David Whitmer

David Whitmer

1805–1888 (83 years)

Hometown: Harrisburg, PA

Biography

David Whitmer was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon and briefly served as an apostle, though his relationship with the church ended in excommunication. A New York farmer, Whitmer was among the earliest converts and provided the location where much of the Book of Mormon translation occurred.

Whitmer, along with Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, testified that an angel showed them the golden plates and that they heard God’s voice declaring the translation correct. This testimony appears in every copy of the Book of Mormon and was never recanted by any of the three witnesses, even after they left the church.

Whitmer was briefly president of the church in Missouri before conflicts with Joseph Smith led to his excommunication. Like other early dissenters, he objected to Smith’s increasing economic and political control and the introduction of new doctrines. He was excommunicated on April 13, 1838. Never returned to the LDS church but maintained his Book of Mormon witness testimony until his death.

After leaving, Whitmer founded his own small religious group but never returned to the LDS church. He spent the rest of his life in Richmond, Missouri, and continued to affirm his Book of Mormon witness until his death in 1888. His case is frequently cited by both believers (as evidence for the Book of Mormon) and critics (as evidence of early church dysfunction).

Parents

Peter Whitmer Sr.
Peter Whitmer Sr. Mother

Wives (1)

1 wives · Lifespan: 1805–1888

Julia Ann Jolly
1831–1875 (44 yrs)
1805 (born) 1826 1847 1868 1888 (died)
Wife

2 children from 1 wives · Lifespan: 1805–1888

Julia Ann Jolly
2 children
1805 (born) 1826 1847 1868 1888 (died)
Wife Child born
#NameBornDiedMarriedHer AgeHis AgeAge DiffChildren
1
Julia Ann Jolly
Aug 30, 1812Feb 8, 1875 Jan 9, 1831 182682

Children (2)

With Julia Ann Jolly  (2 children)

