Warren A. Cowdery (1788

Mormon History 1830-1844

Joseph

Bios

Warren A. Cowdery (1788–1851)

Physician; presiding high priest of Freedom, New York; Joseph Smith's scribe; editor of Messenger and Advocate; dissident; Justice of the Peace.

Born	October 17, 1788 in Poultney, Rutland County, Vermont (first child).	About this time, the family probably moved 8 miles south to Wells. Source Ancestry.com (subscribers)
Died	February 23, 1851 in Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio.
Father	William Cowdery (September 5, 1765–February 26, 1847)
Mother	Rebecca Fuller (January 2, 1768–September 3, 1809)
Doctor	[1812] studies to become a doctor in Rutland County; may have been licensed physician and pharmacist.	Source
Marries	September 22, 1814 marries Patience Simmonds.
Freedom, New York	[November] 1815 moves to Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York.
Ontario County commissioner	July 1818 appointed one of commissioners for Ontario County, New York.	Geneva Gazette, July 11, 1818. Source
Le Roy, New York	1820 living in Le Roy, Genesee County, New York.
Oliver visits	[Mid-October] 1833 Oliver drops in on his way to New York City to buy a printing press.
Book of Mormon	October 30, 1833 Oliver writes William, testifying of the Book of Mormon.	"Letters of Oliver Cowdery," New Mormon studies.
Presiding high priest	November 25, 1834 appointed presiding high priest over Freedom, New York branch and region (full-time position).	D&C 106
	April 1835 first installment of a lengthy letter of doctrine published in the Messenger and Advocate: God, the great First Cause, author of Scripture, promises to mankind; Catholic church no worse than Protestants; apostasy, dispensations, judgments to come.	MA 1, no. 7, (Mar. 1835): 90–92.
	June 6, 1835 Oliver presides and Warren serves as secretary for conference at New Portage, Ohio.	Minutes of June 6, 1835
Negative report of Twelve	August 4, 1835 high council in Kirtland, including seven presidents (Joseph, Oliver, Sidney, Frederick, Hyrum, David, John, and William), authorize letter severely chastising the Twelve for neglecting their fund-raising responsibilities, based on Warren's report.	Minutes of August 4, 1835 "In Kirtland, Jared Carter, Dr. Cowdery, and others tried to ruin the Twelve in the eyes of Joseph. The very first mission the Twelve took we went forth like men of God and travelled to the East and back again, without purse or scrip, and held Conferences through all the New England States, and exhorted and taught the people to go to Jackson County and purchase that land; and those men so prejudiced the mind of the First Presidency that two of the Twelve were suspended. But there were enough left to form a Quorum and do business." Heber C. Kimball, Dec. 13, 1857, JD 6:127.
Son work with Oliver?	October 1835 Oliver suggests Warren send one of his sons to Kirtland to learn the printing trade from Oliver.	Source
Twelve accuse Warren of unbecoming language	January 16, 1836 Twelve lash out at Warren for reporting negatively on them during mission, accuse him of using language "unchristian and unbecoming any man."	¶ Meeting of January 16, 1836
Arrives Kirtland	February 25, 1836 arrives in Kirtland with family. May have assisted his father and step-mother, William Cowdery, Sr. and Keziah, in their move from Arcadia, Wayne County, New York, sending William along ahead of his own family by several days or weeks. Olive Cowdery Wilbur and her husband, Winslow Shepherd Wilbur, probably accompanied Warren. They had lived in Ellery, Chautauqua, NY. Winslow Wilbur (and perhaps Olive) was baptized into the church at about this time. Winslow was a Seventy in 1837 and he accompanied the Kirtland Camp to Missouri in 1838.	Source
Apology to Twelve	March 6, 1836 apologizes in the Messenger and Advocate for getting the Twelve in trouble for reporting they had not taught "the necessity of contributing of their earthly substance for the building of the House of the Lord in this place." He has learned they did not omit this in their instructions after all, and regrets that he was the "innocent" cause of "wounding the best of feelings, and depressing spirits buoyant with hope, while in the field of useful labor at a distance from home."	W. A. Cowdery, "Notice," MA 2, no. 5 (Feb. 1836): 263.
Editor, Messenger and Advocate	March 1836 Oliver resumes editorship of the Messenger and Advocate, but Warren gradually takes over most of the day-to-day operations.	Source
Dedication scribe	March 27, 1836 serves as scribe with Warren Parrish at dedication of the House of the Lord in Kirtland.	HC 2:411.
Joseph's scribe	April 3, 1836 begins what I refer to as Diary-2 rev., a third-person re-write of Joseph Smith diary originally written in first person by Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith, Warren Parrish, and Frederick G. Williams.	Diary-2 in Papers, 271. Scribes
Helps warn out justice of the peace	November 7, 1836 signs warning to non-Mormon justice of the peace to "depart forthwith out of Kirtland." Also signed by Joseph, Oliver, Sidney, Frederick, Uncle John Smith, Brigham Young, William Smith, Parley P. Pratt (h), Joseph Young, Zebedee Coltrin, Lyman R. Sherman, Leonard Rich, and many others.	Origins, 31, 331–332n43.
Messenger and Advocate	February 1, 1837 Oliver Cowdery & Co. is dissolved, its printing office turned over to Joseph and Sidney. Warren remains as manager of the print shop and book bindery, and officially becomes editor of the Messenger and Advocate.	Source RLDS history 2:99 // HC 2:475.
Check expectations	May 1837 warns readers of the Messenger and Advocate planning to move to Far West not to expect a perfect society, for they will be disappointed. Be cautious. Swindlers promise high rates of return. Reform is needed, but the honest in heart need not be discouraged.	Managing Zion Expectations
	[Some expect to live] on the labor or alms of their friends or brethren, and complain if they do not receive a support. … They disobey or disregard the revelations and all words of wisdom which the Lord has given for the benefit of his saints; they join affinity with the adversary, strike hands with the world, sigh for the flesh pots of Egypt, and finally fall away and become apostates. … Others have managed their temporal concerns as if they had no precedents upon which to act, or beacons on the page of history or in the annals of by gone years, to light their path.
Anti-authoritarian editorial	[July 1837] If we give all our privileges to one man, we virtually give him our money and our liberties, and make him a monarch, absolute and despotic, and ourselves abject slaves or fawning sycophants. If we grant privileges and monopolies to a few, they always continue to undermine the fundamental principles of freedom, and, sooner or later, convert the purest and most liberal form of Government into the rankest of aristocracy. … whenever a people have unlimited confidence in a civil or ecclesiastical ruler or rulers, who are but men like themselves, and begin to think they can do no wrong, they increase their tyranny and oppression and establish a principle that man, poor frail lump of mortality like themselves, is infallible. Who does not see a principle of popery and religions tyranny involved in such an order of things? Who is worthy [of] the name of a freeman, who thus tamely surrenders the rights, the privileges, and immunities of an independent citizen?	W. A. Cowdery, editorial, MA 3, no. 10 (July 1836): 538.
	1838 elected Justice of the Peace in Kirtland.	Kirtland Township Record Book qtd. in note 1 to "Fire," Painesville Republican, May 31, 1838. Source

