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!"
(261)
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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.4 These
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.5 Tobacco
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.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the poor and needy among the faithful.6
The 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.7 Here
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."8 Since
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
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
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a success and changed Mormonism from
having almost entirely
a New England constituency to being a
fair picture of the com-
posite American melting pot. Again, in
Kirtland, Joseph had
planned the organization of the Mormon
ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Under Brigham the Mormon organization
performed almost flaw-
lessly. Kirtland was a stepping stone in
the development of the
two greatest of leaders as well as a way
station for Mormon insti-
tutions.
Polygamy, to many good Christians the
bugbear of Mormon-
ism, was not in evidence at Kirtland.
But persecution was. As
Joseph Smith's claims grew, opposition
became violent. The Mor-
mon interest in wordly matters, involved
Joseph Smith in a bank-
ing crash during the lean year of 1837.
Joseph's speed in quitting
Kirtland saved him for a later martyrdom
at Carthage, Illinois.
The Ohio anti-Mormon mobs were as
willing to wreak bloodshed
as were their colleagues in Missouri and
Illinois. The difference
lies in the comparative smallness and
weakness of the Mormon
community at Kirtland. The Mormons
departed as a group in
1838 for Missouri. All that remains is
their temple. The Kirt-
land phase of Mormonism illustrates the
fact that with a vital
organism, as the Mormon Church was from
1831 to 1838,
"Each Age is an age that is dying
Or one that is coming to birth."