I am blessed with a wonderful eternal companion and I love her with all my heart. I wanted to share some information I have known about great women in order to pay honor to my dear wife Stacy. I don’t believe the women in our lives get enough recognition by the world.
Women constantly love and support and serve with very little desire for recognition. People ask me why are there not many women mentioned in the scriptures? I believe it is out of reverence. In other words the Lord keeps them safe in His hands as they are the very being whom He has blessed to bring His children into the world. Just as the Melchizedek Priesthood is not called by its real name in order to keep from repeating the Lord’s name, women I believe are shown the same respect. I truly believe women are such important people in our lives today. I also believe Eve, in making the decision to partake of the fruit of the tree was the spiritually sensitive one who allowed us to have the privilege of living in this world today. She convinced Adam that she knew what the purpose of life was and we needed to experience it.
A wonderful woman wrote the hymn called,”O My Father” It is written by Eliza R. Snow. I understand she felt inspired to write the lyrics of this hymn sometime after Joseph Smith had taught her the principle of heavenly parents. This hymn is one of the few direct references to a “Heavenly Mother” we know of in the Church. This hymn gives three reasons that if there is an eternal Father there must also be an eternal Mother:
“I had learned to call thee Father, Through thy Spirit from on high,
But until the key of knowledge Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal Tells me I’ve a mother there.”
This article is about two very special women who had the privilege of witnessing to the divinity of the Gold Plates from which we have the wonderful Book of Mormon today. Rian Nelson
Emma Smith & Mary Whitmer Witnesses to the Gold Plates
“Most Latter-day Saints are aware of the testimonies of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. But these 11 men, impressive as they are, were not the only people besides Joseph Smith who had direct encounters with the gold plates. David Whitmer, for example, one of the Three Witnesses, related that his mother, Mary Musselman Whitmer, also saw the plates, quite independently of anybody else and under the most matter-of-fact circumstances.
It was through David, the fourth of nine children, that the entire family of Peter Whitmer Sr. had become acquainted with Joseph Smith in 1828. Eventually, a substantial part of the translation of the Book of Mormon occurred at the Peter Whitmer farm near Fayette, N.Y. (Later, on April 6, 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be officially organized there.) During that period, the place was a hive of activity; Joseph Smith and his wife, Emma, and Oliver Cowdery were boarding with the Whitmers, and other people (including curiosity-seekers) were constantly coming and going. Much of the burden of coping with them fell upon Peter’s wife, Mary.
“My father and mother had a large family of their own,” David later explained. “The addition to it therefore of Joseph, his wife, Emma, and Oliver very greatly increased the toil and anxiety of my mother. And although she had never complained, she had sometimes felt that her labor was too much, or at least she was perhaps beginning to feel so.”
One day, though, probably in June 1829, when she was going out to milk the cows in the family barn — where, David happened to know, the plates were concealed at the time — she met an “old man,” as she described him, who said to her, in David’s account of the story, “You have been very faithful and diligent in your labors, but you are tired because of the increase of your toil; it is proper therefore that you should receive a witness that your faith may be strengthened.” “Thereupon,” David said, “he showed her the plates.” And this unexpected encounter “completely removed” her feeling of being overwhelmed, said her son, “and nerved her up for her increased responsibilities.”
Afterwards, Mary was able to describe the plates in detail. John C. Whitmer, her grandson, reported that he himself had heard his grandmother tell of this event several times. He summarized her experience as follows:
“She met a stranger carrying something on his back that looked like a knapsack. At first she was a little afraid of him, but when he spoke to her in a kind, friendly tone and began to explain to her the nature of the work which was going on in her house (that is, the translation of the Book of Mormon), she was filled with unexpressible (sic) joy and satisfaction. He then untied his knapsack and showed her a bundle of plates, which in size and appearance corresponded with the description subsequently given by the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. This strange person turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf, and also showed her the engravings upon them; after which he told her to be patient and faithful in bearing her burden a little longer, promising that if she would do so, she should be blessed; and her reward would be sure, if she proved faithful to the end. The personage then suddenly vanished with the plates, and where he went, she could not tell.”
Five of Mary Whitmer’s sons became official witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses and the principal scribe during its dictation, baptized her into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Seneca Lake on April 18, 1830, when the church was less than two weeks old, and he married her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, in December 1832. The Whitmers gathered to Missouri with the Latter-day Saints, and there Mary died at 78 years of age in 1856, still a faithful believer in the divine origin of the gold plates and the book that had been translated from them.
