# David Whitmer

David Whitmer (January 7, 1805 – January 25, 1888) was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint Movement and one of the Three Witnesses to the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. Whitmer later distanced himself from Joseph Smith and was excommunicated from the church in 1838, but continued to affirm his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He was the most interviewed Book of Mormon witness.

## Early life

Whitmer was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1805, the fourth of nine children of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Whitmer's ancestry on both sides of his family was German, and the family spoke with a German accent. His grandfather was George Witmer, who was born in Prussia, and his great-grandfather was born in Switzerland. Whitmer had five brothers and three sisters, one of which died in 1813 in her infancy. He grew up attending a Presbyterian church. By the 1820s, the Whitmer family had moved to a farm in Fayette, in New York's Finger Lakes area. On March 12, 1825, Whitmer was elected sergeant in a newly organized militia called the Seneca Grenadiers.

## Role in the early Latter Day Saint movement

Whitmer and his family were among the earliest adherents to the Latter Day Saint movement. Whitmer first heard of Mormonism and the golden plates in 1828 when he made a business trip to Palmyra, New York, and talked with his friend Oliver Cowdery, who believed that there "must be some truth to the matter". Cowdery continued to write Whitmer letters concerning the matter, which Whitmer then shared with his parents and siblings. One of Cowdery's letters inquired as to whether the Whitmers would be willing to provide the Smiths with lodging and a place to complete the translation of the Book of Mormon. The family agreed, and Joseph Smith, his wife, Emma Smith, and Cowdery came to the Whitmer farm to live on June 1, 1829. The translation was completed about a month later.

### Book of Mormon witness

Whitmer was baptized in June 1829, nearly a year prior to the formal organization of the Church of Christ. During that same month, Whitmer said that he, along with Smith and Cowdery, saw an angel present the golden plates in a vision. Martin Harris reported that he experienced a similar vision with Smith later in the day. Evidence places this event near Whitmer's father's home in Fayette, New York, on June 28, 1829. Later, in an 1878 testimony, Whitmer claimed to have seen a light, "not like the light of the sun, nor like that of a fire, but more glorious and beautiful". He then went on to describe a table appearing with the golden plates, the Urim and Thummim, and other objects referenced in the Book of Mormon narrative. Whitmer continued: "I heard the voice of the Lord, as distinctly as I ever heard anything in my life, declaring that the records of the plates of the Book of Mormon were translated by the gift and power of God." Whitmer, Cowdery, and Harris signed a joint statement declaring their testimony to the reality of the vision. The statement was published in the first edition of the Book of Mormon and has been included in nearly every subsequent edition.

### Founding church member

When Smith organized the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830, Whitmer was one of six original members. In 1835, Whitmer assisted Cowdery and Harris in selecting and ordaining the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the church. He also participated in some of the earliest missionary trips, accompanying Joseph Smith and baptizing new converts.

### Church offices

Whitmer had been ordained an elder of the church by June 9, 1830, and he was ordained to the office of high priest by Cowdery on October 5, 1831. Soon after the organization of the church, Smith specified Jackson County, Missouri, as a "gathering place" for Latter Day Saints. According to Smith, the area would be the "center place" of the City of Zion, the New Jerusalem. On July 7, 1834, Smith ordained Whitmer to be the president of the church in Missouri and his own successor, should Smith "not live to God".
   By virtue of his position as President of the High Council in Zion, David Whitmer was sustained as "the president of the church in Zion," not merely as a Stake President. Since the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Quorum of the Seventy had not yet been organized, this meant that there was a short period of time—from July 3, 1834, until February 14, 1835—when the High Council in Zion stood in an administrative position next to the First Presidency. It also meant that from July 3, 1834, until December 5, 1834, at which time Oliver Cowdery was made the Associate President of the Church, David Whitmer, as President of the High Council in Zion, was the Prophet's rightful successor."
Cowdery and Whitmer were also called to "search out" twelve "disciples", who would become the Quorum of the Twelve.

