Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 58-59 : Dr. Alexander L. Baugh Part I

Episode Date: May 22, 2021

What happens to the Saints as they arrive in Missouri and expect Zion? Do we come to Zion or build it? Dr. Alexander Baugh is the consummate Missouri historian and helps set the stage for the Saints�� arrival and eventual expulsion from the state. This episode will remind us what the Lord teaches us when our expectations don’t meet reality and what happens after “much tribulation.”Show notes: https://followhim.co/episodesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcast

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith and I'm John by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh, we want to learn and laugh with you. As together we follow him. Hello and welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith and I'm here with my co-host, the Unequaled John, by the way. Welcome, John. It's always fun to hear the new adjective.

I want to mention to everybody listening that you can find us on social media, on Instagram and Facebook. You can get show notes, transcripts, any references for quotes from our episodes on followhim.co, not followhim.com, but followhim.co. You can rate and review the podcast. And then I, you know, I failed to mention something early on, John, that I wanted to mention. We have some music that comes in when we start our episodes and then finishes our episodes. And I never mentioned that that is a song composed by Marshall MacDonald, one of my good friends out of seminaries and institutes. So Marshall MacDonald, look him up, he's just a talented,

talented musician. Well, John, I'm pretty excited for today. I'm excited for every episode to be honest, but today I've been looking forward to for a long time. Who's with us today? Who's our excellent? Oh, I'm I'm excited to I remember when I used to go to faculty meetings and the booming amen said after every prayer was from brother Baw and it it to me it was it was not just something to say after the prayer It was it it was like a testimony when brother B said, Amen. So I'll admit or read his bio here. Alexander L. Baugh is professor and chair of the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, where he has been full-time faculty member since 1995. He received his bachelor's from Utah State University, his master's in PhD degrees from

Brigham Young University. He specializes in researching and writing about the Missouri period of early church history, 1831 to 1839. He's the author editor or co-editor of ten books, including three volumes of the document series of the Joseph Smith papers, which are volumes 45 and 6. He's also the past editor of Mormon Historical Studies and Past Co-Director of Research for the BYU Religious Studies Center. He's married to the former Susan Johnson, they're the parents of five children. Alex and his wife reside in Highland, Utah and brother Bob welcome to our podcast today. Thanks for being with us.

Thank you so much. I've really Look, I've been looking forward to this and Anytime we talk about Missouri I'm in I like to tell my students gosh, it has an ancient past it has a more current history, if you will, with the settlement of the settlements of the saints in Missouri in the decade of the 1830s, but it has a glorious future. That's a pretty special place.

All of the places where the saints lived in Dwealt is remarkable, is remarkable, but Missouri's hits right at home. So, thanks for giving me this opportunity to share. We're so happy to have you. Now, I have a couple of things to say. One, no one should enjoy cemeteries as much as Alex Baugh, but I'll tell you this, John, as we walk through a couple Missouri cemeteries, he could not only point out the saints, he could point out those who lived during the time of the saints and how they felt about the latter day saints. So he'd say, oh, yeah, that guy, he was a friend of the church. That one over there. No, he was not. He did not like the truth. And he's told me stories about his children saying, another cemetery really, dad. So true. So true. He not only knows the history, but he's felt it. He puts himself in the

position of these people. And not only not only the saints, but also their enemies, he'll put himself in those positions and say, you know, this, he's very merciful to everyone in history because he says, well, think about this, you know, he's got this group of people moving in, you're nervous about what, you know, that once they get numbers, what's going to happen. And I think John, you said it earlier, you learn, you learn to, you know, to be more nuanced in your history when you learn it from Alex Bob, but I'll tell you one experience and then I'll probably share more later.

I might share two of them actually. Two that I've had great impact on me. One is we were in winter quarters, Alex, you won't remember this, but we were in winter quarters, Nebraska. We were going through the cemetery there, of course. And you told me about Stillman Pond. And he's someone we'll talk probably a little bit later in the year here. But Stillman Pond's a man who lost, I think it was eight family members in winter quarters.

And Alex was in tears, you know, and he's an emotional guy, but he's not in tears all the time. And he said, I want to be a good man. I want to be righteous, but I am no stillman pond. But there's a grave of Amanda Barnes Smith there in Logan. And you go there every year. It's actually Richmond. Oh, Richmond. Yeah, yeah.

You go there every year, don't you? On Memorial Day, we go up to my family in Logan and my wife's got have family in Hyde Park. We make a quick stop in Smithfield and then we go to Richmond where a mandibar in Smith died and I make sure she has a rose on her grave. She's my heroine of the restoration. And I've kind of put the pressure on any of her posterity. She sacrificed, like Stillman pond, in ways we just don't understand.

