Hiram Page

Hiram Page
Personal details
Born c. 1800
Vermont, United States
Died August 12, 1852
Excelsior Springs, Missouri, United States
Resting place Hamers Farm
39°21′22″N 94°10′35″W / 39.356045°N 94.176267°W / 39.356045; -94.176267 (Hiram Page's Grave)
Known For One of the Eight Witnesses
Spouse(s) Catherine Whitmer
Children 9

Hiram Page (c. 1800–August 12, 1852) was an early member of the Latter-day Saint movement and one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates.

Page was born in Vermont. Earlier in his life, he studied medicine which he practiced during his travels throughout New York and Canada. On November 10, 1825, Page married Catherine Whitmer, daughter of Peter Whitmer, Sr. and Mary Musselman. The two had nine children together: John, Elizabeth, Philander, Mary, Peter, Nancy, Hiram, Oliver, and Kate.

Page became one of the Eight Witnesses during June 1829.[1] He and Catherine were baptized into in the Church of Christ (later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)[2][3] on April 11, 1830, by Oliver Cowdery. On June 9, he was ordained a teacher in the church, one of the church's first twelve officers.[4]

While Page was living with the Whitmers in Fayette, New York, Smith arrived in August 1830 to discover Page using a "seerstone" to receive revelations for the church. The only available detail about the stone was that it was black. The revelations were regarding the organization and location of Zion. Cowdery and the Whitmer family believed the revelations Page had received were true. In response, Joseph Smith, the first president of the church, received a revelation during the conference in September of that year to have Cowdery go to Page and convince him that his revelations were of the devil (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 28:11). At the conference there was considerable discussion on the topic. Page agreed to discard the stone and the revelations he received and join in following Smith as the sole revelator for the church. The members present confirmed this unanimously with a vote. Later, the stone was ground to powder and the revelations purportedly received through it were burned.

In January 1831, Page accompanied Lucy Mack Smith and a company of saints from Waterloo, New York, to Buffalo on the Erie Canal, on their way to Fairport and Kirtland, Ohio. In May 1831, Page moved his family to Thompson, Ohio, under Lucy Mack Smith's direction. He again moved his family to Jackson County, Missouri, in 1832 and joined the Latter Day Saints gathering there. With the other Whitmers, they formed a cluster of ten or twelve homes called the "Whitmer Settlement". Hiram owned 120 acres (490,000 m2) of land in the area.

During the growing anti-Mormon hostilities in Jackson County, Page was severely beaten by a group of non-Mormon vigilantes on October 31, 1833. On July 31 and August 6, 1834, he testified to the facts of the beatings. By 1834, Page and his family were expelled along with the other Latter Day Saints, and lived for a time in neighboring Clay County, before moving to Far West.

Page and other members of the Whitmer family were excommunicated from the church in 1838. He later bought a farm in Excelsior Springs, back in Clay County.

On September 6, 1847, William E. McLellin baptized Page, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Jacob Whitmer into his newly formed Church of Christ (Whitmerite). McLellin ordained Page a high priest in the church. Page participated in the subsequent ordinations of the others.

Page died on his farm in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, still affirming his testimony of the Book of Mormon. His death was caused when his wagon overturned, crushing him underneath.

For almost 150 years, the final resting place of Page was unknown.[5] However, in 2000, it was located near Excelsior Springs, on property purchased by Charles and Molly Fulkerson in 1917.[5] Page's burial location was the last of the 11 Book of Mormon witnesses to be identified.[5] A commemorative marker was placed on Page's grave on April 27, 2002.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Testimony of Eight Witnesses, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed May 1, 2012)
  2. ↑ Manuscript History of the Church, LDS Church Archives, book A-1, p. 37; reproduced in Dean C. Jessee (comp.) (1989). The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) 1:302–303.
  3. ↑ H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 160.
  4. ↑ Minutes of 9 June 1830 meeting, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed May 1, 2012)
  5. 1 2 3 Shull, Sharon (6 January 2001). "Hiram Page's grave identified". Deseret News. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  6. ↑ "Ray County Genealogy: A Missouri GenWeb Project: Historical Markers: Hiram Page". Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
General

Hiram Page at Find a Grave

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