## Separation from the church

Whitmer continued to live in Kirtland, Ohio, and his counselors, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer (Whitmer's brother) presided over the church in Missouri until the summer of 1837. After the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society bank, Smith and his counselor Sidney Rigdon, battered by creditors, moved to Far West, Missouri, to evade arrest. The ensuing leadership struggle led to the dissolution of the presidency of the church in Missouri. Whitmer resigned and separated from the church. He was formally excommunicated from the church on the grounds of breaking the Word of Wisdom, neglecting his leadership duties, meeting with the other "Kirtland apostates", and circulating unfavorable information about Joseph Smith.
Whitmer and the other excommunicated Latter Day Saints became known as the "dissenters". Some of the dissenters owned land in Caldwell County, Missouri, which they wanted to retain. The church presidency and other members looked unfavorably upon them. Rigdon preached his "Salt Sermon", which called for their expulsion from the county. A number of Latter Day Saints formed a secret society known as the Danites, whose stated goal was removal of the dissenters. Eighty prominent Mormons signed the so-called Danite Manifesto, which warned the dissenters to "depart or a more fatal calamity shall befall you." Shortly afterward, Whitmer and his family fled to nearby Richmond, Missouri.
Whitmer, other dissenters, and Mormons loyal to Smith complained to the non-Mormons in northwestern Missouri about their forcible expulsion and the loss of their properties and began to file lawsuits to recover them.
Tensions escalated, bringing about the 1838 Mormon War, after which Governor Boggs issued the Mormon Extermination Order in October 1838, authorizing deadly force in the removal of Mormons. Consequently, most of the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Missouri by early 1839.
In 1887, Whitmer used his position as one of the Three Witnesses to condemn the church in response to these 1838 "persecutions" from a "secret organization" formed within the church that denounced "dissenters": "If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon", wrote Whitmer, "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, for as they sought to do unto me, so it should be done unto them.'" Whitmer interpreted God's command to include both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (RLDS Church, now known as the Community Of Christ): "God commanded me by his voice to stand apart from you."
Whitmer continued to live in Richmond, where he operated a livery stable and was elected mayor, a position he held from 1867 to 1868.

## President of the Church of Christ (Whitmerite)

After the killing of Smith in 1844, several rival leaders claimed to be Smith's successor, including Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Many of Rigdon's followers became disillusioned by 1847 and some, including apostle William E. McLellin and Benjamin Winchester, remembered Whitmer's 1834 ordination to be Smith's successor. At McLellin's urging, Whitmer exercised his claim to be Smith's successor and the Church of Christ (Whitmerite) was formed in Kirtland, Ohio. However, Whitmer never joined the body of the new church and it dissolved relatively quickly.
Around this time, fellow Book of Mormon witness Oliver Cowdery began to correspond with Whitmer. After traveling from Ohio to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa Cowdery attended the Kanesville Tabernacle meeting, called to sustain Brigham Young as the new President of the Church. Cowdery bore, with conviction, his testimony of the truthfulness of everything that had happened spiritually regarding Smith and the Book of Mormon. Meeting with Young at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, he requested readmission into the church, and he was re-baptized into the church there. Cowdery then traveled to meet with Whitmer in Richmond to persuade him to move west and rejoin the Saints in Utah Territory. Cowdery, however, succumbed to tuberculosis and died March 3, 1850.
In January 1876, Whitmer resurrected the Church of Christ (Whitmerite) by ordaining his nephew, John C. Whitmer, an elder, and giving him the title "First Elder".
In 1887, Whitmer published a pamphlet entitled "An Address to All Believers in Christ", in which he affirmed his testimony of the Book of Mormon, but denounced the other branches of the Latter Day Saint movement. Whitmer died in Richmond. The Whitmerite church survived until the 1960s.

## Religious views

Whitmer stated his religious views in three publications: "A Proclamation" published March 24, 1881, "An Address To Believers in the Book of Mormon" published April 1887, and "An Address to All Believers in Christ" also published April 1887.

### Polygamy

   I do not endorse polygamy or spiritual wifeism. It is a great evil, shocking to the moral sense, and the more so, because practiced in the name of religion. It is of man and not God, and is especially forbidden in the Book of Mormon itself.

### High Priests

   As to the High Priesthood, Jesus Christ himself is the last Great High Priest, this too after the order of Melchisedec, as I understand the Holy Scriptures.

### Name change

   I do not endorse the change of the name of the church, for as the wife takes the name of her husband so should the Church of the Lamb of God, take the name of its head, even Christ himself. It is the Church of Christ.

