David Whitmer

David Whitmer (January 7, 1805 – January 25, 1888) was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint Movement and one of the Three Witnesses to the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. Whitmer later distanced himself from Joseph Smith and was excommunicated from the church in 1838, but continued to affirm his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He separated, mainly troubled by polygamy, and created an offshoot of the LDS church called the Church of Christ. He was the most interviewed Book of Mormon witness.

Early Life

Whitmer was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1805,[8] the fourth of nine children of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Whitmer's ancestry on both sides of his family was German, and the family spoke with a German accent. His grandfather was George Witmer, who was born in Prussia, and his great-grandfather was born in Switzerland.[9] Whitmer had five brothers and three sisters, one of which died in 1813 in her infancy. He grew up attending a Presbyterian church.[8] By the 1820s, the Whitmer family had moved to a farm in Fayette, in New York's Finger Lakes area. On March 12, 1825, Whitmer was elected sergeant in a newly organized militia called the Seneca Grenadiers.[10]

Whitmer as a Mormon

Whitmer and his family were among the earliest adherents to the Latter Day Saint movement. Whitmer first heard of Mormonism and the golden plates in 1828 when he made a business trip to Palmyra, New York, and talked with his friend Oliver Cowdery, who believed that there "must be some truth to the matter".[11] 

Cowdery continued to write Whitmer letters concerning the matter, which Whitmer then shared with his parents and siblings. One of Cowdery's letters inquired as to whether the Whitmers would be willing to provide the Smiths with lodging and a place to complete the translation of the Book of Mormon. The family agreed, and Joseph Smith, his wife, Emma Smith, and Cowdery came to the Whitmer farm to live on June 1, 1829. The translation was completed about a month later.[8]

Whitmer was baptized in June 1829, nearly a year prior to the formal organization of the Church of Christ. During that same month, Whitmer said that he, along with Smith and Cowdery, saw an angel present the golden plates in a vision. Martin Harris reported that he experienced a similar vision with Smith later in the day. Evidence places this event near Whitmer's father's home in Fayette, New York, on June 28, 1829.[12] Later, in an 1878 testimony, Whitmer claimed to have seen a light, "not like the light of the sun, nor like that of a fire, but more glorious and beautiful".[8] He then went on to describe a table appearing with the golden plates, the Urim and Thummim, and other objects referenced in the Book of Mormon narrative. Whitmer continued: "I heard the voice of the Lord, as distinctly as I ever heard anything in my life, declaring that the records of the plates of the Book of Mormon were translated by the gift and power of God."[8] Whitmer, Cowdery, and Harris signed a joint statement declaring their testimony to the reality of the vision. The statement was published in the first edition of the Book of Mormon and has been included in nearly every subsequent edition.[13]

When Smith organized the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830, Whitmer was one of six original members. In 1835, Whitmer assisted Cowdery and Harris in selecting and ordaining the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the church. He also participated in some of the earliest missionary trips, accompanying Joseph Smith and baptizing new converts.[8]

Whitmer had been ordained an elder of the church by June 9, 1830, and he was ordained to the office of high priest by Cowdery on October 5, 1831. Soon after the organization of the church, Smith specified Jackson County, Missouri, as a "gathering place" for Latter Day Saints. According to Smith, the area would be the "center place" of the City of Zion, the New Jerusalem. On July 7, 1834, Smith ordained Whitmer to be the president of the church in Missouri and his own successor, should Smith "not live to God".

