Oliver Cowdery's 1848 Kanesville Testimony — 'I Beheld with My Eyes and Handled with My Hands'

In October 1848, after a decade of estrangement from the Church — years during which Oliver Cowdery had built a successful law career in Wisconsin and Michigan, separated from Church fellowship, and lost his close friend and prophet Joseph Smith to martyrdom — Oliver Cowdery stood before a gathering of approximately two thousand people at Council Bluffs (Kanesville), Iowa, to seek rebaptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He had prepared carefully, writing to Church leaders that he wished to return: 'I feel that I can honorably return. I have sustained an honorable character before the world during my absence from you. This though a small matter with you, is of vast importance.'

Before the assembled congregation — which included many non-members — Oliver bore what became one of the most comprehensive testimonies of his life:

'I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands, the gold plates from which [the Book of Mormon] was transcribed. I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is true. I also testify that the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods were given to us by angelic messengers.'

Reuben Miller, who was present and kept a journal, recorded Oliver's words verbatim. Edward Bunker was still speaking of the 'powerful testimony' Oliver gave that day when Bunker recounted it to Charles Lowell Walker in 1894 — forty-six years later.

Afterwards, snowbound at the home of Elder Samuel W. Richards during the journey back east, Oliver consented to a long conversation about the early days of the Restoration. Richards later wrote: 'His experience in connection with the prophet Joseph, when the ministrations of angels were frequent in restoring Priesthood, and the Keys of Knowledge... made it all a most divinely and sacred interview to me.'

At Richards's request, Oliver then wrote out his final formal written testimony on January 13, 1849, summarizing the three angelic ministrations he had received: Moroni, John the Baptist, and Peter, James, and John.

This return — after ten years away, with no social or material benefit to gain from reasserting his witness — stands as one of the most powerful confirmations of the truthfulness of the Restoration events Oliver had experienced.