And I tell them, if you're not like, if you don't embrace what your great great-grandmother sacrificed so much for, you need to change. Re-think some things. Yeah, so anyway, thanks for sharing that. But let's jump into this week's lesson. This week we're studying sections 58 and 59, both received in August of 1831 in Zion Jackson County, Missouri. So Alex, we're going to kind of let you go here, but I was hoping that we could back up a bit, remind everyone listening what brought Joseph Smith and his

and some of the members to Missouri because not all of them go yet. And what led up to these two sections? Well, quite frankly, we've got to go to the Book of Mormon just for a few minutes in the Savior's discourse to the Nephites in 3rd Nephi 21. He talks about the future inhabitants of this land, the Gentiles and so on. And then if you look in verse 22, but if they will repent, speaking of those in the latter days, and harken unto my words, and harden out their hearts,

I will establish my church among them. They shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among the remnant of Jacob unto whom I've given this land for their inheritance. And look at the next verse, and they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and as also as many of the House of Israel I shall come, that they may build a city which shall be called the New Jerusalem. That's a future prophecy by the Savior.

Of course, we have a lot of prophecies about Zion, but there's the actual mention of a New Jerusalem, and then I think it's really interesting how Moronais filling in for his dad and translated the book Beether for us, and in Ether 13, what does he mention? He kind of takes off just for a few moments and says, I've got to talk about the prophecy of this great prophet, Ether, and look at what he says. Well, it's 12 verses, but anyway, he says down here in verse three, talking about, well, verse two,

the choice land above all other lands, the Western hemisphere, so on so forth. And then he says, and that it was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord, the Holy Therese saw the days of Christ, and he spate concerning New Jerusalem upon this land. If I was Joseph Smith, that just had to resonate. What is this? Something about this land and something about this new Jerusalem. And it stuck in his brain, and I'm sure it did all over Caldary's too,

is taking the, is transcribing this. Let's jump way ahead. And you've talked about this, but in DNC section 28 the church is now what six months old and the book of what coffees of the book of order are out there and people are reading it and higher and page comes up with an idea that he can have some of his own revelations. And I think we have a clue as to what those revelations were. He's read about what we just talked about. And he's in the book of Mormon. There's no question he has as others, as others. And so what is he reading?

Well, what's about this new Jerusalem? And what does DNC 289 say? There's no one who knows where the new Jerusalem is, but it shall be revealed here after. I think we can say he was proposing some places where that might be, and he's not right. And sure enough, something's being generated in the minds of the people about this glorious New Jerusalem. And then let's just skip a little bit more. In December of 1830, Joseph is doing his revision of the Bible, of course, started in June. But in December, he gives us Moses chapter 7. And who's it about? It's about Enic and his city and how they obtained heaven.

Let's go to Moses 7 and righteousness will I send out of heaven and truth will send forth out of the earth to bear testimony of mine only be gotten so on so forth. And then he says down here that he'll gather his elect from the four quarters of the earth unto a place which I shall prepare in holy city that my people may gird up their loins and be looking forth the time of my coming for there shall be my tabernacle and it shall be called Zion a new Jerusalem. Wow, this is just coming to Joseph's mind, all these ideas or thoughts about this holy city. And then, of course, who has he sent there just recently right after the conference in September,

he sends Oliver Caldry, Peter Whitmer, Jr. Ziba. I like to say Ziba Ziba, Ziba Peterson. And Parley P. Pratt, they're down there. Well, why are they going down there? Well, again, they're told that the location in section 28 that the location design was on the borders by the Lamanites. So all of these things are coming together and the saints are, of course, by this time they're planning to move, which you've talked about, probably just a week ago, the saints are now

asked and commanded actually to move to Ohio, which they do the following spring, April and May. which they do the following spring, April and May, and then they have this huge conference, what I say huge, important conference, not many there, but enough to hold a conference, and in section 52, what does Joseph get in the opening verses? Again, by this time, Parley Pratt has come back from Missouri.

So, Joel, did the other three stay there? Yes, and of course, they picked up Frederick G Williams. Oh, okay, yeah, he's a convert. They wanted to go. We haven't heard that story yet. Yeah, so he's, he wanted to go with them after his conversion in Ohio. And so there's really five at that point.

And the Joseph didn't know it at the time when he went down there with them, but because they were unsuccessful, they hurry and send Parley P. Pratt back to Ohio to try to report to Joseph that we've gotten kicked off the land. We can't reach to the laymenites, but they just hang tight down there. Why couldn't they teach? They went over across out of the United States, right? They crossed over the river out of the United States to go teach these Native American tribes, and they're there for what, like a day? Not very long.

