Documents, Volume 2, Part 5 Introduction: Kirtland, Ohio, Fall 1832 and Winter 1832–1833
Part
5:
Kirtland, Ohio, Fall 1832 and Winter 1832–1833
On 12 September 1832, JS relocated his family from and
Alice (Elsa) Jacobs Johnson’s home in , Ohio, where
they had been living for a year, to ’s in ,
Ohio. JS used two upstairs rooms, soon known as the “translating
room” and the “council room,” for his work and for holding and
. JS dictated several revelations in these rooms in the closing months of 1832 and the first month of
1833, proclaiming the destruction that would precede the second advent of
Jesus Christ. These revelations instructed JS and other church leaders to warn the
world of the impending devastation and to prepare themselves through sanctification
and preaching the gospel. JS spent much of his time during these months trying to
heed such instructions.
In September 1832, a revelation directed to
travel to ,
Massachusetts, and
and , New York, to
warn the inhabitants of those cities.
JS accompanied Whitney on this
trip, leaving behind his wife , who was in the
advanced stages of pregnancy. JS and Whitney apparently departed
sometime in early
October. Although few records of their preaching in the
East survive, JS and Whitney met with Bishop Benjamin T.
Onderdonk of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of New
York and purchased goods for Whitney’s store. JS returned to Kirtland
on 6 November, arriving just
after his son was born.
Upon his
return, JS continued to work on the Bible
revision. He was also intrigued by newspaper reports of the
continuing cholera epidemic (which had progressed south and west
from the East Coast), of a plague afflicting
India, and of South
Carolina’s efforts to nullify federal tariffs passed
by Congress in 1828 and 1832. A later JS history suggests that JS
viewed these events as an escalation of “troubles among the nations”
and as a confirmation of the millenarian message in the revelations
dictated in this period.
The
revelations also addressed problems with church leaders in , whose correspondence continued to criticize
JS. These revelations instructed JS
and others to chastise those in Missouri for misconduct and to warn
them that their actions would bring disaster upon
unless repentance was forthcoming. In January 1833, convened a
council of those who had been present when a September 1832
revelation instructed “all those to whom the kingdom has
been given” to call their “brethren in Zion” to repent for their
“rebellion” against JS. Acting on these
directions, the council, consisting of twelve , issued a written reprimand to the Missouri , and JS wrote additional letters instructing
Missouri leaders to repent. Leadership problems
existed in as well; , one of JS’s
counselors, was excommunicated from the church in December 1832. To replace
Gause, JS appointed , who thereafter served as both scribe and
counselor along with .
In December 1832, a revelation instructed JS and a conference
of high priests to begin a “” and to build a “” in . If the Saints obeyed these directives, JS wrote
in a letter to , God would
visit them “from the heavens to honor us with his own
presence.” Although construction on the house of God would
not begin until later in 1833, the School of the Prophets was inaugurated in
January 1833 as a place for “the
first labourers, in this last kingdom” to prepare and sanctify
themselves and to learn about the gospel and secular subjects. According to the minutes of the first meeting of the school, which
constitute the final document in this volume, JS washed the feet of
the participants and pronounced them “clean from the blood of this
generation.”
Part 5
of this volume contains nineteen documents, consisting of
revelations, meeting minutes, and correspondence. Except for a letter
JS wrote to from , the original documents were produced in and were inscribed by or
.