According to Jesus, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matthew 18:16). Plainly, the Lord still follows this pattern, and Mary Whitmer can justly be counted the 12th witness to the Book of Mormon.”
Defending the Faith: Mary Whitmer, 12th witness to the Book of Mormon By Daniel Peterson, For the Deseret News Published: Thursday, July 18 2013
References: Historical Record,” Vol. 7, p. 621 LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p.283
B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, Vol.2, p.125 Deseret News, 27 Nov. 1878, p. 674.
I Have a Question
Some historical records indicate that Mary Musselman Whitmer was privileged to see the gold plates, in addition to Joseph Smith and the Three and Eight Witnesses. Do we know of any other persons who may have seen or handled the plates?
Keith W. Perkins, professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University and president of the Orem Utah Stake.Your question relates to the divine law of witnesses. President Joseph Fielding Smith best described this law: “There is a law definitely stated in the scriptures governing testimony and the appointment of witnesses. This law the Lord has always followed in granting new revelation to the people. … Paul in writing to the Corinthians said: ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established’ (2 Cor. 13:1).” (Doctrines of Salvation,Bruce R. McConkie, comp., 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954, 1:203.)
In this dispensation the Lord has given many witnesses to the divinity of the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Among them are three special witnesses the Lord prophesied he would provide for the Book of Mormon. (See Ether 5:2–4.) These three men were Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. While the Book of Mormon was in the process of being translated in June of 1829, the Lord promised that they would have the privilege of being witnesses to the Book of Mormon. (See D&C 17:1–5.)
But the Lord had promised in the Book of Mormon that others besides the Three Witnesses might be privileged to view the plates: “At that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God. …
“There is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men. …
“Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God!” (2 Ne. 27:12–14; italics added.)
We know that in addition to the three witnesses, eight other witnesses testified: “Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands.” (Introduction, Book of Mormon.)
In an article in a previous issue of the Ensign (Feb. 1989, p. 36) I detailed the privilege that Mary Musselman Whitmer had in viewing the gold plates because of her faithfulness. The question is, Did any others besides the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, and Sister Whitmer see the gold plates?
There are recorded in Church history several accounts of others who saw the gold plates, but not in the same way as these witnesses we have mentioned.
Martin Harris was not the only member of his family who showed a great interest in the translating of the Book of Mormon. In the beginning, his wife Lucy also had a keen interest in the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Although Lucy Harris lacked the stability of others in her witness of the Book of Mormon, Lucy Mack Smith records what she heard from Mrs. Harris. One day Lucy Harris said to the Prophet, “Joseph, I will tell you what I will do, if I can get a witness that you speak the truth, I will believe all you say about the matter and I shall want to do something about the translation—I mean to help you any way.” (Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, ed. Preston Nibley, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1958, pp. 116–17.)
The next morning she related a remarkable dream she had had the previous night: “She said that a personage appeared to her who told her that as she had disputed the servant of the Lord, and said his word was not to be believed, and had also asked him many improper questions, she had done that which was not right in the sight of God. After which he said to her, ‘Behold, here are the plates, look upon them and believe.’” (Ibid., p. 117.)
Mother Smith stated that Lucy Harris then described the record in minute detail. Mrs. Harris became so convinced of the truthfulness of the record after this remarkable dream that she decided to give to the Prophet Joseph Smith twenty-eight dollars she had received from her mother before she died; Mrs. Harris insisted that he take it to assist in bringing forth the Book of Mormon.
I wish we could say that after this wonderful experience Lucy Harris became a great supporter of the work of the Restoration, but, sadly, this was not the case. She continued to insist to Joseph Smith that she must see the plates; on one occasion, she ransacked the home where he was staying, looking for them, but to no avail. She then commenced a search outside, but was frightened away when she encountered a “horrible black snake.” (Ibid., p. 122.) After this, she became one of the persecutors of the Prophet.
It is also interesting that Joseph Smith recorded in his history a similar experience of Oliver Cowdery before he came to assist in the work of translation. He stated that the Lord “appeared unto a young man by the name of Oliver Cowdery and showed unto him the plates in a vision, and also the truth of the work, and what the Lord was about to do through me, his unworthy servant. Therefore, he was desirous to come and write for me, and translate.” (The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984, p. 8. Spelling and punctuation modernized.)
