Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery — Firsthand Witness of the Book of Mormon Translation

Elizabeth Ann Whitmer (1815–1892) was the youngest daughter of Peter and Mary Whitmer Sr. and the wife of Oliver Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses. Her connection to the Restoration was intimate and direct: the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed in her family's home in Fayette, New York in the spring and summer of 1829, and she was present throughout.

Elizabeth later recorded her firsthand witness of the translation process: 'I have heard Joseph Smith declare, and most positively, that the Book of Mormon is true, and I believe it to be true. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. I sat at a table near Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and I watched as Joseph translated hour after hour with his face buried in his hat, with the seer stone inside. He never referred to any manuscript or book, nor did he have any before him for consultation. The plates were not on the table during most of the translation.'

She was also a witness of the faith and testimony of her husband Oliver Cowdery. After Oliver's death in 1850, she wrote a letter to her brother David Whitmer affirming that Oliver had never denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon: 'From the hour when the glorious vision of the Holy Messenger revealed to mortal eyes the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge — even the sacred plates — my husband never faltered and never denied the testimony that he was privileged to give to the world.'

Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery stands as one of the most intimate witnesses of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon — not one of the official Eleven, but a woman who sat in the same room, watched hour after hour, and bore her witness for the rest of her life.