View source for Mormonism and Wikipedia/Oliver Cowdery

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={{WikipediaUpdate|11/7/2010}}=

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
''Oliver Hervy Pliny Cowdery'''
|authorsources=<br>
#Prior to the winter of 1830-31, Cowdery generally signed his name "Oliver H P Cowdery", the "H P" standing for "Hervy" and "Pliny," two of his father's relatives. For unknown reasons Cowdery discontinued using his middle initials about 1831. Cowdery may have wished his name to match the form in which it was printed in the 1830 ''[[Book of Mormon]]''. <nowiki>[http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/telescp1.htm]</nowiki>. It is also possible that teasing by the <nowiki>[http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm#060130 ''Palmyra Reflector'']</nowiki> (June 1, 1830) about Cowdery's pretentious moniker may have influenced Cowdery to abandon the initials.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
(3 October 1806 – 3 March 1850) was, with [[Joseph Smith, Jr.]], a important participant in the formative period of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the [[Three Witnesses]] of the [[Book of Mormon|Book of Mormon's]] [[golden plates]], one of the first [[Latter Day Saint]] [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|apostles]], and the [[Assistant President of the Church|Second Elder]] of the church.
|authorsources=<br>
#|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

==Biography==
===Family background===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery was born October 3, 1806 in [[Wells, Vermont]]. His father, William, may have been a follower of sectarian leader [[Nathaniel Wood]] of Middletown, Vermont, whose small religious sect, the "New Israelites," practiced [[divining]] for buried treasure and for revelatory purposes.
|authorsources=<br>
#[[D. Michael Quinn]], ''Early Mormonism and the Magic World View'', Revised and enlarged (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 34-36; [http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/quaderno/Quaderno5/Q5.C7.Taylor.pdf Alan Taylor, "The New Jerusalem of the American Frontier"]; Barnes Frisbie, ''The History of Middletown, Vermont in Three Discourses....'' (Rutland, VT: Tuttle and Company, 1867), 43, 62.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*The "Wood Scrape" affair refers to a group of rodsmen led by Nathaniel Wood who claimed to be able to locate treasure and receive revelation. Barnes Frisbie believed that "this system of religion inaugurated by the Woods was transmitted to the Mormons." Frisbie believed that there was a connection between a man name Winchell (or Wingate) with the "Wood Scrape" affair. Frisbie then attempts to link the man "Winchell" with the Cowdery family, saying, "I have before said that Oliver Cowdery's father was in the "Wood scrape." ''Early Mormon Documents'' editor Dan Vogel notes, however, that "Frisbie did not previously say that William Cowdery was involved in the Wood Scrape but rather that he had hosted Winchell at his place in Wells and that they were 'intimate afterwards." The association of Oliver's father with the Nathanial Wood movement is therefore tenuous at best, but apparently good enough for Wikipedia.
*Based upon the Frisbie account, an association between Oliver's father and the "Wood Scrape" incident is postulated by author D. Michael Quinn. In the cited source, Quinn describes the "Wood Scrape" incident (p. 36) and then notes:
<blockquote>
"A connection between William Cowdery and the Wood Scrape would help explain why his son Oliver had a rod through which he received revelations."
</blockquote>
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=280397722&oldid=280321457}}(The addition to the wiki article was made by an anonymous editor, and then immediately cleaned up and cited by editor [[John Foxe]]). Based upon Quinn's assumption, the wiki editors seem to feel that one of the most important and significant aspects of Oliver's life is that his father ''may'' have been a follower of man who used divining rods. Why else would this be the first "fact" listed after Oliver's birth date and place?
*{{Detail|Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"}}

