Christian Whitmer
1798–1835 (37 years)
Hometown: Dauphin, Pennsylvania
Biography
Christian Whitmer was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, testifying that he saw and handled the golden plates in June 1829. He was the eldest son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman, and brother to several other witnesses including Jacob, John, Peter Jr., and David Whitmer.
Christian was baptized on April 11, 1830, among the earliest converts. He served as a teacher and later an elder in the early church, relocating with fellow Saints to Missouri where he sat on the High Council in Clay County.
He married Anna Schott on February 22, 1825, in Fayette, New York. They had no children. Christian died on November 27, 1835, in Clay County, Missouri, from illness, never having denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He was the first of the Eight Witnesses to die.
![“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)