John Taylor: Smith ordained Whitmer as his successor in July 1834, in the event of SMITH's own death or apostasy. The Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery , Whitmer, and Martin Harris chose and ordained the first members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. Although Whitmer presided over the LDS church in Missouri, he never functioned in the general authority role of presiding over the entire church. David Whitmer was excommunicated on 13 Apr. 1838, and never rejoined the LDS church, even though he took frequent opportunities to reaffirm publicly his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He was president of a "Church of Christ" in 1847-48, and renewed that organization in 1876.
[Source: Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
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ReplyDeleteAn interesting bit of triva:
ReplyDeleteThe following is recorded in Volume 1 of "A History of The Church of Jesus Christ" (HQ: Monongahela, Pennsylvania), ed. by W.H. Cadman (published 1945), pp.87-88:
"He [William Cadman, A member of the Quorum of 12 Apostles and President of The Church of Jesus Christ, and father of W.H. Cadman] also spent part of 1886 and 1887 in Kansas, returning east in November of 1887; ... . While on his return trip east, he stopped in Richmond, MO. where he had a short visit with David Whitmer, one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon."
Unfortunately, no more information is known or recorded of what transpired at this meeting, which occurred about 2 months before David Whitmer died (Jan.25, 1888).