## The most interviewed Book of Mormon witness

Because Cowdery died in 1850 at age 43 and Martin Harris died in 1875 at age 92, Whitmer was the only survivor of the Three Witnesses for 13 years. At Richmond, Missouri, he sometimes received several inquirers daily asking about his connection to the Book of Mormon, including missionaries of the LDS Church who were traveling from Utah Territory to the eastern United States and Europe. Despite his hostility toward the LDS Church, Whitmer always stood by his claim that he had actually seen the golden plates.
Some of the 71 recorded interviews he gave between 1838 and 1888 contained different details than others. Recounting the vision to Orson Pratt in 1878, Whitmer claimed to have seen not only the golden plates but the "Brass Plates, the plates containing the record of the wickedness of the people of the world [...] the sword of Laban, the Directors (i.e. the ball which Lehi had) and the Interpreters. I saw them just as plain as I see this bed".
In 1880, John Murphy interviewed Whitmer and later published an account suggesting that perhaps Whitmer's experience was a "delusion or perhaps a cunning scheme". Murphy's account said that Whitmer had not been able to describe the appearance of an angel and had likened Whitmer's experience to the "impressions as the quaker [receives] when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience." Whitmer responded by publishing "A Proclamation", reaffirming his testimony and saying:
   It having been represented by one John Murphy, of Polo, Caldwell County, Mo., that I, in a conversation with him last summer, denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the BOOK OF MORMON. To the end, therefore, that he may understand me now, if he did not then; and that the world may know the truth, I wish now, standing as it were, in the very sunset of life, and in the fear of God, once for all to make this public statement: That I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long since been published with that Book, as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, well know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all of my statements, as then made and published. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear; it was no delusion!
To the "Proclamation" Whitmer attached an affidavit attesting to his honesty and standing in the community. Whitmer ordered that his testimony to the Book of Mormon be placed on his tombstone.
In response to a question by Anthony Metcalf, Whitmer attempted to clarify the "spiritual" versus "natural" viewing of the plates:
   In regards to my testimony to the visitation of the angel, who declared to us Three Witnesses that the Book of Mormon is true, I have this to say: Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time. Martin Harris, you say, called it 'being in vision.' We read in the Scriptures, Cornelius saw, in a vision, an angel of God. Daniel saw an angel in a vision, also in other places it states they saw an angel in the spirit. A bright light enveloped us where we were, that filled at noon day, and there in a vision, or in the spirit, we saw and heard just as it is stated in my testimony in the Book of Mormon. I am now passed eighty-two years old, and I have a brother, J. J. Snyder, to do my writing for me, at my dictation. [Signed] David Whitmer.