Although Emma Smith never saw the gold plates in the same way the other witnesses did and was also counseled by the Lord not to murmur because of the things which she had not seen (seeD&C 25:4), she did have close contact with the plates and the work of her husband. In response to a question from her son, Joseph Smith III, as to the reality of the plates, she responded:
“The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen tablecloth, which I had given him [Joseph Smith, Jr.] to fold them in. I once felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book. … I did not attempt to handle the plates, other than I have told you, nor uncover them to look at them. I was satisfied that it was the work of God, and therefore did not feel it to be necessary to do so. … I moved them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work.” (The Saints’ Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, p. 290; spelling modernized.)
Even though Emma did not see the plates directly, what she had seen and felt by the Spirit deepened her conviction of the truth of the Book of Mormon. As a result, she bore this powerful witness and testimony of the book to her son:
“My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him. This was a usual thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and, for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible.” (Ibid.)
The Lord has established the truth of the Book of Mormon already in the mouth of “as many witnesses as seemeth him good.” Now our challenge is to gain a testimony of it for ourselves. That is obtained in the way that millions have gained their witness—by reading, pondering, and praying about the Book of Mormon “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ.” Then, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we too will know that it is the word of God. (Moro. 10:4.)
As a young man I gained that witness for myself, after some struggle on my part. If you have not gained that testimony for yourself, please accept the challenge of Moroni. If you have already gained that testimony, you can nourish it by reading the Book of Mormon daily, as our beloved prophet, President Ezra Taft Benson, has admonished. (See Ensign, May 1986, p. 78.)
Lucy Mack Smith sees the Urim and Thummin
I trembled so with fear, lest all might be lost in consequence of some failure in keeping the commandments of God, that I was under the necessity of leaving the room in order to conceal my feelings. Joseph saw this, and said, “Do not be uneasy mother, all is right—see here, I have got a key.”
I knew not what he meant, but took the article of which he spoke into my hands, and, upon examination, found that it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected with each other in much the same way as old fashioned spectacles. He took them again and left me, but said nothing respecting the Record.[3]
Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations(Liverpool, S.W. Richards, 1853), 101.
The Fourth Witness by Brooke Malia Mann
“Sweet Mary Whitmer knew that taking care of a farming household with many children was hard. However, she soon found that taking care of a farming household with many children plus the Prophet Joseph himself, his friends, and his family was almost unbearable. She felt the weight of this responsibility and almost hit the breaking point one summer. In just a few short months her world changed.
It began early one spring when her son David became enamored with this Joseph Smith character. Through letters to a friend named Oliver, David was convinced Joseph needed to come stay with them on the Whitmer farm to finish some alleged “holy work.” Mary didn’t much like that idea. A stranger coupled with so many odd rumors coming to stay with her family didn’t sound very appealing, that was until the miracles began to occur.
When work on the farm was being completed by three mysterious figures Mary could no longer deny that God was involved somehow. David found himself with enough free time to go retrieve Joseph during the busiest planting season of the year, and after he came, many others soon followed. Mary now knew she had the one living prophet to make comfortable in her home as he completed the translation of a set of golden plates. She sacrificed many of her personal affairs to tend to everyone and never complained. Instead of attending choir she did laundry. Instead of visiting friends and neighbors, she cooked and cleaned. Instead of attending her old church, she made sure the prophet Joseph had privacy. And the worst part of it all was Mary couldn’t even see the process upstairs in her own home that would validate her sacrifice.
Anxiety continued to build. Tears threatened to fall. Mary was relying completely on faith as she labored to allow the smooth translation of these records she wasn’t allowed to see. She may not have persevered if God didn’t show her mercy at the last moment.
One day Mary was on her way out to milk the cow when a gentleman met her at the fence. If some of her guests saw him they would have identified him with the name “Moroni.”
“You have been faithful and diligent in your labors, but you are tired because of the increase of your toil; it is proper therefore that you should witness that your faith may be strengthened,” he told Mary.
