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http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/1829- ... -jennings/

For the most part, once in life time does a historian, scholar or researcher come across a document that can either change or bring about extraordinary light on a historical event.

I have been lucky enough to meet some of these historians and get to call them friend. (Mike Marquardt, Mike Quinn and Will Bagley come to mind the quickest)

Today you all get to share in an amazing discovery by my friend Erin Jennings. Mike Marquardt says she is the best researcher on Mormonism who is a live today!

Please give Erin your enthusiastic congratulations.

Very interesting Joe. It appears that we now have one more version of the 3 witnesses story to add into the mix.

cool, thanks for posting.

Fascinating! Thanks for posting this Joe.

Here's a link to Uncle Dale's site where he gives more information on this:
http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY ... htm#022030

In the notes below it, UD states:

Note 2: It is an unfortunate turn of historical events, that Oliver Cowdery's 1829 letter to Dr. Blatchly appears to have been lost or discarded, after only one printing in a very obscure periodical: The Investigator.

I'm sure he is thrilled about this find!

lulu wrote:Congratulation to Erin Jennings and thanks to Joe for linking.

This is the printing of a pre-BoM publication letter dated Nov. 9, 1829 from Oliver Cowdery to one Cornelius C. Blatchly who had written requesting information.

Did Blatchly raise the issue of "juggling?" Oliver responds that way.

I am glad people are enjoying Erin's re-discovery of the letter and newspaper article.

Mike Marquardt has reconstructed the Cowdery letter, if anyone is interested, p.m. me and I will send it to you. (He did this from the Blatchly letter) Mike told me that he believes Blatchly published the complete letter of Cowdrey. His reconstruction seems to bear this out.

Unfortunately, at this point we do no have Blatchly's original letter, but I would agree with you, it seems he asked Cowdery about juggling in the original letter. My understanding is that Smith's scrying was quite well known by 1829. I am not sure if Blatchly is using juggling in this sense or not, but to me, it sounds like this is his intent, i.e. (to alter or manipulate in order to deceive, as by subterfuge or trickery).

One of the things that I find interesting in the letter is how Cowdery has become spokesperson. I am convinced the others saw Harris as a loose cannon and wanted to keep him quite as much as possible. All one has to do is read the Canadian Copyright revelation to see how Smith wanted Harris out of the picture. The problem is, he needed Harris' money.

That's cool, and very helpful for my research into accusations of religious charlatanism.

It is also interesting in the context of Uncle Dale's recent post of the 1847 letter of Cowdery to Whitmer, in which Cowdery claimed that, contrary to current understanding, he and Whitmer were the only ones who held the keys. I would guess that this has something to do with their understanding of the meaning of their role as Book of Mormon witnesses. When you add Joseph Smith and all of the witnesses together, how many do you get in total? It is interesting that the three who have the angelic witness correspond in number to Peter, James, and John, eh?

So here we see Cowdery acting in his capacity of special witness to the plates through angelic ministration.

Dan Vogel just pointed out to me that this may be the only record we have of Cowdery saying he saw the plates and an angel.

My head is just spinning at how big this letter re-discovery is by Erin. This is huge.

Just think about this, how often do we find anything pre-BOM publication? And to find a letter by Cowdery, the second Elder, of all people. I am like a kid in a candy store and given free rein.

This is an exciting find, I agree. (Assuming Mark Hofmann has not hacked into the digital archives of American Antiquarian periodical.)

"Juggling" in this context means sleight-of-hand. (E.g., the classic "shell game.") Joseph Smith had a reputation as a juggler, and Dan Vogel has suggested that "juggling" was involved in the episode with the "feather" that he and some other money-diggers "discovered" several feet underground. Since the feather would have quickly decomposed if it had really been buried down there, it must have been planted by Joseph after the hole was dug.