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John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847

Chapter 1 Page 1 Chapter 2 Page 11 Chapter 3 Page 17 Chapter 4 Page 22 Chapter 5 Page 23 Chapter 6 Page 24 Chapter 7 Page 27 Chapter 8 Page 29 Chapter 9 Page 31 Chapter 10 Page 37 Chapter 11 Page 45 Chapter 12 Page 60 Chapter 13 Page 66 Chapter 14 Page 68 Chapter 15 Page 71 Chapter 16 Page 74 Chapter 17 Page 81 Chapter 18 Page 83 Chapter 19 Page 84 Chapter 20 Page 86 Chapter 21 Page 89 Chapter 22 Page 95

Source Note

, History, 1831–ca. 1847, as found in “The Book of John, Whitmer kept by Comma[n]d,” ca. 1838–ca. 1847; handwriting of ; ninety-six pages (two additional leaves missing); CHL. Includes redactions, editing marks, and archival marking.
inscribed his history into a blank book containing leaves ruled with thirty-four blue-green horizontal lines (now faded). Evidence suggests there were originally twelve gatherings of twelve leaves (twenty-four pages) each. The entire fifth gathering is missing from the current volume, and one extra leaf not part of the original text block was inserted between the fourth and sixth gatherings, making 133 interior leaves in the current volume. The text block was sewn all along on recessed cords. The blank leaves measure 12¼ x 7⅞ inches (31 x 20 cm); the inscribed leaves are slightly smaller in width, having been trimmed about ⅛ inch (0.3 cm) during conservation work. The volume was constructed with front and back covers of pasteboard and likely had a hollow-back spine and quarter-leather binding. The outside covers are adorned in shell marbled paper, with gray-green body and veins of blue and red. The complete volume currently measures 12½ x 8⅛ x 1 inches (32 x 21 x 3 cm).
Details of the original state of the volume are impossible to determine because of conservation work done in the second half of the twentieth century. Initially the inscribed leaves were removed from the original boards and from the intact blank leaves of the volume and rebound separately in a modern comb binding. These inscribed leaves were later removed from this binding, reinforced along the bound edge with paper, laminated with thin paper, and bound in a modern case binding. A third conservation effort reversed the earlier work by removing the laminated material and reattaching the inscribed leaves to the blank leaves and the original boards.
The final leaf of the fourth gathering contains manuscript pages 95 and 96. The next two leaves, containing manuscript pages 97 through 100, are missing. They were removed before 1893, when Andrew Jenson, a representative of the Church Historian’s Office in Salt Lake City, inspected the volume and noted that it was missing two leaves at that point. Evidence indicates that the remaining leaves of the fifth gathering were intact but blank when Jenson inspected the volume in 1893, suggesting they were discarded during the first conservation effort in the twentieth century. The first blank leaf following manuscript page 96 does not match the texture or form of the other blank leaves, but it does bear a slight water stain matching staining found on almost all leaves within the book. It may be an extra flyleaf from either the front or back of the volume inserted after page 96, or it may be paper from a different source; in either case, it was inserted early enough to be stained with the rest of the volume. The endpapers are original and currently consist of pastedowns and single flyleaves in the front and back of the volume.
An unidentified scribe, most likely working in the nineteenth century, wrote “Church History” on the top of the front cover. A green adhesive label is affixed to the front cover. At some point, someone attempted to remove the label but succeeded in removing only portions of it. The only writing visible on the label is “HURC”, a remnant of the word “CHURCH”. The current spine of the volume was added during conservation work, and thus it is unknown whether the original spine bore a title. The recto of the front flyleaf contains several redactions or archival markings in graphite in an unknown hand: “John Whitmer | written | 1835–1838 | after 1860” and “MS History of church | 1830–1838”. The verso is blank, aside from offsetting from the first interior page and a stamped “1072” near the bottom. inscribed his history from page 1 through the bottom of page 96, at which point the narrative ends midsentence, suggesting it originally continued onto the next page. When Andrew Jenson saw the book in 1893 while visiting Missouri to gather historical information, he made a handwritten copy of the volume and provided a physical description. He wrote that “four pages or two leaves have been torn off the book, which is seen from fragments of the leaves remaining.” He also noted that “the next page left intact is 101. No other writing, however, appears on this page, nor on any of the succeeding pages.” Jenson’s earlier draft stated that the page “is numbered 101.” If this was the case, then the page numbered 101 was part of the fifth gathering and is now missing. At some point, likely during the early twentieth century, the leaf containing pages 95 and 96 was repaired with adhesive tape; the tape was removed during a later conservation effort. Redactions were made by John Whitmer himself, and subsequent editing marks were made that correspond to the early twentieth-century publication of Whitmer’s history by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (RLDS church).
Following his excommunication in 1838, apparently retained possession of the history. In a January 1844 offer to sell his history to the church, Whitmer wrote that the “church history” was “at my controll but not in my Possession.” declined the offer, and Whitmer certainly had the “Book of John Whitmer” after January 1844, because he updated the volume after JS’s death.
It appears retained his papers until his death in July 1878, after which his widow, Sarah Maria Jackson Whitmer, sent the “Book of John Whitmer” (though apparently not any earlier notes or drafts) and other papers to , Missouri, where Whitmer’s brother resided. David Whitmer had possession of the volume in the 1880s, before his death in 1888. In 1893, when Andrew Jenson inspected and copied the “Book of John Whitmer,” it was in the possession of David J. Whitmer, David Whitmer’s son. Following David J. Whitmer’s death, his nephew George Schweich, a grandson of David Whitmer, took possession of the material, along with the Book of Mormon printer’s manuscript and other early Latter-day Saint manuscripts. By 1902, the First Presidency of the RLDS church (now Community of Christ) approved the purchase of papers owned by Schweich, including the “Book of John Whitmer,” the Book of Mormon printer’s manuscript, and several leaves that had been separated from Revelation Book 1. In 2024, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the Whitmer history from the Community of Christ, and it is now held at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whitmer, “The Book of John Whitmer,” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894, 68.

    Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer, 1831–ca. 1846.” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894. CHL. MS 3552.

  2. [2]

    Whitmer, “The Book of John Whitmer,” Andrew Jenson manuscript copy, ca. Sept. 1893, 85.

    Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer, 1831–ca. 1846.” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894. CHL. MS 3552.

  3. [3]

    The leaf currently bears remnants of this tape. A microfilm made of the manuscript in 1974 shows clear evidence of the tape. (Whitmer, “The Book of John Whitmer,” microfilm, Oct. 1974, Research Library and Archives, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Independence, MO, copy at CHL.)

    “The Book of John Whitmer,” microfilm, Oct. 1974. Research Library and Archives, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Independence, MO. Copy at CHL. MS 19850.

  4. [4]

    “Church History,” Journal of History, Jan. 1908, 43–63; Apr. 1908, 135–150; July 1908, 292–305.

    “Church History.” Journal of History 1, no. 1 (Jan. 1908): 43–63.

  5. [5]

    John Whitmer, Far West, MO, to William W. Phelps, Nauvoo, IL, 8 Jan. 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL.

    JS Office Papers / Joseph Smith Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845. CHL. MS 21600.

  6. [6]

    Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to John Whitmer, Far West, MO, 23 Feb. 1844, copy, Willard Richards, Papers, CHL.

    Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490.

  7. [7]

    Whitmer, “The Book of John Whitmer,” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894, [69]; “Report of Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith,” Deseret News, 27 Nov. 1878, 674–675; 4 Dec. 1878, 690.

    Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer, 1831–ca. 1846.” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894. CHL. MS 3552.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  8. [8]

    “Revelation Revisers,” Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 16 July 1884, [7]; see also “The Book of Mormon,” Chicago Tribune, 17 Dec. 1885, 3.

    Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1919.

    Chicago Tribune. Chicago. 1847–.

  9. [9]

    Andrew Jenson et al., “Historical Landmarks,” Deseret Evening News, 26 Sept. 1888, 7; T. E. Lloyd, “The Carroll-Lloyd Expose,” Zion’s Ensign, 15 July 1893, 6; “The Book of Mormon,” New York Times, 21 Sept. 1899, 9; George Schweich, Richmond, MO, to O. R. Beardsley, 17 Jan. 1900, Miscellanea, Marie Eccles-Caine Archives of Intermountain Americana, Utah State University Special Collections, Logan; Walter W. Smith, Independence, MO, to S. A. Burgess, Independence, MO, 15 Apr. 1926, J. F. Curtis Papers, CCLA; see also Heman C. Smith, Lamoni, IA, to George Schweich, 20 July 1896, CCLA.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    Zion’s Ensign. Independence, MO. 1891–.

    New York Times. New York City. 1857–.

