GENTILE AND SAINT AT KIRTLAND
by WILLIS
THORNTON*
The Mormon interlude at Kirtland, Ohio,
was by no means the
transplantation of an alien tree into
an unaccustomed soil. The
ground at Kirtland was not only well
prepared for the planting,
but was already sprouting luxuriant
vegetation so closely akin to
Mormonism that the simplest
cross-pollination and grafting pro-
vided a native stand of Mormon timber.
Yet despite this apparently
auspicious climate, relations between
the Mormon and Gentile
communities eventually became severely
strained. Why? Shaker,
Amish, and other minority groups
regarded as quite as outlandish
in theology and social customs were,
and remained, undisturbed.
Wherein lay the difference?
Kirtland, or Kirtland's Mills (the
official post-office designation),
was a small town in the rolling hills
of northeastern Ohio which
had a population of 1,018 in 1830.1 As a
center for farmers to
drive into and trade, get their grain
milled or sold, and the like,
it was comparable to the nearby towns
of Painesville, Hiram, and
Warren. The people of the community
were nearly all farmers or
closely tied to the soil. The area had
been settled by westward
movement along the lake shore or on the
newly opened Erie Canal,
by people from Connecticut, then later
from all New England, New
York, and Pennsylvania.
Northeast Ohioans were not only like
those people, they were
those people in most cases, for not
enough time had passed to
permit the rearing of a native generation.
Most of the people were
pure Yankee. The era of "The
Awakening" was in full cry, and the
camp meeting, the "protracted
meeting," the gospel crusades, the
fiery preaching of the "Burnt-Over
Area" of Pennsylvania, were
all reflected in northeastern Ohio. The
excesses, in fact, were
even greater. Nowhere, even in the
"Burnt-Over Area," had they
*Willis Thornton is a lecturer in
journalism at Western Reserve University and
the author of The Nine Lives of
Citizen Train.
1Warren Jenkins, Ohio Gazetteer and
Travelers' Guide (Columbus, 1837), 248.
8
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 9
proclaimed a Joseph Dylks as actually
God, but Salesville, Ohio,
achieved this extravagant frenzy.2
The Free-Will Baptists, the
Church of God (Winebrennerian), and the
Disciples, or Camp-
bellites, vied with the Millerites in
vibrant and clamorous expec-
tation of events which would
momentarily establish the visible
Kingdom of God in their midst. Cases of
"the jerks" were not
unusual at revivals, nor "speaking
in tongues," and the earlier
Methodist and Campbellite preaching was
often accompanied by
what would today seem scenes of the
wildest emotionalism, not to
say hysteria.
It was so in and around Kirtland, a
Disciple stronghold. Though
well settled and under cultivation, the
neighborhood offered almost
nothing of a cultural or entertainment
value. Activities centering
around the churches were to the
community what lyceums, libraries,
theaters, movies, radio, and television
were to be later on. An oc-
casional traveling show, lecturer, or
medicine faker, was about
all that relieved what must have been
almost intolerable boredom.
The only generally circulated book was
the Bible; the only outlet
for forensic and extrovert tendencies
was personal revelation or
testimony at camp meetings. Every man
was his own interpreter
of the Bible, the result of which was a
constant division and sub-
division of sects in a maze of
doctrinal differences of detail which
are almost unintelligible to the
American of one hundred years later.
The ground at Kirtland, therefore, was
thoroughly prepared for
planting of the Mormon seed. It was no
accident that led to the
choosing of Kirtland as a "stake
of Zion," and whether Prophet
Smith did or did not receive a divine
revelation directing him
thither, it was certainly a move
dictated by practical wisdom. When
the Mormons arrived in numbers, there
was at the outset nothing
especially alien or strange about them
or their ways; nothing about
their doctrines more outre to
outsiders than about those of numerous
other sects; nothing in their practices
more outrageous to outsiders
than they had already seen and
tolerated. After all, the Harmonists
of Pennsylvania were communist and
celibate; the Shakers were
2 R. H. Taneyhill, The Leatherwood
God (Cincinnati, 1870).
10
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
celibate and exclusive; the Wallingford
and Oneida communities
in New York practiced free love. While
all these were criticized,
they were rarely persecuted. They were
tolerated. Wherein did the
Mormons differ?
Seeds of trouble were planted even
before the Mormons arrived
in Kirtland in numbers. In this
neighborhood nearly every man and
woman belonged to one church or
another. Therefore a new sect
could grow only at the expense of those
already established. Sects
thus robbed of their members were not
merely annoyed--they fought
back. Campbellite Disciples in their
indignation at apostasy con-
veniently forgot that Alexander
Campbell himself had been suc-
cessively a Presbyterian, a Baptist,
then a Disciple.3
Sidney Rigdon was first a Baptist, but
by 1830 he had become
a Disciple preacher. He was "an
orator of no inconsiderable
abilities. In person, he was full
medium height, rotund in form; of
countenance, while speaking, open and
winning, with a little cast
of melancholy. His action was graceful,
his language copious, fluent
in utterance, with articulation clear
and musical. Yet he was an
enthusiast, and unstable."4 Converted
from the Baptist into the
Disciple faith, Rigdon was by 1830 one
of the latter sect's most
effective exhorters. He preached
regularly for the Disciples both
at Mentor and Kirtland, as well as in
other nearby towns.
Rigdon, the "enthusiast,"
soon outpaced his confreres and was
bidding strongly for leadership in the
faith he had espoused. He
began advocating a common-property
scheme before a small con-
gregation at Austintown, but Alexander
Campbell himself was
present and opposed the thesis so
effectively that it must have seemed
to ambitious Rigdon a humiliating
defeat. This anticipation of the
communal aspect of Mormonism, together
with the fact that
Rigdon's preaching had increasingly
concerned itself with some
mysterious revelation and event soon to
come, has led antipathetic
writers to suggest that Rigdon had
already accepted Mormonism
3 Robert E. Chaddock, Ohio Before 1850: A Study in
the Early Influence of Penn-
sylvania and Southern Populations in
Ohio (Columbia University Studies in History,
Economics, and Public Law, XXXI, No. 2, New York, 1908), 125.
4 A. S. Hayden, Early History of the
Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cin-
cinnati, 1875), 45-53.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 11
and was a secret collaborator with
Smith in its creation.5 Henry K.
