M&AThe Messenger and Advocate was published in Kirtland from 1834 37. Designed as "a paper disseminating the doctrines believed by [the church], and advocating its character and rights," it was the key periodical for the latter half of the Ohio period. Perhaps the most important element of the Messenger was a series of letters written by Oliver Cowdery that constitute the first printed attempt to narrate the origins of Mormonism. In the relative absence