### Interviews of David Whitmer

The following table shows which interviews were cited in the following publications:
* Kenneth W. Godfrey, "David Whitmer and the Shaping of Latter-day Saint History," in The Disciple As Witness: Essays on Latter-Day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, edited by Richard Lloyd Anderson, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, Provo: FARMS, 2000, pp. 223–56.
* Lyndon W. Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, Grandin Book, 1991.
* Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, Vol. V, Signature Books, 2003.
* John W. Welch and Erick B. Carlson eds., Opening the Heavens, Accounts of Divine Manifestations 1820–1844, Deseret Book, 2005. Twenty-one interviews were cited, the "x-#" refers to the document number in this volume only.
* Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, Deseret Book, 1981.
| Interviewer | Interview date | Name of publication | Publication date | Godfrey | Cook | Vogel | Welch | Anderson |
| Eber D. Howe | 1834 | Mormonism Unvailed | 1834 | | | x | | |
| Lumon Andros Shurtliff | August 21, 1836 | Autobriography, LDS Church Archives | 1852–1876 | | | x | | |
| Thomas B. Marsh | 1838 | Deseret News | March 24, 1858 | x | | x | | |
| David H. Cannon | 1861 | Beatrice Cannon Evans and Janath Russell Cannon, eds. Cannon Family Historical Treasury, 250. | 1967 | | | x | | |
| David H. Cannon | 1861 | A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson, eds., Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 1773—74, (June 11, 1894). | 1980 | x | x | x | | |
| Davis H. Bays | September 13, 1869 | Saints' Herald | November 1, 1869 | x | | x | | |
| Henry Moon | January 9, 1872 | Deseret Evening News | April 10, 1872 | x | | x | | x |
| Eri B. Mullin | 1874 | Saints' Herald 27, 76 | March 1, 1880 | x | | x | x-83 | |
| James Caffall | August 1874 | Saints' Herald | September 15, 1874 | x | | x | | |
| Mark H. Forscutt | March 2, 1875 | Scrapbook, 16–17, reproduced in Inez Smith Davis The Story of the Church. Independence, Missouri: Herald House, 75 | 1964 | | | x | | |
| Chicago Times reporter | August 1875 | Chicago Times | August 7, 1875 | x | | x | | x |
| Dr. James N. Seymour | December 8, 1875 | Saints' Herald 26, 223 (Letter from Whitmer) | 1879 | | x | x | | x |
| Thomas Wood Smith | January 1876 | Fall River Herald (Massachusetts) | March 28, 1879 | | | x | x-80 | |
| Thomas Wood Smith | January 1876 | Saints' Herald 27, 13 | January 1, 1880 | x | | x | x-82 | |
| Edward Stevenson | 22—December 23, 1877 | Diary of Edward Stevenson, LDS Church Archives | | x | | x | | x |
| Edward Stevenson | 22—December 23, 1877 | Journal History, LDS Church Archives | | x | | x | | |
| Edward Stevenson | 22—December 23, 1877 | Salt Lake Herald | February 2, 1878 | x | | x | | |
| Edward Stevenson | 22—December 23, 1877 | Reminiscences of Joseph, the Prophet and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon | 1893 | | | x | | |
| Joseph Smith III | February 2, 1878 | Community of Christ Library Archives (letter) | | | x | x | | |
| P. Wilhelm Poulson | August 13, 1878 | Deseret Evening News | August 16, 1878 | x | | x | x-79 | x |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Joseph F. Smith Diary, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | x |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Deseret News | November 16, 1878 | x | | | | |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Orson Pratt correspondence, LDS Church Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Andrew Jenson, Historical Record 6, 1886, 210. | 1886 | | | | x-78 | |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Joseph F. Smith Collection, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | |
| Orson Pratt, Joseph F. Smith | 7—September 8, 1878 | Brian H. Stuy. Collected Discourses, Burbank: B.H.S. Pub. vol 2 | 1987–92 | | | x | | |
| William E. McLellin | June 1879 | William E. McLellin Collection, New York Public Library. (Letter to James T. Cobb) | August 14, 1880 | | x | x | | |
| J. L. Traughber Jr. | October 1879 | Saints' Herald 26, 341 | November 15, 1879 | x | | | x-81 | |
| J. L. Traughber | October 1879 | T. A. Schroeder Papers, New York Public Library. (Letter to Theodore A. Schroeder) | August 21, 1901 | | | | | |
| Heman C. Smith | December 5, 1876 | Community of Christ Library Archives (Letter) | | | x | x | | |
| John Murphy | June 1880 | Hamiltonian | January 21, 1881 | | | x | | x |
| John Murphy | June 1880 | Kingston Times | December 16, 1887 | | | x | | |
| E. S. Gilbert | August 1, 1880 | New Light on Mormonism by Ellen E. Dickson, New York: Funk and Wagnalls. | 1885 | | | x | | |
