Ohio History Journal

THE KIRTLAND PHASE OF MORMONISM

By W. J. MCNIFF

Kirtland, Ohio, was but a stepping stone for the Mormons

as they restlessly pushed on towards the setting sun. Somewhere

in the West they planned a city of Zion. Their leader prophesied

a land of milk and honey, gleaming with alabaster towers, where

righteousness would reign in the hearts of man. The Kirtland

phase came as an interlude between the future Zion of Missouri

and the scornful attitude of the New Yorker. In 1827 Joseph

Smith, an untutored, young Vermonter, told the gaping country-

men of western New York that he had found some "gold plates"

on Cumorah Hill, near Rochester, New York. These plates, ac-

cording to Joseph, told the story of Christ's coming to the New

World after His, resurrection as well as the arrival of the lost

ten tribes of Israel in the western hemisphere. A new religion

and a new church, based on these recently discovered "truths,"

were established in 1830. Joseph Smith is but one more illustra-

tion of a prophet without honor in his own country. By the end

of 1830, unpleasant episodes in western New York forced Joseph

Smith to move westward to Kirtland. When the Mormon prophet

arrived there the Mormon Church's organization, doctrines, beliefs,

and practices were in an uncertain and nebulous condition. By a

process of trial and error, by absorption and by rejection of

practices and ideas that were current in the Zeitgeist of this

particular part of the frontier in the eighteen thirties, the Mormon

leaders showed during their stay at Kirtland that worldly forces

as well as direct divine revelation were at work in their midst.

Joseph Smith, himself, burst into Kirtland like a meteor

dropping from the skies. One cold, clear, crisp February day

in 1831 a group of philosphers were gathered about the cracker

barrel in Gilbert and Whitney's general merchandise store at

Kirtland. A sleigh drove up to the store-front, out bounced a

lively young man, who approached one of the men in the store

and accosted him with, "Newell K. Whitney, thou art the man!"

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262 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The dumb-founded store-keeper managed to mutter, "I'm

sorry, sir, but I don't seem able to place you, although you appear

to know me."

"I'm Joseph the Prophet. You've prayed me here. Now,

what do you want of me?"1

In a short time, Newell K. Whitney and a few hundred Kirt-

land residents accepted Joseph Smith's new dispensation. A hun-

dred or so of Joseph's followers from western New York soon

arrived and Kirtland became a Mormon gathering-place for the

new converts, for already the active Mormon missionaries were

treading the highways and by-ways of the older states and the

new territories to the west telling of their prophet and of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The time was propitious for these missionaries. This bright

young New World presented unlimited vistas for those who had

panaceas to offer mankind; western democracy was in its ado-

lescence. This era, from the eighteen twenties to the eighteen

forties, had its share of schemes for the amelioration of social

wrongs. In France, Fourier thought communism was the cure-

all. In England, Robert Owen was advocating philanthropic

idealism and in 1825 had established his colony at New Harmony,

Indiana. Even the United States had some ideas of its own. At

Low Hampton, New York, William Miller had but recently been

preaching the coming of the Millennium. Sylvester Graham was

advancing his theories of a saner diet than most Americans

practised. In New England, Brook Farm was still in the ex-

perimental stage. Emerson portrays this period well in an article

describing a "Bible Convention" in July, 1842.

A great variety of dialect and of costume was noticed; a great deal

of confusion, eccentricity and freak appeared, as well as of zeal and en-

thusiasm. If the assembly was disorderly, it was picturesque. Madmen,

madwomen, men with beards, Dunkers, Muggletonians, Come-outers, Groan-

ers, Agrarians, Seventh-day Baptists, Quakers, Abolitionists, Calvinists,

Unitarians, and Philosophers,--all came successively to the top, and seized

their moment, if not their hour, wherein to chide, or pray, or preach, or

protest.²

1 J. H. Evans, Joseph Smith (New York, 1933), 66.

2 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Works. New Centenary Edition (Boston, 1911), X, 374.

OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 263

Mormonism, itself, was a product of these dreams and aspira-

tions. Joseph Smith came to Kirtland from a region of particularly

high mental voltage. For of all regions open to the reforming

excitement of this period, that about Rochester, New York, seems

to have been most susceptible. Within a radius of fifty miles lies

Batavia, the scene of the Morgan abduction in 1826, an episode

which gave rise to the antimasonic outburst of the 'thirties. It

was also within this region that the Fox sisters first heard the

mysterious rappings and discovered the modern possibilities of

spiritualism. This area is on the edge of the "burnt-district"--

in northwestern Pennsylvania--a region dear to the heart of

evangelists seeking crowded revival meetings and eager, amenable

converts.