At St. Louis, they should have stopped in to William Clark's office, and William Clark was the superintendent of Indian affairs who was in that same William Clark, Lewis and Clark, okay? Same guy, same guy 24 years later. And he's supervising that now. There's probably evidence he was in Washington, DC, but they should have, they should have at least checked in with the department offices and gotten permission, which they did not get. Maybe they just didn't know it, but they continued on. They arrived in January,

terrible time of year, but there was an Indian agent out there by the name of Robert Cummins, and they spent some time on the other side of the United States in Territory Border in a little Methodist Episcopalian mission. A couple of them go over to try to begin, and they realize they're stepping on toes of some of the other religions who are trying to teach to the Indians. But so they went over across the Kansas River to the Delaware tribe. There was no one proselytizing to them, and then Cummins found out about it and he said who are these guys? I've never heard of these Mormonites. That's what they were kind of referred to and basically caught up with them and eventually told them if you

don't leave you'll be I'll put you in the brig at Fort Levinworth right there on the border. So so they you don't have that you don't have the right paperwork. Yeah they didn't have the right paperwork. Yeah, they didn't have the paperwork. Now what's interesting is, Parley Pratt writes a letter to try to rectify their mistake and he stops in St. Louis to try to see if they could still get permission.

And apparently it was unsuccessful and that's when he headed back all the way to Ohio. So they just, they didn't look out. But the good thing is after they were not permitted to go on there with, didn't have the proper paperwork as you mentioned, they had converted a family about nine, ten miles west of independence, the family of Joshua Lewis and this is where they will actually headquarter and begin to preach the gospel in Jackson County. They also went over to Lafayette County. We know Zibba Peterson went over there and they had some success in baptizing some people in Lafayette County

just to the east there. So that's where they're staying when Joseph now is going to come down because why is he coming section 52 versus Two and three oh, this was the missionaries the pairs right? This is that section. Yeah, all the pairs in the missionaries So he said I'll make no one unto you. I'm reading section 52 verse 2 Saying I Lord will make known unto you that I what that I will That you shall do from this time until the next conference which should be held in Missouri. I want you to go down and hold a conference in Missouri Upon the land which I consecrate unto my people which are a remnant of Jacob and those who are heirs according to the covenant sounds kind of like, again, Either and Thirnefa. Wherefore barely I stand to you let my servants Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sinney, Rigg, and take their

journey as soon as preparations can be made to leave their homes and journey to the land of Missouri. And in as much as they are faithful unto me, it shall be made known unto them what they shall do. So Lord kept that, he didn't tell them exactly what they were going to do, but I want you to go. And then like you said Hank, he calls 14 pairs of missionaries, 28 missionaries to say, okay, we got to have a conference, but we got to have people there to have it. Okay, we got to have a conference where we got to have people there to have it. So let's go down and immediately start making preparations and actually a small group left on the 14th of June,

just about a week later. This was June 6th, by the way. And then Joseph goes with, well, let me fill in, but I know you've probably talked about this, but of course we get in Section 53, they said, well, we need outgern on Sydney Gilbert to go down there. And he's going to get to take his wife at Section 53, 54. We've got the Colesville branch who's got a problem over there in just outside a fair port,

Payne'sville, and in Thompson, they're actually in Thompson, but it's out in Ohio. In Ohio, there's 13 miles from from from Kirtland. And Coply wants his land back. They had settled on that as you've discussed. So let's send the entire Colesville branch down. And then he says in section 50, 50, 50. By the way, can we mention this?

Who is Sidney Gilbert? That's something we didn't get to talk about last time. Is he partners with? Yeah, he's a business partner with Nuel K. Whitney. He's a finance guy. He knows how to do books. And he's really good. And he will be the agent down in Missouri to Edward Partridge. There's our

one to tandem. The bishop will receive kind of the ecclesiastical aspects, but Gilbert will do the business executive secretary. He's the Ward clerk. There you go. He's all of the above finance clerk executive secretary. He's all of them. He can do it all. That's all that we mentioned him. So he gets he gets sent down there. And then of course we have the Colesville branch instructed to go down there in section 54. And then who who appears on the scene right at the right time, good old W. Felps and he's

ready now to be baptized. He tell us about him. He's someone we, we, we had, we covered so much last time we didn't get to talk about all these individuals. So I know. Okay. Catch up. Well, just briefly, he had been introduced to the gospel in the area of Palmyra in Canada,