| David Whitmer | March 19, 1881 | "Proclamation" - Leaflet | March 19, 1881 | | | x | | x |
| David Whitmer | March 19, 1881 | "Proclamation" in Richmond Conservator | March 24, 1881 | | | x | | x |
| David Whitmer | March 19, 1881 | "Proclamation" in Hamiltonian | April 8, 1881 | | | x | | |
| David Whitmer | March 19, 1881 | "Proclamation" in Saints' Herald | June 1, 1881 | | | x | | |
| David Whitmer | March 19, 1881 | "Proclamation" in "Address to All Believers in Christ" | April 1, 1887 | | | x | | |
| Jesse R. Badham | March 20, 1881 | Diary of Jesse R. Badham, RLDS Church Library—Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| Jesse R. Badham | March 20, 1881 | Saints' Herald | April 1, 1881 | x | x | x | | |
| Kansas City Daily Journal reporter | June 1, 1881 | Kansas City Daily Journal | June 5, 1881 | x | | | x-84 | x |
| David Whitmer's corrections to Kansas City Daily Journal | (June 13, 1881) | Kansas City Daily Journal | June 19, 1881 | x | | | x-85 | |
| Chicago Times correspondent | October 14, 1881 | Chicago Times | October 17, 1881 | x | | | x-86 | x |
| Edwin Gordon Woolley | 1882 | Diary of Edwin Gordon Woolley, BYU Library—Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| Edwin Gordon Woolley | 1882 | E. G. Woolley Biography, BYU Library—Archives | | x | | | | |
| William H. Kelley, G. A. Blakeslee | January 15, 1882 | Saints' Herald 29, 68 | March 1, 1882 | x | | | x-87 | x |
| Joseph Smith III et al. | April 4, 1882 | Saints' Herald | May 1, 1882 | x | x | x | | |
| John Morgan, Matthias F. Cowley | April 13, 1882 | John Morgan Diary, LDS Church Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| John Morgan, Matthias F. Cowley | April 13, 1882 | Arthur M. Richardson and Nicholas G. Morgan.The Life and Ministry of John Morgan. 323 | 1965 | x | x | x | | |
| John Morgan, Matthias F. Cowley | April 13, 1882 | Diary of Matthias F. Cowley, LDS Church Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| J. W. Chatburn | No date | Saints' Herald | June 15, 1882 | x | | | | |
| S. T. Mouch | November 18, 1882 | Whitmer Papers, Community of Christ Library Archives (Letter from Whitmer). | | | x | x | | |
| Moroni Pratt, S. R. Marks, et al. | June 30, 1883 | Bear Lake Democrat | July 3 & 14, 1883 | x | x | x | | |
| Moroni Pratt, S. R. Marks, et al. | June 30, 1883 | Deseret News | July 19 & 21, 1883 | x | x | x | | |
| James H. Hart | August 21, 1883 | James H. Hart Notebook (see Mormon in Motion: The Life and Journals of James H. Hart, 1825—1906 [Windsor Books, 1976], 216) | | x | | | | |
| James H. Hart | August 23, 1883 | Deseret Evening News | September 4, 1883 | x | | | | x |
| James H. Hart | August 21, 1883 | Bear Lake Democrat | September 15, 1883 | x | | | | |
| James H. Hart | August 21, 1883 | Contributor 5, 9–10 | October 1883 | x | | x | | |
| James H. Hart | August 21, 1883 | "An Interview with David Whitmer in August, 1883" (poem) | 1883 | | | x | | |
| George Q. Cannon | February 27, 1884 | George Q. Cannon Journal, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | x-90 | |
| George Q. Cannon | February 27, 1884 | Instructor 80, 520 | 1945 | | | | | x |
| James H. Hart | March 10, 1884 | Deseret Evening News | March 25, 1884 | x | | | x-89 | |
| James H. Hart | March 10, 1884 | Deseret Evening News | April 10, 1884 | x | | | | |
| James H. Hart | March 10, 1884 | Bear Lake Democrat | March 28, 1884 | x | | | | |
| E. C. Briggs, Rudolph Etzenhouser | April 25, 1884 | Saints' Herald 31, 396–97 | June 21, 1884 | x | | | x-88 | |
| J. Frank McDowell | May 8, 1884 | Saints' Herald | July 22 and August 9, 1884 | x | x | x | | |
| Heman C. Smith, William H. Kelley | June 19, 1884 | Saints' Herald 31, 442 | July 12, 1884 | x | x | x | | x |
| Heman C. Smith, William H. Kelley | June 19, 1884 | Joseph Smith III, Heman C. Smith, and F. Henry Edwards. The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Independence, Missouri: Herald House, 4:448–49 | 1968 | | x | x | | |
| Joseph Smith III et al. | mid-July 1884 | Saints' Herald | January 28, 1936 | x | | | | |
| St. Louis Republican | mid-July 1884 | St. Louis Republican | July 16, 1884 | x | | | x-91 | |
| Unknown | July 1884 | "The True Book of Mormon" unknown newspaper clipping in William H. Samson Scrapbook, 18:76–77, Rochester Public Library. | July 1884 | | | x | | |
| B. H. Roberts | 1884 | Contributor 9, 169 | March 1888 | | | x | | |
| B. H. Roberts | 1884 | Millennial Star 50, 120 | February 20, 1888 | | | x | | |
| B. H. Roberts | 1884 | Conference Report, 126 | October 1926 | | | x | | |
| Editor | January 9, 1885 | Richmond Conservator (statement) | January 9, 1885 | | x | x | | |
| Zenas H. Gurley | January 14, 1885 | Gurley Collection, LDS Church Archives | January 21, 1885 | x | | | x-92 | |
