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Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 January 1838

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Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 January 1838

Source Note

, Letter, , Caldwell Co., MO, to JS, [, Geauga Co., OH], 21 Jan. 1838. Featured version copied [ca. 21 Jan. 1838] in Oliver Cowdery, Letterbook, [80]; handwriting of ; Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to J. G. Fosdick, 3 Feb. 1834.

Historical Introduction

On 21 January 1838, penned a terse letter to JS in which he reported his efforts to explore and survey land north of , Missouri, as well as his subsequent illness. In the letter’s concluding sentence, Cowdery accused JS, his longtime friend, of telling members in , Ohio, that Cowdery had confessed to lying about him. Cowdery was almost certainly referring to a dispute the two men had regarding JS’s relationship with , a young woman who had worked in the Smith household. Cowdery viewed JS’s relationship with Alger as adulterous, while other church members, including members of Alger’s extended family, later stated that JS had married Alger as his first plural wife.
Though was once one of JS’s closest associates, his relationship with JS began to deteriorate sometime during fall 1837. On 4 September 1837, a day after Cowdery was unanimously sustained by the Saints as an assistant counselor in the church , JS dictated a letter to church officials informing them that Cowdery was in “transgression” and that if he did not humble himself, “the church will soon be under the necessaty of raising their hands against him.” Soon after Cowdery left Kirtland to relocate to Missouri, several and members of the presidency, including JS, traveled to , where they convened a series of meetings in early November. The minutes of a 6 November meeting indicate that “all difficulties were satisfactorily settled except a matter between J. Smith jr. Oliver Cowdery and , which was refered to themselves.” The record of the meeting does not note the nature of the disagreement, but it likely related to what others interpreted as an insinuation by Cowdery that JS had engaged in an extramarital relationship with . A day after this 6 November meeting, during a general assembly in which church leaders were presented for a sustaining vote, Cowdery was not nominated as an assistant counselor to JS. Though Cowdery later asserted that he and JS settled their differences amicably before JS returned to Kirtland, Cowdery’s influence within the presidency was clearly diminishing.
Despite this development, continued to play a role in church affairs. During the 7 November general assembly, Cowdery and three other men were appointed to locate land nearby for additional Mormon settlements. As the featured text indicates, Cowdery and the other members of the committee explored and surveyed lands north of for approximately three weeks before Cowdery returned to Far West in early December. At some point during this expedition, or shortly after returning home, Cowdery became ill and was confined to his bed.
In December and January, received information about the events unfolding in through a series of letters written by his brothers, and . In at least one of these letters, the brothers asked Oliver about a statement he had allegedly made regarding JS’s relationship with . On 21 January Oliver Cowdery wrote a response to Warren, prefacing it by inserting an “exact copy” of the letter to JS featured here. In addition to providing further information about his expedition north, his poor health, and his growing disaffection from JS and the church, Cowdery affirmed in the letter to his brother that he had “never confessed intimated or admitted that I ever willfully lied” about JS and Alger’s relationship. Further indicating his estrangement from JS, Cowdery also informed his brother that when JS and came to live in , Cowdery would travel north again and “endeavor to seek a location for myself & friends some where else.”
’s 21 January letter to JS is extant only because he included it in the letter written to that same day. The letter has not been located in any collection of JS’s papers, and it is unclear whether JS received it; he had departed on 12 January. , son of Warren A. Cowdery, likely copied the original letter into Oliver Cowdery’s letterbook shortly after 21 January 1838.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Minute Book 2, 12 Apr. 1838; Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Salt Lake City, UT, 1903, pp. 25–27, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, Papers, CHL; Hancock, “Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock,” 61–65; Eliza Churchill Webb, Lockport, NY, to Mary Bond, 24 Apr. 1876, Myron H. Bond Folder, Biographical Folder Collection, CCLA; Hawley, “Life of John Hawley,” 97. JS taught and authorized the practice of plural marriage for Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. (See “Nauvoo Journals, December 1841–April 1843.”)

    Johnson, Benjamin Franklin. Papers, 1852–1911. CHL. MS 1289, box 2, fd. 1.

    Hancock, Mosiah Lyman. "Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock," ca. 1896. CHL. MS 570.

    Webb, Eliza Jane Churchill. Letter, Lockport, NY, to Mary Bond, 24 Apr. 1876. Myron H. Bond Folder. Biographical Folder Collection (P21, fd. 11). CCLA.

    Hawley, John. “The Life of John Hawley,” Jan. 1885. CCLA.

  2. [2]

    Letter to John Corrill and the Church in Missouri, 4 Sept. 1837.

  3. [3]

    Cowdery left Kirtland about 16 September 1837 and arrived in Far West on 20 October 1837. (Cowdery, Docket Book, 227; Minutes, 17 Sept. 1837–A; Whitmer, Daybook, 20 Oct. 1837.)

    Cowdery, Oliver. Docket Book, June–Sept. 1837. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

    Whitmer, John. Daybook, 1832–1878. CHL. MS 1159.

  4. [4]

    Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.