By virtue of his position as President of the High Council in Zion, David Whitmer was sustained as "the president of the church in Zion," not merely as a Stake President. Since the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Quorum of the Seventy had not yet been organized, this meant that there was a short period of time—from July 3, 1834, until February 14, 1835—when the High Council in Zion stood in an administrative position next to the First Presidency. It also meant that from July 3, 1834, until December 5, 1834, at which time Oliver Cowdery was made the Associate President of the Church, David Whitmer, as President of the High Council in Zion, was the Prophet's rightful successor."[14]

Cowdery and Whitmer were also called to "search out" twelve "disciples", who would become the Quorum of the Twelve.[15]

Why He Left

Whitmer continued to live in Kirtland, Ohio, and his counselors, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer (Whitmer's brother) presided over the church in Missouri until the summer of 1837. After the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society bank, Smith and his counselor Sidney Rigdon, battered by creditors, moved to Far West, Missouri, to evade arrest.[16] The ensuing leadership struggle led to the dissolution of the presidency of the church in Missouri. Whitmer resigned and separated from the church.[17] He was formally excommunicated from the church on the grounds of breaking the Word of Wisdom, neglecting his leadership duties, meeting with the other "Kirtland apostates", and circulating unfavorable information about Joseph Smith.[8]

Post-Mormon

Whitmer and the other excommunicated Latter-day Saints became known as the "dissenters". Some of the dissenters owned land in Caldwell County, Missouri, which they wanted to retain.[18] The church presidency and other members looked unfavorably upon them. Rigdon preached his "Salt Sermon", which called for their expulsion from the county. A number of Latter Day Saints formed a secret society known as the Danites, whose stated goal was removal of the dissenters. Eighty prominent Mormons signed the so-called Danite Manifesto, which warned the dissenters to "depart or a more fatal calamity shall befall you." Shortly afterward, Whitmer and his family fled to nearby Richmond, Missouri.[citation needed]

Whitmer, other dissenters, and Mormons loyal to Smith complained to the non-Mormons in northwestern Missouri about their forcible expulsion and the loss of their properties and began to file lawsuits to recover them.

Tensions escalated, bringing about the 1838 Mormon War, after which Governor Boggs issued the Mormon Extermination Order in October 1838, authorizing deadly force in the removal of Mormons. Consequently, most of the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Missouri by early 1839.[19]

In 1887, Whitmer used his position as one of the Three Witnesses to condemn the church in response to these 1838 "persecutions" from a "secret organization" formed within the church that denounced "dissenters": "If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon", wrote Whitmer, "if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice, then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens and told me to 'separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints, for as they sought to do unto me, so it should be done unto them.'"[20][21] Whitmer interpreted God's command to include both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (RLDS Church, now known as the Community Of Christ): "God commanded me by his voice to stand apart from you."[22]

Whitmer continued to live in Richmond, where he operated a livery stable and was elected mayor, a position he held from 1867 to 1868.[8]

President of the Church of Christ (Whitmerite)

After the killing of Smith in 1844, several rival leaders claimed to be Smith's successor, including Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Many of Rigdon's followers became disillusioned by 1847 and some, including apostle William E. McLellin and Benjamin Winchester, remembered Whitmer's 1834 ordination to be Smith's successor. At McLellin's urging, Whitmer exercised his claim to be Smith's successor and the Church of Christ (Whitmerite) was formed in Kirtland, Ohio. However, Whitmer never joined the body of the new church and it dissolved relatively quickly.

Around this time, fellow Book of Mormon witness Oliver Cowdery began to correspond with Whitmer. After traveling from Ohio to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa Cowdery attended the Kanesville Tabernacle meeting, called to sustain Brigham Young as the new President of the Church. Cowdery bore, with conviction, his testimony of the truthfulness of everything that had happened spiritually regarding Smith and the Book of Mormon. Meeting with Young at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, he requested readmission into the church, and he was re-baptized into the church there. Cowdery then traveled to meet with Whitmer in Richmond to persuade him to move west and rejoin the Saints in Utah Territory. Cowdery, however, succumbed to tuberculosis and died March 3, 1850.[23][24]

In January 1876, Whitmer resurrected the Church of Christ (Whitmerite) by ordaining his nephew, John C. Whitmer, an elder, and giving him the title "First Elder".[25]

In 1887, Whitmer published a pamphlet entitled "An Address to All Believers in Christ", in which he affirmed his testimony of the Book of Mormon, but denounced the other branches of the Latter Day Saint movement. Whitmer died in Richmond. The Whitmerite church survived until the 1960s.