Shaw, for instance, suggests that
Rigdon may have been in touch
with Smith as early as 1827.6 This must
be regarded as not proved,
for it is based largely on conjecture
due to his unexplained absence
from Mentor during the winter before
his conversion. The as-
sumption that he was at that time
helping Smith to contrive the
Mormon faith is not demonstrable.
Parley P. Pratt, an associate
of Rigdon from Lorain County, had
already been converted to
Mormonism and had visited Smith at
Palmyra; and when Pratt
and three others were sent west on a
mission to the Lamanites
(Indians), they headed straight for
Rigdon's house at Mentor. But
that seems natural enough, and is not
convincing as evidence of
collusion by Rigdon. Pratt caused
Rigdon to read the new Mormon
Bible, which he was selling, and Rigdon
after a two-day spiritual
struggle (which Hayden suggests was
mere stage-play to make his
final conversion all the more dramatic)
was baptized into the new
faith.
Pratt and Oliver Cowdery, the latter
one of the three original
witnesses to the validity of Smith's
golden plates, had already had
some success among Rigdon's followers
in Kirtland. These had
already formed themselves into a
common-stock society, and had
become, in the words of E. D. Howe,
"considerably fanatical, and
were daily looking for some wonderful
event to take place in
the world."7
With
the conversion of the
well-known and much admired
5 Ibid., 209 et seq. See also Frederick A.
Henry, Captain Henry of Geauga, a Family
Chronicle (Cleveland, 1942).
6 Henry K. Shaw, Buckeye Disciples: A
History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio
(St. Louis, 1952), 80.
7 E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed; or a Faithful Account of That
Singular Im-
position and Delusion, from Its Rise
to the Present Time . . .
(Painesville, 1834),
103. Howe founded the Cleveland
Herald in 1819 and the Painesville Telegraph in
1822. He closely chronicled the Kirtland
phase as an unsympathetic outsider. Fawn
Brodie says Howe was annoyed by the fact
that his wife and daughter joined the
Mormons. No Man Knows My History (New York,
1945), 103. His Mormonism
Unvailed, though its title page was toned down in later editions,
remains one of the
chief on-the-spot sources on the
Kirtland period, and every later writer is indebted
to Howe in a degree usually
unacknowledged. Smith charged that Howe did not
write the book at all, but merely lent
his name to an expose by Dr. Philastus Hurlbut,
an apostate Mormon who became their
bitter enemy. Latter Day Saints Messenger and
Advocate, December 1835. The most likely answer is a
collaboration.
12
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Rigdon, the ripe fruit fell rapidly.
Within a short time almost a
hundred converts had been made in and
around Kirtland, and it
is worth noting that this is almost as
many as Smith had gathered
in New York in two years. Rigdon then
traveled to Waterloo,
New York, to consult the prophet in
person, and Cowdery and the
other missionaries continued on to the
west. They left behind them
what Howe called "scenes of the
most wild, frantic and horrible
fanaticism." People, especially
the young, reported Howe, fell to
the floor senseless, grimaced, crept on
hands and feet, rolled on
the ground, and ran wildly through the
fields shouting for the
millennium.
Rigdon stayed some two months with
Smith, was received into
a collaboration the intimacy of which
is still a matter of dispute,
was ordained, and preached as one of
Mormonism's first evangelists.
Meanwhile John Whitmer, another of
Smith's original witnesses
to the physical existence of his golden
plates, was sent to Kirtland
to get the religious excesses there
under some sort of control. In
January of 1831 first Rigdon, then
Smith, arrived in Kirtland,
soon to be followed by a mass migration
of most of Smith's New
York adherents. By the spring of 1831
more than a thousand con-
verts had been made in the Kirtland
area.8 With the New York
immigrants, this made a sizeable
community from the start.
Divine revelation aside, Smith's
reasons for the move are pretty
clear on completely rational grounds:
1. Justly or unjustly, his
reputation in New York among his
immediate neighbors was not
such as to attract local converts. In
fact there were already
signs of active opposition.9 2.
The Kirtland area had been proved a
fertile field. Rigdon had shown himself
to be a man of influence
there. Land was cheap, and a community
nearer the frontier seemed
a more free atmosphere for establishing
a "gathering-place" for
the Saints than the more settled
counties of upper New York.
The best-sustained contemporary account
of the arrival of the
Mormons at Kirtland is that of the Painesville
Telegraph. Paines-
ville was only about ten miles from
Kirtland, and Howe, the editor
8 William Alexander Linn, The Story
of the Mormons (New York, 1902), 131.
9 J. H. Kennedy, Early Days of
Mormonism (New York, 1888), 85.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 13
of the Telegraph, was an
unusually experienced and able editor
for so small a town.
His first notice of Mormonism appeared
November 16, 1830,
noting the arrival of Cowdery and Pratt
to preach the new religion.
There is a skeptical tone in the
notice, but it is not unfriendly.
Four days later another and longer
notice was still more skeptical,
but evidently there was to be an effort
to be fair: "It may, perhaps,
be useless to condemn the thing by
positive and absolute assertions--
time will discover in it either
something of vast importance to
men, or a deep-laid plan to deceive
many."
The first really disturbed note came on
January 18, 1831, with
the arrival of Whitmer, who came,
according to the Telegraph,
to inform the brethren that the
boundaries of the promised land, or the
New Jerusalem, had just been made known
to Smith by God--the township
of Kirtland, a few miles west of this,
is the eastern line and the Pacific
Ocean the western line: if the north and
south lines have been described,
we have not learned them. Orders were also brought to
the brethren to
sell no more land, but rather buy more.
Joseph Smith and all his forces are
to be on here soon to take possession of the promised
land.
There is an undertone of alarm here. If
land all the way west
from Ohio to the Pacific had been
promised by God to certain
newcomers, or even if they believed
this, would they always be
content to buy it? Those already living
in this "land of promise"
must have been somewhat disquieted by
the news.
Throughout February the doctrines of
the new sect were dis-
cussed at length in the Telegraph. Not
only was theological con-
troversy news in the northern Ohio of
1831, but "when any subject
becomes a matter of general inquiry and
conversation through the
whole community, with but few
exceptions, that community will
call upon the Press to speak--and a
free press will speak." Thus
the Telegraph on February 15,
1831, which went on to declare
that its columns would be open to both
sides.