    Schweich, George. Letter, Richmond, MO, to O. R. Beardsley, 17 Jan. 1900. Miscellanea, Marie Eccles-Caine Archives of Intermountain Americana, Utah State University Special Collections, Logan.

    Curtis, J. F. Papers. CCLA.

    Smith, Heman C. Letter, Lamoni, IA, to George Schweich, 20 July 1896. CCLA.

  10. [10]

    “Minutes of First Presidency,” 24 Apr. 1902, CCLA; Walter W. Smith, Independence, MO, to the RLDS First Presidency, Independence, MO, 14 Sept. 1925, Whitmer Papers, CCLA; see also Source Note to Revelation Book 1.

    “Minutes of First Presidency, March 1898 to September 1907, Record No. 1.” CCLA.

    Whitmer Papers. CCLA.

    JSP, MRB / Jensen, Robin Scott, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Manuscript Revelation Books. Facsimile edition. First volume of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009.

Historical Introduction

“I would rather not do it” was ’s reponse when JS requested in 1831 that he “keep the Church history.” Whitmer was no stranger to record-keeping duties; he had already assisted JS as scribe for portions of both the Book of Mormon and JS’s revision of the Bible, and about the time of his call as historian, he began scribal work on the “Book of Commandments and Revelations” (Revelation Book 1), of which he inscribed nearly all 205 pages. Yet the role of historian was one he was reluctant to assume, perhaps because the responsibility it carried went beyond clerical duties to writing a more comprehensive narrative. Only after asking for and receiving a revelation through JS affirming that it was God’s will that he “be appointed . . . to keep the church record and history continually” did Whitmer agree to serve as historian. His formal appointment came a month later on 9 April 1831, when he was assigned “to keep the Church record & history by the voice of ten Elders.”
The 1831 commandment to serve as historian of the church was not the first revelation addressed to . A revelation of June 1829 instructed him to “declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me,” and revelations in July and September 1830 urged him to diligently study and preach and promised him divine guidance in those labors. Whitmer was one of eleven to sign his name as a witness of the Book of Mormon, testifying that he saw and touched the gold plates, and he was among the first members of the Church of Christ. He was a devoted Latter-day Saint, trusted with clerical and administrative assignments. Few were as well positioned to observe and record the important events of the church. Whitmer undertook his history assignment as one who accepted JS’s revelations as the word of God, and he considered himself “commanded of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” to document the rise of the church. He couched much of his history in biblical language, perhaps envisioning a fifth gospel on the pattern of the New Testament, a latter-day “Book of John”—his original title for the work before appending his last name—chronicling the growth of a divine kingdom.
Documents from the early 1830s show that remained uncertain about his role as historian and that JS continually placed responsibility for keeping the official church history squarely on Whitmer’s shoulders. Eight months after the revelation commanding Whitmer to keep a history, a November 1831 revelation directed Whitmer to “continue in writing and making a history of all the important things which he shall observe and know, concerning my church” and to travel “from place to place, and from church to church, that he may the more easily obtain knowledge.” The next year JS wrote a letter telling Whitmer, “I exhort Bro John also to remember the commandment to him to keep a history of the church & the gathering and be sure to shew him self approoved whereunto he hath been called.” In July 1833 Whitmer asked to request further instructions on record keeping, and a detailed response was sent the following January. Again in a September 1835 blessing, JS expressed concern for Whitmer’s history, promising (and reminding) the historian that he “shall make a choice record of Israel.”
worked on his history throughout the 1830s and into the 1840s as noteworthy events developed and as time allowed. On 12 June 1831, three months after the revelation appointing him to keep the church history, Whitmer began writing or at least making notes for a history. Summer 1831 provided ample opportunity to start the work: while two dozen elders traveled to , Whitmer remained in , providing him something of a sabbatical from other church duties. Whitmer’s occasional use of the present tense and disclosure of composition dates in early chapters show that he recorded some of his history contemporaneous to the events described. For example, in chapter 10 he wrote concerning conditions in , Missouri, that “Zion is prospering at presnt”—an observation he would not have made after opposition against the church grew increasingly intense in 1833. He also noted the church population in Missouri around March 1832 (“there are at this time 402, disciples living in this land Zion”) and on the next page noted, “Decmbr 1, 1832, there are now 538 individuals in this land b[e]longing to th[e] church.”
Although language in the first chapters of the history shows that drafted some of his narrative in the early 1830s, textual evidence indicates that the extant “Book of John Whitmer” was created no earlier than 1835 and in fact probably dates from 1838. Most of the revelations Whitmer copied into or cited in the first eight chapters (including the first copied revelation, on page 2 of his manuscript) came from the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, so the existing Whitmer history could not have been written earlier than 1835. A note at the end of page 85 dates the completion of chapter 19 in March 1838, and the entire history to that point may have been copied at the same time. (The final three chapters following chapter 19 were written after Whitmer’s 1838 excommunication, as explained later.) Chapter 12 opens with the inscription “May 10, 1838,” which Whitmer apparently intended as “May 10, 1834.” It is implausible that Whitmer mistakenly wrote a year that lay in the future; more likely, he inadvertently wrote the current year when he was copying the text, suggesting he was copying chapter 12 in 1838. It is possible that the first eleven chapters of the history were copied in 1835 or 1836, but there is no explicit evidence that any of the present history was created before 1838.
In his responsibility as historian, viewed himself as resuming the church record where left off. Whitmer opened his history noting, “I shall proceed to continue this record,” and he explained in chapter 6, “Oliver Cowdery has written the commencement of the church history commencing at the time of the finding of the plates, up to June 12, 1831. from this date I have written the things that I have written.” The revelation assigning Whitmer as historian supported his view that he was replacing Cowdery: “It shall be appointed unto him to keep the church record and history continually, for Oliver Cowdery I have appointed to another office.” There is no other document from the time, however, indicating that Cowdery’s original record-keeping assignment included narrative history, and Whitmer’s initial focus as Cowdery’s replacement was copying revelations and apparently drafting notes and collecting other records. Whitmer may have known or assumed that Cowdery wrote a unified narrative covering the period from JS’s discovery of the gold plates to summer 1831, but no such document is extant.
