Why the Saints Came to Kirtland

To understand members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you need to know that we believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost. We believe in angels and revelation and manifestations of all kinds. It’s understandable that the reality of many of the recorded events that happened in Kirtland are only believable to those who believe.

The historical accounts and recorded spiritual manifestations that occurred in the Kirtland area make it one of the most significant and sacred places in all the world for Latter-day Saints. In this post I would like to share with you a little history of Kirtland and what brought the Saints here. 

Kirtland is located 23 miles northeast of Cleveland, Ohio and 6 miles inland from Lake Erie. (Click on the map at the bottom for more detail)

The story of Kirtland is the story of a people seeking a better life. I invite you to learn about its people, how Kirtland came to be, and what happened here that makes it such a sacred place.

Let’s start with a brief history of Kirtland’s beginnings.

This section of northern Ohio was known as Connecticut’s Western Reserve, an area of four million acres given to the colony of Connecticut by King Charles ll during the early colonial period. Following the American Revolution, as early as 1798, Turhand Kirtland began surveying the area and received as payment for his work, a portion of Township 9. By the fall of 1799 he was selling off small parcels of land to new settlers in the area that became known as Kirtland Township.

The eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815, (a mountain 14,100 feet high before the eruption and 9,354 feet high after – see picture below), the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, put so much ash into the atmosphere that it caused crop failures for the next two years driving many people in the north eastern United States to seek better conditions on the Western Reserve. Many of the settlers who came there were New Englanders, who brought with them their religious and education values. Several of these settlers later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By 1818, with agriculture and industry beginning to thrive in this Ohio wilderness known as the Kirtland Flats, a local government was formed. The East Branch of the Chagrin River looped through these flat lands providing energy for sawmills and factories. By 1830 Ohio was the fourth most populous state in the country. With the opening of the Erie and Ohio Canals people and goods were flowing into Ohio.

The spirit guides Parley Parker Pratt

Parley P. Pratt had come to the Western Reserve in 1826 to establish himself. He desired to bring Christianity to the red man. In September 1827 he married his childhood sweetheart, Thankful Halsey. A year and a half later he met Sidney Rigdon, a Reformed Baptist minister, and joined with his religious persuasion. Parley desired to take up the ministry and preach the gospel according to his understanding. At the beginning of 1830 he felt a need to enlighten his fellowman about the Christian truths he had learned, so by August he and Thankful closed their business and left their wilderness home in Lorain County, Ohio, to visit their families in upstate New York.

Arriving in Rochester, on the Erie canal, the spirit prompted Parley to get off the boat, where he felt he had some work to do. He sent Thankful on her way to stay with her parents, telling her he would catch up as soon as the work he felt he needed to do was performed. Thankful did not object for she had seen the manifestations of the spirit work in Parley many times.

The next morning, after walking ten miles into the country, he stopped for breakfast with a Mr. Wells and proposed to preach in the evening. The two of them visited a Baptist deacon named Hamlin to make arrangements and were told about a very strange book in Hamlin’s possession which had just been published. The book purported to have been written on plates of gold and had been discovered and translated by a young man near Palmyra by the aid of visions or the ministering of angels. Parley inquired how or where he could get a copy. The man promised he could take a look at his copy at his house the next day. Parley preached that night and the next morning he was at Mr. Hamlin’s house where he saw the Book of Mormon for the first time.

He read the title page and testimony of the witnesses. He read all day and night having no desire to eat or sleep and received a testimony of the book knowing and comprehending through the spirit of the Lord that it was true. He desired to meet the young man who had discovered and translated the book.

Parley walked to Palmyra and inquired where he could find Mr. Joseph Smith. As he approached the Smith home he met Hyrum Smith, Joseph’s brother, who informed him that Joseph was in Pennsylvania. Hyrum invited Parley into his home and answered his questions while laying out the restoration of the gospel to him. Hyrum gave Parley a copy of the Book of Mormon which Parley took with him the next morning so he could continue his reading. Parley preached again that night. With his new found knowledge, that authority was once again found on earth, he returned to Hyrum Smith’s residence and demanded baptism. He stayed overnight at Hyrum’s and the next day they walked 25 miles to the Whitmers’ in Seneca County. The little branch of the church there was filled with joy, faith, humility and charity. They rested that night and the next morning, being about the first of September, 1830, Parley was baptized by Oliver Cowdery, an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ. That same evening he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and ordained an Elder in the Church.

Missionary Callings to the Laminites

The Church had been organized for six months when the Prophet Joseph Smith, in October 1830, received a revelation calling Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson to go to the Laminites and preach the gospel. The Lord Himself said he would also go with them (D&C 32). They traveled to the Indian nation near Buffalo instructing them in the knowledge of the record of their forefathers, which created much interest. They presented two copies of the Book of Mormon to those who could read and left for Buffalo. They continued walking two hundred miles along Lake Erie, following the stagecoach route, to Mentor Ohio to call on Sidney Rigdon, Parley’s friend and instructor in the Reformed Baptist Society, arriving October 29, 1830. Rigdon was skeptical about their message but promised to read a copy of the Book of Mormon. The four preached in Mentor and surrounding cities baptizing several people.

The missionaries reached the Morley farm on November 2 where they found Isaac Morley, the spiritual leader of a large communal family of 50 to 100 men, women and children. Oliver wrote to Joseph about this communal family eight days later telling how they had found the ideal contacts for the gospel. The entire adult company on the Morley farm embraced the gospel and were baptized. Parley wrote that people thronged them night and day to hear the message. By November 21 they had baptized 127 souls before continuing on to the Laminites. (See more details about Isaac Morley and the efforts of the four missionaries on the blog about Isaac Morley.)

Sidney Rigdon was baptized a member of the Church after about two weeks. He left the ministry and gave one final sermon on the steps of the courthouse on the subject of charity and love, to those members of his former congregation professing Christianity, but who had attacked him for joining the restoration and accepting the Book of Mormon. He then left on the stagecoach, with Edward Partridge, to seek out the Prophet Joseph Smith in New York. They arrived in December 1830, bringing news of the missionary success in the Kirtland area. The Prophet Joseph Smith soon sent John Whitmer to preside over the new branches of the Church in the Kirtland area. By the time Joseph arrived in Kirtland there were an estimated 300 new members, more than twice the number reported two months earlier and almost three times the number of members in New York.

In December 1830 the Prophet Joseph received a revelation to go to the Ohio because of the enemy and for the Saints sake. On January 2, 1831, at the third conference of the Church, Joseph received another revelation warning again of the intent of the enemy and a commandment to go to the Ohio (see D&C 38:28-32). Joseph Smith and his family would leave for Ohio before the end of the month, arriving in Kirtland about the first of February 1831. After selling their farms and businesses at great losses, the three branches of the Church in New York soon followed to Ohio to gather with the saints in Kirtland,