In 1847, William E. McLellin, who led a congregation of Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, remembered that Joseph Smith, the movement's deceased founder, had designated David Whitmer as his successor.
Whitmer agreed and gathered others to his cause, including fellow Book of Mormon witnesses Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Hiram Page and John Whitmer.
Whitmer, however, never joined the main body of his followers in Kirtland and the church dissolved.
In 1887 he published his "An Address to All Believers in Christ" which promoted his church and affirmed his testimony of the Book of Mormon.
The church published a periodical called The Return beginning in 1889, which became known as The Messenger of Truth in 1900.