Martius D. Cowdery (1819-1898) was born in Le Roy, New York, and died in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He attended the Western Reserve Teachers Seminary in Kirtland, Ohio, studying Latin and Greek. Cowdery married Caroline B. Craig in 1850, and they lived in Sandusky, Ohio, where he owned a hardware store. In 1865, he sold the store due to ill health, and they moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where he purchased and worked a farm until Caroline passed away in 1881. In 1886, he married Vesta L. Lawrence and they remained on the farm until his death. Cowdery purchased a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1886.

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