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Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 12 November 1830

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Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 12 November 1830

Source Note

, 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.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to the Church in Colesville, 2 Dec. 1830.

  2. [2]

    Pratt, Autobiography, 49.

    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.

  3. [3]

    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.)

    Christian Baptist. Bethany, VA. 1823–1830.

    Rollmann, Hans. “The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio.” BYU Studies 21, no. 1 (Winter 1981): 37–50.

  4. [4]

    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.

  5. [5]

    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.

  6. [6]

    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.

  7. [7]

    “Caswall’s Prophet of the Nineteenth Century,” LDS Millennial Star, Apr. 1843, 3:197.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

Page 207

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Geauga Co. Ohio
Novr. 12th. 1830
Our beloved brethren
We arrivd at this place two weeks this day, On our journey we called at the Buffalo tribe, but stayed a few hours only but left two books with them. We then traveled [p. 207]
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Source Note

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Page 207

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 12 November 1830
ID #
1613
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D1:211–214
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    What Cowdery calls “the Buffalo tribe” was a part of the Seneca Nation of Indians (one nation of the Iroquois Confederacy) living on Buffalo Creek Reservation at the site of what is now West Seneca, New York, southeast of the city of Buffalo. Parley P. Pratt described the visit: “We called on an Indian nation at or near Buffalo; and spent part of a day with them, instructing them in the knowledge of the record of their forefathers. We were kindly received, and much interest was manifested by them on hearing this news. We made a present of two copies of the Book of Mormon to certain of them who could read, and repaired to Buffalo. Thence we continued our journey.” Pratt later referred to them as the “Catteraugus Indians.” (Pratt, Autobiography, 49, 61.)

    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.

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