1830-1831.
THE WESTWARD MOVE BEGINS--KIRTLAND--THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD
CONFERRED--JOSEPH GOES TO MISSOURI--ZION DEDICATED.
When the brethren had set out on their mission to the West, Joseph
busied himself in his work at Fayette. Men were coming to him from
time to time to learn what the Lord desired of them and through him
revelations were given for their benefit. Other subjects were being
revealed and among them were matters of great importance to the Church.
Joseph also began the translation of the Bible in order that the
scripture, unchanged, might be given the Saints.
In December Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge came to Fayette from
Kirtland to offer their services to the Lord. Edward Partridge had
heard the Gospel and believed, but had not been baptized. Joseph,
therefore, baptized him and ordained him an Elder. The word of the Lord
came unto Joseph calling these two men to labor in the ministry.
The Prophet was directed soon after this to leave off translating and
to spend his entire time in ministering to the Church and in preaching.
The Saints, who now numbered about seventy, in New York, were to leave
that State as soon as practicable and gather to Ohio. It was therefore
necessary for him to inspire them with faith for the trials of this
move and to give other honest souls a chance to join the Church.
On the 2nd of January, 1831, a conference was held at Fayette, being
the third since the Church was organized. It was a glorious time for
the assembled Saints, for besides the regular instruction a revelation
came from the Lord telling them that He would give them a land of
promise and that they should possess it eternally. He promised, too,
that He would come at a future day and rule as King.
According to the instruction of the Lord, Joseph set out from Fayette
in the latter part of January for Ohio. The Saints were to follow in
the spring, and it was necessary to find out the conditions and prepare
for them. He was accompanied by his wife and by Sidney Rigdon and
Edward Partridge. They all reached Kirtland in safety and immediately
after, on February 4th, 1831, according to a revelation, Joseph
ordained Edward Partridge to be the first Bishop in the Church.
The Prophet now made his home with Newel K. Whitney and occupied
himself in translating the scriptures, receiving revelation, discerning
and casting out false spirits and guiding the Church. Since the Prophet
obtained so many revelations now it might be well to describe how one
was given. Parley P. Pratt and others say that it was dictated by
Joseph to the person writing, slowly and distinctly, sentence after
sentence. When one part was spoken the Prophet paused until it was
written. If written correctly it seemed to vanish from his mind and
the next was spoken. If a mistake was made by the scribe, the Prophet
did not go on until it was corrected. There was no hesitation in going
forward, and no changes were made after the revelation was written.
A conference of the Church was held at Kirtland June 6, 1831, and all
the Elders and Saints that could be gathered together were present. The
Holy Ghost was made manifest in its workings upon the Prophet and many
of the Elders. The spirit of evil was also shown to be present, but as
soon as discerned it was rebuked in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
vanished. The High Priesthood, a degree of the Melchizedek higher than
the Elder, was conferred for the first time on a number of faithful men.
On the day after the Kirtland conference the Prophet was directed to
set apart a number of the Elders for missionary work. They were to
travel westward two by two until they reached Missouri, preaching
the Gospel on the way. It was promised that the next conference of
the Church would be held in Missouri on the land that the Lord had
appointed for Zion. About thirty Elders were called, only two of these
being sent eastward.
On the nineteenth day of June, 1831, Joseph left Kirtland for the West
in company with Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Edward Partridge, Joseph
Coe, W. W. Phelps, and A. S. Gilbert and wife. They crossed the State
of Ohio by stage and boats and took steamer from Cincinnati down the
Ohio river to Louisville, Kentucky. After a delay of three days they
again sailed down the Ohio to the Mississippi and up that river to St.
Louis. The party divided here; Joseph and Elders Partridge, Harris,
Phelps and Coe crossed Missouri to Independence, Jackson county, by
foot, and the others sailed up the Missouri river.
The meeting between Joseph and Oliver and the Elders with each was a
very happy one. For nine months they had been separated and now they
were united again, a thousand miles from where they parted. They saw
one another full of faith and zeal for the progress of the Lord's work,
and they wept with joy.
They stood upon the land of Zion, and realized that it was holy ground,
for here the new Jerusalem, the celestial city, shall be built. They
looked upon it, too, as the immediate gathering place of the Saints and
rejoiced at its goodliness. The land was a prairie of deep, fertile
soil and covered with a fragrant and many-colored growth of flowers.
Along the edges of the streams, timber in great abundance and variety
grew, and scattered among this was an underbrush and shrubbery that
bore grapes, nuts, crab-apples, persimmons and berries of all kinds.
The land was indeed beautiful, and was a fit gathering place for the
Saints. By their industry they would, if unmolested, build up a great
civilization there and make it indeed a Zion. The future seemed very
bright. Joseph and his companions knew that the Lord had promised the
land to His people as an eternal inheritance, but fortunately they did
not know of the deeds of violence, the murders and awful crimes to be
committed there before the Saints should build the holy city of peace.
August 2, 1831, under Joseph's direction, Sidney Rigdon dedicated the
land of Zion by prayer as the gathering place of the Saints, and at the
same time twelve men, in honor of the twelve tribes of Israel, carried
and set in place a log for the first house to be built there. This was
twelve miles west of Independence, about where Kansas City, Missouri,
now stands. On the following day Joseph dedicated the spot where the
temple is to be built, a little west of Independence. Eight men were
present.
The fifth conference of the Church was held, as the Lord had promised,
in the land of Zion. It was on the 4th of August. The congregation was
made up mainly of the Saints who had come from Colesville, New York,
led by Newel Knight.
On August 9th, the Prophet and ten Elders set out down the Missouri
river in canoes, but on the third day Elder W. W. Phelps, saw Satan in
a frightful form riding on the waters, and it was revealed to Joseph
that they should not trust themselves on the river but travel on land.
In company with Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon the Prophet reached
Kirtland, August 27th, having been absent a little over two months and
having traveled two thousand miles, much of the distance on foot.