By March the paper had become
pronouncedly antipathetic. Two
successive issues serialized a long
review of the Book of Mormon
by Alexander Campbell, theological
champion of the anti-Mormon
14
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
group; various articles from the Palmyra
Reflector, all uncom-
plimentary to the earlier days of Smith
and his chief associates,
were reprinted. On March 22 the editor
tried to link Mormonism
with Masonry, the latter being already
in especial ill odor in the
Western Reserve since the Morgan affair
of 1826, in which one
William Morgan was allegedly murdered
to prevent his public
revelation of Masonic secrets.
But a further hint as to the growing
unpopularity of the Mormons
was given by the issue of March 15.
Recording the arrival of
Martin Harris in Painesville, the paper
contained a clear suggestion
that the approach of the Mormon
missionaries to the unwashed
sometimes fell a shade below the highest
diplomatic standards.
Harris was a well-to-do New York farmer
who put up most of
the money for publishing the first
edition of the Book of Mormon,
and was especially active in selling
the book. On arrival he imme-
diately planted himself in the barroom
of the Painesville Tavern,
reported the Telegraph, and
began to expound the Mormon Bible
in a loud and aggressive manner to
everyone within hearing. Grow-
ing more and more fervent, he denounced
as infidels all who pre-
sumed to challenge his statements, and
created such a hubbub that
the innkeeper had to order him out of
the place. His parting shot
was that all who believed in Mormonism
would see Christ in
fifteen years, but all who did not so
believe would be damned.
Such tactics were scarcely the best way
to win friends and influence
people. But the evidence is clear that
Harris' approach to Gentiles
was fairly typical. The forcing of
preaching and argument on the
indifferent, the vigorous denunciation
and damning of all who would
not believe, was characteristic. It
alienated many. Brigham Young,
the administrator and diplomat of the
church, was evidently con-
scious of this failing of his more
zealous colleagues, for he made
this significant comment in a sermon:
I know that when I have traveled with
some of the Twelve, and one of
them has asked for breakfast, dinner,
supper, or lodging, we have been
refused dozens of times. Now, you may
think that I am going to boast a
little; I will brag a little of my own
tact and talent . . . when I had the
privilege of asking, I was never turned
away--no, not a single time.
Would I go into the house and say to
them, "I am a Mormon Elder;
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 15
will you feed me?" It was none of
their business who I was. But when
I asked, "Will you give me
something to eat?" the reply was, invariably,
"Yes." And we would sit and
talk, and sing, and make ourselves familiar
and agreeable; and before our
departure, after they had learned who we
were, they would frequently ask,
"Will you not stay and preach for us?"
and proffer to gather in the members of
their family and their neighbors;
and the feeling would be, "Well,
if this is Mormonism, I will feed all
the Mormon Elders that come."
Whereas, if I had said, "I am a Mormon
Elder; will you feed me?" the
answer would often have been "No; out of
my house."10
The fact that Young makes such a point
of his own ingenious
courtesy shows that he well knew it to
have been an exception.
There is little doubt that a great deal
of the trouble met by the
Mormons at Kirtland was due to their
missionary zeal, which was
almost always more fervent than
courteous. To be blunt, there was
added to the more grave objections on
theological and economic
grounds, the fact that they tended to
be a nuisance.
By April another cause of mistrust
between Mormon and Gentile
appeared in the Telegraph. Under
a heading "Fanaticism," there
appeared (April 5) an account of the
death of one Warren Doty,
a Mormon convert who refused medical
treatment except such as
was extended by the Saints via the
laying on of hands and similar
ceremonials. The patient died, but not,
according to the Telegraph,
before repenting his aberration and
warning others that there was
really no help in the new tenets.
This was evidently not the only clash
between Saint and Gentile
in matters medical. Two years later the
Cleveland Herald reprinted
a significant story from the Rochester
Daily Advertiser under the
heading "Mormonism and the Small
Pox."
There having been several cases of
small pox in the village of Jamestown,
Chautauque [sic] county [said
the Rochester editor], a committee of citizens
was appointed to take measures to prevent its
spreading. In their report
the committee state that their efforts
have been hindered by a sect calling
themselves Mormonites, who profess to
believe that the disorder will not
attack them, neither could they spread
it, although they might come in
contact with others not protected, even
if the small pox matter covered
10 Journal of Discourses by Brigham
Young (19 vols., Liverpool, 1854-78), IV,
305.
16
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
them. Notwithstanding their belief, one
of the Mormons had been seized
with the disease, and it is feared that
this would be the means of scattering
the infection through the country.11
Whether similar resistance to public
health measures was met
at Kirtland, can not be learned, but it
is evident that publication
of such stories must have led to a
general belief that such would be
the case in an emergency. Thus another
point of friction appears--
the eternal conflict between the
believers in standard medical prac-
tice and the believers in faith
healing. In this case as in others,
the Mormons persisted in putting
themselves before the community
as a people specially set aside and
favored by God--a proclamation
that has always and everywhere
irritated those presumbably less
favored.
In the spring of 1831 the inflow of
people either from the New
York state headwaters or from other
sections in which missionaries
had made converts and then directed
them to Kirtland, was be-
ginning to look like a flood. A. G.
Riddle says:
One almost wondered if the whole world
were centering at Kirtland.
They came, men, women, and children, in
every conceivable manner, some
with horses, oxen, and vehicles rough
and rude, while others had walked
all or part of the distance. The future
"City of the Saints" appeared like
one beseiged. Every available house,
shop, hut, or barn was filled to its
utmost capacity. Even boxes were roughly extemporized
and used for
shelter until something more permanent
could be secured.12
Some were people of high purpose and
character. But others
were less admirable. A short time later
Smith had to order his
apostles to stop sending people to
Kirtland, as they were unable
properly to accommodate the flood of
converts. The system ordained
of God at the moment was that all
converts made over all their
property to the church, that is, to
Smith, and then all were to
receive back a "social stake"
of land and housing with a guarantee
of communal support. It would be
strange if this did not appeal
more to those without property than to
those more heavily endowed,
11 Cleveland Herald, May 25, 1833.
12 Williams Brothers, pub., History of Geauga and Lake Counties
(Philadelphia,
1878), 248.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 17
and if among those who had nothing to
put into the common pot
at the outset there were not some with
an eye to the endowment
they had been promised.
On Sunday the roads leading to Kirtland
were crowded with farm
wagons bringing whole families to see
and hear the new prophet.
To those already inclined to the more
emotional and spectacular
phases of the religious life, it seemed
to offer a new experience.