Kirtland and the Western Reserve area was not entirely

insulated from the electric tensions passing through these neigh-

boring regions. One, Sidney Rigdon, a frontier orator of the

first rank was thundering Campbellite doctrines up and down

the Mahoning Valley. In addition to the ideas of salvation in

the next world which Rigdon was preaching, he had convinced

his followers of the desirability of holding property in common

in this world. At the time Joseph Smith had grandiloquently an-

nounced his arrival to the denizens of Gilbert and Whitney's store,

Sidney Rigdon had already become the religious overlord of

Kirtland.

With the coming together of these two individuals--Sidney

Rigdon and Joseph Smith--there opens one of the major problems

of Mormon historiography. All stories of Mormonism are affected

by the relationships of these men to each other. The problem

is--who was the founder of Mormonism? The followers of

Joseph Smith accept the story of Joseph Smith--that he was

divinely inspired. Another theory is advanced by I. Woodbridge

Riley3 and W. F. Prince.⁴These men apply so-called "rigorous"

psychological tests to Joseph Smith's works and arrive at the

conclusion that Joseph Smith did write the Book of Mormon--

3 I. W. Riley, The Founder of Mormonism, a Psychological Study of Joseph

Smith (London, 1903).

4 W. F. Prince, "Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon,"

American Journal of Psychology (Ithaca, N. Y.), XXVIII (1917), 373-89.

264 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

but it was produced by his own psychological processes. He may

even have fooled himself.

A third hypothesis brings us back to the Western Reserve

region of Ohio. This version is accepted by A. W. Linn in The

Story of Mormonism and by G. B. Arbaugh in his careful and

scholarly Revelation in Mormonism. Much of the spade work

for this hypothesis was done by E. D. Howe in his Mormonism

Unveiled, which was published in Painesville, Ohio, in 1834. These

men believe that the weight of evidence supports Solomon Spauld-

ing as the author of a story which Joseph Smith in turn con-

sciously plagiarized as the basis for the Book of Mormon. The

proof follows a long and complicated chain of reasoning, a chain

containing many weak links, yet as plausible as the other theories

concerning the authorship of the Book of Mormon. In short, this

thesis asserts that Sidney Rigdon obtained a copy of Spaulding's

manuscript, then by devious routes it reached Joseph Smith, and

eventually the two men concocted a new religion. If this ver-

sion is accepted, then Joseph Smith's blitzkrieg on Gilbert and

Whitney's store was being eagerly awaited by "Quisling" Sidney

Rigdon, and, unconscious of their role, Rigdon's Campbellite

followers were destined to perform the functions of a "fifth

column."

But the creed of Mormonism, in spite of all the controversy

over the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, does not rely to a

great extent upon that book. Between 1827 and the convergence

of Mormon columns upon Kirtland, Joseph Smith had had many

revelations. Therefore, after several ecclesiastical conferences,

a series of Joseph Smith's pronouncements were approved by

his followers and published at Kirtland in 1835 as the Book of

Doctrine and Covenants. This procedure indicates an advantage

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had over its

competitors for converts--the followers of Joseph Smith had a

living prophet. The inhabitants of Kirtland could boast of a

creed which was up-to-the-minute in its adoption of divinely-

inspired revelations. Here becomes evident that Mormon attitude

of flexibility to changing conditions in temporal affairs. For as

new conditions arise, Mormon leaders, as inheritors of Joseph's

OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 265

powers, can announce new doctrines. It had already become evi-

dent with the superseding of the Book of Mormon by the Book

of Doctrine and Covenants that Mormonism was not destined to

become a static institution.

Here also at Kirtland, as evidence in The Word of Wisdom,

the Mormon leaders began their sumptuary regulations over the

worldly affairs of their adherents. The Mormon leaders were not

oblivious to the reforms in regard to health that were being urged

at the time. In February, 1833, "wine and strong drink" were

considered as unhealthy for the Latter Day Saints.⁵Tobacco

and such drinks as tea and coffee were put on the forbidden list

where they remain to the present day. Later, in Utah, clothing,

dancing, the care of cattle and of children--all these topics had

become matters of interest to the church leaders.

Sidney Rigdon's efforts to solve the problems of the "haves"

versus the "have-nots" at Kirtland by holding property in com-

mon was not tossed into the limbo of forgotten things by Joseph

Smith. In fact, groups of newly converted "Saints," poor in

the goods of this world but rich in the hopes of the Mormon

future, kept arriving in Kirtland. Many of these people were

in dire need. In order to supply their wants Smith issued a

series of revelations. As a result of these pronouncements the

Mormon leader advocated a new economic order among mankind,

the United Order of Enoch, better known among the Mormons

as the United Order.