Gua. In fact, he was a, a printer, a newspaper editor, and he, it took him a while, but he finally decided to bag his career and join the saints. And I'll tell you, if there's anybody who is just absolutely brilliant, it was Phelps. This man, his IQ, sometimes our students and people think these early-latter-day saints are not very bright. Oh my gosh. Phelps. Yeah. Phelps is absolutely brilliant. Now, part of the problem is he kind of knows it. And so he he's not afraid to

kind of tell everybody I'm you know, when he walks in the room, he knows he's the smartest in the room and probably saw does everybody else, but he kind of flaunted it and you can kind of see that in the revelations. But he's just, but we needed him. He's a newspaper editor and he's going to go down there. In fact, that's what Lord tells him in Section 55. We want you to go down there because we want you to help with the printing operations where we're planning on, we're here in Ohio, but the idea was printing operations where we're going to we're planning on we're here in Ohio, but the idea was we need to get things going in Missouri. So Alex, I'm so glad you mentioned that because there is

a myth out there that these early members, the witnesses, you know, of the Book of Mormon, we're kind of these backwards type and nothing that's just absolutely that's just not true. Uh-huh. City Gilbert's a financial guy. You got knew, okay, Whitney, a very successful businessman. You've got Edward Partridge, a very successful businessman. You've got Sydney Rigden, who is a script or a creature. Yeah, I just read something about him recently about how brilliant he was. And he's even told in Section 55 to write books for the children in the schools and everything.

And this one of the things that I'm glad Hank brought it up because I just think that the people that that decided to follow Joseph Smith was with his three years of formal education. They were not gullible people. They these were the Orson Prats and the and the guys like WWFelves. They they were smart. And I think they got their testimonies, probably had their hearts softened by reading the book of Mormon and go, there's no way he could have come up with this on his own. Yeah, they truly saw Joseph as the Sarah Revolate,

Prophet Sarah Revolate, but these guys probably knew more in some ways of biblical teachings than Joseph Smith. Now not to say he's not tutored because he is and Joseph is really good. But they know he's the one that to receive the revelation but and Joseph let him do it all the time. I mean, he lets them always take a center stage, let them do the preaching.

He knows they have gifts and he lets them do it. Now he sometimes has to correct him like, you know, Orson Heide in 1843 where he's, he lets them do it. Now, he sometimes has to correct him, like, you know, Orson Heiden 18, what, 43, where he's over in Raymas and said, well, I, you, you, you talked this morning, but you didn't quite get it right. But, but, but he, he, he says he wants them to be involved. Yeah, no question about it.

This is a, a church for everyone. And he, he knows that they, this is how you build leadership too is give them responsibility and opportunity there. It's WWE, Phelps and Joseph are going to have an interesting relationship over the next decade. You know what 13 years until Joseph's death, he and William are going to go a little back and forth. Yep. From friends to enemies, back to friends to, and W.W. Phelps is going to end up writing praise to the man. Yeah. His poetry is just absolutely superb, so touching. I mean, how firm a foundation. I mean, you can go through and get all the hymns, just a gifted, gifted writer. And of course, it was called Joseph the Prophet, but it's now a praise to the man. He wrote that and that

appeared in the August first issue of the times and seasons after the martyrdom. But Fels is a brilliant, brilliant, wonderful man. And, but he had his, his shortcomings as we do all the, there, it's important that we talk about both sides of that because here, we have someone here who knows both their strengths and maybe their weaknesses. So, and so we finally got all these people put together. So if you, you count them all up, there's 29 men and one woman and the one woman is Elizabeth, that's Aljorn on Cindy Gilbert's wife. And so these are the ones that the Lord is specifically saying, let's get down to Missouri and hold this conference. And I don't think Joseph

knew exactly what was going to happen. He just said, all, you know, what Lord said in verse three. and it happened. He just said, all, you know, what Lord said in, in verse three. Let's go. Now, let's go and, and, or verse four. And once you're there, it'll be made known unto you, what you should do. So, Joseph leaves on the 19th. There's eight in his, in his group. That would consist of Joseph, Sidney, Edward, Partridge, and Martin Harris, and then Aldrin on Sidney Gilbert and his wife Elizabeth, and then WWFelps, and a member that most people haven't heard of is Joseph Co. Unfortunately, he did not remain faithful to the church in Ohio, but nonetheless, there's eight of the 30 going on the 19th, and it takes them about a month to get there. They actually stopped in independence. There's no question he did. But as I mentioned to you, the missionaries of the Lamanites may have met them in

independence, but they've been camped out or staying with the Joshua Lewis family in caught township, it's called today. It's about 35th and South 35th in Kansas City. I don't know if you remember going there. Yeah. It was kind of a rough neighborhood today, but that's where the church is kind of going to be headquartered because that's where they're going to gather too.

