[Oliver Cowdery writes the first of eight letters to W. W. Phelps regarding the history of the church. These letters will be published in October 1834 in the Messenger and Advocate.] Smith's statement that he "learned from the first No. of the Messenger and Advocate" of Cowdery's plan to publish a history of the church would seem to indicate that Smith was not directly consulted about the facts of the first letter. Or perhaps Smith was unaware how far Cowdery wanted to go with his account.
The publication of Cowdery's history was concurrent with Philastus Hurlbut's anti-Mormon lectures in Kirtland, Ohio, and subsequent publication of E. D. Howe's Mormonism Unvailed...
"... Near the time of the setting of the Sun, Sabbath evening, April 5th, 1829, my natural eyes, for the first time beheld this brother. He then resided in Harmony, Susquehanna county Penn. On Monday the 6th, I assisted him in arranging some business of a temporal nature, and on Tuesday the 7th, commenced to write the book of Mormon. These were days never to be forgotten--to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites whould [would] have said, "Interpreters," the history, or record, called "The book of Mormon."
...On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the vail was parted and the angel of God came down clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the gospel of repentance!... when we received under his hand the holy priesthood, as he said, "upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer this priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that the sons of Levi may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!"
[Source: Oliver Cowdery to W. W. Phelps, 7 September 1834, [Letter I], Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1 (October 1834): 13-16., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Oliver Cowdery To W. W. Phelps]
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