followHIM - 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 McDonald, one of my good friends out of seminaries and institutes. So Marshall McDonald, 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 expert? Oh, I'm excited too. I remember when I used to go to faculty meetings and the booming amen said after every prayer was from Brother Ba.

And to me, it was not just something you say after the prayer. It was like a testimony when Brother Ba said amen. So I'm going to read his bio here. Alexander L. Ba 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 and 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 10 books, including three volumes of the document

series of the Joseph Smith Papers, which are volumes four, five, and six. 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 are 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 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 settlements of the saints in Missouri in the decade of the 1830s. But it has a glorious future. And that's a pretty special place. All of the places where the saints lived and dwelt is remarkable, but Missouri hits right at home. It's very special.

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 of 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, now that guy, he was a friend of the church. That one over there, no, he was not.

He did not like the church. 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 um he puts himself in the position of these people um 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 he's very merciful to everyone in history because he says, well, think about this. You know, you've got this group of people moving in, you're nervous about what, you know, once they get numbers, what's going to happen. And I think you, 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 have 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, in 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 family in Hyde Park. We make a quick stop in Smithfield, and then we go to Richmond where Amanda Barnes 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, like, if you don't embrace what your great-great-grandmother sacrificed so much for, you need to change.

Rethink 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 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 3 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 hearken 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 have 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 Moroni's filling in for his dad and translated the book of Ether for us. 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 3, talking about, well, verse 2,

the choice land above other lands, the Western Hemisphere, so on and so forth. And then he says that it was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning the 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 Oliver Cowdery's too, who's transcribing this. Let's jump way ahead. And you've talked about this. Let's jump way ahead. And you've talked about this, but in D&C section 28, the church is now, what, six months old. And the coffees of the Book of Mormon are out there, and people are reading it. And Hiram 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. In the Book of Mormon. And he's in the Book of Mormon. There's no question he has, as others. And so what is

he reading? Well, what's about this New Jerusalem? And what does D&C 28.9 say? There's no one who knows where the new Jerusalem is but it shall be revealed hereafter. 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 ahead 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 Enoch and his city and how they obtained heaven. So let's go to Moses 7. And righteousness will I send down out of heaven, and truth will I send forth out of the earth to bear testimony of mine only begotten, so on and 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, and 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, 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 Cowdery, 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, so the location of Zion, 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. And then they have this huge conference. When 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 Joseph— And did the other three stay there? Yes, and of course they picked up Frederick G. Williams. Okay, yeah, he's a convert that wanted to go. We haven't heard that story yet. Yeah, so he wanted to go with them after his conversion in Ohio. And so there's really five at that point. And 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 Peat Pratt back to Ohio to try to report to Joseph that we've gotten kicked off the land. We can't

preach to the Lamanites, 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. 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, D.C., but 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 Indian 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. And 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, I'll put you in the brig at Fort

Leavenworth right there on the border. So they came. You don'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 didn't luck out. But the good thing is, after they were not permitted to go on there, didn't have the proper paperwork, as you mentioned, they had converted a family about 9, 10 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 Ziba 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, verses 2 and 3. Oh, this was the missionaries, the pairs, right?

This is that section, all the pairs of the missionaries. So he said, I'll make known unto you. I'm reading section 52, verse 2. Saying, I, Lord, will make known unto you what that I will, that ye shall do from this time until the next conference, which shall 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 remnant of Jacob and those who are heirs according according to the covenant. Sounds kind of like, again, Ether and third Nephi. Wherefore, verily I say unto you, let my servants, Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Riggin, take their journey as soon as preparations can be made to leave their homes and journey to the land of Missouri. And inasmuch as they are faithful unto me, it shall be'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. So, let's go down and immediately start making preparations. And actually, a small group left on the 14th of June, just, what, 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 Algernon Sidney 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 Fairport,port paynesville um and in thompson they're actually in thompson but it's out in ohio in ohio there's 13 miles from uh from kirtland and copley wants his land back they'd settled on that as you've discussed so let's send the entire colesville branch down and then he says in section 55. By the way, can we mention this? Who is Sidney Gilbert? That's something we didn't get to talk

about last time. Isn't he partners with? Yeah, he's a business partner with Newell K. Whitney. He's a finance guy. He knows how to do books. And he's really good and he will be the the agent down in um in missouri uh to edward partridge there's our one two tandem the bishop who oversees kind of the ecclesiastical aspects but gilbert who'll do the business uh he's an executive secretary he's the ward clerk there you go he's ward clerk he's He's all of the above. Finance clerk, executive secretary. He's all of them. He can do it all. I'm glad we mentioned him.

So 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 appears on the scene right at the right time? Good old W.W. Phelps. And he's ready now to be baptized. Yeah, tell us about him. He's someone we covered so much last time, we didn't get to talk about all these individuals. So I'd love to catch up a little. Just briefly, he had been introduced to the gospel in the area of Palmyra and Canandaigua.