So Joshua Lewis had 28 acres of land there, and maybe we can talk about this a little bit, but he's got, he's squatters rights. This land has not come up for sale yet, but he's kind of squatted to make sure that he has some ownership once that government sells that land to the, it opens it up to.

So it's not like squatter today, it's not illegal. No, no, no. You go to your like home setting. Yeah, home setting. Exactly. Now in Caldwell County, we call it preemption rights. You'd actually go and file out what we call a preemption claim. You could get up to 160 acres. You didn't have to pay for it. And then once that land came for sale by the federal government after it was surveyed and everything, then you had first rights to the property. And that plays into the temple property, which we'll need to talk about. Okay. So anyway, so there he is. And you've you've you've already mentioned it in your previous You've already mentioned it in your previous broadcast there, your podcast, but on July 20th, he's in independence.

There's no question. He's probably checking things out and going, okay, and what is he here and receive from the Lord in that marvelous revelation? Verse 3. This is section 57, right? Yeah. Well, we could go to verse 1 actually. He tells him, thank you for coming.

You're doing what you're supposed to do. And this is the place I've consecrated. You've read about it. You've seen the prophecies. You're here. Verse 2, this is the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion. And thus, say, Lord, your God, if you'll receive wisdom, this is the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion. And thus, say it, Lord, your God, if you'll receive wisdom, here is wisdom.

Behold the place which is now called independence. Is the center place and a spot for the temple is lying westward upon a lot, which is not far from the courthouse. So, Lord gave him a little bearings there. And it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out, okay, there's a few taverns and you know, a few mercantile businesses and so on, but right in the center of town is a two-story brick courthouse. And today, if you've been there, and I think you have, John, and Hank, I know I was with you, that's actually the third courthouse on that property,

but it's on the same lot that the original courthouse was there. Joseph goes, okay, there's the courthouse and he says, well, it's not far from that spot. It's on a spot lying westward and it's about a half mile off the Old West Port Road or Santa Fe Trail. This is the wind dependence is the last major, and it's not even really a major town, for the individuals who's engaged in the Santa Fe trade.

So, and that's having, that's having out of the country, the Santa Fe trade, right? Once you break over into the Kansas, you're in Indian territory and you have to, you know, next stop, Santa Fe Trail. Yep, once you break over into the Kansas, you're in Indian territory and you have to, you know, next stop, Santa Fe. So for those who have been there, isn't there by the Courthouse a marker that says, this is the beginning of three trails.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah. The Oregon Trail and, and technically, you could say the California Trail and the Mormon Trail and then the Santa Faye Trail. So I wanted to read something really quick if you don't mind as we, as the Lord kind of declares this spot, independence.

I've told you about this Alex and I was, you know, I'm, I'm no historian by any means, but I was reading a book written by David McCola on Harry Truman. Yeah. I really like David McCola. He's not a Latter-day saint, but I remember President Hinckley saying, oh, he just loves reading David McCola. So I thought, I need to read this too.

It was years and years ago. And wouldn't you know it? The very first chapter is on where Harry Truman grew up, which is Jackson County, Missouri. And, you know, so I'm reading this from a purely historical standpoint. And this is what he says, as he describes independence, he says, it was the land that the people came for.

The high rolling fertile, open country of Jackson County with its clear springs and two considerable rivers, the little blue and the blue. Every essential was at hand limestone quarries, splendid bluegrass, bluegrass pastures, ample timber where the creeks and the rivers ran. They counted hickory, ash, elm, sycamore, willow, poplar, cottonwood, and oak in three or four varieties, walnut. The most prized and was the most abundant. It was land beautiful to sea, rising and falling in broad swells and giving away to long horizons. Prairie grass

was high in green wildflowers wild herbs, metal rose, turtlehead, snake root, wolfberry. I don't know what any of these are. Thimbleweed grew in fragrant profusion everywhere. Now one more paragraph to cut through the grass with a plow took six to eight yoke of oxen, but beneath the crust, the dark prairie soil could be two to six feet deep. In places along the river bottoms, it was 20 feet deep. Now, listen to this. This is McCola quoting a guidebook author. He says, Josiah Greg, the guidebook author, having seen all the country from the Missouri to the Rio Grande declared the rich and beautiful uplands in the vicinity of independence might well be denominated the garden spot of the far west.

Yeah. And that's very powerful. And McCulloch says it like nobody else. Right. Yeah. He is really true. What he said is true. That soil is as dark and rich as you can imagine. And it goes deep, deep, deep.