’s reference to 12 June 1831 as ’s stopping point corresponds to his own starting date (which he recorded on the first page of his history) but appears unrelated to an ending date for records kept by Cowdery. The March 1831 revelation officially released Cowdery from his duties, and his term of service effectively terminated even earlier, when he was called in September 1830 to leave the main body of the church and proselytize among Indians on the western frontier of the (the account of which opens Whitmer’s history). Cowdery’s major historical account was written in 1834–1835 and published in the periodical Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. That history, composed as a series of letters to , focused on the period from 1823 until shortly before JS retrieved the Book of Mormon plates in 1827. As noted above, Whitmer’s history cited the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, meaning that the extant version of chapter 6 was written no earlier than 1835. Therefore, when Whitmer referred to Cowdery’s historical writings, beginning “at the time of the finding of the plates,” he may have been referring in part to Cowdery’s Messenger and Advocate letters.
Early in his work, settled upon a format that combined narrative history with significant revelations, letters, petitions, and other documents. He copied many of these documents in full and noted that others should be inserted. In the first eight chapters, Whitmer documented the church’s rise in , Ohio, by incorporating sixteen revelations conveyed by JS between 7 December 1830 and 15 June 1831. Letters from and form part of chapter 9, which describes the establishment of the city of in , Missouri, in summer 1831. Beginning with chapter 10, Whitmer’s history turns to letters, military communications, and petitions relevant to the conflicts that arose between the Latter-day Saints and neighboring Missourians starting in 1832 and that culminated with the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County in November 1833. Whitmer documented in particular the Mormons’ unsuccessful efforts to obtain government assistance to be restored to their Jackson County properties, through the courts, through appeals to governor , and through a petition to president Andrew Jackson. Chapters 15–18 return to events in Kirtland, where Whitmer journeyed in 1835 to participate in the activities leading up to the dedication of the ; the last document Whitmer selected to be inserted in the history is the Messenger and Advocate account of the dedication in March 1836. Chapter 19 documents the subsequent relocation of the Missouri Saints from to what became and briefly mentions problems at Kirtland and at . Whitmer was accused of financial wrongdoing and excommunicated on 10 March 1838. He recorded the excommunication in chapter 19 of his history and then wrote, “Therefore I close the history of the church of Latter Day Saints, hoping that . . . I find favor in the eyes of God.” Later events would compel him to return to his history.
After his estrangement from the church, refused to relinquish the manuscript for printing. Two months after Whitmer’s excommunication, JS and wrote him:
We were desireous of honouring you by giving publicity to your notes on the history of the Church of Latter day Saints, after such corrections as we thaught would be necessary; knowing your incompetency as a historian, and that your writings coming from your pen, could not be put to the press, without our correcting them, or elce the Church must suffer reproach; Indeed Sir, we never supposed you capable of writing a history; but were willing to let it come out under your name notwithstanding it would realy not be yours but ours. We are still willing to honour you, if you can be made to know your own interest and give up your notes, so that they can be corrected, and made fit for the press. But if not, we have all the materials for another, which we shall commence this week to write[.]
There is no record of responding to the condescending letter, and church leaders soon made other arrangements. and had already been assigned as historians, and within three weeks of writing to Whitmer, JS himself began to prepare a new history with the assistance of and scribe .
Following his excommunication, was forced to move in June 1838 from the Mormon settlement of , Missouri. He resettled in nearby , but he returned to Far West after the main body of Saints left for in 1839. At some point following his separation from the church, Whitmer struck from chapter 19 not only his contrite conclusion but also his own name as one of the excommunicated Saints. He then added three chapters that were, in the words of later assistant church historian Andrew Jenson, “in altogether a different spirit.” Whitmer accused JS and other leaders of pride, deceit, and despotism, repeating the most sensational reports coming out of the new Mormon settlement in , Illinois.
In the 1840s, as and worked in , Illinois, to compile the history of JS and the church, Phelps apparently inquired after the history in ’s possession. In January 1844, Whitmer wrote to Phelps, offering to sell his history “at a fair price.” Whitmer told Phelps that Latter-day Saint land in was “going to distruction”; he proposed trading his history “for property &c. provided we can agree as to price.” Whitmer reported that the “church history,” which may have been the volume that contained the “Book of John Whitmer,” was “at my controll but not in my Possession.” Willard Richards responded to this letter, declining the offer from Whitmer and explaining that church historians had “already compiled about 800 pages of church history . . . which covers all the ground of which you took notes, therefore anything which you have in the shape of church history would be of little or no consequence to the church at large.”
Continuing to write after the death of JS, at first affirmed as the rightful leader of the Saints, but he later canceled this passage. In September 1847, persuaded John and and to accept ordination in a reformed Church of Christ, which they soon repudiated. It was during this time that John Whitmer wrote the end of his history, putting forward the successorship claims of his brother David. As the main body of the Saints moved to the Great Basin, Whitmer remained in and at no point did he reestablish affiliation with those who went west. He did, however, continue to affirm his witness of the gold plates. A prosperous farmer until his death on 11 July 1878, he left an estate of 625 acres as well as livestock and farm equipment.
The “Book of John Whitmer” illuminates many important concerns of the early church, including property issues, church discipline, the millenarian beliefs of the Latter-day Saints and their fervor in constructing or the “New Jerusalem,” the treatment of dissidents, and the establishment of a priesthood leadership hierarchy. It also reports on the construction and significance of the at , the conflicts the Saints had with their neighbors in , their subsequent attempts to secure redress, and aspects of succession following JS’s death. ’s work is particularly significant for the revelations, petitions, and letters that form a large part of his history.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whitmer, History, 24.

    Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CHL. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  2. [2]

    See Historical Introduction to Revelation Book 1.

    JSP, MRB / Jensen, Robin Scott, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Manuscript Revelation Books. Facsimile edition. First volume of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009.

  3. [3]

    Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–B, in Doctrine and Covenants 63:2, 1835 ed. [D&C 47:3].

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

  4. [4]

    Minute Book 2, 9 Apr. 1831.

    Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  5. [5]

    Revelation, June 1829–C, in Doctrine and Covenants 40:3, 1835 ed. [D&C 15:6]; Revelation, July 1830–B, in Doctrine and Covenants 49:1, 1835 ed. [D&C 26:1]; Revelation, Sept. 1830–E, in Doctrine and Covenants 52:3, 1835 ed. [D&C 30:9–11].

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

  6. [6]

    Whitmer, History, 1.

    Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CHL. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  7. [7]

    Revelation, 11 Nov. 1831–A, in Doctrine and Covenants 28:1–2, 1835 ed. [D&C 69:3, 7].

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

  8. [8]

    JS, Hiram, OH, to William W. Phelps, [Independence, MO], 31 July 1832, copy, JS Collection, CHL.

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

  9. [9]

    John Whitmer, Independence, MO, to JS and Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland Mills, OH, 29 July 1833, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 52–55; Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, Missouri, 1 Jan. 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 14–17.