===''View of the Hebrews'' controversy===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The Cowdery family also attended the [[Congregational Church]] of [[Poultney, Vermont]], where [[Ethan Smith]] was pastor.
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Grant H. Palmer]], ''[[An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]'' (Salt Lake City: [[Signature Books]], 2002), 58-60.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=381314589&oldid=381313388}}It should be noted that there was no "''View of the Hebrews'' controversy" during Oliver Cowdery's lifetime. The ''View of the Hebrews'' theory of Book of Mormon origin did not gain any traction until the demise of the Spalding Theory in the late 1800's. The question is: Why is a "View of the Hebrews controversy" listed as the next major event in Oliver's Wikipedia "biography?" It is there simply because this is what the wiki editor wants people who read the article to see. A ''real'' biographer would not have manufactured a "controversy" and inserted it so prominently in the article.
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews}}
*{{Detail|Specific works/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins|l1=A FairMormon Analysis of ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins''}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
At the time, Ethan Smith was writing ''[[View of the Hebrews]]'' (1823), a book speculating that Native Americans were of Hebrew origin.
|authorsources=<br>
#During the colonial and early national periods many Americans speculated about a possible connection between the Hebrews and the Americans Indians. [[Richard Bushman]], [[Rough Stone Rolling]], 94-97.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}This is correct. There was much speculation that Native American had Hebrew origins. Ethan Smith's book was one example of a number of publications attempting to demonstrate that.
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
[[Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon|David Persuitte]] argues that Cowdery had a knowledge of ''View of the Hebrews'' and that this acquaintance significantly contributed to the final version of the ''Book of Mormon''.
|authorsources=<br>
#David Persuitte, ''[[Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon]]'' (McFarland & Company, 2000), 125: "Oliver Cowdery surely had a copy of ''View of the Hebrews''—a book that was published in his home town of Poultney, Vermont by the minister of the church his family was associated with. Considering his joint venture with Joseph Smith in 'translating' ''The Book of Mormon'' and the common subject matter, Cowdery could have shared his copy of Ethan Smith's book with Joseph, perhaps even sometime before Joseph began the 'translation' process."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*This is correctly identified as Persuitte's opinion in the article. Critics typically use B.H. Roberts' material compiled in [[Specific works/Studies of the Book of Mormon|''Studies of the Book of Mormon'']] to support this claim. Roberts indicated that critics could use ''View of the Hebrews'' to claim that Joseph used it as a basis for constructing the ''Book of Mormon''. 
*{{Detail|Specific works/Studies of the Book of Mormon|l1=A FairMormon Analysis of ''Studies of the Book of Mormon''}}
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Even noted LDS scholar [[Richard Bushman]] has written in ''[[Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling]]'' that though "Joseph Smith is not known to have seen ''View of the Hebrews'' until later in life, the parallels seem strong enough for critics to argue that Ethan Smith provided the seeds for Joseph Smith's later compositions."
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Richard Bushman]], ''[[Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling]]''(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 96.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=381285999&oldid=381252827}}These passages clearly illustrate a common tendency on the part of editor [[John Foxe]]. He typically identifies LDS scholars as "scholars" when they support a critical viewpoint, but identifies them as "apologists" if they support the LDS perspective. In this case, Bushman is clearly identified as a "noted LDS scholar" when his work is being used to support this critical claim.
*It is fair in this case to note what Bushman says immediately ''after'' the line quoted:
<blockquote>
But for readers of Ethan Smith, the ''Book of Mormon'' was a disappointment. It was not a treatise about the origins of the Indians, regardless of what early Mormons said. The ''Book of Mormon'' never used the word "Indian." The book had a different form and purpose than the earlier works on Indian origins. (Bushman, p. 96)
</blockquote>
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Nevertheless, Mormon apologists such as [[John W. Welch]] reject the connection and argue that there is little relationship between the contents of the two books.
|authorsources=<br>
#[[John W. Welch]], ''Reexploring the Book of Mormon'', 83-7, and ''A Sure Foundation: Answers to Difficult Gospel Questions'' (Salt Lake City: [[Deseret Book]], 1988); [[John W. Welch]], "An Unparallel" (Provo, Utah: [[FARMS]], 1985); [[Spencer J. Palmer]] and William L. Knecht, "View of the Hebrews: Substitute for Inspiration?" ''[[BYU Studies]]'' 5/2 (1964): 105-13.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=178701278&oldid=178686697}} Note that John Welch, Spencer J. Palmer, and William L. Knecht are not afforded the credentials of "LDS scholar," but instead are identified as "Mormon apologists." The use of the word "apologist" by the wiki editor is deliberate as it conveys to the layman that the person is "apologizing" for a position.
*Indeed, the distinction between scholars and apologists was important enough to wiki editor Foxe that when wiki editor "Iain1917" removed the phrase "Mormon apologists" in order to make the article more neutral, editor [[John Foxe]] reinserted it with the edit summary, "it needs to say 'Mormon apologists'."
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews}}

===Youth===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery was reared in Poultney, but beginning at age twenty, he clerked at a store in New York for several years until 1829, when he taught school in the town of [[Manchester, New York|Manchester]].
|authorsources=<br>
#Lucy Cowdery Young to Andrew Jenson, March 7, 1887, Church Archives
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}} We finally encounter one of our first truly neutral facts in the wiki article.