Then at that instant the thing she was blindly working for everyday was shown unto her. Mary Whitmer became the one and only woman to see the golden plates. It changed not only her but the whole family as well. The extra strength she gained helped prepare all seven children to become either one of the witnesses of the plates or the wife to one. After the trial of her faith Mary received a witness, divine approval for her efforts, and so much more. The chores didn’t seem quite so hard after that.” Brooke Mahlia Mann
The Testimony of the Especial Witnesses To the Book of Mormon.
History of the Church, Vol.1 Chapter 6. [June 1829]
The witnesses were well known for honesty and sobriety. Though each of the Three Witnesses was eventually excommunicated from the Church (two returned), none ever denied or retracted his published testimony. Each reaffirmed at every opportunity the veracity of his testimony and the reality of what he had seen and experienced.
Soon after the experience of the three witnesses, at the Smith farm in New York, eight others were allowed to view and handle the plates: Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith. Their signed “Testimony of Eight Witnesses” reports that Joseph Smith showed these eight men the metal plates, which they “hefted” while turning the individual “leaves” and examining the engravings of “curious workmanship.” In 1829 the word curious carried the meaning of the Latin word for “careful,” suggesting that the plates were wrought “with care and art.” Five of these Eight Witnesses remained solidly with the Church; John Whitmer was excommunicated in 1838, and his brother Jacob Whitmer and brother-in-law Hiram Page then became inactive.
Most of these eleven witnesses were members of the large Smith and Whitmer families–families who had assisted in guarding and in translating the ancient record. Not surprisingly, other family members reported indirect contact with the plates and the translation. Young William Smith once helped his brother Joseph carry the plates wrapped in a work frock. Joseph’s wife Emma Smith felt the pliable plates as she dusted around the cloth-covered record on her husband’s translating table. Burdened with daily chores and caring for her family and visitors working on the translation, Mother Whitmer (Peter Whitmer, Sr.’s, wife) was shown the plates by a heavenly messenger to assure her that the work was of God.
The above quote is also found in: Book of Mormon Witnesses Author: Anderson, Richard Lloyd http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Book_of_Mormon_Witnesses
Another Account of Mary Whitmer’s Viewing of the Golden Plates
By Royal Skousen
“Carl T. Cox has graciously provided me with a new account of Moroni showing the Book of Mormon plates to Mary Whitmer (1778-1856), wife of Peter Whitmer Senior. Mary was the mother of five sons who were witnesses to the golden plates: David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses; and Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Peter Whitmer Junior, four of the eight witnesses.
For a long time we have known that Mary Whitmer was also shown the plates. These accounts are familiar and derive from David Whitmer and John C. Whitmer (the son of John Whitmer). For comparison’s sake, I provide here two versions of their accounts (in each case, I have added some paragraphing).
David Whitmer’s account, according to an interview with Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith in September 1878, published 16 November 1878 in the Deseret News, and reproduced by Dan Vogel in his Early Mormon Documents, 5:51-52 (Salt Lake City, Utah: 2003):
When I was returning to Fayette with Joseph and Oliver all of us riding in the wagon, Oliver and I on an old fashioned wooden spring seat and Joseph behind us, while traveling along in a clear open place, a
very pleasant, nice-looking old man suddenly appeared by the side of our wagon and saluted us with, “good morning, it is very warm,” at the same time wiping [Page 36]his face or forehead with his hand. We returned the salutation, and by a sign from Joseph I invited him to ride if he was going our way. But he said very pleasantly, “No, I am going to Cumorah.” This name was somewhat new to me, I did not know what Cumorah meant. We all gazed at him and at each other, and as I looked round inquiringly of Joseph, the old man instantly disappeared, so that I did not see him again. … It was the messenger who had the plates, who had taken them from Joseph just prior to our starting from Harmony.
Soon after our arrival home, I saw something which led me to the belief that the plates were placed or concealed in my father’s barn. I frankly asked Joseph if my supposition was right, and he told me it was. Sometime after this, my mother was going to milk the cows, when she was met out near the yard by the same old man (judging by her description of him) who said to her, “You have been very faithful and diligent in your labors, but you are tired because of the increase of your toil, it is proper therefore that you should receive a witness that your faith may be strengthened.” Thereupon he showed her the plates. My father and mother had a large family of their own, the addition to it therefore of Joseph, his wife Emma and Oliver very greatly increased the toil and anxiety of my mother. And although she had never complained she had sometimes felt that her labor was too much, or at least she was perhaps beginning to feel so. This circumstance, however, completely removed all such feelings, and nerved her up for her increased responsibilities. [Page 37]John C. Whitmer’s 1878 account, as recorded by Andrew Jenson (see his Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia 1:283, Salt Lake City, Utah: 1901):
I have heard my grandmother (Mary Musselman Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by a holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi. (She undoubtedly refers to Moroni, the angel who had the plates in charge.)
