and really he does his best. To.

Be very thoughtful about everything and and take everything into account when he's. Making decisions.

So he he's very strong, all of these personality traits, I think. Tend to make him a very good witness. The Book of Mormon.

So what did Oliver do during those 10 and a half years that he was outside the church?

He became a gentleman of the law.

He practiced law in Ohio and Wisconsin.

And even though Mormonism had a bad reputation in the states of particularly Ohio and Missouri.

Oliver Cowdrey really developed a stellar reputation as an attorney. And several of his associates commented.

On how honest he was, what a gentleman he was, he never said negative things about other people.

He was courteous. But one of his friends said that there was a certain sadness about all the recovery that seemed to pervade his whole being.

And I think that's understandable because he had devoted so much to the restoration and now he was separated from the Saints,

there's one famous story about all of his credibility being challenged in a court of law by an opposing attorney somewhere in Michigan.

But scholarly analysis of that story.

It doesn't hold water at best. It turns out to be a second hand story told many years after the fact

in some of those stories. He's this is happening in Michigan.

And as far as we know, he never practiced law in Michigan,

the other difficulty is we don't have the account of that experience from a person who was there.

The accounts that we have from people who supposedly talk to people who were there or second or third hand reports.

So I think it's difficult to confirm.

That that story actually happened or if it did the details,

because we don't have any. Firsthand accounts.

From people who were there,

we do have some who claim to be second hand accounts of a person who talked to a person who was there,

but those include certain inconsistencies that raise doubts about the validity of those stories

through all of their difficulties with each other.

There yet remained a bond and affection between Joseph and Oliver.

There was a time. When Joseph made a reference to Oliver as kind of being similar to the prodigal son.

And wondered when he would return.

And then there's also evidence that Joseph Smith had received a letter from Oliver Cowdrey right before he was killed,

but there's certainly a hint that there was some kind of reconciliation taking place right when Joseph Smith was killed.

And then the other thing we do have is a record of how all of her reacted . To Joseph Smith's death.

He had a friend who was working with him in a law office.

This was 1844, of course,

and they got the newspaper announcing that Joseph Smith had been killed and all of his associates showed him the newspaper article.

And Oliver was pretty silent and very thoughtful.

At that time, took the newspaper home to show his wife and then when he came back to the law office.

His associate said that he was very surprised to hear all of her speak so kindly of Joseph Smith.

Because the associate was assuming that all of her had been wronged by Joseph Smith and had deep resentment against him and that kind of thing.

But at the time that Joseph Smith died,

all of her obviously had very tender feelings about Joseph Smith. And when Oliver returned in 1848, when he and his family traveled to Council Bluffs, Iowa,

there was a conference of the church going on at that time outside their accounts of Bluff's.

And there was kind of a stir among the audience when they recognized Oliver Cowdrey arriving.

And right in the middle of the meeting,

they stopped and invited Oliver to come up in various testimony.

And the testimony that he bore had a very powerful effect on the people attending that conference,

and there are at least two people who recorded.

All of his testimony there at Council Bluffs,

and he really gave a powerful account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and once again reaffirmed the truthfulness of Joseph Smith's prophetic calling and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

While in Iowa, Oliver appeared before church officials and he said, Brethren, for a number of years I've been separated from you.

I now desire to come back.

I wish to come humbly and be one in your midst. I seek no station.

I only wish to be identified with you.

I wish to become a member of the church again.

I have not come here to seek precedents.

I come humbly and throw myself upon the decision of this body,

knowing as I do that their decisions are right

and should be obeyed.

And he was rebaptized by Orson or Arsenide was one of

the original members of the twelve.

Of course the twelve had been chosen by the three witnesses.

So there's a nice symmetry to arson. Hidary baptising all Cowdrey

so all over had the restoration in the witness of the restoration in his heart till the end.

Finishing was present at his deathbed when he died as a very young man in 1850, David Wittmer was there.

A number of the relatives of the witness who were there.

They all tell the same stories at all of the testimony.

The Book of Mormon. On his deathbed,

Oliver had come back in 1848, sworn testimony,

the restoration of the priesthood,

and offered to go wherever the twelve sent him.

And they were planning to send him to Washington, DC,

to lobby for Utah statehood.

And Phineas said of his deathbed testimony that he borrowed powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the priesthood and the fact that the Keys had returned and were with the twelve

sad part of the Oliver Cowdrey's story is that he and his wife had several children and all but one of those children died in infancy.

I'm the one who survived was a daughter.

And after all of died in 1850,

his wife and daughter remained in Missouri.

His daughter eventually married, but she and her husband did not have any children.

And then about 40 years after Oliver died.

His wife or his widow

and his daughter died within weeks of each other.

And Oliver did not have any

descendants that survived him,

Oliver lost his place as the second elder of the church,

but his testimony of the Book of Mormon never faltered.

He said of that book, Sidney Rigdon did not write it.

Mr. Spaulding did not write it.

I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the prophet.

Next week, the contemporaries of Joseph Smith, those who met him,

who knew him, who saw him and what they had to say about it.

I do not find it possible to doubt that Joseph Smith was an authentic prophet.

Where in all of American history can we find his match?

I’m Glen Rawson. See you next week.