  1. David John Whitmer (b. Nov 29, 1833)
  2. Julia Ann Whitmer (b. Jan 1, 1835)

Posts Related to David Whitmer

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“Not one of the Three Witnesses [Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, or Martin Harris] ever denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon.” - Michael R. Morris, The Last Witness of the Three Witnesses, The New Era, January 2020 | [Oliver Cowdery] arose and addressed the audience present, admitted his error and implored forgiveness, and said he was sorry and ashamed of his connection with Mormonism. | “Smith, having become worldly and proud, has been forsaken of the Lord, and has become a knave and impostor.” - Martin Harris | “If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon; God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints.” - David Whitmer | wasmormon.org “Joseph did not tell anyone about John the Baptist at first. Summarizing the key events in his religious life in an 1830 statement, he mentioned translation but said nothing about the restoration of priesthood or the visit of an angel. The first compilation of revelations in 1833 also omitted an account of John the Baptist. David Whitmer later told an interviewer he had heard nothing of John the Baptist until four years after the Church's organization.” - Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, Page 75 | wasmormon.org “In no place in the word of God does it say that an Elder is after the order of Melchisedec, or after the order of the Melchisedec Priesthood. An Elder is after the order of Christ. This matter of "priesthood," since the days of Sydney Rigdon, has been the great hobby and stumbling-block of the Latter Day Saints. Priesthood means authority; and authority is the word we should use. I do not think the word priesthood is mentioned in the New Covenant of the Book of Mormon. Authority is the word we used for the first two years in the church—until Sydney Rigdon's days in Ohio. This matter of the two orders of priesthood in the Church of Christ, and lineal priesthood of the old law being in the church, all originated in the mind of Sydney Rigdon. He explained these things to Brother Joseph in his way, out of the old Scriptures, and got Brother Joseph to inquire, etc.” - David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, 1887 | wasmormon.org “Some of the revelations as they are now in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants have been changed and added to... When the Book of Commandments was printed, Joseph and the church received it as being printed correctly. This I know. In the winter of 1834 they saw that some of the revelations in the Book of Commandments had to be changed, because the heads of the church had gone too far, and had done things in which they had already gone ahead of some of the former revelations. So the book of Doctrine and Covenants was printed in 1835, and some of the revelations changed and added to.” - David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, 1887 | wasmormon.org “In June 1829, Joseph ordained Oliver Cowdery to be an Elder, and Oliver ordained Joseph to be an Elder in the church of Christ and during that year Joseph both baptized and ordained me an elder in the church... I never heard that an Angel had ordained Joseph and Oliver to the Aaronic priesthood until the year 1834... I do not believe that John the Baptist ever ordained Joseph and Oliver as stated and believed by some, I regard that as an error, a misconception.” - David Whitmer, 1885 Interview | wasmormon.org "The Anthon Transcript was a sheet of paper, thought to be lost, upon which Joseph Smith copied sample “reformed Egyptian” characters from the plates of the Book of Mormon. In the winter of 1828, Martin Harris showed these characters to Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia College, and hence the name... [Anthon] maintained that he told Harris that he (Harris) was a victim of a fraud. Modern research suggests that, given the state of knowledge of Egyptian in 1828, Anthon’s views would have been little more than opinion... [The Anthon Transcript] contains seven horizontal lines of characters apparently copied from the plates. David Whitmer, who once owned the document, said it was this text that Martin Harris showed to Charles Anthon. However, this claim remains uncertain because the transcript does not correspond with Anthon’s assertion that the manuscript he saw was arranged in vertical columns. Even if the document is not the original, it almost certainly represents characters either copied from the plates in Joseph Smith’s possession or copied from the document carried by Harris. Twice in late 1844, after the Prophet’s martyrdom, portions of these symbols were published as characters that Joseph Smith had copied from the gold plates." Anthon Transcript. Danel W. Bachman. BYU Studies | wasmormon.org “David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris, are too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them.” - Joseph Smith | wasmormon.org “If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon; if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice, then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints.” - David Whitmer, Witness of The Golden Plates | wasmormon.org [John Murphy]: “I heard you saw an angel. I never saw one. I want your description of [the] shape, voice...” [David Whitmer]: “It had no appearance or shape.” [Murphy]: “Then you saw nothing nor heard nothing?” [Whitmer]: “Nothing, in the way you understand it.” [Murphy]: “How, then, could you have borne testimony that you saw and heard an angel?” [Whitmer]: “Have you never had impressions?” [Murphy]: “Then you had impressions as the Quaker when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience, a feeling?” [Whitmer]: “Just so.” - David Whitmer, Witness of The Golden Plates | wasmormon.org "Be it known... that we... have seen the plates. And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify... an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God... that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes." - Testimony of Three Witnesses Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer | wasmormon.org "David Whitmer maintained [that] the Prophet used an oval-shaped, chocolate-colored seer stone slightly larger than an egg. Thus, everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000 | wasmormon.org "Everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. [David] Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received... Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn't really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith's possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate?" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000. | wasmormon.org "If Joseph Smith translated everything that is now in the Book of Mormon without using the gold plates, we are left to wonder why the plates were necessary in the first place. It will be remembered that possession of the plates placed the Smith family in considerable danger, causing them a host of difficulties. If the plates were not part of the translation process, this would not have been the case. It also leaves us wondering why the Lord directed the writers of the Book of Mormon to make a duplicate record of the plates of Lehi. This provision which compensated for the loss of the 116 pages would have served no purpose either. Further, we would be left to wonder why it was necessary for Moroni to instruct Joseph each year for four years before he was entrusted with the plates. We would also wonder why it was so important for Moroni to show the plates to the three witnesses, including David Whitmer. And why did the Lord have the Prophet show the plates to the eight witnesses? Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn't really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith's possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate?" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000 | wasmormon.org The “interpreters” used by Joseph during the translation process included the “two stones in silver bows” that were deposited by Moroni with the plates. In addition to these two seer stones, Joseph used at least one other seer stone that the Lord had provided. David Whitmer, provided this additional information: “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” - Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr., Church Historian, Ensign January 2020 The Translation of the Book of Mormon: A Marvel and a Wonder | wasmormon.org "The plates were not before Joseph while he translated, but seem to have been removed by the custodian angel." David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates | wasmormon.org David Whitmer