Cody's early life is difficult to separate from his own stories told later in life, but he was born Samuel Franklin Cowdery in 1867 in Davenport, Iowa, where he attended school until the age of 12.

Indeed, the first published version of an early revelation told Oliver Cowdery that a dowsing rod ( referred to as a " rod of nature ") would serve as a means of receiving divine revelation.

Cowdery also told Smith that he had seen the Golden Plates in a vision before the two ever met.

Bronze statue in Temple Square, Salt Lake City, representing Saint Peter | Peter, James, son of Zebedee | James, and John the Apostle | John in the act of conferring the Melchizedek priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery

* 1829 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe.

This earlier book contained 65 early revelations to church leaders including Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery.

This committee of Presiding Elders, consisting of Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, began to review and revise numerous revelations for inclusion in the new work.

Joseph Smith, Jr. and Frederick G. Williams, two of the Presiding Elders on the committee, were absent, but Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon were present.

In addition, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery stated that on April 3, 1836, Moses appeared to them in the Kirtland Temple in a glorified, immortal, physical form and bestowed upon them the " keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north.

During production of this work in mid-1829, Smith, his close associate Oliver Cowdery, and other early followers began baptizing new converts into a Christian primitivist church, formally organized in 1830 as the Church of Christ.

In 1835, Smith identified the angel as Moroni: In 1835, while preparing the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, he made additions to an earlier revelation regarding sacramental wine, and indicated a number of angels that would come to the earth after the Second Coming and drink wine with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

Around this time, Oliver Cowdery was writing a history of Joseph Smith in which he identified the angel as the prophet Moroni from the Book of Mormon.

It also teaches that in 1829, along with the resurrected Peter and the resurrected James, John visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and restored the priesthood authority with Apostolic succession to earth .< Ref > Doctrine and Covenants 27: 12 .</ ref > John, along with the Three Nephites, will live to see the Second Coming of Christ as translated beings.

Critics of the LDS church have claimed that Cabrera's work had a strong influence on Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery, founders of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Latter Day Saints believe that Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery were visited by the angel of John the Baptist near Harmony in 1829, where he bestowed on Smith and Cowdery the Aaronic priesthood.

Smith and Cowdery subsequently baptized one another in the Susquehanna River.

The first convert baptism, that of Samuel H. Smith, took place there ten days after Smith and Cowdery had baptized each other.

Somewhere between Harmony and Colesville, New York, Peter, James, and John bestowed upon Smith and Cowdery the Melchizedek priesthood.

Bronze statue in Temple Square, Salt Lake City, representing Saint Peter | Peter, James, son of Zebedee | James, and John the Apostle | John in the act of conferring the Melchizedek priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as envisioned by most modern Latter Day Saints.

Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery said they were visited by John the Baptist, who laid his hands on their head and gave them the Aaronic priesthood.

To that end, Larson carefully examined the Original Manuscript ( the one dictated by Joseph Smith to his scribes ) and the Printer ’ s Manuscript ( the copy Oliver Cowdery prepared for the Printer in 1829 – 1830 ), and compared them with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions of the Book of Mormon to determine what sort of changes had occurred over time and to make judgments as to which readings were the most original.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( LDS Church ) teaches that James has been resurrected and that in 1829 he — along with the resurrected Peter and the translated John — visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and restored the priesthood authority with Apostolic succession to earth .< Ref > Doctrine and Covenants 27: 12 .</ ref >

The Susquehanna River holds importance for members of the Latter Day Saint movement as the location where Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery received the priesthood from heavenly beings and the place in which the first Latter Day Saint baptisms occurred.

In addition, Smith claimed that he received the true authority of priesthood, which he divided in to two orders, Aaronic ( lesser ) and Melchizedek ( greater ), directly from those who held it anciently: namely, John the Baptist for the Aaronic, who returned as an angel and gave him and Oliver Cowdery the authority to baptize, and Peter, James, and John, the Apostles, who returned as heavenly messengers and gave Smith and Cowdery the authority to lead the church just as the Apostles had done anciently, this being the Melchizedek authority.

Therefore, according to Cowdery, the religious confusion led Smith to pray in his bedroom, late on the night of September 23, 1823, after the others had gone to sleep, to know which of the competing denominations was correct and whether " a Supreme being did exist.

" As Zaslaw and Cowdery point out, Mozart almost certainly was not giving the piece a special title, but only entering in his records that he had completed a little serenade.

