Hiram Page
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| Hiram Page | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1800 Vermont, United States |
| Died | August 12, 1852 Excelsior Springs, Missouri, United States |
| Resting place | Hamers Farm Cemetery 39°21′22″N 94°10′35″W / 39.356045°N 94.176267°W |
| Known For | One of the Eight Witnesses |
| Spouse | Catherine Whitmer |
| Children | 9 |
| Parents | Peter Whitmer, Sr. Mary Musselman |
Hiram Page (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 on April 11, 1830, by Oliver Cowdery. On June 9, he was ordained a teacher in the church, one of the first twelve officers.[2]
While Page was living with the Whitmers in Fayette, New York, Joseph Smith, Jr. arrived in August 1830 to discover Hiram 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. Oliver Cowdery and the Whitmer family (and probably others) believed the revelations Page had received were true. In response, Joseph Smith received a revelation during the conference in September of that year to have Oliver Cowdery go to Hiram 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. Hiram agreed to discard the stone and the revelations he received and join in following Joseph 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 (486,000 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 he 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 of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1838. He later bought a farm in Excelsior Springs, back in Clay County.
William E. M'Lellin baptized Hiram Page, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Jacob Whitmer on September 6, 1847 into his newly formed Church of Christ. William ordained Hiram a high priest in the church. Hiram participated in the subsequent ordinations of the others.
He died on his farm in Excelsior Springs, Missouri on August 12, 1852, still affirming his testimony of the Book of Mormon. His death was caused when his wagon over turned, crushing him underneath.
A commemorative marker was placed April 27, 2002, on the rediscovered Hiram Page grave, near Excelsior Springs, Missouri.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Testimony of Eight Witnesses, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed May 1, 2012)
- ^ Minutes of 9 June 1830 meeting, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed May 1, 2012)
- ^ http://ray.mogenweb.org/markers/page/page.htm
- Jenson, Andrew (1901). Latter-day Saint biographical encyclopedia: A compilation of biographical sketches of prominent men and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 1. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Andrew Jenson History Company (Printed by The Deseret News Press). pp. 277–278.
[edit] External links
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- 1800 births
- 1852 deaths
- American Latter Day Saints
- American physicians
- Book of Mormon witnesses
- Road accident deaths in Missouri
- Leaders in various Latter Day Saint denominations
- People from Fayette, New York
- People from Vermont
- Converts to Mormonism
- People excommunicated by the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
- Whitmer family
- Doctrine and Covenants people