| Zenas H. Gurley | January 14, 1885 | Autumn Leaves 5, 452 | 1892 | | | | | x |
| E. C. Brand | February 8, 1885 | Kingston Times (Missouri) | December 23, 1887 | | | x | | |
| Franklin D. Richards and Charles C. Richards | May 25, 1885 | Charles C. Richards, "An Address Delivered by Charles C. Richards at the Sacrament Meeting Held in SLC, UT, Sunday Evening, April 20, 1947," signed. LDS Church Archives. | 1947 | | | x | | |
| James H. Moyle | June 28, 1885 | James H. Moyle Journal, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | x |
| James H. Moyle | June 28, 1885 | November 24, 1928 reminiscence | | x | | | | |
| James H. Moyle | June 28, 1885 | Conference Report | April 1930 | x | | | | |
| James H. Moyle | June 28, 1885 | Deseret News [Church Section] | August 2, 1944 | x | | | | |
| James H. Moyle | June 28, 1885 | Instructor | 1945 | x | | | | x |
| Chicago Tribune correspondent | December 15, 1885 | Chicago Tribune | December 17, 1885 | x | | | x-93 | x |
| Edward Stevenson | February 9, 1886 | Diary of Edward Stevenson, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | |
| Edward Stevenson | February 9, 1886 | Millennial Star | March 8, 1886 | x | | | | |
| Edward Stevenson | February 9, 1886 | Utah Journal | March 10, 1886 | x | | | | |
| Nathan Tanner, Jr. | April 13, 1886 | Nathan Tanner, Jr. Journal, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | x |
| Nathan Tanner, Jr. | April 13, 1886 | Tanner reminiscence, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | |
| Nathan Tanner, Jr. | May 1886 | Nathan A. Tanner, Jr. to Nathan A. Tanner, LDS Church Archives | February 17, 1909 | | | | x-98 | |
| Omaha Herald correspondent | October 10, 1886 | Omaha Herald | October 17, 1886 | x | | | x-94 | x |
| Omaha Herald correspondent | October 10, 1886 | Chicago Inter-Ocean | October 17, 1886 | | | | x-94 | |
| Omaha Herald correspondent | October 10, 1886 | Saints' Herald, 33:706 | November 13, 1886 | | | | x-94 | |
| D. C. Dunbar | October 10, 1886 | Dunbar correspondence, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | |
| M. J. Hubble | November 13, 1886 | Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia, Missouri | | x | | | x-95 | |
| Edward Stevenson | January 2, 1887 | Diary of Edward Stevenson, LDS Church Archives | | x | | | | |
| Edward Stevenson | January 2, 1887 | Juvenile Instructor | February 15, 1887 | x | | | | |
| Edward Stevenson | January 2, 1887 | Millennial Star | February 14, 1887 | x | | | | |
| David Whitmer | | "An Address to All Believers in Christ: By a Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon", Richmond, Missouri | 1887 | | | x | x-96 | x |
| Edward Stevenson | January 2, 1887 | Juvenile Instructor | January 1, 1889 | x | | | | |
| Sister Gates | February 11, 1887 | Whitmer Papers, Community of Christ Library Archives. (Letter from Whitmer) | | | x | x | | |
| Robert Nelson | February 15, 1887 | Whitmer Papers, Community of Christ Library Archives. (Letter from Whitmer) | | | x | x | | |
| Anthony Metcalf | March 1887 | Ten Years Before the Mast, 74 | 1888 Malad, Idaho | | | | | x |
| Angus M. Cannon | January 7, 1888 | Angus M. Cannon Diary, LDS Church Archives | | x | x | x | | |
| Angus M. Cannon | January 7, 1888 | Deseret Evening News | February 13, 1888 | x | x | x | | x |
| Chicago Tribune correspondent | January 23, 1888 | Chicago Tribune | January 24, 1888 | x | | | | |
| Unidentified Chicago man | [No date] | Chicago Times | January 26, 1888 | x | x | x | | x |
| Richmond Conservator report | January 26, 1888 | Richmond Conservator | January 26, 1888 | x | x | x | | x |
| Richmond Democrat report | January 1888 | Richmond Democrat (Borrowed from Omaha Herald. Article written by Joe Johnson) | January 26, 1888 | x | | | | x |
| Richmond Democrat report | January 1888 | Richmond Democrat (re-run) | February 2, 1888 | | | | x-97 | x |
| John C. Whitmer | September 1888 | Deseret News | September 13 & 17, 1888 | | | x | | |
| John C. Whitmer | September 1888 | Saints' Herald (Reprint of Deseret News) | October 13, 1888 | | | x | | |
| George W. Schweich | 1899 | Woodbridge I. Riley. The Founder of Mormonism. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1903, 219–20. (Letter from George W. Schweich to I. Woodbridge) | September 22, 1899 | | x | x | | |
| Philander Page | January 25, 1888 | George Edward Anderson Diary, Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, 27–28. | 1907 | | | x | | |
| John J. Snyder | 1886–87 | W. H. Cadman. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ, Organized at Green Oak, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in the Year 1862. Monongola, Pennsylvania: The Church of Jesus Christ, 1945, 24–25. | October 10, 1928 | | | x | | |