    JS Letterbook 2 / Smith, Joseph. “Copies of Letters, &c. &c.,” 1839–1843. Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 2.

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

  10. [10]

    JS to John Whitmer, Blessing, 22 Sept. 1835, in Patriarchal Blessings, 1:14.

    Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.

  11. [11]

    Whitmer, History, 1, 25.

    Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CHL. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  12. [12]

    Whitmer, History, 38, 39.

    Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CHL. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  13. [13]

    Historical evidence also suggests that Whitmer made the extant copy of the entire history in 1838. Following Whitmer’s excommunication in March 1838, church leaders made a concerted effort to obtain the records in his possession. This effort was partially successful: Whitmer apparently turned over a copied list of names of members who had resided in Missouri and possibly made available some minutes he had kept. Whitmer may have copied his history in order to turn it over to church leadership but then changed his mind and retained the volume. (“Names of the Members of the Church in Missouri. Then Situated Most in Caldwell County,” 2–14; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” The Return, Sept. 1889, 133; compare items copied in Minute Book 2.)

    The Scriptory Book of Joseph Smith, 1838. CHL. MS 8955.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  14. [14]

    It is not known how extensively Whitmer revised earlier drafts when creating the extant “Book of John Whitmer,” although, as noted, he retained some of his present-tense language from the early 1830s. Some passages suggest that Whitmer was writing later, as when he noted that some who were ordained to the high priesthood at a June 1831 church conference subsequently “deni[e]d the faith.” Also, when describing conditions in Jackson County, Missouri, in March 1832, he alluded to the expulsion that occurred the following year. (See Whitmer, History, 23, 28, 38.)

    Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CHL. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  15. [15]

    Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–B, in Doctrine and Covenants 63:2, 1835 ed. [D&C 47:3].

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

  16. [16]

    The published letters were copied into JS’s 1834–1836 history.

    JS History, 1834–1836 / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1834–1836. In Joseph Smith et al., History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, back of book (earliest numbering), 9–20, 46–187. Historian's Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, box 1, vol. 1.

  17. [17]

    The revelations dating from this time period but not included by Whitmer in his history are as follows: Revelation, 9 Dec. 1830, in Doctrine and Covenants 57, 1835 ed. [D&C 36]; Revelation, 5 Jan. 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 59, 1835 ed. [D&C 39]; Revelation, 6 Jan. 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 60, 1835 ed. [D&C 40]; Revelation, 15 May 1831, in Revelation Book 1, p. 85; Revelation, 20 May 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 23, 1835 ed. [D&C 51]; Revelation, 8 June 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 66, 1835 ed. [D&C 53]; and Revelation, 14 June 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 68, 1835 ed. [D&C 55]. These seven revelations were directed to individuals and not to the church as a whole.

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

    Revelation Book 1 / “A Book of Commandments and Revelations of the Lord Given to Joseph the Seer and Others by the Inspiration of God and Gift and Power of the Holy Ghost Which Beareth Re[c]ord of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost Which Is One God Infinite and Eternal World without End Amen,” 1831–1835. CHL.

  18. [18]

    JS and Sidney Rigdon, Far West, MO, to John Whitmer, 9 Apr. 1838. Because Whitmer copied or prepared the extant “Book of John Whitmer” from an earlier draft or notes, it is unknown whether JS and Rigdon meant for Whitmer to turn over the text now known as the “Book of John Whitmer” or whether they hoped to obtain earlier notes or sources Whitmer used for his history.

    JSP, J1 / Jessee, Dean C., Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds. Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839. Vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008.

  19. [19]

    Minute Book 2, 6 Apr. 1838; JS, Journal, 27 Apr. 1838.

    Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  20. [20]

    Whitmer, “The Book of John Whitmer,” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894, [70].

    Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer, 1831–ca. 1846.” Andrew Jenson typescript, ca. Mar. 1894. CHL. MS 3552.

  21. [21]

    John Whitmer, Far West, MO, to William W. Phelps, Nauvoo, IL, 8 Jan. 1844, JS, Office Papers, CHL.

    JS Office Papers / Joseph Smith Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845. CHL. MS 21600.

  22. [22]

    Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to John Whitmer, Far West, MO, 23 Feb. 1844, copy, Willard Richards, Papers, CHL.

    Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490.

  23. [23]

    [William E. McLellin], “Our Tour West in 1847,” Ensign of Liberty, Aug. 1849, 99–105; [Ebenezer Robinson], “Elder David Whitmer,” The Return, Jan. 1889, 10; see also Porter, “Odyssey of William Earl McLellin,” 341–346.

