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Book Of Mormon Witnesses
The Book of Mormon witnesses were a group of contemporaries of Joseph Smith who claimed to have seen the golden plates from which Smith translated the Book of Mormon. The most significant witnesses were the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, all of whom allowed their names to be used on two separate statements included with the Book of Mormon. Critics have challenged the nature and reliability of the accounts, but church leaders contend that none of the witnesses ever denied what they saw. Three Witnesses The Three Witnesses were a group of three early leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement who wrote in a statement of 1829 that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and that they had heard God's voice testifying that the book had been translated by the power of God. The Three Witnesses were Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer, whose joint testimony, in conjunction with a separate statement by Eight Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion that continues to the present with millions of global adherents. Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont. By 1817, he had moved with his family to Western New York, the site of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening. Smith said he experienced a series of visions, including one in 1820 during which he saw "two personages" (whom he eventually described as God the Father and Jesus Christ), and another in 1823 in which an angel directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates called the ''Book of Mormo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Whitmer
John Whitmer (August 27, 1802 – July 11, 1878) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates. Whitmer was also the first official Church Historian and a member of the presidency of the church in Missouri from 1834 to 1838. Biography Whitmer was born in Pennsylvania on August 27, 1802 to Peter Whitmer, Sr. and Mary Musselman. He had seven siblings. In 1809, the Whitmer family moved to Fayette, New York. Here, Whitmer was a member of the German Reformed Church. Foundation of the Latter Day Saint movement Whitmer's brother David and his entire family became early followers of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph and his wife, Emma Smith, boarded with the Whitmers for six months. Whitmer was baptized into the movement by Oliver Cowdery in June 1829, nearly a year prior to the formal organization of the Church of Christ. In that same month, Whitmer became one of eight men wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Whitmer
Jacob Whitmer (February 2, 1800 – April 21, 1856) was the second born child of Peter Whitmer, Sr., and Mary Musselman. He is primarily remembered as one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon’s golden plates. Biography Born in Pennsylvania, Whitmer moved with his parents to New York, where he married Elizabeth Schott on September 29, 1825. Whitmer and Elizabeth had nine children together, only three of whom survived to adulthood. Whitmer’s younger brother David became a close associate of Joseph Smith. In June 1829, Jacob Whitmer joined his brothers in signing a statement testifying that he personally saw and handled the golden plates said to be in Smith's possession. On April 11, 1830, he was baptized into the newly organized Church of Christ. Whitmer settled finally near Richmond in neighboring Ray County, where he worked as a shoemaker and a farmer. He died on April 21, 1856, still affirming his testimony of the golden plates. Notes References * *Keith W. Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clay County, Missouri
Clay County is located in the U.S. state of Missouri and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 253,335, making it the fifth-most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Liberty. The county was organized January 2, 1822, and named in honor of U.S. Representative Henry Clay from Kentucky, later a member of the United States Senate and United States Secretary of State. Clay County contains many of the area's northern suburbs, along with a substantial portion of the city of Kansas City, Missouri. It also owns and operates the Midwest National Air Center in Excelsior Springs. History Clay County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. They brought enslaved persons and slaveholding traditions with them, and quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: hemp and tobacco. Clay was one of several counties settled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg is situated on the east bank of the Susquehanna River. It is the larger principal city of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, also known as the Susquehanna Valley, which had a population of 591,712 as of 2020, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Pennsylvania after the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lehigh Valley metropolitan areas. Harrisburg played a role in American history during the Westward Migration, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. During part of the 19th century, the building of the Pennsylvania Canal and later the Pennsylvania Railroad allowed Harrisburg to develop into one of the most industrialized cities in the Northeastern United States. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William E
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of the name should b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danites
