Glendale, Calif. Feb. 15, 1933
My dear friend [James Henry] Moyle:
. . . Referring to David Whitmer: I visited him in 1889 [1886?]. I went down to Richmond, Mo. as a representative of the Omaha Herald. Doctor Miller, Editor and co-owner of this leading daily newspaper, had always taken an interest in the Mormon question and had read a press despatch which stated that Mr. Whitmer was seriously ill, and that he was "The last surviving witness of the Book of Mormon." My office was next to Doctor Miller's, and he showed me the item mentioned and suggested that I was the right man to secure an interview with Whitmer for the Herald — he believed it would be a splendid thing for the reading public.
I went down to Richmond with the necessary credentials, and after some effort, met Mr. Whitmer, and got an interview which appeared in the Herald, later, occupying the entire front page of the paper. Doctor Miller also published, in the same issue, an editorial in which he paid me some compliments.
Mr. Whitmer, when he was assured that I would print only the thing he approved (he told me some things not for publication) gave me a complete history of his connection with the Church and of his seeing the angel and handling the plates etc. He never hinted even that he had been deceived nor that his mind had undergone any change respecting the divine origin of Joseph Smith's mission. He did say, however, that the prophet gradually began to receive revelations upon any trivial matters as were brought to his attention. In other words he (Whitmer) thought that the prophet had slipped in a way. This I did not publish. My own deduction was that Whitmer had, perhaps, slipped himself a little.
He insisted that polygamy had been introduced by Brigham Young and that Joseph Smith had nothing to do with it.
I very much regret that I have no copy of the Herald left. The last copy was loaned to a friend who lost it.
Before I left Omaha to return to Salt Lake in 1890, David Whitmer, through his secretary, wrote me a request that I undertake the writing of his life's history for publication in book form. I was obliged to decline the request, because I was too busy at the time. He had been pleased with the way I wrote the interview. He had had some disappointing interviews with newspaper reporters and had, for some years, refused to be interviewed. My own impression was that he was absolutely honest and sincere in his statements. And I was left to wonder whether he had drifted away from his convictions or whether he had concluded that his wonderful seance with the angel, etc. was an illusion. This question was kept in my mind when he explained (confidentially) that he was in the temple, in Kirtland, and heard no heavenly singing at the dedication, while it had been given out publicly that such demonstration had actually taken place.
Another point. He showed me the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon — in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery, Jacob Whitmer and Lucy Smith. When my interview appeared in the leading newspapers of the country President Joseph F. Smith denied that the Whitmer manuscript was the original, and that they had the original in the archives of the Temple at Salt Lake . . . .
Gratefully yours, D. C. Dunbar
1172 Almeda Ave., Glendale.
Editorial note. Bracketed insertions ("[James Henry]", "[1886?]") and the ellipses at the opening and closing of the letter are Cook 1991's; Cook is excerpting from the body of Dunbar's longer 1933 letter to Moyle. Dunbar's "I visited him in 1889" is corrected by Cook to "[1886?]" on internal-evidence grounds (Whitmer died 25 Jan 1888, so an 1889 visit is impossible; the 1886 Omaha Herald front-page interview parallels this account closely, and Cook treats #59 and #60 as public + private versions of one visit).