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
While teaching, Cowdery lodged at different houses in the Manchester area, including that of Joseph Smith, Sr., who apparently provided Cowdery with additional information about the [[golden plates]] of which he had heard "from all quarters."
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Junius F. Wells]], "Oliver Cowdery", ''[[Improvement Era]]'' XIV:5 (March 1911); [[Lucy Mack Smith]], "Preliminary Manuscript," 90 in ''Early Mormon Documents'' 1: 374-75.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*Lucy Mack Smith's comment (original spelling retained):
<blockquote>
Oliver requested my husband to take him as a boarder at least for a little while untill he should become acquainted with his patrons in the school. He had not been in the place long till he began to hear about the plates from all quarters and immediately he commenced importuneing Mr. Smith upon the subject but he did not succeed in eliciting any information from him for a long time. At length however he gained My husbands confidence so far as to get a sketch of the facts which relates to the plates. (''Early Mormon Documents'', pp. 374-375.
</blockquote>


===Book of Mormon scribe and witness===

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery met Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 5, 1829—a year and a day before the official founding of the church—and heard from him how he had received [[golden plates]] containing ancient [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] writings.
|authorsources=<br>
#''[[Joseph Smith—History]]'' 1:66.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Like Smith, who was a distant relative,
|authorsources=<br>
#[http://www.olivercowdery.com/family/Cdrygen1.htm Cowdery genealogy]
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=96330657&oldid=93598894}} Although this bit of trivia is interesting, the wiki editor [[John Foxe]] wants to use it to strengthen the connection between Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and treasure seeking. Joseph and Oliver had never met, so the fact that they were "distant" cousins has no bearing on this, unless the wiki editor thinks that a tendency toward "treasure seeking" is a genetic trait.
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
*{{Detail|Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
during his youth, Cowdery had engaged in hunting for buried treasure and had used a [[divining rod]].
|authorsources=<br>
#''EMD'', 1: 603-05, 619-20; Quinn, 37.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=96330657&oldid=93598894}} Wiki editor [[John Foxe]] wants to strengthen the connection between Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and treasure seeking.
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
*{{Detail|Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery told Smith that he had seen the golden plates in a vision before the two ever met.
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Richard Bushman]], ''[[Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling]]'' (New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]], 2005), 73; Grant Palmer, ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002), 179.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}} The Bushman reference only talks of Oliver's "gift of working with the rod." We cannot locate a reference about Oliver seeing the plates in a vision on the page cited.

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
From April 7 to June 1829, Cowdery acted as Smith's primary scribe for the translation of the plates into what would later become the ''[[Book of Mormon]]''. Cowdery also unsuccessfully attempted to translate part of the ''Book of Mormon'' himself.
|authorsources=<br>
#''[[History of the Church]]'' 1:36-38; D&C 8, 9.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail|Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Before meeting Cowdery, Joseph Smith's translation had come to a near standstill after the [[lost 116 pages|first 116 pages]] were lost by [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]. But after Smith met Cowdery, the manuscript was completed in a remarkably short period (April–June 1829) during what [[Richard Lyman Bushman|Richard Bushman]] called a "burst of rapid-fire translation." 
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling]] (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 70."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
On May 15, 1829, Cowdery and Smith said that they received the [[Aaronic Priesthood]] from [[John the Baptist]], after which they [[Baptism (Latter Day Saints)|baptized]] each other in the [[Susquehanna River]].
|authorsources=<br>
#''[[Messenger and Advocate]]'' (October 1834), 14-16; Bushman, 74-75.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*See primary source: {{MAfairwiki|vol=1|num=1|start=14|end=16}}


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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery also said that he and Smith later went into the forest and prayed "until a glorious light encircled us, and as we arose on account of the light, three persons stood before us dressed in white, their faces beaming with glory." One of the three announced that he was the [[Saint Peter|Apostle Peter]] and said the others were the Apostles [[James, son of Zebedee|James]] and [[John the Apostle|John]].
|authorsources=<br>
#Charles M. Nielsen to Heber Grant, February 10, 1898, in Dan Vogel, ed., ''Early Mormon Documents'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1998), 2: 476; ''[[History of the Church]]'' 1:39-42.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Later that year, Cowdery reported experiencing a vision along with Smith and [[David Whitmer]] in which an [[angel]] showed him the golden plates. [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] said he saw a similar vision later that day, and Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris signed a statement to that effect. They became known as the [[Three Witnesses]], and their testimony has been published with nearly every edition of the ''Book of Mormon''. Also in 1829, Cowdery received a revelation entitled "[[Articles of the Church of Christ]]", which directed the formation of the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]].
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}The item regarding the "Articles of the Church of Christ" is a wikilink to another Wikipedia article which states that this was "an 1829 revelation purportedly given by God to Oliver Cowdery." In this article, the "purported" revelation has been assigned the status of "fact" by the wiki editor.
*According to the web site "Saints without Halos," the revelation "housed in the LDS Church Archives, is in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting. It draws on the Book of Mormon and contains wording from D&C 17 and D&C 18, both written June 1–14, 1829."