Religious views

Whitmer stated his religious views in three publications: "A Proclamation" published March 24, 1881, "An Address To Believers in the Book of Mormon" published April 1887, and "An Address to All Believers in Christ" also published April 1887.

Polygamy

I do not endorse polygamy or spiritual wifeism. It is a great evil, shocking to the moral sense, and the more so, because practiced in the name of religion. It is of man and not God, and is especially forbidden in the Book of Mormon itself.[26]

High Priests

As to the High Priesthood, Jesus Christ himself is the last Great High Priest, this too after the order of Melchisedec, as I understand the Holy Scriptures.[26]

Name change

I do not endorse the change of the name of the church, for as the wife takes the name of her husband so should the Church of the Lamb of God, take the name of its head, even Christ himself. It is the Church of Christ.[26]

1.  There was no formal beginning. John C. Whitmer was baptized at the age of 44 on September 15, 1875, then ordained an Elder January 28, 1876 and commissioned to "go forth and preach the Gospel...organize a new church...was to be the first Elder." (Jenson, Andrew; Stevenson, Edward; Black, Joseph S. (September 26, 1888). "Historical Landmarks". Deseret News. No. 37. p. 579. Retrieved February 17, 2021.)

2. On this day David was "re-ordained" (according to his previous ordination by Joseph Smith on July 8, 1834) by William McLellin, Hiram Page, Jacob Whitmer, & John Whitmer. This entailed "holy priesthood," "high priests," and a "presidency" framework. See McLellin, William E. (August 1849). "Our Tour West in 1847". The Ensign of Liberty. Vol. 7, no. 1. Kirtland, Ohio. pp. 99–104. Retrieved February 17, 2021..

3. Whitmer did not seek the position but acknowledged that he was in fact ordained by Joseph Smith to succeed him. Whitmer was ordained a "prophet, seer, and revelator." (Bringhurst, Newell G.; Hamer, John C., eds. (September 10, 2007). Scattering Of The Saints: Schism Within Mormonism. Independence, Missouri: John Whitmer Books. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-934-90102-1.)

4. McLellin was based in Kirtland, Ohio. Whitmer however never traveled to Kirtland or assisted McLellin to grow his branch. McClellin did have a publication called Ensign of Liberty which the Whitmer branch refused after June 1848.[citation needed]

5. For the date Whitmer said he left the Mormons: An Address to All Believers in Christ, p. 8.

6.  Richmond Conservator. Richmond, Missouri. June 22, 1867. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

7. Johnson, Liz (September 1, 2017). "A Witness becomes mayor" (PDF). Richmond News. Richmond, Missouri. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 23, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021. It is believed that upon the death of Mayor John Shaw, who was shot in the chest during the robbery of the Hughes & Wasson Bank in Richmond on May 23, 1867, Whitmer became mayor to fulfill Shaw's mayoral term until Jan. 1, 1868.

8.  McCune, George M. (1991). Personalities in the Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph Smith–History. Salt Lake City, Utah: Hawkes Publishing, Inc. pp. 142–145. ISBN 0890365180. OCLC 25553656.

9. Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, Vol. V, 2003, p. 9.

10. Seneca Farmer, March 23, 1825.

11. David Whitmer interview with Kansas City Journal, June 1, 1881, in Early Mormon Documents 5:74.

12.  Anderson, Gale Yancey (Spring 2012), "Eleven Witnesses Behold the Plates", Journal of Mormon History, 38 (2): 146–52, doi:10.2307/23292761, JSTOR 23292761, S2CID 254492716

13. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), pp. 77-79.

14.  Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrines of the Kingdom, Bookcraft, 1973, p. 195.

15. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 18:27,37

16. Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1994). Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess. Signature Books. p. 193.

