and acted as one of Joseph Smith's scribes during the final steps of the Book of Mormon translation. Leader of the church in Missouri Later in 1831, Whitmer joined the growing number of Latter Day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. Here, he married Sarah Maria Jackson on February 10, 1833. Local opposition to Mormon settlement in the county resulted in the expulsion of most of the Latter Day Saints by November 1833. Whitmer, along with many of the others, took refugee in neighboring Clay County. At a July 3, 1834 conference of the church, Whitmer's brother David was called to be the president of the church in Missouri. John Whitmer was called as his brother's second counselor, and W. W. Phelps was called as his first. When David returned to Kirtland, John Whitmer and Phelps were left to preside in his absence. Whitmer wrote several petitions to Missouri's governor, Daniel Dunklin, asking that the Latter Day Saints be allowed to return to their lands in Jackson County. He also edited the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate from 1835 to 1836 in his capacity as a member of the church presidency. Whitmer and Phelps worked with sympathetic non-Mormon residents in Clay County, such as Alexander Doniphan, to purchase land northeast of Clay. The land became Caldwell County, a new county set aside for Mormon settlement. Together with Phelps, Whitmer founded the town of Far West. He remained a member of the church presidency until his excommunication in 1838. Whitmer's excommunication Problems at church headquarters in Kirtland relating to the Kirtland Safety Society bank caused Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon to relocate to Far West in early 1838. A brief leadership struggle ensued, which led to the excommunication of the entire Whitmer family, as well as Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, and others on March 10, 1838. Upon his excommunication, John Whitmer refused to give the church the documents and records he had worked on as Church Historian. Whitmer was accused of "persisting in unchristianlike conduct," particularly in his financial dealings; he allegedly allotted $2,000 worth of the church's money for his own personal use. He had, along with David Whitmer and W. W. Phelps, purchased deeds to land in Far West under his own name instead of the church's. Whitmer continued to live in Far West for a time and became known as one of the "dissenters". Sidney Rigdon, in