    Ensign of Liberty. Kirtland, OH. Mar. 1847–Aug. 1849.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

    Porter, Larry C. “The Odyssey of William Earl McLellin: Man of Diversity, 1806–83.” In The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836, edited by Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, 291–378. Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

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    Near the end of his life, Whitmer wrote regarding the printed testimony of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, “It is the Same as it was from the beginning, and it is true. . . . I have never denied my testimony as to the Book of Mormon, under any circumstances whatever.” (Joseph R. Lambert, Lamoni, IA, to E. L. Kelley, 29 Jan. 1884, CCLA.)

    Lambert, Joseph R. Letter, Lamoni, IA, to E. L. Kelley, 29 Jan. 1884. CCLA.

  25. [25]

    “Executor’s or Administrator’s Inventory, Certificate, and Affidavit,” Estate of John Whitmer, 11 Oct. 1878, photocopy, private possession; Caldwell Co., MO, Probate Court, Inventories, Appraisements, Sale Bills, vol. C, pp. 91–92, microfilm 955,841; Caldwell Co., MO, Probate Court, Records, vol. D, pp. 35–38, microfilm 955,386, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    “Executor’s or Administrator’s Inventory, Certificate, and Affidavit,” Estate of John Whitmer, 11 Oct. 1878. Photocopy. Private possession.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Church Officers in Clay County, Missouri, 31 August 1835 *Revelation, 2 January 1831 [D&C 38] *Revelation, 10 June 1831 [D&C 54] *Revelation, circa 8 March 1831–B [D&C 47] *Revelation, February 1831–B [D&C 44] *Revelation, 10 March 1831 [D&C 48] *Revelation, February 1831–A [D&C 43] *Revelation Book 1 *Revelation, 4 February 1831 [D&C 41] *Revelation, 30 December 1830 [D&C 37] *Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72] *Revelation, 7 December 1830 [D&C 35]

Page 86

Editorial Note
’s conclusion to Chapter 19, which acknowledged his formal excommunication on 10 March 1838, originally marked the end of this history. At a later time, however, Whitmer returned to the manuscript to cancel his plea for forgiveness; he then added three more chapters. Before he was expelled from in June 1838 along with other excommunicants, Whitmer was a witness of some of the 1838 events of which he wrote. In contrast, because Whitmer had to rely entirely on the reports of others for his description of developments in from autumn 1836 to spring 1838, in and counties, Missouri, in late 1838, and in beginning in 1839, the final chapters of his narrative exhibit significant historical shortcomings. For example, his comment that the Mormons “commenced a difficulty in Daviess Co.” and his brief explanation of the events leading up to JS’s imprisonment and the expulsion of the Mormons from fail to place Mormon acts of aggression in Daviess County in the context of a broader and rapidly developing conflict, including previous violence against the Mormons. He stands alone among his contemporaries in claiming that an organization resembling the Danites originated in , and his generalization about “spiritual wife doctrine, that is pleurality of wives” in Kirtland suggests his narrative was colored by a later perspective, one based on charges leveled at the Mormons in in the 1840s.
Chapter 20
Chapter 20, 1837.
In the fall of 1836, Joseph Smith Jr. & others of the Leaders of the church at Ohio, Established a bank for the purpose of Speculation and the whole church partook of the same Spirit, they were lifted up in pride, and lusted after the forbiden things of God such as covetousness, & in secret combination, spiritual wife doctrine, that is pleurality of wives, and gadianton bands in which they were bound with oaths &c. that brought divisi[o]ns and mistrust among those who were pure in heart, and desired the upbilding of the Kingdom of God—
J. Smith Jr. & & moved their families to this place in the Spring of 1838. As soon as they came here they began to enforce their new organized plan in force which caused disensions and difficulties, threatnings and even murders[.] Smith called a counsel of the leaders together in which council he Stated that any person who said a word against the heads of the church should be driven over these prairies as a chaced deer by a pack of hounds, having an allusion to the gideanats [Gideonites] as they were then termed to Justify themselves, in their wicked designes
Thus on the 19th of June 1838 they preached a sermon called it the Salt sermon in which these gideonites understood that they should drive the disenters as they termed those who believed that not [p. 86]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847
ID #
6550
Total Pages
103
Print Volume Location
JSP, H2:2–110
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  • John Whitmer

Footnotes

  1. [255]

    The Kirtland Safety Society was established in January 1837 to facilitate economic development in Kirtland and vicinity. It faltered early and finally closed in November 1837. Other observers, including John Corrill, recalled a prevailing attitude of speculation and greed in Kirtland. (Corrill, Brief History, 26–27; see also Hill et al., Kirtland Economy Revisited.)