Alex, what could have Joseph Smith known about Independence, Missouri being from my run New York? I hear you. What would make him in his mind choose independent? You know, people say, oh, Joseph Smith, he's not a prophet. Why in the world choose independence, Missouri? Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. He never would have had it not been for revelation. Right. It just, it was unknown to him.

I'm sure he may have never even heard of it. Save, you know, until this time. Not that he wouldn't have been informed in some ways. But I do have to say, unfortunately, for those who do arrive, some were not as optimistic about their rights. I wish they would have been a McCola. Yeah. Because it was, now, now, in some areas, there wasn't timber as much. And this is going to cause a little bit of problem when the saints are up in Caldwell County They they need some timber for for farm for farm homes and things, but yeah, it's it's pretty productive soil Edward Partridge is one of those who says really isn't he one of those that yeah, he was not that impressed now

He's you know, we're more sophisticated Hatter from Painsville and Yeah, he was not that impressed. Now, he's, you know, our more sophisticated hadder from Payne'sville. And, you know, and he was a little bit, well, the real problem was, he wasn't as impressed as I think Joseph was hopeful for. At the same time, he felt like he should purchase property that Joseph wanted certain properties purchased and he was of the opposite opinion.

And so that caused that rift. And you can see it in the revelation. We can talk about that. But he humbled himself pretty quick. And he is one, and he writes his wife on the fifth, well, it's a letter that takes three days to write, August 56 and 7th. He acknowledges his error. And he said, I've been reprimanded. I think I have the quote here. Yeah, he says, you know, I stand

in an important station. I'm the bishop down here. And as I'm occasionally chastened, I sometimes feel as though I must fall, not to give up the cause, but I fear my station is above what I can perform to the acceptance of my heavenly Father. There's a humble man. He disagreed with Joseph and did so quite adamantly, but then realized his error. And he said, I don't even know if I can do this. I'm supposed to be the bishop down. Dr. Heward told us a little bit about that Dr. Heward told us a little bit about that conflict between he and Joseph and how Ezra Booth got more offended than Edward Partridge, you know, about that fight. So you know, these are, they have their failings, but boy, when you see them repent and change and immediately go, you know, Joseph's the prophet, I was wrong.

That takes a big heart. They didn't grow up in the church. They were members for a few months, you know, and brother, bought, when you're there by that courthouse, there's, I think, to the west of, I have a picture of the Gilbert Whitney and Company store right there.

And I'd always wondered, is that Sydney Gilbert, his ancestors, or is that store just named after him? Yes. And the people who owned the store are very much aware that that was where the site of the second storehouse was for the church. Now, the first one was a couple blocks to the east Edward Partridge purchased that property for the storehouse in 1832. So, they've been there a couple of months. Gilbert moves his family in there, and then there's a storehouse to the side of it. And then they find this other property

that's right across the street. It was more of the business center of town. And so Sidney Gilbert moves the storehouse to that place. And that's the one where in 1833, they're gonna ransack it. And you know, he asks them, please don't destroy anything. I'll close it. You know, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, by the city of independence to just about a block south. And it's there today. And it's just a log home, log home looking home.

And interestingly enough, while they're building the new courthouse in 1932, 33 right in there, our president, Harry Truman, temporarily puts his offices in that house for a short time. So it's not a Mormon-owned and when I say Mormon, I think I should say this is the historical term we can use during this period because that's what we were known as. I'm not being, I adhere to President Nelson's clarion call to refer to the name of the church by its name, but in terms of historical understanding,

we have to kind of sometimes go with the name of our, the name they knew us by. Yeah, that's what we were called in the day. The Mormons were coming. They were here. You used to turn Mormonites before, like that others were using, you know. And they shortened it to Mormons. So we can go with that. But again, today we need to be very up front with who we are. And again, our church has gone through three different names. So

they're actually the Church of Christ, of course, until May of 1834, and then were the Church of the Latter-day Saints until April, or July 8, 1838, and then we have Section 115. So we transition the name even in those first years there. So Harry Truman, by the way, I don't think we mentioned this, he becomes,. He's like a store clerk and then it becomes a judge And that's why he's using the courthouse so when they're building a new courthouse. He has to move out for a bit Boy you you have got an a grade today Hank for good. I'm a good student. There's your there's your 20th century Jackson County historian now And I got to hear this. When Joseph and the other

man in city Gilbert and his wife when they get there, what are, how do they describe the residents of Jackson County Missouri? Because this, this becomes an important, I think who is it later Alex that said, if there were ever two groups of people who were not meant to live together, it was these two groups. In the messenger and advocate, Joseph later writes that these people were like a century behind the times. Right. And I have to say they had some educated bright people. Don't get me wrong.