===Second Elder of the church===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
When the Church was organized on April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr. became "First Elder" and Cowdery "Second Elder." Although Cowdery technically second in authority to Smith from the organization of the church through 1838, in practice [[Sidney Rigdon]], Smith's "spokesman" and counselor in the [[First Presidency]], began to supplant Cowdery as early as 1831. Cowdery held the position of [[Assistant President of the Church]] from 1834 until his excommunication in 1838.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}No sources are provided.

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
On December 18, 1832, Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, the daughter of [[Peter Whitmer, Sr.]] and sister of [[David Whitmer|David]], [[John Whitmer|John]], [[Jacob Whitmer|Jacob]] and [[Peter Whitmer, Jr.]]. They had five children, only one of whom survived to maturity.
|authorsources=<br>
#Maria Louise Cowdery, born August 11, 1835.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery helped Smith publish a series of Smith's revelations first called the ''[[Book of Commandments]]'' and later, as revised and expanded, the ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]''. Cowdery was also the editor or on the editorial board of several early church publications including the ''[[Evening and Morning Star]]'', the ''[[Messenger and Advocate]]'', and the ''Northern Times''.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
When the Church created a bank known as the [[Kirtland Safety Society]] in 1837, Cowdery obtained the money-printing plates. Sent by Smith to [[Monroe, Michigan]], he became president of the Bank of Monroe, which the church had purchased. Both banks failed that same year. Cowdery moved to the newly founded Latter Day Saint settlement in [[Far West, Missouri]] and suffered ill health through the winter of 1837-38.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
* {{WikipediaCITE}}A citation is needed relating to the Church purchasing the Bank of Monroe.


===Early written history of the church===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
In 1834 and 1835, with the help of Smith, Cowdery published a contribution to an anticipated "full history of the rise of the church of Latter Day Saints" as a series of articles in the church's ''[[Messenger and Advocate]]'', a version not entirely congruent with the later [[History of the Church|official history]] of the church.
|authorsources=<br>
#W. W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery, December 25, 1834, ''EMD'', 3: 28
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}

{{:Question: Did Oliver Cowdery state that Joseph did not know if a "supreme being" existed in 1823?}}
{{:Question: What criticisms are related to Oliver Cowdery's 1834-1835 history of the Church?}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
For instance, Cowdery ignored the [[Joseph Smith's First Vision|First Vision]] but described an angel (rather than God or Jesus) who called Smith to his work in September 1823, placing the religious revival that stimulated Smith to ask which church to join in 1823 (rather than 1820) and stating that this revival experience had caused Smith to pray in his bedroom (rather than the woods).
|authorsources=<br>
#Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 239; Richard Abanes, ''One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church'' (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002), 26; Vogel, ''EMD'', 2: 428.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*In the first installment, Oliver described the events leading up to the First Vision, and stated Joseph's age as 14. In the second installment, he said that he made a mistake and stated Joseph's age as 17, then proceeded to describe the vision of Moroni. It is not known why he switched between installments. Joseph had written his first account of the First Vision two years earlier in 1832.
*It should be noted that Joseph never uses the word "revival" in his description of the religious excitement that he observed in 1820.
*{{Detail|First Vision/Accounts/Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35}}
*{{Detail|First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't mention a revival}}
*{{Detail|First Vision/Religious revivals in 1820}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Further, after first asserting that the revival had occurred in 1821, when Smith was in his "fifteenth year," Cowdery corrected the date to 1823—Smith's 17th (actually, 18th) year.
|authorsources=<br>
#Cowdery also said that the final battle between the [[Nephite]]s and the [[Lamanites]] had occurred in the vicinity of the [[Cumorah|Hill Cumorah]], where Smith claimed he found the [[golden plates]]. There is little evidence for mass graves for tens of thousands of soldiers at the site and most modern Mormon [[apologists]] now argue that the events likely took place in [[Central America]]. ''Messenger and Advocate'', 1, no. 3 (December 1834),42, 78-79. “You will recollect that I mentioned the time of a religious excitement, in Palmyra and vicinity to have been in the 15th year of our brother J. Smith Jr.’s age — that was an error in the type — it should have been in the 17th. — You will please remember this correction, as it will be necessary for the full understanding of what will follow in time. This would bring the date down to the year 1823."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*The detail regarding the Hill Cumorah and lack of "mass graves" at the New York site is superfluous to a purported biography of Oliver Cowdery. ''Joseph Smith'' believed New York to be the site of the final battle as well.
*{{Detail|First Vision/Accounts/Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35}}
*{{Detail|First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't mention a revival}}
*{{Detail|First Vision/Religious revivals in 1820}}