    Corrill, John. A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Commonly Called Mormons;) Including an Account of Their Doctrine and Discipline; with the Reasons of the Author for Leaving the Church. St. Louis: By the author, 1839.

    Hill, Marvin S., C. Keith Rooker, and Larry T. Wimmer. The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1977.

  2. [256]

    JS’s 1831 work on the revision of the Bible evidently led to a revelation sanctioning polygyny as practiced by Old Testament patriarchs.a Later accounts reported that JS and a young woman named Fanny Alger had a relationship in Kirtland and that JS and Alger’s family considered it to be a divinely authorized plural marriage; Oliver Cowdery later characterized the relationship as adulterous.b John Whitmer could have learned of a relationship between JS and Alger from Cowdery, but the phrase “spiritual wife doctrine” was introduced publicly by dissident John C. Bennett in 1842, indicating that Whitmer wrote this portion of the history after that date.c

    (aSee Revelation, 12 July 1843, in Revelations Collection, CHL [D&C 132]; Bachman, “Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage,” 24–28. bOliver Cowdery, Far West, MO, to Warren Cowdery, [Kirtland, OH], 21 Jan. 1838, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 80–83; see also JS, Journal, 12 Apr. 1838; and Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, chap. 1. c“Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 15 July 1842, [2]; Bennett, History of the Saints, 223–225.)

    Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583.

    Bachman, Danel W. “New Light on an Old Hypothesis: The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage.” Journal of Mormon History 5 (1978): 19–32.

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

    Compton, Todd. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001.

    Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

    Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

  3. [257]

    Gadianton was the leader of a band of robbers in the Book of Mormon, which chronicles periodic resurgences of a secret society bearing his name. Whitmer used these same phrases, “spiritual wife” and “gadianton bands,” a few pages later when discussing events in Nauvoo, and it seems that his narrative merged events of late 1836 and 1837 Kirtland and 1840s Nauvoo. (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 423 [Helaman 6:18]; see also Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 79–80; Corrill, Brief History, 30–32; and JS, Journal, 27 July 1838.)

    The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. Palmyra, NY: E. B. Grandin, 1830.

    Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

    Corrill, John. A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Commonly Called Mormons;) Including an Account of Their Doctrine and Discipline; with the Reasons of the Author for Leaving the Church. St. Louis: By the author, 1839.

  4. [258]

    JS reached Far West on 14 March, Rigdon on 4 April, and Hyrum Smith in late May. (JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838, [undated entry]; JS History, vol. B-1, 786; Hyrum Smith, Commerce, IL, to “the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Dec. 1839, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:20–24.)

    JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  5. [259]

    No other record exists of this “counsel of the leaders.” After JS’s arrival in Far West, the high council met several times to discipline dissident leaders and reestablish JS’s authority. Whitmer was excommunicated by this time and therefore was not in attendance. (See Minute Book 2, 12, 13, and 14 Apr. 1838.)

    Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  6. [260]

    The warrior Gideon and his followers are described in Judges chapter 8, in the Old Testament. Whitmer used both “gadiantons” and “gideonites” to refer to the Danites.

  7. [261]

    According to Reed Peck’s 1839 recollection, Sidney Rigdon’s 17 June 1838 “Salt Sermon” applied Jesus’s reference to salt that had lost its savor to unfaithful Mormons: “He informed the people that they had a set of men among them that had dissented from the church and were doing all in their power to destroy the presidency laying plans to take their lives &c., accused them of counterfeiting lying cheating and numerous other crimes and called on the people to rise en masse and ride [rid] the county of such a nuisance He said it is the duty of this people to trample them into the earth and if the county cannot be freed from them any other way I will assist to trample them down or to erect a gallows on the square of Far West and hang them up as they did the gamblers at Vicksburgh and it would be an act at which the angels would smile with approbation.” According to Peck, “Joseph Smith in a short speech sanctioned what had been said by Rigdon, though said he I don’t want the brethren to act unlawfully.” (Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 24–25, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; see also JS, Journal, 4 July 1838.)

    Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

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