According to Smith the individual Mormon was to surrender

his property to the church. This property was then divided by

the church authorities into two parts. The first of these was

the inheritance or stewardship. This was the amount considered

necessary for the individual to live upon and was returned to

the individual who had given it. After its return this amount be-

came a personal possession by clear title, so far as the church was

concerned. A second part, known as the surplus, was "consecrated"

to the church and title passed. If possible, this surplus was

placed in the bishop's storehouse, and used by that official for

5 Book of Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, O., 1835), Section 89.

266 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the poor and needy among the faithful.⁶The church had a clear

title to this as far as the individuals who had given it were con-

cerned. Thus the United Order was an attempt to retain in-

dividualistic enterprise as the foundation of the economic order,

and to build upon the surplus accumulated by individuals a store

of goods held for the common benefit. The economic theory of

Joseph Smith may be likened to a pyramid with individualism at

the base supporting an apex of communism.

This revelation of Joseph Smith pertaining to the all-important

question of earthly allotments was not very specific. Lesser in-

dividuals had the difficult task of dividing the "inheritance" among

the people on the basis of equality according to families, according

to wants and needs, and finally according to circumstances.⁷Here

was a task worthy of a Solomon. With a reassuring sense of

calmness, the revelation in which the ideal of the United Order

is set forth adds that in other respects Mormon economic relation-

ships were to be carried on as usual.

By 1836, according to the Mormon leaders, it became evident

that mankind, at least that portion of it in Kirtland, was not suf-

ficiently prepared in spirit to accept the United Order. Therefore,

on July 8 of that year, a new and lesser revelation, that of tithing,

was announced. This decreed that thereafter the Mormons "shall

pay one-tenth of all their income annually to the Church."⁸Since

1838 tithing has proved one of the main sources of church revenue,

but several unsuccessful attempts have been made in Utah to

revive the United Order. Although the plan of a better economic

order has been relegated to the Book of Doctrine and Covenants,

the faithful Mormon believes that it will again emerge and ulti-

mately regenerate the world.

The failure of the United Order illustrates that difficulty with

which many other sects besides Mormonism are confronted. Each

religion has to bridge in some fashion the chasm which separates

ideals and practices; it is forced to find some manner of evading

the pious platitude which so frequently torments mankind, that

"the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The spirit of Mor-

6 Ibid., Sections 42, 32-4, 65, 61, 4-5.

7 Ibid., Sections 51, 1-3.

8 Ibid., Section 119.

OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 267

OHIO HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1941 267

monism was high at Kirtland, and Joseph Smith exuberantly

voiced Mormon aspirations. And then one day in 1832 there

came to Kirtland a young man who expressed another side of

Mormonism--the practical side. This young convert was Brigham

Young and there was little that was weak about him. Here was

the individual who had the ability to hold the Mormon Church

together throughout its later trials and tribulations. If Kirtland

had no other reason to be remembered in Mormon circles than

the fact that this small Ohio hamlet was the meeting place of

Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, to the Mormons, this fact

alone would entitle Kirtland to become a Mormon shrine.

These two men illustrate two phases of Mormonism. Joseph

Smith was the dreamer of dreams, the seer of visions, and the

spinner of theories. Ideas, plans, and Utopias caused him little

effort. No sooner were the "Saints" settled in Ohio, than Joseph

Smith envisioned a Mormon Zion in Missouri. He moved rest-

lessly from one plan to another, from one task to another. By

the time the Mormons had reached Nauvoo, Illinois, Smith had

become grand chaplain of the Masonic lodge, mayor of Nauvoo,

registrar of municipal deeds, lieutenant-general of the Nauvoo

legion, editor of the Mormon publication, Times and Seasons,

president, seer, revelator, and prophet of the Mormon Church,

and, finally, a candidate for the presidency of the United States.

To Joseph, it seemed that nothing succeeds like excess.

Brigham Young, on the other hand, moved quietly, ruthlessly,

and efficiently. He filled in Mormon practice with the flesh and

blood of practicality where Joseph Smith had builded a framework

of ideas. Where Joseph was abstract, Brigham was concrete.

Brigham Young did not create any new points of Mormon doctrine

or of Mormon idealism. He contented himself with making Mor-

monism work. In Kirtland, Smith had gathered the Mormon

elders in classes to study Greek and Hebrew. In Utah, Brigham

Young similarly gathered the Mormon elders in small groups, but

now methods were discussed by which the Mormons could avoid

coming under economic control of non-Mormon merchants. In

Kirtland Smith had conceived the plan of sending missionaries

to convert the poor of England. Young made the English mission