Oliver Cowdery began as scribe to Joseph Smith on April 7, 1829, and continued until the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed. Except for the pages written by the Prophet's wife, Emma, and by Martin Harris and John Whitmer, Cowdery was the scribe for the record.
The Prophet and Cowdery met through Joseph's family. Cowdery was a 22-year-old schoolmaster when one of Joseph's brothers, Samuel, brought him to the Smith home in Manchester, near Palmyra, N.Y., to board. During this period the Prophet was living in Harmony, Pa.The Smith family told Oliver of the plates Joseph had received and was in the process of translating. The schoolmaster was impressed by what he heard. When Samuel announced he was going to visit Joseph in Harmony, Cowdery went with him.
Before Cowdery arrived in Harmony, the Prophet's wife, Emma, had tried to serve as his scribe. The Prophet's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, recorded the following:
"Joseph had been so hurried with his secular affairs that he could not proceed with his spiritual concerns so fast as was necessary for the speedy completion of the work; there was also another disadvantage under which he labored, his wife had so much of her time taken up with the care of her house, that she could write for him but a small portion of the time. . . . Joseph called upon the Lord, three days prior to the arrival of Samuel and Oliver, to send him a scribe, according to the promise of the angel; and he was informed that the same should be forthcoming in a few days. Accordingly, when Mr. Cowdery told him the business that he had come upon, Joseph was not at all surprised." From April 7 through May, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery labored on the translation with few interruptions.
During that time, seven revelations were given through the Prophet, three of which were directed to Oliver Cowdery: Sections 6, 8, and 9.
In Joseph Smith and the Restoration - A History of the LDS Church to 1846, Ivan J. Barrett wrote: "Shortly after Oliver commenced writing for the Prophet, he, having received a witness of the divine nature of the work, desired further spiritual assurance. In one revelation to him the Lord commended Oliver for his willigness to serve and reminded him of the night when he had cried in his heart that he might know the truth and the Lord had spoken peace to his mind.
" `What greater witness can you have than from God?' he was asked. `You have received a witness for I have told you things which no man knoweth.' (D&C 6:24.) Later on in the work, Oliver Cowdery desired to be endowed with the gift of translation. The Lord responded and granted him the gift, but Oliver failed in his attempt to translate the Nephite record. Then the Lord admonished him to be patient and to be content to write for the time being rather than attempt to translate further."
Of his experince of serving as the Prophet's scribe, Oliver Cowdery once wrote: "These days were never to be forgotten - to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom. Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said `interpreters,' the history, or record, called `The Book of Mormon.' "