It was at the time, she said, when the translation was going on at the house of the elder Peter Whitmer, her husband. Joseph Smith with his wife and Oliver Cowdery, whom David Whitmer a short time previous had brought up from Harmony, Pennsylvania, were all boarding with the Whitmers, and my grandmother in having so many extra persons to care for, besides her own large household, was often overloaded with work to such an extent that she felt it to be quite a burden.
One evening, when (after having done her usual day’s work in the house) she went to the barn to milk the cows, she met a stranger carrying something on his back that looked like a knapsack. At first she was a little afraid of him, but when he spoke to her in a kind, friendly tone and began to explain to her the nature of the work which was going on in her house, she was filled with unexpressible joy and satisfaction. He then untied his knapsack and showed her a bundle of plates, which in size and appearance corresponded with the description subsequently given by the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. This strange person turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf, and also [Page 38]showed her the engravings upon them; after which he told her to be patient and faithful in bearing her burden a little longer, promising that if she would do so, she should be blessed; and her reward would be sure, if she proved faithful to the end. The personage then suddenly vanished with the plates, and where he went, she could not tell.
From that moment my grandmother was enabled to perform her household duties with comparative ease, and she felt no more inclination to murmur because her lot was hard. I knew my grandmother to be a good, noble and truthful woman, and I have not the least doubt of her statement in regard to seeing the plates being strictly true. She was a strong believer in the Book of Mormon until the day of her death.
Here is what Carl Cox writes:
This same experience with Mother Whitmer and the plates is a part of my family history. Elvira Pamela Mills Cox heard the story before she was married. Christian Whitmer, one of the Book of Mormon witnesses and the eldest son of Peter Whitmer, had married Anna Schott in 1825. They must have lived in close proximity to Peter Whitmer while the Book of Mormon was being translated. When Christian died in Clay County, Missouri, in 1835, Anna was left a widow. Sylvanus Hulet married the widowed Anna, and also had care of his orphaned niece, Elvira Mills. The experience of Mother Whitmer would have been known by family members, and Elvira was an interested teenager at that time. This is the way the story appears in our family history:
[Page 39]“Elvira Pamela Mills”, Cox Bulletin II (1958), written by Orville Cox Day (O C Day):
Grandma stopped telling a story of Mother Whitmer till 1900 when B. H. Roberts printed it in his “New Witness for God.” Then she said, “I’m so glad I can tell it again.”
David Whitmer had invited Joseph and Oliver to live in his father’s home while translating the Book of Mormon. When Oliver’s hand and Joseph’s eyes grew tired they went to the woods for a rest. There they often skated rocks on a pond.
Mary Whitmer, with five grown sons and a husband to care for, besides visitors, often grew tired. She thought they might just as well carry her a bucket of water or chop a bit of wood as to skate rocks on a pond.
She was about to order them out of her home.
One morning, just at daybreak, she came out of her cow stable with two full buckets of milk in her hands, when a short, heavy-set, gray-haired man carrying a package met her and said,
“My name is Moroni. You have become pretty tired with all the extra work you have to do. The Lord has given me permission to show you this record:” turning the golden leaves one by one!
The most interesting aspect of this story is that Mary Whitmer’s difficulty with the household situation was more than just being tired from all the extra work. She was irritated by Joseph and Oliver’s indifference to all the work she was [Page 40]doing, with their not helping out and instead skipping rocks for relaxation, so “she was about to order them out of her home.” Thus Moroni’s intervention was perhaps more purposeful than we might have previously thought. Undoubtedly, many others exerted much effort on behalf of providing help to Joseph and Oliver (such as Emma Smith had just done in Harmony, Pennsylvania, for the previous three months). Here, however, Moroni needed to deal with a more difficult situation, one that could have forced Joseph to find another place – and a secure one – to do the translating. Moroni (and the Lord) weren’t in the habit of just showing the plates to people to encourage them to act as a support team for the work of the translation.