To the skeptical, it was certainly the
best show in northern Ohio,
and Smith himself was apparently not
unconscious of theatrical
values. He bought from a traveling
showman, Michael H. Chandler,
four Egyptian mummies and several
papyri, and began to translate
the latter as the works of Abraham and
Joseph.13 The mummies
were almost certainly exhibited to
visitors at Kirtland,14 and it is
definitely known that they were so
exhibited later at Nauvoo, at
twenty-five cents admission charge.15
The Mormon Church is notable today for
its missionary zeal, and
it was even more so in its early days.
Practically every convert was
immediately sent out to bring more
people into the fold, and this
aggressive, this militant evangelism
immediately aroused opposition
of the clergy and devout laymen of
existing and rival denominations.
In Kirtland itself, what with Rigdon's
wholesale conversion of
his whole congregation and the constant
arrival of converts at the
"place of gathering" from New
York and other communities where
the hard work of the missionaries bore
fruit, there was more trouble
within the church than there was from
the Gentiles. But when the
church reached out into other small
communities trouble began.
Smith opened a small general store in
Hiram, and set about planting
a "stake of Zion" there. The
conversion of the Rev. Ezra Booth, a
Methodist, and Symonds Ryder, a
Disciple elder, seemed to offer
as good a chance as that of Rigdon had
presented at Kirtland. But
both these men, after investigating the
Mormon organization from
within, apostatized and became bitter
opponents. The progress made
at Hiram was suddenly halted when on
the night of March 25, 1832,
13 M. R. Werner, Brigham Young (New York, 1925), 77-79.
14 Linn, Story of the Mormons, 141. Linn says that for fifty cents
people were later
taken up into the attic of the Mormon temple and shown
the mummies.
15 Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals (Boston,
1883), 387.
18
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
both Smith and Rigdon were dragged from
their beds by a lynch
mob, and coated with tar and feathers.
The exact makeup of such a lynch mob is
always difficult to
ascertain. Ryder said it was made up of
"citizens from Shalersville,
Garrettsville, and Hiram," and
blamed the bitter feeling on the fact
that certain converts had learned
"the horrid fact that a plot was
laid to take their property from them
and place it under the control
of Smith the prophet."16
It seems hard to credit in full Ryder's
alleged horror at the communistic phase
of the Kirtland "gathering-
place," but it seems to be
grounded in a feeling that converts were
not told the full implications of this
phase until it was too late.
Smith later said that Ryder himself was
of the mob. Smith was,
fortunately, neither injured nor
intimidated sufficiently to prevent
his preaching the next day, but it is
clear that thus early the Mormon
movement had roused violent enough
opposition, centered in rival
denominations, to provoke mob violence.
Though this was six years
before the Mormons left Kirtland, and
was the only instance in
which violence was offered them there,
it shows that from the very
first, friction of the most bitter kind
had been engendered.
Another tiny spot of light is shed on
the antipathies leading to
this disgraceful affair by a letter to
the editor of the Geauga Gazette,
Painesville, printed in the issue of
April 17, 1832. The writer
skeletonized the facts of the incident,
and then commented:
Now, Mr. Editor, I call this a base
transaction, an unlawful act, a work
of darkness, a diabolical trick. But bad
as it is, it proves one important
truth which every wise man knew before,
that is, that Satan hath more
power than the pretended prophets of
Mormon. It is said that they (Smith
& Rigdon) had declared, in
anticipation of such an event, that it could not
be done--that God would not suffer it;
that those who should attempt it,
would be miraculously smitten on the
spot, and many such like things,
which the event proves to be false.
The letter is unsigned. But it might
well be from one of the mob
itself, by its smack of village atheist
bravado. Still, it does contain
16 Letter
from Ryder to A. S. Hayden, February 1, 1868, in Hayden, Early History
of the Disciples, 220-221.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 19
one more suggestion of an irritating
attitude on the part of Smith
and Rigdon.
Despite the constant sending of key men
to Independence,
Missouri, to set up the true Zion
(which was established almost
contemporaneously with, and not much
later than the Kirtland
"stake"), the Kirtland
settlement continued to grow and prosper.
By 1837 it was a community of 3,000
people, tripled in population
in six years, and boasted 300 homes.17
Thus the established re-
ligions not only had a spiritual rival,
but the adjacent towns like
Painesville and Warren had a commercial
rival. Many of the new
houses, by the way, were built by
Brigham Young in his capacity as
carpenter, painter, and glazier. A
general store, a steam sawmill,
and a tannery (all of which lost money)
were established.
A boom town always arouses enmity and
envy in neighboring
towns whose growth is less spectacular.
But as the town grew, so
did its proportion of the township
population. And this raised the
inevitable political problem well set
forth in a letter to the Painesville
Telegraph on April 17, 1835. The writer complained that the
Mormons were already "nearly a
majority in the township and
every man votes as directed by the
Prophet and his Elders." The
writer went on to charge that the
Mormons and the Jacksonites had
made a working arrangement to share the
"spoils" of the township.
The letter reflected in fairly typical
manner the deeply grounded
American suspicion of any minority
whose vote can be "delivered"
in a package at the will of leadership.
Thus to a rivalry already
spiritual and economic, there was added
political rivalry as well.
It should be remembered that the
Western Reserve of 1830-40
ran high with nationalistic sentiment.
Many of the residents were
veterans of the Revolution or of the
War of 1812 or both, or the
children of such men. And the political
aspect of Mormonism re-
specting their loyalty to the country
was in a small way as important
in Kirtland as it became later on in
Utah, when "the Mormon
problem" became a national issue.
As early as December 25, 1832,
Smith declared that God was about to
make "a full end of all
17 Jenkins, Ohio Gazetteer, 248.
20
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
nations," and that they were about
to institute "the real govern-
ment of God."18 This
kind of talk was certain to disturb the
nationalistic Western Reserve,
especially as the Mormons seemed
to be supporting it with separatist
activity in an increasingly self-
sufficient community.
It is significant that only after 1838
did Smith begin to see that
the United States Constitution
protected such minorities as his own.
It was then that his revelations
blended "the kingdom of God"
with "the mission of
America." The Mormon battalion sent to the
Mexican War, and the eventual
submission to law in the matter
of polygamy came long after Kirtland.
In the December 1835 issue of the Latter
Day Saints Messenger
and Advocate there appeared the following letter from Joseph
Smith:
Dear Brother, I wish to inform my
friends and all others, abroad, that
whenever they wish to address me thro'
the Post Office, they will be kind
enough to pay the postage on the same.
