Hiram Page
1800–1852 (52 years)
Hometown: Vermont
Biography
Hiram Page was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, testifying that he saw and handled the golden plates in June 1829. He became connected to the Whitmer family through his marriage to Catherine Whitmer, daughter of Peter Whitmer Sr., on November 10, 1825. They had nine children.
Page was baptized on April 11, 1830, by Oliver Cowdery and was ordained a teacher on June 9, 1830, becoming one of the first twelve officers in the newly organized church.
In August 1830, Page caused controversy by using a black seer stone to receive revelations for the church. Some Whitmer family members and Oliver Cowdery embraced these revelations. Joseph Smith received a revelation (now D&C 28) condemning Page’s revelations and affirming that only the church president could receive revelation for the whole church. Page renounced the stone and destroyed the writings.
Page moved with the Saints to Ohio, then Missouri, where he suffered a severe beating from anti-Mormon vigilantes in 1833. In 1838, the Whitmer family was excommunicated, and Page withdrew from fellowship. He died on August 12, 1852, in Ray County, Missouri, from a farming accident, still affirming his testimony of the Book of Mormon.
![“The [Book of Mormon] is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mark-Twain-Book-of-Mormon-chloroform-in-print.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)