17. A minority viewpoint is that David Whitmer separated from the church but was never excommunicated. See Ebenezer Robinson, "Items of Personal History of the Editor," The Return, (Davis City, Iowa: Church of Christ), Vol. 1, No. 9, September 1889, pp. 134–35. Also found in Far West Record, pp. 123–25.

18. A minority viewpoint is that David Whitmer did not own land. See Saints' Herald, vol. 34, No. 7, February 5, 1887.

19. Bushman, 328–55.

20. D. Whitmer (1887). "All Believers In Christ" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2016.

21. Ellis, Jonathan (December 28, 2017). "Primary Sources in Mormon History: David Whitmer's An Address to All Believers in Christ". Medium. Retrieved February 17, 2021.

22. (Metcalfe, 1993, p. 176)

23. David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in the Book of Mormon, 1887, p. 1

24. Scott H. Faulring, "The Return of Oliver Cowdery," Archived October 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Maxwell Institute, Provo, Utah.

25. Deseret News; The Return, vol. 3, no. 3, October 1892, pp. 3–5; George Sweich, "David Whitmer and the Church of Christ," Magazine of Western History, New York, vol. 14, May 1891—October 1891, p 520.

26. A Proclamation

27. The earliest known signed testimony of Whitmer was recorded in a letter to Mark H. Forscutt of March 2, 1875: "Dear Sir: My testimony to the world is written concerning the Book of Mormon. And it is the same that I gave at first, and it is the same as shall stand to my latest hour in life, linger with me in death and shine as gospel truth beyond the limits of life, among the tribunals of heaven. And the nations of the earth will have known to[o] late the divine truth written on the pages of that book is the only sorrow of this servant of the Almighty Father." (Davis, 1981, p. 75)

28. Lyndon W. Cook ed., David Whitmer Interviews, Grandin Book, 1991, p. xxvi.

29.  David Whitmer interview with Orson Pratt, September 1878, in EMD, 5: 43.

30.  Hamilton Newspaper, January 21, 1881; Kingston (Missouri) Times, December 16, 1887; "David Whitmer Interview with John Murphy, June 1880," Dan Vogel, ed., Early Morning Documents Signature Books, 2003, vol. 5, p. 63.

31. Richmond (Missouri) Conservator, March 24, 1881; Hamiltonian (Missouri) Newspaper, April 8, 1881; Saints' Herald, June 1, 1881, vol. 28, p. 168; David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, 1887, pp. 8-10; LDS Church Archives; Ebbie Richardson, "David Whitmer," M.A. Thesis, BYU, 1952, pp. 178–80; "David Whitmer: The Independent Missouri Businessman," Improvement Era, vol. 72, April 1969, p. 79; Lyndon W. Cook, pp. 79–80; Dan Vogel, ed., Early Morning Documents Signature Books, 2003, 5:68–71.

32. Vogel, Dan, ed. (2003). Early Mormon Documents. Vol. 5. Signature Books. p. 63. Retrieved February 17, 2021. Excerpt

33. Letter of David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalf, March 1887, cit. Anthony Metcalf, Ten Years Before the Mast (Malad, Idaho, 1888) p. 74; cited in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1981) p. 86. ISBN 0877478465.

References

Cook, Lyndon W., ed. (1991). David Whitmer Interviews, A Restoration Witness. Orem, Utah: Grandin Book. ISBN 978-0-910523-38-7.

Davis, Inez Smith (1981). The Story of the Church (10th ed.). Independence, Missouri: Herald House. p. 75.

Metcalfe, Brent Lee (1993). "Apologetic and Critical Studies Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 26 (3): 153–184. doi:10.2307/45228673. JSTOR 45228673. S2CID 259876987.[permanent dead link]

Vogel, Dan, ed. (1996–2003). Early Mormon Documents. (Vols. 1-5). Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-072-8.

Source Notice:

This article contains material adapted from Wikipedia under the CC BY-SA license. Original article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Whitmer