October 3, 1806
Oliver H. P. Cowdery is born in Wells, Vermont to William and Rebecca Fuller Cowdery.
September 3, 1809
Oliver’s mother dies.
c. 1826
Oliver leaves Vermont for upstate New York, where his older brothers had settled and clerks at a store for just over two years.
Joseph Smith, Sr
Home and Farm
Manchester, NY
Winter, 1828-29
Oliver becomes a school teacher in Manchester, New York and lodges with different families in the area, including that of Joseph Smith, Sr.
February, 1829
The Lord appears to Oliver Cowdery and shows him the plates in a vision.
April, 1829
Oliver Cowdery travels to Harmony, Pennsylvania, meeting Joseph Smith on April 5.
Page from the original
Book of Mormon manuscript
April 7 to June 1, 1829
Oliver Cowdery acts as a scribe for the translation of the Book of Mormon.
May 15, 1829
Oliver and Joseph Smith receive the Aaronic priesthood from the resurrected John the Baptist, after which they baptize each other in the Susquehanna River.
Peter Whitmer Home
June, 1829
Doctrine & Covenants 17 is received authorizing Oliver, David, and Martin to “have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim.”
The Three Witnesses see the golden plates and testify of the book’s truth.
Joseph Smith finishes translating the Book of Mormon at the Whitmer home.
April 6, 1830
Oliver is named “Second Elder” when the church is organized.
December 18, 1832
Oliver marries Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, the daughter of Peter Whitmer, Sr. and sister of David, John, Jacob and Peter Whitmer, Jr. They have five children, of whom only one daughter survives to maturity.
February 17, 1834
Oliver is named a member of the first presiding high council of the church, organized in Kirtland, Ohio.
December 5, 1834
Oliver becomes the first Assistant President of the Church.
August, 1837
The Kirtland Safety Society Bank fails. Oliver moves to the newly founded Latter Day Saints settlement in Far West, Missouri.
Winter 1837-38
Oliver suffers ill health through the winter.
April 12, 1838
A church court excommunicates Oliver after he fails to appear at a hearing on his membership and sent a letter resigning from the church instead.
June 17, 1838
Sidney Rigdon preaches the “Salt Sermon” in which he declared that dissenters from the faith (understood to include Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer), were “as salt that had lost its savor” and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast them out “to be trodden beneath the feet of men.”
June 18, 1838
The Danite Manifesto, signed by some 84 Mormons (but not Joseph Smith) is sent to Oliver and the other dissenters, warning them to depart. They flee the county.
1838 - 1847
Oliver studies law and opens a practice in Tiffin, Ohio, where he becomes a civic and political leader. He also joins the Methodist church.
1847
Oliver’s father and one of his brothers are followers of James J. Strang, together with Martin Harris and much of Joseph Smith’s remaining family. Oliver and his brother move to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, about 12 miles away from Strang’s headquarters in Voree. He enters law practice with his brother.
1848
Oliver travels to meet with followers of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve encamped at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, where he asks to be reunited with the church.
November 12, 1848
Oliver is rebaptized by Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve at Kanesville, Iowa.
1849
After his rebaptism, Oliver desires to relocate to the State of Deseret (Utah) in the coming spring or summer but does not move due to failing health.
March, 1850
Oliver travels to meet with David Whitmer in Richmond, Missouri to persuade him to move west and rejoin the Saints in Utah. Oliver, however, succumbs to tuberculosis and dies on March 3, 1850, in David Whitmer’s home.