Historical Analysis of Period Documents

This page indexes the revelations, people, and places named across the site’s 1829–1834 record. We link out to primary sources rather than re-hosting them.

Every claim on this site traces back to a small set of manuscripts, minutes, and revelations, most of them held at the Church History Library and published online by the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Rather than duplicating those documents here, this page indexes where each one sits — which of this site’s own pages discusses it, and where the primary source itself can be read in full.

Revelations, 1829–1834

Sections are listed by the date this site uses in its own Chronology, which occasionally differs from the Joseph Smith Papers’ dating — see the note on The Plat regarding D&C 94 for one example.

Date Designation Subject On this site
Feb 1829 D&C 4 Revelation for Joseph Smith Sr. Chronology
Mar 1829 D&C 5 Promise of three witnesses to Martin Harris Chronology
Apr 1829 D&C 6–9 Revelations on translation and scribing Chronology
Jun 1829 D&C 17 Promise to the Three Witnesses Chronology
Jun 1829 D&C 18 Command to search out the Twelve Formation & Reorganization
Apr 1830 D&C 20 Articles and Covenants Formation & Reorganization
Jan 1831 D&C 38 “There I will give unto you my law” The Law
Feb 9, 1831 D&C 42 The Law of the Church of Christ The Law
May 4–6, 1833* D&C 94 House for the presidency The House
Jun 1, 1833 D&C 95 Manner of building the house The House
Apr–Jun 1833 Plat of the City of Zion The Plat, Organizational Structure
May 3, 1834 Minutes Vote to change the church’s name Name Change, 1834
Apr 26, 1838 D&C 115 Second name change (beyond this site’s 1829–1834 record) Name Change, 1834

*The Joseph Smith Papers dates D&C 94 to August 2, 1833; this site uses the earlier date per its own source documents. See The Plat and The House for that discrepancy.

People

Witnesses, officers, and other individuals named in the site’s 1829–1834 record.

Name Role in the record
Joseph Smith Jr. Translator of the Book of Mormon; recipient of the revelations indexed above; First Elder from April 1830; church president from March 1832.
Oliver Cowdery Scribe for the Book of Mormon translation; one of the Three Witnesses; Second Elder from April 1830.
David Whitmer One of the Three Witnesses; host family member at Fayette.
Martin Harris One of the Three Witnesses; mortgaged his farm to finance the Book of Mormon’s printing.
Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., John Whitmer Four of the Eight Witnesses; sons of Peter Whitmer Sr., at whose Fayette farm the church was organized. John Whitmer served as the church’s first appointed historian and later annotated the Plat.
Hiram Page One of the Eight Witnesses; married into the Whitmer family.
Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, Samuel H. Smith Three of the Eight Witnesses; father and brothers of Joseph Smith Jr.
Sidney Rigdon Campbellite preacher baptized November 1830; brought a body of converts already organized around common-stock living; named church spokesman within weeks; counselor in the First Presidency from 1832; proposed the 1834 name change.
Edward Partridge The church’s first bishop, appointed 1831 under the Law to receive consecrated properties and assign stewardships.
Frederick G. Williams Scribe who recorded the Law, the Plat, and the House plan; called to the First Presidency in March 1833; reported the shared vision behind the Kirtland Temple’s design that June.
Jesse Gause Original counselor in the First Presidency, organized March 1832; excommunicated by December 1832.
Newel K. Whitney Seconded Sidney Rigdon’s 1834 motion to change the church’s name.
Symonds Ryder Recorded the manuscript copy of the Law in May 1831.
Isaac Morley Owned the Kirtland-area farm where Sidney Rigdon organized a pre-conversion communal “family” under common-stock arrangement.
Leman Copley Party to a Geauga County, Ohio court matter, 1831–32, connected to the Law’s consecration provisions.

Places

Place Significance in the record
Harmony, Pennsylvania Site of the Book of Mormon translation, 1829, and the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood restorations near the Susquehanna River.
Manchester, New York Home of the Smith family; where Oliver Cowdery first learned of the plates.
Fayette, New York (Peter Whitmer Sr. farm) Site of the Three and Eight Witnesses’ experiences, the church’s April 1830 legal organization, and its first conference that June.
Palmyra, New York Site of the Grandin print shop, where the Book of Mormon was printed and first sold.
Kirtland, Ohio Site of the February 1831 Law, the 1832 First Presidency, the 1833 vision behind the Kirtland Temple, the 1834 High Council and name-change vote, and the Kirtland Temple itself.
Independence, Jackson County, Missouri Designated the Saints’ gathering place in 1831; destination of the 1833 Plat; site of the press’s destruction that August.

Where the Primary Sources Live

The great majority of manuscripts this site discusses — revelations, minutes, letters, and the Plat and House drawings themselves — are held at the Church History Library and published in full, with historical introductions and high-resolution images, by the Joseph Smith Papers Project ↗. Where this site quotes a manuscript directly, it does so briefly and links to the full document there rather than reproducing it at length. The 1835 compiled Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams & Co.) is cited separately where its wording differs from the earlier manuscripts, most notably on The Law.