My friends will excuse me in this
matter, as I am willing to pay postage
on letters to hear from them; but am
unwilling to pay for insults and
menaces,--consequently, must refuse all,
unpaid. Yours in the gospel, Joseph
Smith Jr., Kirtland, Dec. 5, 1835.
While this letter, with its tone of
rather patient forbearance,
presents one of the most ingratiating
glimpses of Smith, it also
reveals that there must have been a
significant volume of local
enmity even two years before the
abandonment of the Kirtland
experiment.
The communized phase of the first
establishment soon gave way
to a system of tithing. Each new
communicant then gave to the
church not all, but a tenth of his
property and annual income,
plus one day's labor in seven. It was
in this way that the temple
was built. Its cornerstone was laid
July 24, 1833; the dedication
ceremonies began March 27, 1836, and
lasted through the 31st.
There was washing of feet, angels were
seen in the new temple by
the faithful, and pillars of fire above
it; many spoke "in tongues,"
18 G. Homer Durham, "A Political Interpretation of Mormon
History," Pacific
Historical Review, XIII (1944), 136.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 21
and so fine a show drew spectators from
all the neighboring towns
and farms. It is likely that while all
were fascinated, many were
repelled.
The Mormons had reached the height of
their prosperity and
power at Kirtland. The town was buzzing
with activity, and real
estate speculation was active, as it
was elsewhere. The Saints were
no exception, though their speculations
were always enhazed with
a cloud of divine revelation commanding
them, which had the
double effect of making some trustful
and hence the more dis-
illusioned when the end came. But it is
always important to re-
member in connection with the Mormon
finances that they were
only a little worse than those of the
rest of the country, and not
independent of the factors which
brought on the general panic of
1837. Four months after dedication of
the temple President Jackson
issued the Specie Circular, requiring
that all payments for public
lands be made in specie. This was an
effort to hold down land
speculation, but it adversely affected
all the banks which had been
financing such speculation, including
the Mormon bank at Kirtland.
The Kirtland Safety Society was
organized November 21, 1836.
An effort to get a state charter
failed. The state legislature, under
control of the "no bank," or
Locofoco, party, was committed to a
program of putting the brakes on
wildcat banking, and chartered
only one bank at this session. But
Smith insisted that he was being
discriminated against and was highly
indignant. Word of the re-
jection of the charter arrived January
1, 1837, together with bundles
of notes engraved in the East for the
bank's use. Reorganization of
the bank proceeded notwithstanding, but
with one eye on the
refusal of a charter, as will appear
later.
Capital of $4,000,000 was provided, at
a time when only three
established banks in the whole state
had capitalization as high as
one million (all these were in
Cincinnati). The paid-in capital of
the Western Reserve Bank of Warren was
only $165,000, that of
the Bank of Geauga at Painesville was
$87,000, and even that of
the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie at
Cleveland was only $400,000.19
As a matter of fact the entire paid-in
capital of all of the thirty-two
19 Jenkins, Ohio Gazetteer.
22 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
banks in Ohio at this time was only
$9,247,397,20 so it is plain
that the new banking venture was at
best highly visionary.
Just how visionary is reflected in the
articles under which it was
reorganized, January 2, 1837. One
article plainly stated that "we,
the individual members of said firm,
hereby hold ourselves bound
for the redemption of all [its]
notes,"21 and this article was the
only one not subject to later
amendment. As a matter of fact, when
the bank later collapsed, all of these
guarantors simply left the
state with no effort to meet the
responsibility they had voluntarily
assumed. The article continued,
"We individually bind ourselves to
each other under the penal sum of
$100,000."
Exactly what this meant is not clear,
but it is established that
there were no holdings approaching
$100,000 among the lot; hence
the guarantee meant nothing in reality.
Ignoring the formality of charter, the
bank began immediately
to issue notes. An early example in the
Western Reserve Historical
Society, a $5 note of "The
Kirtland Safety Society Bank," is an
engraved piece, but the number and date
(February 10, 1837) are
filled in with a pen, and the note is
made out "To O. P. Good
or bearer" and signed in ink by
Smith as cashier and Rigdon as
president.
For about a month the notes circulated
readily and were highly
regarded by most receivers, although
some were dubious from the
start, as an incident related to the
editors of the History of Geauga
and Lake Counties makes clear:
Mr. D. B. Hart, of Mentor, informs us
that he received the first Mormon
bill that was placed in circulation by
this bank. He happened to be in
Kirtland the Saturday evening preceding
the Monday morning on which
the bank was first opened for business,
and, having a debt against some
of the chief Mormon worthies, was, upon
requesting payment, proffered
one of the new Mormon ten-dollar bank
bills. He received it, but the next
Monday morning, finding it impossible
to use it for any legitimate commercial
ends, he presented it to the officers
of the bank, demanding its redemption in
something which should pass for a legal
tender among his neighbors. They
20 Niles' Register, cited by Cleveland
Daily Advertiser, April 10, 1837.
21 Cleveland Liberalist, January 21, 1837. A paper of strong free-thought
tendencies,
the Liberalist was none the less very popular at
Kirtland.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 23
were very reluctant to oblige him, and,
in fact, refused to do so until he
threatened them with the law, when some
one, not an officer of the bank,
stepped up to him and proffered him a
genuine ten-dollar bill in exchange
for his spurious one.22
With such difficulty in passing the
bills, it was necessary to go
farther afield, and many were unloaded
in Canada, in the East, and
in Cleveland. Sometime after the
charter was refused and the bank
reorganized, the engraved bills were
overprinted with a legend
making them read, "The Kirtland
Safety Society anti-BANK-ing
Co." The word "Bank" was
large, ornate, and conspicuous, and the
qualifying "anti" and
"ing Co." were small and relatively in-
conspicuous. It is hard to construe
such procedure as anything but
a bald attempt to evade the law and to
deceive those who should
accept the notes. There may also have
been behind this strange
maneuver some thought of profiting by
"anti-bank" sentiment, which
was mounting rapidly just then.
The carelessness of the operation is
shown by notes in the col-
lections of the Western Reserve
Historical Society. Though re-
organization as an "anti-BANK-ing"
company took place January 2,
1837, notes were still being issued on
the original "Bank" forms at
least a month after the reorganization.
