David Whitmer
One of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who saw the angel and the plates — and never denied it, through decades of hardship and separation from the Church he helped establish.
Called Before He Believed
David Whitmer first heard about Joseph Smith’s work through Oliver Cowdery, who had gone to Harmony, Pennsylvania to serve as scribe for the translation of the Book of Mormon. Oliver wrote to David describing what he had seen and experienced, and David was intrigued. He agreed to host Joseph and Oliver at his family’s farm in Fayette, New York, where much of the translation was completed in the spring of 1829.
Joseph later recounted that before he set out from Harmony, he had a vision of David Whitmer plowing a field — and that David would find that his field had been supernaturally plowed when Joseph arrived. David confirmed the account: he had gone out to plow and found three acres of ground had been turned over, and a neighbor asked his mother who had done it. These experiences opened David’s heart before he ever heard Joseph teach.
The Whitmer home became the cradle of the final months of translation and the site of several foundational revelations now recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Church was organized in the Whitmer home on April 6, 1830. David Whitmer was present at the creation.
The Vision in the Grove
In June 1829, shortly before the Book of Mormon went to press, Joseph was commanded to show the plates to designated witnesses. Three men were named: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. They went into the woods together and prayed. Martin Harris initially withdrew, and the remaining three knelt again in prayer. An angel appeared, holding the golden plates and turning their pages one by one. A voice from heaven testified that the translation was correct and commanded the witnesses to bear record of what they had seen.
Testimony of Three Witnesses
“We declare with words of soberness, that 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 the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true.”
David Whitmer signed that testimony. He never retracted the signature. For almost sixty years — through church membership, estrangement, conflict, poverty, and public skepticism — he maintained that he had seen the angel and the plates with his own eyes and heard the voice of God from heaven.
Separation from the Church
David’s relationship with the Church deteriorated through the 1830s. The causes were multiple: financial tensions during the Kirtland banking crisis of 1837, disagreements with Joseph Smith’s evolving leadership style, concerns about the direction of the Church in Missouri, and conflicts with other leaders. In 1838 he was excommunicated — or by his own account, withdrew.
He settled in Richmond, Missouri, where he spent the rest of his life as a businessman and local leader. He became a figure of some renown in the region — steady, respected, and candid. People came from across the country to interview him about his experience with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he received them all.
He had real criticisms of the Church and of decisions Joseph Smith made after 1834. He did not hold back from expressing them. He believed the Church had gone off course. But he was equally direct about what he would not concede: the Book of Mormon was true, the plates were real, and the angel had come. His criticisms of the institution were never a backdoor denial of the foundation.
An Address to All Believers in Christ
In 1887, a year before his death, David Whitmer published a pamphlet titled An Address to All Believers in Christ. It was his public statement — his final word on the matter. He did not use it to recant. He used it to bear testimony one more time, and to address the many rumors that had circulated about him over the decades.
David Whitmer, 1887
“It is recorded in the American Cyclopaedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, that I, David Whitmer, have denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon; and that the two other witnesses, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, denied their testimony to that book. I will say once more to all mankind, that I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof.”
He was eighty-two years old. He would die the following year. His last public act was a declaration that he had seen what he said he had seen, and that no one had the right to say otherwise on his behalf.
His Final Testimony
On January 22, 1888, David Whitmer lay dying in Richmond, Missouri. His family, friends, and a local physician were present. His doctor later provided an affidavit describing what happened: David turned to those gathered and said that he wanted them to know, before he died, that the Book of Mormon was true and that he had seen the angel and the plates. He asked them to tell the world.
He died that evening. He is buried in Richmond, Missouri. His gravestone reads: “The Record of the Jews and the Record of the Nephites are one. Truth is Eternal.”
What His Life Teaches
David Whitmer’s life poses a question that has no easy answer: what do we make of a man who was at the founding of something sacred, who left it in anger, who remained in conflict with its leaders for decades — and yet never denied what he had seen?
His testimony is not the testimony of a loyal churchman defending his institution. It is the testimony of a critic — a man with grievances and disagreements — who nevertheless maintained that what happened in a grove in Fayette, New York in the summer of 1829 was real. He had nothing to gain from that maintenance. He gained no social advantage, no financial benefit, no religious prestige from being the estranged witness who refused to recant.
The weight of his testimony rests precisely on his complicated life. Men who lie for advantage abandon their lies when the advantage disappears. David Whitmer’s testimony outlasted every advantage he might have had — and outlasted him.
Key Sources
Key Sources
- Testimony of Three Witnesses — Printed in every edition of the Book of Mormon; signed by David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris
- Doctrine & Covenants 17 — The Lord’s charge to the Three Witnesses before they received the vision
- An Address to All Believers in Christ (1887) — David Whitmer’s own published pamphlet, his final public testimony
- Richmond Conservator, January 26, 1888 — Local newspaper account of David Whitmer’s deathbed testimony