Slandered in Elders' Journal	[August 1838 Elders' Journal:] This poor pitiful beggar came to Kirtland a few years since with a large family, nearly naked and destitute. It was really painful to see this pious doctor's (for such he professed to be) rags flying when he walked the streets. He was taken in by us in this pitiful condition and we put him into the printing office and gave him enormous wages, not because he could earn it, or because we needed his service, but merely out of pity. We knew the man's incompetency all the time and his ignorance and inability to fill any place in the literary world with credit to himself or to his employers. But notwithstanding all this, out of pure compassion, we gave him a place …	¶ Argument to Argument ... Scorn to Scorn
	he began to use all his influence to our injury, both in his savings and doings. We have often heard it remarked by slave holders that you should not make a negro equal with you or he would try to walk over you. We have found the saying verified in this pious doctor, for truly this niggardly spirit manifested itself in all its meanness. Even in his writings (and they were very mean at best) he threw out foul insinuations, which no man who had one particle of noble feeling would have condescended to. But such was the conduct of this master of meanness. …	For examples of Warren's writing, see Minutes of June 6, 1835, ¶ Minutes of August 4, 1835, Managing Expectations of Zion.

	Family
Wife	Patience Simmons b. April 6, 1794 in Pawlet, Rutland County, Vermont d. May 14, 1862 in Erie County, New York md. September 22, 1814 in Pawlet.	Ancestry.com (subscribers)
Children	Marcellus F. (b. August 31, 1815 in Pawlet, Rutland County, Vermont) Warren Franklin (b. September 12, 1817) Martius Dyar (b. October 20, 1819) Mary O. (b. April 26, 1823) Martha M. (b. May 11, 1825) Lyman Hervey (b. November 23, 1826 in LeRoy, Genesee County, New York) Oliver Pliny (b. January 15, 1827) Eleanor Caroline (b. March 10, 1829) Jay William (b. July 28, 1831) John Simmonds (b. January 12, 1839) Sarah E. (b. January 12, 1839)	Ancestry.com (subscribers) Source for Marcellus and Lyman.
	Biographies