Less than a month after the
reorganization, the shaky nature of the
whole venture was strongly
suspected in Cleveland. Under the
heading "Mormon Bank," this
notice appeared:
It is reported here that the Kirtland
Safety Society anti-Bank-ing Co.
have refused to redeem their issues,
unless the holders will take real
estate. We understand also that they
have stopped discounting, and will
not discount again till they obtain a
charter. Report says they have issued
bills to the amount of $36,000.23
Similar reports circulated in
Cleveland, and within a month of
the bank's reorganization, everybody
was trying to get rid of the
bank's paper.
It would be surprising if a great deal
more than $36,000 in the
22 Williams Brothers, History
of Geauga and Lake Counties, 248.
23 Ohio City Argus, January 26, 1837.
24
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
bills was not issued. The exact amount
may never be determined,
but the best estimates place it between
$50,000 and $100,000.
Daniel P. Kidder believed that no more
than $5,000 in specie
capital was ever actually paid in,24
despite the fact that converts
were expected to lend their money to
the Lord, "or suffer the
curse of God."25
Cyrus Smalling, secretary to Smith at
Kirtland for a time, wrote
in 1841 that some $6,000 in specie was
collected through a frantic
appeal to the whole membership of the
sect. He charged that a
hundred or more heavy boxes, all alike,
were prepared and filled
with lead and shot. The specie was then
used as a top layer in
several of these, and those who
questioned the bank's soundness
were then shown these boxes and allowed
to infer that the others
were similarly filled with silver coin.26
It does not seem possible to
substantiate this rather fanciful tale.
The exact truth about the finances of
the bank venture will
probably never be known, for if there
are records surviving today,
they do not seem to be available. The
individuals and the or-
ganization were both heavily in debt,
and cash capital was simply
not to be had. The suggestion that the
notes be redeemed in real
estate was pathetic, for even Mormon
sources admit that frenzied
speculation had run wild: "Real
estate rose from 100 to 800 per
cent and in many cases more; notes,
deeds and mortgages passed
and repassed till all, or nearly all,
supposed they had become
wealthy."27
The whole of northern Ohio was involved
in a Florida-like real
estate boom. The state's population
grew sixty-two percent in the
thirties as compared to a national
average of thirty-two percent.
"City lots" were actually
sold practically all the way from Buffalo
along the lake shore to Toledo.28 The
vision was not distorted--
only the timing. A hundred and fifty
years were to be needed for
realization instead of six months.
24 Daniel P. Kidder, Mormonism and the Mormons (New York, 1842),
128.
25 Williams Brothers, History of Geauga and Lake Counties, 248.
26 Letter quoted in E. G. Lee, The Mormons; or Knavery Exposed (Philadelphia,
1841).
27 Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate, June 1, 1837.
28 Guy V. Salisbury, "The
Speculative Craze of '36," Publications of the Buffalo
Historical Society, IV (1896), 317-337.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 25
The temple itself, which stood legally
in the name of Smith,
always had a debt of between $15,000
and $20,000 on its $40,000
cost, and the constant transfer of
property had about the same effect,
in small, as it had in Florida in the
twenties; a completely unreal
set of values was built up, and thus
even the unliquid and inflated
real estate constituted no valid
backing for the issued bank notes.
None the less, the people accepted
them. In a frontier society
already flooded with wildcat bank
notes, when the newspapers were
studded with notices of counterfeits
and repudiated issues, the
Mormon notes did not seem conspicuously
worse than others. And
many an emigrant train was fitted out
with goods paid for with
"anti-banking" notes.
Gradually it dawned on many holders that
the skepticism which they applied to
the Mormon doctrines ought
to have been equally extended to their
notes.
The faith of those who had hoped that
notes issued practically
at the direct command of God himself
would be better than those
of more material-minded banks was
summarily dashed. An example
is given by J. H. Kennedy, who says a
Pittsburgh banker loaded a
satchel full of them and set off for
Kirtland for a personal in-
vestigation. He called on Rigdon and
Smith, who after a few
generalities as to the prosperity of
the Kirtland venture, replied
with a glowing account of the soundness
of the bank. The Pitts-
burgher expressed his pleasure, opened
his satchel, and asked that
the enclosed notes be redeemed as their
face specifically promised.
Rigdon promptly declined, saying that
the notes had been issued
"as a circulating medium for the
accommodation of the people,"
and that to redeem them in hard cash
would thwart that laudable
purpose. The Pittsburgh banker returned
home with all his notes,
and one more man, at least, knew they
were worthless.29
In August, Joseph Smith formally
renounced the bank in a state-
ment in the Messenger and Advocate, one
of the church's official
organs.30 The final crash
came in November 1837. The bank (or
anti-bank, as one prefers) closed its
doors and officially suspended
payment. The New York banks had
suspended specie payment in
29 Kennedy, Early Days of
Mormonism, 163.
30 Joseph Smith, History of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Lamoni,
Iowa, 1908).
26
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
May, six months before, and hundreds of
other banks were follow-
ing in their wake. So there is really
nothing extraordinary in the
Kirtland bank failure except its
intimate connection with the church.
This Smith tried to deny in his later
writings. But that did not
convince those who held worthless notes
signed by the prophet
himself and by Rigdon, one of his chief
administrative and spiritual
aides. Probably there was a special
bitterness among the losers of
the Kirtland bank in that many had
accepted its paper because of
their trust in its religious
connection. Thus distrust, anger, and
hatred, already prevalent, mounted
higher and higher against the
Saints.
The closing of the bank was the death
knell of the Kirtland
"stake." It was not the
cause, nor even the principal cause, but it
was the final notice that the
experiment was over. Smith tried
desperately to defend the bank failure,
claiming that it was due
to a defalcation of $25,000 by Warren
Parrish, a clerk.3l That
defense was not only rejected by the
holders of "anti-bank" paper
among the Gentiles, it was not even
acceptable to many within the
fold. The church was shaken by bitter
accusations against Smith
himself, by the rise of a
"reform" group, by unauthorized prophesies
and revelations, by widespread
apostasy, and by a general and
tumultuous uprising.
It is easy for church authorities to
blame the abandonment of
Kirtland on "persecution." It
is easy for non-church authorities to
blame it on the bank failure and the
economic situation at Kirtland.
