Witness, later dissenter
David Whitmer
1805–1888
1 topic · 5 dated events · 2 sources
Their part in each topic
The Book of Mormon: Origins, Translation, and Witnesses
Witness, later dissenter
Hosted the completion of the translation at his father's Fayette farm and was one of the Three Witnesses. He left the church permanently in 1838 and spent fifty years as a non-Mormon in Richmond, Missouri, repeatedly reaffirming the vision while rejecting Joseph Smith's later leadership. His 1887 Address to All Believers in Christ is both the best-known description of the seer-stone-in-hat method and a sweeping repudiation of the church.
In the timeline
5 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
The work moves to the Whitmer farm at Fayette
Facing opposition in Harmony, Joseph and Cowdery accepted David Whitmer's offer of room and board at his father Peter Whitmer Sr.'s log home in Fayette, New York. The translation was finished there. Emma remained behind.
The Three Witnesseshinge
Following a revelation promising that 'it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them,' Joseph, Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris went into the woods near the Whitmer farm to pray. Harris withdrew and was joined by Joseph separately. All three afterward signed a statement that an angel showed them the plates and that they heard the voice of God declare the translation correct.
The witnesses scatter
Oliver Cowdery was tried and excommunicated at Far West; David and John Whitmer and W. W. Phelps were disciplined; Martin Harris was excommunicated in Kirtland. Whitmer said God told him by his own voice in June 1838 to separate himself from the Latter Day Saints. Stephen Burnett's letter that year reports Harris publicly qualifying what he had seen.
Oliver Cowdery dies at Richmond
Cowdery had returned to the church in 1848 at Council Bluffs and wintered with the Whitmers in Richmond, Missouri. David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Philander Page and others said he reaffirmed his testimony on his deathbed. No record of a denial by any of the eleven witnesses has been produced.
David Whitmer's proclamation and Address
Answering a newspaper claim that he had recanted, Whitmer published a proclamation stating that he had 'never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof,' appending the names of twenty-two Richmond citizens to vouch for him. His 1887 Address repeated it, added that neither Cowdery nor Harris ever denied theirs, and gave his description of the stone in the hat — inside a book that rejects Joseph Smith's church after 1834.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Testimony of the Three Witnesses and Testimony of the Eight Witnesses, June 1829
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, and eight others
The exact wording eleven men put their names to — and, equally, what those statements do not contain: no date, no place, no description of the event, and no surviving signed original.
An Address to All Believers in Christ
David Whitmer
Whitmer's own description of the seer stone and hat, his 1881 proclamation that he never at any time denied his testimony, and his simultaneous rejection of Joseph Smith's church after 1834.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with David Whitmer.
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