The Danites were a fraternal organization founded by Latter Day Saint members in June 1838, in the town of Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. During their period of organization in Missouri, the Danites operated as a vigilante group and took a central role in the events of the 1838 Mormon War. There is no evidence that the Danites existed after 1838. However, they remained an important part of Mormon and non-Mormon folklore, polemics, and propaganda for the remainder of the 19th century, waning in ideological prominence after Utah gained statehood. Notwithstanding public excommunications of Danite leaders by the Church and both public and private statements from Joseph Smith referring to the band as being both evil in nature and a " secret combination" (a term used in the Book of Mormon to signify corruption within a group of people like gangs, organized crime, and politics), the nature and scope of the organization and the degree to which it was officially connected to the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon (February 19, 1793 – July 14, 1876) was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement. Biography Early life Rigdon was born in St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1793. He was the youngest of four children of William and Nancy Rigdon. Rigdon's father was a farmer and a native of Harford County, Maryland. He died in 1810. According to an account by his son John M. Rigdon, young Rigdon "borrowed all the histories he could get and began to read them. ... In this way he became a great historian, the best I ever saw. He seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue's end and he got to be a great biblical scholar as well. He was as familiar with the Bible as a child was with his spelling book. He was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get. He studied English Grammar alone and became a very fine grammarian. He was very precise in his language." Rigdon remained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Far West, Missouri
Far West was a settlement of the Latter Day Saint movement in Caldwell County, Missouri, United States, during the late 1830s. It is recognized as a historic site by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, added to the register in 1970. It is owned and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Foundation and early history The town was founded by Missouri leaders of the church, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer in August 1836 shortly before the county's creation. The town was platted originally as a square area, centered on a public square which was to house a temple. The design of the town resembled the plan of Joseph Smith Jr. (the first modern-day prophet of the Latter Day Saint Movement) for the City of Zion, which had been planned to be built in the town of Independence, Missouri. As the town of Far West grew, the plat was extended to . Early Latter-day Saints began to settle in northwestern Missouri soon after the church was organized in 1830. Acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rough Stone Rolling
''Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Mormonism's Founder'' is an award-winning biography of Joseph Smith, founder and prophet of the Latter Day Saint movement, by Richard Bushman. Bushman is both a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. Approach The title of the book refers to a self-description by Smith, "I ma rough stone. The sound of the hammer and chisel was never heard on me nor never will be. I desire the learning and wisdom of heaven alone." Bushman is the author of many books on early American cultural and religious history, and his own religious and academic background enables him to locate Smith in the cultural context of early nineteenth-century America. Although the five-hundred eighty-four page biography (with additional extensive notes and documentation) does not avoid controversial aspects of Smith's life and work, such as his pra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Lyman Bushman
Richard Lyman Bushman (June 20, 1931) is an American historian and Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, having previously taught at Brigham Young University, Harvard University, Boston University, and the University of Delaware. Bushman is the author of ''Joseph Smith:'' ''Rough Stone Rolling'', an important biography of Joseph Smith, progenitor of the Latter Day Saint movement. Bushman also was an editor for the Joseph Smith Papers Project and now serves on the national advisory board. Bushman has been called "one of the most important scholars of American religious history" of the late-20th century. In 2012, a $3-million donation to the University of Virginia established the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies in his honor. Biography Richard L. Bushman was born on 1931, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father, Ted Bushman (1902–1980), was a fashion illustrator, advertiser, and department store executive, and his mother, Dorothy L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Harrison Smith
Samuel Harrison Smith (13 March 1808 – 30 July 1844) was a younger brother of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Samuel was a leader in his own right and a successful missionary. Smith is commonly regarded as the first Latter Day Saint missionary following the organization of the Church of Christ by his brother, Joseph. One of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates, Samuel Smith remained devoted to his church throughout his life. Early life Born in Tunbridge, Vermont, to Joseph Smith Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith, Samuel moved with his family to western New York by the 1820s. When Smith's father missed a mortgage payment on the family farm on the outskirts of Manchester Township, near Palmyra, a local Quaker named Lemuel Durfee purchased the land and allowed the Smiths to continue to live there in exchange for Samuel's labor at Durfee's store. Book of Mormon witness and church establishment On May 25, 1829, Smith became the third person bapt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