But it must not be forgotten that the
church was at this very
moment shaken to its foundations by
internal dissension, and that
one of the soundest moves from a policy
standpoint was an actual
physical removal. A removal toward the
real Zion had always been
promised. A removal farther west where
real estate matters were
a bit less formal, would enable the
organization to do what so
many individuals did at that
time--shake off tangled and ruinous
affairs, and begin again. Finally, a
removal would automatically
separate the sheep from the goats, the
faithful from the apostate;
31 Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism, 164.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 27
for in a new hegira into the wilderness
of the West, the apostate
would seek no place.
Only great firmness on the part of
Smith, Rigdon, and Young
held the tottering church together. The
very temple itself was the
scene of wild tumults. During one such
session the elder Smith,
Joseph's father, accused Parrish of
irregularities regarding the bank.
Parrish, indignant, "dragged the
old gentleman from the pulpit."
William Smith, the patriarch's son and
brother of the prophet,
came to his father's rescue. While he
was carrying Parrish bodily
out of the temple, one of the
apostates, a supporter of Parrish,
threatened Smith with a sword-cane.32
That the prophet's supporters
in his own church could not prevent
such stormy episodes shows
to what a desperate pass the movement
had come.
Every opponent outside the church
seized the moment to press
every sort of legal claim, and the sheriff
became a daily visitor. He
was really no stranger to Kirtland, for
the Kirtland Mormons had
always been what is today called
"litigation-prone." Dr. Philastus
Hurlbut, the apostate enemy, was
accused of a plot to kill Smith,
but the somewhat bored court, finding
no particular evidence in
support, placed Hurlbut on $200 bond to
keep the peace. Then
Smith was accused of plotting to kill
Grandison Newell, an in-
veterate enemy of the Mormons, but
again there was no credible
evidence, and Smith was in turn placed
on a peace bond. In view
of the turn affairs took later on in
Missouri, these accusations look
more serious than they were on either
side; and partisans of either
side still take them seriously. The
fact remains that in neither case
was serious evidence presented that led
the courts to take a more
than perfunctory view of the
accusations.
The civil actions at the time of the
bank difficulties were more
serious and supported by more reliable
evidence. Smith, Rigdon,
and Whitney were all placed on $8,000
bond for failure to meet
a note given to the bank at
Painesville. Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery
as endorsers for one of the Mormon
commercial enterprises, had
judgment entered against them, and the
temple was mortgaged
32 John Henry Evans, One Hundred Years of Mormonism (Salt Lake City,
1909),
229.
28
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
against New York debts for merchandise
bought for the various
commercial enterprises at
Kirtland--stores, mills, and the like--all
of which turned out to be commercial
failures.
In March 1837 one S. D. Rounds filed an
information in the
Geauga County courts charging violation
of the banking laws, and
demanding a penalty of $1,000. The law
provided that informers
in such cases were to share in the
penalty money in the event
of conviction, and the motive of Rounds
may have been no higher
than the hope of making a few dollars
for himself. The Mormons
argued it was even lower, namely, to
destroy their church. Actually,
the bank officials were all arrested
under ordinary and due process
of law, bailed, and in October,
convicted. They appealed on the
ground that they were an association
not a bank, but in November
the bank closed and the accused persons
left the jurisdiction, with
the result that there was never any
final legal determination of
the matter.
Thirteen suits were brought against
Smith between June 1837
and April 1839 in an effort to collect
debts of $25,000, plus damages
of $35,000. The various leaders of the
Mormons were in debt for
sums estimated as high as $150,000.33
There were almost daily
suits for foreclosure of lands bought
but not paid for by individual
Saints or by the church itself.
A grandiose plan for an elaborate real
estate development to
be called Kirtland City never got
beyond registry of the plot. A
future city had been laid out with 32
streets, making 225 blocks
of 20 lots each--to be sold in exactly
the same way in which Boca
Raton was projected by Addison Mizner
in Florida a hundred years
later. But Kirtland City never got
beyond a hope and a dream.
Probably this projection is responsible
for the guess that one
intention of the Saints at Kirtland was
to make a lot of money in
real estate and then use it in
developing the real Zion in the West.
In this flurry of litigation the
prophet had to defend himself in
the mortgaged temple itself in long and
tumultuous sessions. This
he did with great resolution. There was
a wave of apostasy, and
Smith fought desperately to prevent the
whole organization from
33 Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 202.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 29
collapsing about his head. In this
furnace of controversy the metals
were being refined, and those who stuck
by Smith and his family
at that time were the hard core of
devotion which carried the sect
through the more terrible trials of
Missouri and the ultimate success
in Utah. Brigham Young, for example,
never wavered in his loyalty,
yet Young, always a man with a fine eye
for the practical, had
already departed for the West December
22, 1837. Early in January
of the next year there came a rumor
that Smith and Rigdon were
about to be served with a warrant on a
charge of fraud in con-
nection with the bank. The rumor
happened not to be true, but
since the accuser was said to be
Grandison Newell, their old and
implacable enemy, it seemed likely
enough, and at ten o'clock of
the bitterly cold night of January 12,
1838, Smith and Rigdon
secretly left Kirtland on horseback,
intent on getting as many miles
as possible between them and any
possible pursuit that might be
organized. There was none.
Smith wrote later that he fled "to
escape mob violence, which
was about to burst upon us under the
color of legal process."34
There is no evidence to support the suggestion
that Smith was in
danger of physical violence at the
time.
Two days later the printing house with
all its contents was sold
by the sheriff to one of the reform
opponents of Smith, and the
next night it burned to the ground. The
possibility that it was fired
by partisans of Smith is suggested by a
newspaper story at Cleveland.
"The Mormon Society of Kirtland is
breaking up," wrote this
scribe. "Smith and Rigdon, after
prophesying the destruction of the
town, left in the night. The Reformers
are in Possession of the
Temple, and have excluded the Smith and
Rigdon party."35
Though Smith and Young had left
Kirtland, the mass migration
did not take place until six months
afterward, in July. At that time
a caravan of more than five hundred men
and women left for
the West in a wagon-train called by the
church historians "The
Kirtland Camp." Their departure
was quite peaceable. The atmos-
34 Kennedy,
Early Days of Mormonism, 169, citing the Evening and Morning Star
(no date), an official organ of the
Mormon Church.
35 Cleveland Herald and
Gazette, January 25, 1838, quoted by Kennedy, Early Days
of Mormonism, 170.
30 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
phere at the time of this migration may
be recreated from a letter
written from Madison by C. E. Emery,
who had just arrived in the
Western Reserve, to parents in Andover,
New Hampshire.
