Matthias Foss Cowley (August 25, 1858 – June 16, 1940) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1897 until 1905. He resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve due to his unwillingness to support the church's abolition of plural marriage. He and John W. Taylor are the most recent apostles of the LDS Church to have resigned from their positions.
Calling to the Twelve
Cowley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He was ordained an apostle on October 7, 1897, because his presence in the hierarchy undermined the church's position in the Reed Smoot hearings. Cowley was notorious for having performed marriages that contravened the church's 1890 Manifesto, which prohibited the contracting of new plural marriages. Apostle John W. Taylor also resigned at that time for the same reason. With the death of apostle Marriner W. Merrill in early February of the next year, there were three vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve. At the April 1906 general conference, the resignations of Cowley and Taylor were presented to and accepted by the general church membership. He was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Honors and children
The town of Cowley, Wyoming, is named after Cowley. He was the father of LDS Church apostle Matthew Cowley by his wife, Abbie Hyde. His son, Samuel P. Cowley, by his wife, Luella Parkinson, was an FBI agent best known for his death at the hands of Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis in 1934.
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