Whitmer clan honors ancestors

Published October 14, 2006. Reprinted with permission from the LDS Church News a division of the Deseret Morning News.
Whitmer clan honors ancestors

Reunion includes descendants of Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page
Sheila Bridges, Liberty Missouri Stake director of public affairs
RICHMOND, Mo.  In conjunction with the bicentennial of Oliver Cowdery’s Oct. 3, 1806, birth, the Liberty Missouri Stake and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation co-sponsored a Whitmer family celebration-reunion Oct. 6-7, in this city where the grave sites of Oliver and fellow Book of Mormon witness David Whitmer are located.

Oliver was married to Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, the youngest member of the Whitmer family, so he was a brother-in-law to David. Oliver, David and Martin Harris were the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. By virtue of his marriage, Oliver is also the brother-in-law of the Whitmers who were among the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon: Christian, Jacob, Peter Jr. and John.
Several descendants of the Hiram Page (another of the Eight Witnesses) and Whitmer families warmly greeted one another, some relatives connecting for the first time, as they gathered at the Richmond Historic Farris Theater to commemorate Oliver’s 200th birthday anniversary.
The theater itself has a place in Church history as the location where, in 1911, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed for the dedication ceremony for a monument to the Three Witnesses in the cemetery at Richmond.
Frank Outersky, executive director of the theater, was master of ceremonies for the program. Lorene Pollard, great-great-granddaughter of John Whitmer, shared family stories reflecting on the home sites in Richmond and Far West.
Gloria Simpson, a descendant in the Hiram and Catherine Whitmer Page lines, was unable to attend due to an accident, but an e-mail she sent was read by President Sean Foley of the Church’s Richmond Branch. She has expanded the family genealogy online, inviting her family members to add their personal histories.
Harold Barchers, third-great-grandson of Mary and Peter Whitmer Sr., said, “Go home and look in a mirror. You will be looking at what your ancestors looked like.” He shared stories of family traits that continue to be passed down.

Bonnie Page Damon, a descendant of the Hiram and Catherine Whitmer Page family, spoke of her love for family treasures and heirlooms and the closeness she feels to her ancestors through them. She told of a handmade cane chair, walking canes and a marble slab that had been part of an outdoor washstand at the family farm. The marble slab now rests inside her home and evokes family memories.

Larry C. Porter, professor emeritus of Church history and doctrine at BYU, was the keynote speaker. He assisted in finding the location of the Peter Whitmer Sr. cabin site in Fayette, N.Y., where Joseph Smith completed the translation of the Book of Mormon in late June 1829. It was in this cabin on April 6, 1830, that the Church was formally organized with a small congregation attending.
Brother Porter told of the cabin’s reconstruction over the original foundation and drew on journals, newspaper accounts and local history to describe the contributions of the Whitmer family, whom he called “a family of integrity.”
Alexander Baugh, professor of Church history at BYU and a member of the board of trustees of the historic sites foundation, spoke of Oliver Cowdery and then presented a portrait of Oliver to Richmond Mayor Tom Morman. The portrait will be displayed in the Ray County Courthouse in Richmond.
The day after the reunion, Brother Baugh and about 80 members of the Rogers Arkansas Stake journeyed to Southwest City, Mo., just over the border from Arkansas. There, they held a service to dedicate a monument at the grave site of Oliver Cowdery’s wife, Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery, and their only daughter to survive from childhood, Maria Louise Cowdery Johnson. The marker also notes the nearby grave site of Charles Johnson, husband of Maria Louise.

Brother Baugh said that about six years after the death of her father in Richmond, Maria Louise married Charles Johnson. Her mother, Elizabeth Ann, continued to live with her daughter and her daughter’s husband. They ended up in Southwest City, where Elizabeth Ann died Jan. 7, 1892, and her daughter died two days later. Charles died in 1906.

“Really, nothing had been done for the acknowledgment of these graves down in the middle of nowhere,” Brother Baugh said, explaining why the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation desired that the service be conducted.
President David Stout of the Rogers Missouri Stake, a descendant of Church history figure Hosea Stout, dedicated the monument. Brother Baugh asked President Stout to provide the priesthood ordinance of dedication for both graves, surmising that this probably had never been done.
Elizabeth Ann had always remained in the Church, even during the years that Oliver was excommunicated. In fact, following his rebaptism at Kanesville, Iowa, in 1848, Oliver had intended to bring his family west to join the Latter-day Saints in Utah, but failing health precluded the journey, and he died while staying with his Whitmer relatives in Richmond. Contributing: R. Scott Lloyd