, Letter, , OH, to “Our beloved brethren” [JS and others], [, Seneca Co., NY], 12 Nov. 1830. Featured version copied [ca. 1871] in Newel Knight, History, 207–210; unidentified handwriting; private possession. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Newel Knight and the Church in Colesville, 28 August 1830.
Historical Introduction
sent this letter to his “brethren” in two weeks after arriving in , Ohio, with his fellow missionaries en route to . The text of this letter was copied into another letter sent by JS and to members of the church living in , New York. The letter from JS, including Cowdery’s communication, was then copied into ’s autobiography by an unknown scribe at a much later date, providing the only known surviving copy.
En route to the Indian territory in present-day eastern Kansas, one of the four missionaries, , called on , who was his “former friend and instructor, in the Reformed Baptist Society.” The letter below suggests that the group had planned before their arrival to stop briefly in the area and seek out Rigdon. The missionaries found Rigdon and many of his parishioners ready recipients of their message, and the letter describes their success.
For nearly a decade prior to meeting the missionaries, was affiliated with in a mutual quest to reclaim “the ancient order of things.” Campbell and his colleagues were known for their teaching, based on Acts 2:38, that baptism, rather than being an “experience” of grace, was the divinely appointed means of receiving a “remission of sins.” Yet, as an early follower clarified, their call to reform Christianity “did not begin nor end in . It saw as its end, and sought nothing less, than the de-organization of sect, and the re-organization of the saints . . . in the express terms and conditions divinely set forth in the Holy Scriptures.” Many reformist congregations in northeastern eventually severed denominational ties and by the early 1830s reorganized under Campbell’s leadership as the “Disciples of Christ.”
Not long before his reunion with , parted theologically with . (This occurred at a meeting where ministers of the Mahoning Association, a reform-minded branch of the Baptists of which Campbell and Rigdon had been key members, voted to dissolve.) The rift was caused by Campbell’s refusal to agree that a full restoration of biblical truth also included re-creation of communal conditions described in the book of Acts. About two months later Pratt and his associates arrived at Rigdon’s home proclaiming a restoration of ancient truth and divine authority. His prior commitment to Christian primitivism enabled Rigdon, as well as his followers, to listen closely to the missionaries. Later, an editorial in a Mormon newspaper looked back with gratitude on the converts’ connection to Campbell, affirming that their minds “were prepared for the work through the belief and reception of many of the principles propagated by [Alexander] Campbell . . . and we will even go further and acknowledge that the Lord permitted the propagation of those principles as a forerunner to the fulness of the gospel, though its advocates knew it not.”
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Campbell wrote, “A restoration of the ancient order of things is all that is necessary to the happiness and usefulness of christians. . . . [T]he thing proposed, is to bring the christianity and the church of the present day up to the standard of the New Testament.” (Alexander Campbell, “A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things, No. I,” Christian Baptist, 7 Feb. 1825, 49; see also Rollmann, “Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon,” 48–49.)
Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 67–70, 158.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
See Harrell, Quest for a Christian America, chap. 1; and Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve.
Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. Quest for Christian America: The Disciples of Christ and American Society to 1866. Nashville, TN: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1966.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
See Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 298–299; and De Pillis, “Development of Mormon Communitarianism,” 58–64; see also Acts 2:44; 4:32–35.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
De Pillis, Mario S. “The Development of Mormon Communitarianism, 1826–1846.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1960.
sold, one of these will fetch the money, and if our brother does not come before that time, I think he will then. Be that sooner or later, receive him (as) if from my own bosom, for he is as I am. I wish you without fail to communicate this to my aged parents. Do brethren if you respect me. We expect in a few days to pursue our journey to the .
Cowdery’s apparent meaning is that one of the new converts, if not Rigdon himself, would return to New York with the proceeds from the sales of the Book of Mormon. Rigdon did go to New York, arriving there in early December. (See Historical Introduction to Revelation, 7 Dec. 1830 [D&C 35].)
Cowdery’s father, William Cowdery Jr., his stepmother, Keziah Pearce Cowdery, and his three youngest siblings, Rebecca, Lucy, and Phoebe, were living in Arcadia Township, adjacent to Palmyra Township in Wayne County, New York. (1830 U.S. Census, Arcadia, Wayne Co., NY, 87; Mehling, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy, 96.)
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Mehling, Mary Bryant Alverson. Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy: William Cowdery of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and His Descendants. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1911.