After describing a rough trip along the
lake from Buffalo to
Madison and the meeting with relatives,
the author continued:
We visited the great Mormon Temple that
was built by Joseph Smith &
Sidney Rigdon two Mormon leaders. They
profess to have revalations [sic]
from the Lord and declared to the
people all around that the Lord had
given them the Land all around in the
vicinity of the Temple and that the
fullness of the Gentiles should be
brought in, for their use and benefit;
but they have proved themselves so
basely dishonest in their dealings that
they have been under the necessity of
leaveing [sic] their Temple and
Village. The leaders left in the night
in order to evade pursuit. Smith &
Rigdon with some of their followers
went on to Missourie [sic] when they
left Kirtland and many of their
followers has left; a few days since between
six and seven hundred more of them left
with seventy loaded waggons and
seventy Cows, all started in one day
together for the promised land.36
This impression is valuable, for the
newcomer was not embroiled
in preceding conflicts, and gave a
rather dispassionate report of
the state of feeling regarding this
"monument of Folly and ex-
travagance." It is significant
that the first difficulty cited to him
was the issue of property and the vague
claims to all the land and
property in the vicinity. No matter how
figuratively intended, such
talk did not reassure the Mormons'
neighbors, at Kirtland or
elsewhere.
There are bits of evidence that some
members of the early
Mormon community at Kirtland were not
highly regarded per.
sonally. Smith and Young always
insisted that their "persecution'
was due solely to religious grounds and
related to the principle
of freedom of thought. But there is
evidence that some of those
gathered at Kirtland were less than
admirable in their persona
relations with neighbors (in contrast
with the quite strict persona
rectitude of other sects like the
Amish, Mennonites, and Oneidans)
36 The letter is in the Western Reserve Historical Society, where nothing
is know
of the Emery family. The letter itself evidences people
of obvious intelligence an
cultivation, however. This letter has never been
published.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 31
Horace Greeley noted that a new sect
was always traduced and
decried, but he could not remember that
any of the others "was
ever generally represented and regarded
by the other sects of their
early days as thieves, robbers, and
murderers."37 Such beliefs as to
various individuals
"gathered" at Kirtland were common among
their neighbors, whether justified or
not.38
Within a few days of the departure of
the main body, the temple
and village of the Mormons became the
objects of sightseers'
curiosity. Some of the converts who did
not go west apostatized,
and a few drifted away under schismatic
leaders. Kirtland itself
was almost deserted until its houses
gradually filled up again to
resume the normal tenor of a much
smaller country village of fewer
than 1,000 people. It was not until
years later that the Reorganized
Church secured legal ownership of the
temple and began to conduct
it as it is still conducted today.
One of the elements that led to the
unpopularity of the Mormon
activities at Kirtland was the rumor
that polygamy was being
practiced there. The exact truth of
this is hard to determine, for
details of highly personal life are not
usually a matter of record or
even of common knowledge. Only later at
Nauvoo did Smith
publicly announce his divine revelation
commanding plural marriage,
spiritual wives, "sealing,"
and all that led to the later bitterness
at Salt Lake.
But whether polygamy as an institution
existed at Kirtland, it
is clear that some believed this to be
the case, or at least credited
rumors of a certain unorthodoxy in the
relationships of some of the
men and women at Kirtland. And men's
actions are based on what
they believe to be true, not
necessarily on what is true. So intimate
a question as to the exact time when
God told Smith that polygamy
was his commandment is difficult to
answer with precision. There
is some evidence that the first such
revelation was already made at
Kirtland in 1831, but that in view of
its explosive possibilities Smith
37 Horace Greeley, An Overland
Journey (New York, 1860), 214.
38 There are letters at the Western
Reserve Historical Society, unsigned and
therefore to be accepted only with
reserve, which accuse some of the Mormon com-
munity of sheep stealing and other
unneighborly acts.
32
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
did not generally reveal it then,
merely discussing it with a few of
his trusted Elders.39
In the first edition of Smith's Book
of Doctrine and Covenants,
there appears this statement:
"Inasmuch as this Church of Christ
has been reproached with the crime of
fornication and polygamy,
we declare that one man should have one
wife, and one woman one
husband, except in case of death, when
either is at liberty to marry
again."40 The fact that
such explicit denials and explanations were
made at all is pretty clear evidence
that people already believed
and were spreading the rumor that
polygamy was being practiced
at Kirtland. Such rumors, true or not,
can scarcely have added
anything to the popularity of the sect
among its strait-laced
neighbors.
The Mormon exodus from Kirtland is
often thought of as all
of a piece with the violent expulsions
from Missouri. It was not so.
The only physical violence that ever
marred the Kirtland episode
was not at Kirtland at all, but at
Hiram, and it occurred six years
before the mass exodus from Kirtland.
The incontrovertible facts are these:
the Mormons never expected
to stay in Kirtland indefinitely, Zion
being farther west. They left
it when conditions became
intolerable--when a combination of
financial collapse and internal
dissension made a complete uprooting
and new establishment absolutely
necessary.
Their physical property, their homes,
their farms, their stores
and industries, their very temple
itself, were all about to be lost
by foreclosure. Church authorities have
always described this as
"legal persecution," and
there is no doubt that some of the creditors,
like Grandison Newell, who boasted that
he "drove the Mormons
out of Kirtland," got special
pleasure out of enforcing their legal
rights. On the other hand, the eastern
merchants who had delivered
thousands of dollars' worth of goods
which were sold at the Mormon
stores, had a right to get such payment
as they could, without the
cry of persecution being raised. The
plain fact is that the Mormon
dissipated their physical
"stake" in a riot of speculative excess.
39 J. F. Gibbs, Lights and Shadows of
Mormonism (Salt Lake City, 1909), 98-10;
40 Quoted in Werner, Brigham Young, 96.
Gentile and Saint at Kirtland 33
Internal dissension had become so
bitter and general that good
tactics dictated a move westward where
a new beginning could be
made after shedding the weak and
wavering. The personnel of the
Kirtland experiment lacked a hard core
of devotion; the leadership
lacked experience. Those two elements
teamed together in sur-
viving the Missouri tragedy and
achieving the ultimate success in
Utah. Smith and Young were
"learning their trade" as leaders at
Kirtland, while those who like Rigdon
never learned the elements
of leadership were discarded.
Those are the immediate and practical
reasons for the trek from
Kirtland. But it is quite possible that
neither would have been com-
pelling had relations with the rest of
the community been normal.