: Your letter of yesterday is received & I hasten to answer as fully as I can -- Joseph Smith Jr first come to my notice in the year 1824 in the summer of that year I contracted with his father to build a fence on my property in the corse of that work I approach Joseph & ask how it is in a half day you put up what requires your father & 2 brothers a full day working together he says I have not been with out assistance but can not say more only you better find out the next day I take the older Smith by the arm & he says Joseph can see any thing he wishes by looking at a stone Joseph often sees Spirits here with great kettles of coin money it was Spirits who brought up rock because Joseph made no attempt on their money I latter dream I converse with spirits which let me count their money when I awake I have in my hand a dollar coin which I take for a sign Joseph describes what I seen in every particular says he the spirits are grieved so I through back the dollar in the fall of the year 1827 I hear Joseph found a gold bible I take Joseph aside & he says it is true I found it 4 years ago with my stone but only just got it because of the enchantment the old spirit come to me 3 times in the same dream & says dig up the gold but when I take it up the next morning the spirit transfigured himself from a white salamander in the bottom of the hole & struck me 3 times & held the treasure & would not let me have it because I lay it down to cover over the hole when the spirit says do not lay it down Joseph says when can I have it the spirit says one year from to day if you obay me look to the stone after a few days he looks the spirit says bring your brother Alvin Joseph says he is dead shall I bring what remains but the spirit is gone Joseph goes to get the gold bible but the spirit says you did not bring your brother you can not have it look to the stone Joseph looks but can not see who to bring the spirit says I tricked you again look to the stone Joseph looks & sees his wife on the 22d day of Sept 1827 they get the gold bible -- I give Joseph $ 50 to move him down to Pa Joseph says when you visit me I will give you a sign he gives me some hiroglyphics I take then to Utica Albany & New York in the last place Dr Mitchel gives me an introduction to Professor Anthon says he they are short hand Egyption the same what was used in ancient times bring me the old book & I will translate says I it is made of precious gold & is sealed from view says he I can not read a sealed book -- Joseph found some giant silver specticles with the plates he puts them in an old hat & in the darkness reads the words & in this way it is all translated & written down -- about the middle of June 1829 Joseph takes me together with Oliver Cowdery & David Whitmer to have a view of the plates our names are appended to the book of Mormon which I had printed with my own money -- space and time both prevent me from writing more at present if there is any thing further you wish to inquire I shall attend to it

" He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us hereafter ; and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me.

No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass.

In March 1838, disillusioned church members said that Harris had publicly denied that any of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had ever seen or handled the golden plates — although he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them — and they claimed that Harris's recantation, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three Apostles, to leave the Church.

Cowdery lodged at different houses in the Manchester area, including that of Joseph Smith, Sr., who was said to have provided Cowdery with additional information about the golden plates of which he had heard " from all quarters.

Cowdery met Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 5, 1829 — a year and a day before the official founding of the church — and heard from him how he had received golden plates containing ancient Native American writings.

Like Smith, who was a distant relative, during his youth, Cowdery had engaged in hunting for buried treasure and had used a divining rod.

Before meeting Cowdery, Joseph Smith had come to a standstill on his translation after the first 116 pages were lost by Martin Harris.

Further, after first asserting that the revival had occurred in 1821, when Smith was in his " fifteenth year ," Cowdery corrected the date to 1823 — Smith's 17th ( actually, 18th ) year.

Finally, in January 1838, Cowdery wrote his brother Warren that he and Joseph Smith had " had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that which I had said was strictly true.

Some contemporary Mormons believed that Cowdery had denied his testimony to the Book of Mormon, but there is no direct evidence of this, and Cowdery may even have repeated his testimony while estranged from the church.

One account states that in March 1838, Martin Harris publicly denied that either he or the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had literally seen the golden plates — although, of course, he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them.

Later that year, Cowdery reported sharing a vision, along with Smith and David Whitmer, in which an angel showed him the golden plates.

After some discussion by the leadership of the Church, LDS apostle Orson Hyde went to the Ohio legislature to request a bank charter while Oliver Cowdery went to Philadelphia and acquired plates to print notes for the proposed Kirtland Safety Society bank.

The loss temporarily halted the translation of the plates, and when Smith began again, he used other scribes, primarily Oliver Cowdery.

From April 7 to June 1829, Cowdery acted as Smith's primary scribe for the translation of the plates into what would later become the Book of Mormon.

When the Church created a bank known as the Kirtland Safety Society in 1837, Cowdery obtained the money-printing plates.