Church History
Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Peter Whitmer Sr.


Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Peter Whitmer Sr., Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2021)

Peter Whitmer Sr., Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2021)

Peter Whitmer Sr.

(1773–1854)

Peter Whitmer Sr. was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Mary Musselman, moved to Fayette, New York, by 1809. In 1829, the Whitmer family boarded Joseph Smith, Emma Hale Smith, and Oliver Cowdery during the Book of Mormon translation. The organizational meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held in the Whitmer home on 6 April 1830, and a few days later the first public church service was also held there. Whitmer joined the Church later that month. Official witnesses to the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated included Whitmer’s sons David, Christian, Jacob, Peter Jr., and John, as well as Whitmer’s son-in-law, Hiram Page. Peter Whitmer Sr. moved with the Saints to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831 and to Missouri in 1832. The same year, Oliver Cowdery married Whitmer’s daughter Elizabeth Ann. Joseph Smith received several revelations at the home of Peter Whitmer Sr. (see, for example, Doctrine and Covenants 14–18; 20–21; 28–30; 34; 38–40). In the late 1830s, Whitmer became disaffected from the Church.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 14, 2134