===Excommunication===
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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
By early 1838 Smith and Cowdery disagreed on three significant issues. First, Cowdery competed with Smith for leadership of the new church and "disagreed with the Prophet's economic and political program and sought a personal financial independence [from the] Zion society that Joseph Smith envisioned."
|authorsources=<br>
#Cowdery, Oliver, ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'', Vol. 1, 1992.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Then too, in March 1838, Smith and Rigdon moved to Far West, which had been under the presidency of Cowdery's brothers-in-law, [[David Whitmer|David]] and John Whitmer. There Smith and Rigdon took charge of the Missouri church and initiated policies that Cowdery and the Whitmers believed violated separation of church and state. Finally, in January 1838, Cowdery wrote his brother [[Warren A. Cowdery|Warren]] that he and Joseph Smith had "had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that which I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and [[Fanny Alger|Fanny Alger's]] was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deserted from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself." Alger, a teenage maid living with the Smiths, may have been Joseph Smith's first [[plural marriage|plural wife]], a practice that Cowdery opposed.
|authorsources=<br>
#[[Richard Bushman]], [[Rough Stone Rolling]], 323-25, 347-49.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger}}
*{{Detail|Polygamy book/Introduction of eternal marriage}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith marry Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in 1833?}}
{{:Question: Did some of Joseph Smith's associates believe that Joseph Smith had an affair with Fanny Alger?}}

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{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
On April 12, 1838, a church court excommunicated Cowdery after he failed to appear at a hearing on his membership and sent a letter resigning from the Church instead.
|authorsources=<br>
#Bushman, 347-48. Among other things, Cowdery was accused of "virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not be governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor Revelations whatever in his temporal affairs."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The Whitmers, [[William Wines Phelps]] and Book of Mormon witness [[Hiram Page]] were also excommunicated from the church at the same time.
|authorsources=<br>
#''[[Far West]] Record'', 165-66
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery and the Whitmers became known as "the dissenters," but they continued to live in and around Far West, where they owned a great deal of property. On June 17, 1838, President [[Sidney Rigdon]] announced to a large Mormon congregation that the dissenters were "as salt that had lost its savor" and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast them out "to be trodden beneath the feet of men." Cowdery and the Whitmers, taking this [[Salt Sermon]] as a threat against their lives and as an implicit instruction to the [[Danites]], a secret vigilante group, fled the county. Stories about their treatment circulated in nearby non-Mormon communities and increased the tension that led to the [[Mormon War (1838)|1838 Mormon War]].
|authorsources=<br>
#Richard Lyman Bushman, ''Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 349-53.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

===Life apart from the church===
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
From 1838 to 1848, Cowdery put the Latter Day Saint church behind him. He may even have briefly denied his testimony regarding the [[Golden Plates]] because in 1841, the Mormon periodical ''[[Times and Seasons]]'' published the following verse: "Or does it prove there is no time,/Because some watches will not go?/...Or prove that Christ was not the Lord/Because that Peter cursed and swore?/Or Book of Mormon not His word/Because denied, by Oliver?"
|authorsources=<br>
#[http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n18.htm ''Times and Seasons'' 2: 482]
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oliver_Cowdery&diff=165820252&oldid=165758195}}Oliver reaffirmed his testimony many times and never denied it. Yet, this one poem is given precedence in the Wikipedia article, being quoted in full. Where are some of the many quotes in which Oliver reaffirmed his testimony? Not one is included, yet the wiki editor includes an entire poem to support the idea that Oliver ''might'' have denied it.
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Recant}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Nevertheless, there is no direct evidence that Cowdery ever denied his testimony, and he repeated it even while estranged from the church.
|authorsources=<br>
#Stanley R. Gunn, ''Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder and Scribe'' (Salt Lake City, 1962).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*Oliver reaffirmed his testimony even on his deathbed:
<blockquote>
Oliver Cowdery just before breathing his last, asked his attendants to raise him up in bed that he might talk to the family and his friends, who were present. He then told them to live according to the teachings contained in the Book of Mormon, and promised them, if they would do this, that they would meet him in heaven. He then said, ‘Lay me down and let me fall asleep.’ A few moments later he died without a struggle.<Ref>{{Book:Jenson:LDS Biographical Encyclopedia|vol=1|pages=246}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Recant}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Cowdery studied law and practiced at [[Tiffin, Ohio]], where he became a civic and political leader. He edited the local Democratic newspaper until it was learned that he was one of the Book of Mormon witnesses. He did not recant his testimony, but he was still able to become assistant editor. In 1846, Cowdery was nominated as his district's Democratic party candidate for the state senate, but when his Mormon background was discovered, he was defeated.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}

