Matthias Foss Cowley (1858–1940), born in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1897 until 1905. He was the father of Apostle Matthew Cowley by Abbie Hyde. The town of Cowley in Wyoming is named after him.
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Calling to the Twelve
Matthias Cowley was called in 1897 to replace Moses Thatcher who was removed from the Quorum at the April 1896 General Conference. Cowley was ordained October 7, 1897. Cowley was widely noted in the chuch for his talks on doctrine. Cowley resigned from the Quorum, at the request of church president Joseph F. Smith, on October 28, 1905 because his presence in the hierarchy undermined the church's position in the crucial Reed Smoot senate hearings. Cowley was notorious for having widely performed marriages contravening the church's manifesto prohibiting new plural marriage. Earlier in April of the same year, Apostle John W. Taylor had resigned for the same reason. Apostle Marriner W. Merrill died in early February of the next year, leaving three vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve. In the April General Conference of 1906, three new apostles were called to replace them: George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, and David O. McKay.
After the Quorum
Reports of Cowley's continuing involvement in new plural marriages led to his priesthood being suspended by the church on May 11, 1911. (This rare and virtually unique disciplinary procedure was used for Cowley because his former fellow apostles in the Quorum of Twelve disagreed over whether to leave him undisciplined or to disfellowship or even excommunicate him.) However, Cowley's name continued to be linked with plural marriage over the next several years. As late as the early 1920s, Cowley was meeting with excommunicated polygamists, the early Mormon fundamentalists beginning to coalesce at the Baldwin Radio Plant in Salt Lake City. But in the mid-1920s, Cowley broke all ties with the polygamous dissenters. His priesthood standing in the LDS Church was restored nearly twenty-five years after it had been taken - on April 3, 1936. Cowley was never restored to his position in the Quorum of Twelve. On June 16, 1940, he died in his home in Salt Lake City, Utah. On Oct 11, 1945, his son, Matthew Cowley was called to serve as an Apostle for the church.
Published works
- Cowley, Matthias F. (1902). The blood of the prophets: Biographical sketches. Ben E. Rich. ISBN B0008AAV74.
- --- (1904). Cowley's talks on doctrine. Ben E. Rich. ISBN B0008BBDPM.
- --- (1963). Cowley & Whitney on doctrine. Bookcraft. ISBN B0007HSATO.
- --- (2003 [1902]). Prophets and Patriarchs of the Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-Day Saints. New Library Press.Net (B.E. Rich). ISBN 0-7950-4680-4 [B00085Y2FG].
- --- (2003 [1964]). Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals. New Library Press.Net (Bookcraft Pubs). ISBN 0-7950-4593-X [0884941140].
External resources
| Preceded by Abraham H. Cannon |
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles October 7, 1897–October 28, 1905 |
Succeeded by Abraham O. Woodruff |