There is independent evidence that during the translation process Joseph Smith liked to skip rocks on water as a form of relaxation. Martin Harris tells of one such occasion in the spring of 1828 when he was acting as scribe when Joseph was translating the book of Lehi (the 116 manuscript pages that were later lost). In an interview with Edward Stevenson and published in the Deseret News on 30 November 1881 and republished in the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star (30 January and 6 February 1882), Martin says (on page 87 of the Millennial Star) that “after continued translation they would become weary, and would go down to the river and exercise by throwing stones out on the river, etc.”
There are a few other differences in this account. The plates were in a package rather than a knapsack. Mary had already done the milking, and it was in the morning rather than the evening. As with all independent accounts of historical events, there will be minor additions, omissions, and variants. But the reason for Moroni’s intervention is clearly a significant difference – and probably accurate.
Carl Cox has also provided me in various emails (dating from 2012) with the following information on the provenance of this account:
[Page 41]21 August 2012, email from Carl Cox to Royal Skousen:
I talked to O C Day’s children (he is the one that published the pamphlet) and they do not know of any earlier written stories. O C’s mother, Euphrasia, liked to tell family stories at night to the children, and her mother Elvira Pamela Mills Cox probably did the same. O C was 18 when Elvira died, so he would have heard the stories from her, and also from his mother. I have another Cox history pamphlet from 1957 that has genealogy with many tidbits of stories interspersed. O C was born in 1885, so he was in his 70s by that time. The pamphlet we are interested in was published just a little later.
The other pamphlets were published in the late 1950s by the Alpine Publishing Company, in Alpine or American Fork. Orville Cox Day is the son of Euphrasia Cox Day, who is the daughter of Elvira Pamela Mills Cox, who married Orville Sutherland Cox, my great grandfather. All this genealogy is on the website, OSCox.org. I got the pamphlet in the 1960s when I published the Cox Family Bulletin, which was the source for the beginnings of the OSCox.org website about 10 years ago.
29 September 2012, email from Carl Cox to Royal Skousen:
My investigation of the source of the Elvira Mills Cox story mostly confirms my earlier ideas. I have almost identical copies of the story, one typed on the legal size sheet used for Books of Remembrance, and the other which may be the [Page 42]published Cox Bulletin II printed in typewriter paper size.
I believe that O C Day heard the stories from his grandmother, Elvira, and from his mother, Euphrasia, in his youth, but didn’t write them down until the 1950s, when he decided such history needed to be shared. His daughter and granddaughter that I talked with only knew of them after the stories were printed in 1958. And at the beginning of the compilation of Elvira’s stories he said: “While spinning and weaving wool, grandma liked to tell us stories about her people.”
At the end of the 14 page bulletin is written: “Abridged from information written by” in pencil just before the typewritten – Orville Cox Day –, and indicating 5 sentences just above about Elvira’s character. But the whole bulletin is a Xerox copy, which I just noticed. And this bulletin says it is John Whitmer whose widow Sylvester married, but it is Christian Whitmer instead.
1 October 2012, email from Carl Cox to Royal Skousen:
I have scanned the 14 page printing. I think some of the marks on there were instructions to the typist 50 years ago when I published the Cox Family Bulletin, but otherwise I don’t know anything other than it came from O C Day when he was about 73 years old. I think I corrected his errors.
[Page 43]I am just sending the cover this time, and will send about 4 pages at a time because they are big files.
3 October 2012, email from Carl Cox to Royal Skousen:
Christian Whitmer was in the David Whitmer [Peter Whitmer Senior] home during the translation process, and is listed as one of those who actually acted as scribe, I believe. He and his wife would have known of the visit of Moroni to Christian’s mother. He died in 1835, and his widow, Anna Schott, whom he had married in 1825, then married Sylvester Hulet, in troubled Missouri. Sylvester cared for his niece and nephew after their parents died, while Elvira Pamela Mills was a teenager, during this time. Elvira married Orville Sutherland Cox, my great grandfather, in 1839, and told the stories to her descendants.
Elvira’s youngest daughter was Euphrasia Cox, who married Eli Day as a second wife. Their oldest child was Orville Cox Day (O C Day), 1885-1969, who followed his mother as the family genealogist. He was also one of the grandchildren who heard Elvira’s stories, and wrote down some of what he heard in later life.” By Royal Skousen, professor of linguistics and English language at Brigham Young University