===Final Latter Day Saint contacts===

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
After Joseph Smith was assassinated, Cowdery's brother Lyman recognized [[James J. Strang]] as Smith's successor to the [[President of the Church (Mormonism)|church presidency]], and in 1847, Oliver moved to [[Elkhorn, Wisconsin]] near Strang's headquarters in [[Voree, Wisconsin|Voree]] and entered law practice with his brother. He became co-editor of the ''Walworth County Democrat'' and in 1848 he ran for state assemblyman. However, his Mormon ties were once again discovered and he was defeated.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
In 1848, Cowdery traveled to meet with followers of [[Brigham Young]] and the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles|Quorum of the Twelve]] encamped at [[Winter Quarters, Nebraska]], and he asked to be reunited with the Church.
|authorsources=<br>
#"Brethren, for a number of years, I have been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humble and be one in your midst. I seek no station. I only wish to be identified with you. I am out of the Church, but I wish to become a member. I wish to come in at the door; I know the door, I have not come here to seek precedence. I come humbly and throw myself upon the decision of the body, knowing as I do, that its decisions are right." Stanley R. Gunn, "Oliver Cowdery Second Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Division of Religion, Brigham Young University," (1942), 166, as cited in ''The Improvement Era'', 24, p. 620.)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the wikipedia article on Oliver Cowdery<ref name="at_the_time>Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
On November 12, 1848, Cowdery was rebaptized into [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] by [[Orson Hyde]] of the [[Quorum of the Twelve]] in Indian Creek at [[Kanesville, Iowa]]. Cowdery never again held high office in the church. He developed a respiratory illness, and on March 3, 1850, he died in [[David Whitmer|David Whitmer's]] home in [[Richmond, Missouri]].
|authorsources=<br>
#Of Cowdery's death, David Whitmer said: "Oliver died the happiest man I ever saw. After shaking hands with the family and kissing his wife and daughter, he said ‘Now I lay down for the last time; I am going to my Saviour’; and he died immediately with a smile on his face." (Stanley R. Gunn, Oliver Cowdery Second Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Division of Religion, Brigham Young University. (Stanley R. Gunn: 1942), 170-71, as cited in Mill, Star, XII, p. 207.)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}

==References==
*Gunn, Stanley R. ''Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder and Scribe''. [[Bookcraft]]: Salt Lake City, 1962. 250-51.
*Legg, Phillip R., ''Oliver Cowdery: The Elusive Second Elder of the Restoration'', [[Herald House]]: Independence, Missouri, 1989.
*Mehling, Mary, ''Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy'' p.&nbsp;181, Frank Allaben: 1911.
*{{cite journal | author=Morris, Larry E. | title=Oliver Cowdery's Vermont Years and the Origins of Mormonism | journal=[[BYU Studies]] | volume=39 | year=2000 | pages=105 &ndash; 129 | url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/byustudies,4245 | format=[[PDF]] | accessdate=2009-06-23 | issue=1}}
*[[D. Michael Quinn|Quinn, D. Michael]], ''Early Mormonism and the Magic World View'', Revised and enlarged (Salt Lake City: [[Signature Books]], 1998), 36-39.
* [[Dan Vogel]], ed., ''Early Mormon Documents'' ''[EMD]'' (Salt Lake City: [[Signature Books]], 1998), five volumes.
*[[John W. Welch|Welch, John W.]] and Morris, Larry E., eds., ''Oliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness'' (Provo, UT: [[The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship]], 2006); ISBN 0842526617.

==Endnotes==