  5. [5]

    During Oliver Cowdery’s April 1838 trial in Far West, several witnesses testified that Cowdery had insinuated to them during fall 1837 that JS had been “guilty of adultery.” In a 21 January letter to Warren A. Cowdery, Oliver stated that when JS was in Far West, the two men had conversed about JS’s relationship with Fanny Alger. Oliver Cowdery informed his brother, “I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself [JS].” (Minute Book 2, 12 Apr. 1838; Oliver Cowdery, Far West, MO, to Warren A. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 81.)

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  6. [6]

    Minutes, 7 Nov. 1837.

  7. [7]

    Cowdery told his brother that just before JS left Missouri, “he [JS] wanted to drop every past thing, in which had been a difficulty or difference—he called witnesses to the fact, gave me his hand in their presence, and I might have supposed of an honest man, calculated to say nothing of former matters.” (O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 81.)

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  8. [8]

    On 6 December 1837, Cowdery was appointed “recording Clerk” for priesthood licenses, “standing Clerk” for the high council, and recorder of patriarchal blessings in Far West. (Minute Book 2, 6–7 Dec. 1837.)

  9. [9]

    David Whitmer, John Corrill, and Lyman Wight were the other members of the committee; the four men apparently embarked on their mission before JS departed for Kirtland. (Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837; for more on Missouri land transactions during this period, see Application for Land Patent, 22 June 1836.)

  10. [10]

    O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 82; Oliver Cowdery, Far West, MO, to Warren A. Cowdery and Lyman Cowdery, [Kirtland, OH], 4 Feb. 1838, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 83.

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  11. [11]

    In a letter written to Warren on 21 January and another written to Warren and Lyman on 4 February, Oliver referred to several letters written by the brothers dated 10, 18, and 24 December 1837 and 8 January 1838. (O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 81–82; O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery and L. Cowdery, 4 Feb. 1838, 83.)

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  12. [12]

    O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 80–83.

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Page [80]

Sir.—
Mo. Jany. 21st. 1838.
Sir.— I should have written you long since but for ill health, I have anxiously waited to recover, that I might give you a full history of my excursion to <​the​> north according to my promise; and were it not for the recent intelligence from , which gives me so much surprise, should still defer— you will be able to judge from the formation of my letter how week and infirm are my nerves. I have been sick six weeks, and a large part of the time confined to my room and bed.
I was absent, when north. some twenty days, and should not have returned then but for the failure of to forward provisions as he agreed. I labored incessantly every day except one,—rain, snow or frost. I lay on the cold damp earth; had but little to eat, and that indifferent; but explored a great any and precious country. I ran many lines with compass and chain, found a great many of the finest mill-Sites I have seen in the western country <​or world,​> and made between forty and fifty choice locations.
Notwithstanding the feeble sta[t]e of my health, I had previously made preparations, and yet expect to start to morrow morning (Monday) to view still east of where I previously went.
I learn from , by the last letters, that you have publickly said, that when you were here I confessed to you that I had willfully lied about you— this compels me to ask you to correct that statement, and give me an explanation—until which you and myself are two.
Mr. Joseph Smith Jr [p. [80]]
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Source Note

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Page [80]

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 January 1838
ID #
5073
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D5:502–505
Handwriting on This Page

    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      In his 21 January letter to his brother Warren, Oliver reported, “I am delighted with the county north (Daviess) and now think we shall all find it to our interest to locate there. . . . The timber is better and more plenty, beside Grand River which is navigable for Steam Boats, passes through its centre.” (O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 82.)

      Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

    2. [2]

      O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 80–83; O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery and L. Cowdery, 4 Feb. 1838, 83–86.

      Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

    3. [3]

      Lyman Wight was elected colonel of the Caldwell County militia in August 1837; in December 1837, he was appointed as a member of the “committee sent to explore the north country,” along with Oliver Cowdery, David W. Patten, and Frederick G. Williams. Describing this time period in a letter sent to Wilford Woodruff in 1857, Wight reported attending to “temperal business” related to a “large flood of emigration” to Caldwell County and preaching in surrounding communities before relocating to what would later be referred to as Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Daviess County, Missouri, in early February 1838. (Lyman Wight, Journal, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:114; Minute Book 2, 6–7 Dec. 1837, p. [92]; Lyman Wight, Mountain Valley, TX, to Wilford Woodruff, 24 Aug. 1857, p. 9, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.)

      The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.

      Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

    4. [4]

      A compass and chain were tools commonly used to survey land. (Gummere, Treatise on Surveying, 81–82; Bourne, Surveyor’s Pocket-Book, 41–42.)

      Gummere, John. A Treatise on Surveying, Containing the Theory and Practice: To Which Is Prefixed, a Perspicuous System of Plane Trigonometry. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless, 1828.

      Bourne, A. The Surveyor’s Pocket-Book, Containing Brief Statements of Mathematical Principles, and Useful Results in Mechanical Philosophy. Chillicothe, OH: I. N. Pumroy, 1834.

    5. [5]

      Warren and Lyman Cowdery had inquired “concerning the Stated confession made to Mr. Smith.” (O. Cowdery to W. Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, 81, underlining in original.)

      Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.