This week’s Come Follow Me lesson is about Oliver Cowdery. I was surprised to learn that my husband’s third cousin five times removed married into the Cowdery family. My husband’s fourth great grandmother, Anna Nash, was born in Butternuts, Otsego, New York, 16 years before her second cousin, Aaron Nash Jackson, had a son named Daniel Jackson, also born in Butternuts. Daniel would grow up to marry Phebe Cowdery, Oliver Cowdery’s half sister, in Kirtland, Ohio.

Here’s the relationship between my husband’s grandmother, Ada Gifford, and Daniel Smith Jackson, who married Oliver Cowdery’s sister, Phebe Cowdery:

Oliver Cowdery

Oliver Cowdery was a schoolteacher lodging in the home of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. They told Oliver about Joseph’s work in translating ancient gold plates, and he was interested in learning more. He went to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Joseph and Emma were living, and became Joseph’s scribe.[1] Several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants are revelations directed at him, including D&C 6, 8, and 9. He was later excommunicated after disagreements with church leaders of management of financial affairs in 1838, but was readmitted in 1848 at Kanesville (later Council bluffs), Pottawattamie County, Iowa.[2]

Oliver’s health declined and although he wanted to travel to Utah, he died in 1850 before he could.[3] Oliver has no living descendants. He married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, and they had six children, but only Maria Louise Cowdery lived past childhood. Elizabeth and Maria died in 1892 and were buried together.[4]

Phebe Lawrence Cowdery

Oliver Cowdery had several siblings. His parents were William Cowdery and Rebecca Fuller.[5] After Rebecca died in 1809, William married Keziah Pierce, and they had three more children, including Phebe Lawrence Cowdery, born 1817.[6] Phebe married Daniel Smith Jackson on 15 December 1836 in Kirtland, Geuga County, Ohio.[7] Daniel is the second cousin once removed of my husband’s ancestor, Anna (Nash) Gifford).

Interesting note on Kirtland, Ohio – when Daniel married Phebe there, it was part of Geuga County. Kirtland was originally part of Trumbull County, then Geauga County. In the late 1840s, Kirtland was in the newly formed Lake County.[8]

Daniel Smith Jackson was born in Butternuts, Otsego, Vermont.[9] He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1836. He received a patriarchal blessing there from Joseph Smith Sr. in 1836 and was also ordained a Seventy.[10] This all probably occurred before he married Phebe Cowdery on December 15, 1836, but more research could reveal that information. It’s unclear when Phebe joined the church, but it was probably a result of her brother Oliver Cowdery’s leadership position in the church. Oliver probably shared his new beliefs with his family.

Daniel Smith Jackson’s conversion to the church in 1836 may have been a result of his 2nd cousin, Anna (Nash) Gifford. Anna’s husband Alpheus Gifford was a missionary and may have taught Daniel and other relatives of Anna’s in Butternuts, where he and Anna had been married in 1817.[11]

Phebe (Cowdery) Jackson must have respected her brother Oliver Cowdery, because she named her first son after him: Oliver Cowdery Jackson, who was born in January of 1846. Daniel and Phebe (Cowdery) Jackson moved with the Saints to Nauvoo where they were sealed in the Nauvoo temple on 4 February 1846.[12] Instead of going with the Saints to Utah, they migrated to Sacramento, California.[13]

Anna (Nash) Gifford

The common ancestor of my husband and Daniel Jackson Smith is Abraham Nash and Rhoda Keeler. This couple had a daughter named Rhoda Nash. She married Azor Nash, her first cousin. They named one of their sons Azor Nash Jr., who married Lucy Shaw and they were the parents of Anna Nash, born 17 February 1800 in Butternuts, Otsego County, New York.[14]

Anna Nash married Alpheus Gifford on 27 April 1817 in Butternuts.[15] Alpheus was a methodist minister who began preaching at age 18; yet in 1831, he heard missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized.[16] Anna Nash was probably also baptized about this time.

When the Saints were being driven from county to county from Missouri to Illinois, they camped in a place with many snakes. Anna took her clothes and went to wash them down by the stream. She set her baby down while she washed. Several snakes came out of their holes and Anna had to kill them. She got tired of killing the snakes and prayed, promising never to kill a snake if he would promise that the snakes would never harm her family. From then on, she never killed a snake and her family was not harmed by them. Several years later, she saw her children sleeping and a huge snake was lying between two of her children. She was terrified, but remembered her promise, and without waking her children, shook her finger at the snake and whispered to the snake to get away. The snake left the room.[17] This story comes from an interesting authored source which compiles details from the author’s memory with other biographies of relevant individuals:

Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

Alpheus died 25 December 1841, and Anna Nash Gifford decided to go with the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley with her son Samuel Kendall Gifford.[18] Anna Nash Gifford died 5 September 1879 at age 79.[19]

Future Research

• Determine when Anna (Nash) Gifford was baptized (probably in 1831 when her husband was)
• Learn whether it was possible that Anna Nash knew her 2nd cousin, Daniel Smith Jackson, while living in Butternuts, Otsego, New York; it seems likely since Anna was born in Butternuts in 1800 and married there in 1817. Daniel, her second cousin, was born in Butternuts in 1816.
• Determine when Phebe Lawrence Cowdery was baptized. She was in Kirtland in 1836 where she met and married Daniel Smith Jackson; who was baptized in 1836
• Discover the date of Daniel’s baptism in 1836 – if it was before or after his marriage to Phebe Cowdery
• Discover the migration of Phebe Lawrence Cowdery from her early days to Kirtland, Ohio, then on to Sacramento, California
• Learn how Daniel and Phebe migrated west; and whether they started out with a wagon train headed to Utah when they moved to Sacramento

 

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Notes

[1] “Cowdery, Oliver,” The Joseph Smith Papers (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/oliver-cowdery : accessed 9 February 2025).

[2] “Oliver Cowdery,” Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/oliver-cowdery : accessed 9 February 2025).

[3] “Oliver Cowdery,” Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/oliver-cowdery : accessed 9 February 2025).

[4] “Oliver Cowdery,” Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/oliver-cowdery : accessed 9 February 2025).

[5] “Cowdery, Oliver,” The Joseph Smith Papers (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/oliver-cowdery : accessed 9 February 2025).

[6] William Cowdery Jr., ID LZT8-3D7, FamilySearch Family Tree (https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LZT8-3D7 : accessed 9 February 2025). See also

“Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/20397 : accessed 9 February 2025), Phebe L. Jackson.

[7] “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDPL-J78 : accessed 9 February 2025), Daniel S. Jackson and Phebe L. Cowdery, 1836.

[8] “History of the City of Kirtland,” The City of Kirtland (https://kirtlandohio.com/community-information/organizations/history-of-the-city-of-kirtland/ : accessed 9 February 2025).

[9] “Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/48392 : accessed 9 February 2025), Daniel S. Jackson.

[10] “Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/48392 : accessed 9 February 2025), Daniel S. Jackson.

[11] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[12] “Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/48392 : accessed 9 February 2025), Daniel S. Jackson.

[13] “Family History by Hiram Fisher Part 1,” attached to Daniel Smith Jackson, ID LCX7-R4H, FamilySearch Memories (https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/204473911 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[14] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[15] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025). See also Anna Nash, ID KWJY-6HW, FamilySearch Family Tree (https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/KWJY-6HW : accessed 9 February 2025).

[16] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[17] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[18] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).

[19] Annie I. Matheson, “A Story of Anna Nash Gifford: My Great-Great-Grandmother,” memory added by Rich Utley, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/10343531 : accessed 9 February 2025).