But there was, you know, this was kind of a rough breed. And then of course, there's evidence that we have fugitives coming here as well. They're escaping, right? Try to escape. And if, you know, a federal marshal comes up the river, they can just pop over in the Indian territory for a few days, get out of the country. And once they go back down the river, they're back in town in independence, with their rough people. And here comes these Latter-day Saints, they're from the North East.

Yeah, right. So exactly. Yeah, we educated, they can read and write, they wear shoes. I would like to say we're essentially a little bit of cut above most of them, but again, there were those, I mean, bogs is no slouch. He's a bright fellow. There's good and educated people,

but there's a lot of, I don't know, I just hate to label our Heavenly Father's children, but riff raft sometimes. But we did have a few of our own that were not as educated. I mean, there's poor Porter Rockwell, you know, he didn't know how to write and he had to sign his name with an X. So we had our share of less educated, but it was just, I'd like to always say it's like oil and water. They just didn't, we didn't mix. And, and, and of course, there's so many factors involved in their opposition to us. It just wasn't going to work out very well. We're going to try. In fact, the Lord says in this revelation we're going to talk about, it obeyed the laws of the land and tried to do your very best. So, okay. Well, I did want to just make the note then. I think it might have surprised Joseph Smith again just referring back to section 57.

I think he wanted an understanding of what they were to do, but then all of a sudden kind of out of nowhere, the Lord says in a spot for the temple. Temple. Oh my goodness. Now we haven't even, we haven't even got a real building yet. We do have Isaac Morley's property up there in Kirkland with the school house, but you mentioned Temple. I think that probably, Joseph had no, well, he has a little concept.

Of course, he's read the Book of Mormon. He's translated, he knows the ancient knee fights and we had a church and we had synagogues in Israel, but Temple, wow, this is new to me. We don't even have a ward house yet. That's got to be eye opening to Joseph. That's the 20th. Now I know we're kind of building up to that, but in the meantime, so we know something about that. Now, we're going to have to try to, if he's going to

dedicate it, which I think he understands, this is what he's going to do. He's going to, it's coming to him. If we have a spot, then we need to find out where it is, and then hopefully purchase it, if we can, but there's no sale going on. So let me come back to that one. Oh, Alex, I was gonna mention one thing. I forgot about this. When Joseph Smith says, these people are 100 years behind the times.

You've got to realize what the times are. I was reading this week in preparation. And 1831 is the time you see the first horse drawn bus in New York City. So that's the times. So when these people are 100 years behind the times as Joseph Smith says, you got to get that kind of right in your head of, well, he's talking primitive. And part of it is just the fact this is such a remote area.

Yeah. St. Louis is a good, you know, it's a good site city. It's been around a long time. But we're talking 250 miles west of that. And like I say, you step over the Missouri border, you're in Indian territory, you're in the frontier. You are frontier all the way. And Lewis and Clark was just two decades before this. Yeah. We took a picture of a of our Jackson County pioneers and it was fun to see corporal little burn W bogs in the as a soldier of the war of 1812 monument there for soldiers. They got a lot of monuments because of course they tried to try

to honor everybody who's anybody in, you know, or or or history. There's a lieutenant Joseph Boggs, Pennsylvania, it says is a revolutionary soldier. And then you'll find a corporal little burn W. Boggs. It looks like Kentucky soldiers of the war of 1812. Yeah. I don't know if our listeners know this, but Borg's is in independence when the four missionaries get there and doesn't one of them Mendisuit or something. Oh, doesn't he have Mary Elizabeth Rollins tend his kids or something? Yes, that you're both right

Eventually Peter Whitmer Jr. was a tailor and he had a tailor shop. I think we could say above the the mercantile store of of the libern box. And Mary Elizabeth Rollins, lighter, lighter, does say how of course he liked her and said, you know, if you'll you'll stay with me, I'll take care of you and you don't have to be a Mormon and you know kind of thing. And she of course, she was deeply committed to the gospel. But so he has his, he has his interplay and interactions with a number of later things there. Yeah, there's no question. And then he becomes governor later.

He's actually a lieutenant governor in 32. So while the moderates say pretty sure. Yes, he's elected and he's from the west, of course. And the governor elected in 1832 is Daniel Duncklin. And but Duncklin is on one term governor. And then in 1836, Boggs, the Lieutenant Governor, runs for the governor. So it was kind of one of those kind of political arrangements where you can kind of get the people right in the right office for you, the right people you want, if you can get one from the West and also one from the East, meaning St. Louis and also the Western part of the state. So what happens August 1831, Joseph's there.

Well, if I could pick up just on, let you know that on the 26th of July, July, here comes the 24 members of the Colesville branch. Now they took a little easier route. If I could say it that way, they went on steamboats. They came down the Ohio up the Mississippi and then got another boat and then came up on a steamer and got to the independence landing. Then they would have had to take flat boats. You mentioned the Blue River. They would have come right up the Blue River on flat boats. Then they were very close to the Joshua Lewis property and there they of course had the they were united now with the profit and his companions and and the Joshua Lewis family. So now we've got kind of a core group of people and and some of the other missionaries are starting to get there. As you'll know

from the next the next discussion some of them are going to get there. As you'll know from the next discussion, some of them are going to be heavily delayed. We have, of course, section 63 is given because Joseph is on his way home and runs into his brother and Harvey Whitlock and those two companionships, they're trying to get there. And Joseph's already had the conference and said it back. So, so these Colesville Saints are a group of Latter-day Saints who converted near Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Joseph and Emma had met and lived for a little while. Then they'd moved to Ohio when the call came. They settled on Lehman Coppley's farm, but Coppley, being member of the shakers or being affiliated with the shakers, later kicks them off the property, saying you got to get off.

And so Joseph sends them on to independence. So this is a group of people who are going to be together. It's like a little ward, right? And they're going to stick together a long time. This Colesville branch is just absolutely fantastic. There's about 70 members when they leave New York, and of course relocate in, Ohio just temporarily,

and of course the man who was going to assist them because they want all wanted to stay together as a group, it's actually Lehman Coppley, CLP, L.A.Y. And then Coppley had consecrated some 700 acres and then he pulls out of consecration. So they're out in the cold. So that's why the Jewells of Wonders, what should I do in the Lindlord Gism section is a 54. Any charges of 60 bucks for improving his property? Yeah, yeah. That guy. them 60 bucks for improving his property. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That guy. Same thing happened to me in an apartment we moved into three weeks later. Three weeks later, the guy said, I sold it. So you got to leave. We fixed it up pretty nice for him, but that's okay. You had your little Colesville St. moment. Yeah, well, they'll let you have it. Probably didn't know the story at the time.

But so July 26th, there they are. And it's interesting on that day, Edward Partridge makes the first purchase of lands, at least in cotton ships, it's now available. And that purchase was made over in Lexington, which is where the land office was for the federal government. For folks who are trying to visualize what's going on here,

we at one time kind of had three branches in Lake Harmony and in New York and Manchester, Palmyra and let's see where would the other one would be. It callsville. Colesville, Fayette and Palmyra, Manchester. Yeah, I'm trying to see if I can summarize this in a few sentences. And then there's a mission to Ohio,

and they don't really get to the Lamanites there, but they do get Sydney rigged in a whole bunch of people up there. And then the Lord says, everybody moved to Ohio, and we're not moving everybody to Missouri now. It's just some that are called, right? So there's a long period of early church history where a bunch of saints are in Ohio and a bunch of saints are in Missouri. Is that a fair way to put it before we all go to Navu? Right. And again, the only reason

that Joseph probably would have said not all of you can go is because they don't have the land for them to be able to all go there. Now, when the call is come that you would really like to have a push towards Missouri, part of the problem was some were going and Partridge talks about this in 1832. They came expecting, well, gee, was I'm going to live a lot of consecration, but they didn't bring anything with them. They didn't, they didn't, they didn't have any means. Now, that's why you said, don't send them down here unless they can consecrate their some sort of property or ownership so that we can have means to buy land.

And so they kind of got ahead of the game a little bit and partridge right some back says, don't even send them unless they've consecrated. And you see in the revelation, I'm trying to think which one, that they were to have a certificate and make sure that they could consecrate. And some just go without a...

Yeah, they just go. They just... Now, Titus Billings, he had something, he consecrated it and what a partridge do, he just turned around and gave it right back to it. But you gotta have people with some means or we just don't have a way to purchase the property. Yeah, how's it gonna work?

Okay, that's helpful. So, okay, so now we've got everybody there, the Colesville branch, you said July 26th, 24 of them arrived. Now, there's still more to come, but at least we have some of them. Some of them. That we can, and some of the missionaries

are now arriving behind Joseph. You gotta be thinking, what does this Lewis family think? These first converts in Missouri going, we didn't know we were going to get a, we were going to get a hosting award activity for Colesville. Yeah. They are tremendous people. In fact, again, they, they follow through his posterity is in the church, but unfortunately, Joshua Lewis dies in Clay County in 1835. I can't remember who his wife married,

but that is again, some of these, the lesser known later they say, you just, you take your hat off to him. Five days later, he gets section 58 because we have a body of saints now. What we're here, tell us what we need to do. Please join us for part two of this podcast.