In fact, he was a printer, a newspaper editor. And 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 is absolutely brilliant. Now, part of the problem is he kind of knows it. And so he's not afraid to kind of tell everybody. You know, when he walks in the room, he knows he's the smartest in the room and probably so 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 the 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 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 were kind of these back backwards type and nothing that's just absolutely, that's just not true. Cindy Gilbert's a financial guy. You got got Newell K. Whitney, a very successful businessman. You've got Edward Partridge,

a very successful businessman. You've got Sidney Rigdon, who is a scriptorian. 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 is one of the things that I'm glad Hank brought it up because I just think that the people that decided to follow Joseph Smith with his three years of formal education, they were not gullible people. These were the Orson Pratts and the guys like W.W. Phelps. They were smart. And I think they got their testimonies, probably had their hearts softened by reading the Book of Mormon and going, there's no way he could have come up with this on his own. Yeah.

They truly saw Joseph as the prophet's seer revelator. 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 to receive the revelation. And Joseph let them do it all the time. I mean, he lets them always take center stage, lets them do the preaching. He knows they have gifts, and he lets them do it. Now, he sometimes has to correct them, like Orson Hyde in 1843, where he's over in Ramus and said,

Well, you talked this morning, but you didn't quite get it right. But still, he says he wants them to be involved. Yeah, no question about it. This is a church for everyone, and he knows that this is how you build leadership, too, is give them responsibility and opportunity there. W.W. 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 a little back and forth. Yep. From friends to enemies, back to friends. 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, he wrote the, 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 Phelps is a brilliant, brilliant, wonderful man. But he had his shortcomings, as we do, all do there. It's important that we talk about both sides of that because we have someone here who knows both their strengths and maybe their weaknesses.

And so we finally got all these people put together. So if you count them all up, there's 29 men and one woman, and the one woman is Elizabeth. That's Algernon Sidney 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 what the Lord said in verse three. Let's go. Or verse 4. 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 group. That would consist of Joseph, Sidney, Edward Partridge, and Martin Harris,

and then Algernon, Sid Sidney Gilbert and his wife Elizabeth, and then W.W. Phelps, and a member that most people haven't heard of is Joseph Coe. 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, he stopped in Independence. There's no question he did. But as I mentioned to you,

the missionaries, the Lamanites, may have met him in Independence, but they've been camped out or staying with the Joshua Lewis family in Caw Township, it's called. Today it's about 35th, south 35th in Kansas City. I don't know if you remember going there. It's 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 to.

So Joshua Lewis had 28 acres of land there, and maybe we can talk about this in a little bit, but he's got 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 the government sells that land and opens it up to— So it's not like squatter today. It's not illegal.

No, no, no. You go. More like homesteading. Yeah, homesteading, 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 and 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 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 does he hear 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, you know, 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 saith the 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 the 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 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. And so 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 Westport Road or Santa Fe Trail. This is the—Independence is the last major major and it's not even really a major town for the individuals who's engaged in the Santa Fe trade. So here we are. That's heading out of the country, the Santa Fe trade. Once you once you break over into Kansas, you're you're in Indian territory and you have to, you know, next stop, Santa Fe. 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. The Oregon Trail and. And technically, you could say the California Trail and the Mormon Trail and then the Santa Fe Trail. So I wanted to read something really quick, if you don't mind, as the Lord kind of declares this spot, independence. I've told you about this, Alex, and I'm no historian by any means, but I was reading a book written by David McCullough on Harry Truman. I really like David McCullough. He's not a Latter-day Saint, but I remember President Hinckley saying, oh, he just loves reading David McCullough on Harry Truman. I really liked David McCullough. He's not a Latter-day Saint, but I remember President Hinckley saying, oh, he just loves reading David McCullough. 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 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 see, rising and falling in broad swells and giving way to long horizons. Prairie grass was high in green wildflowers, wild herbs, meadow rose, turtle head, 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 McCullough 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. That's very powerful. And McCullough says it like nobody else. Right. Yeah. What a writer. He is really true.

What he says 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 Palmyra, New York? I hear you. What would make him in his mind choose Independence? You know, people say, oh, Joseph Smith, he's not a prophet. Why in the world choose Independence, Missouri as the center spot? 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. Right. But I do have to say, unfortunately, for those who do arrive, some were not as optimistic about. Right.

I wish they would have read McCullough. Yeah. Because it was, 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 need some timber for farm homes and things. But, yeah, it's pretty productive soil. Edward Partridge is one of those who says, really? Isn't he one of those?

Yeah, he was not that impressed. Now, he's our more sophisticated hatter from Painesville. 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, 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 5th, 6th, and 7th. And 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 here. Dr. Huard 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. Brother Bott, when you're there by that courthouse, there's, I think to the west, I have a picture of the Gilbert Whitney and Company store right there. And I'd always wondered, is that Sidney Gilbert, his ancestors, or is that store just named after him?

Yes. And the people who own 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 the32. 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 a bit 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 going to ransack it.

And, you know, he asked them, please don't destroy anything. I'll close it. He mollifies the crowd. But the interesting thing is the house that was on the first storehouse lot of the church, the church bought that. And that house was moved 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, log 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 are 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 they knew us by. Yeah, that's what we were called in the day.

The Mormons were coming. They were here. You used the term Mormonites before, like that others were using, you know. Yeah. 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 we're the Church of the Latter-day Saints until July 8th, 1838. And then we have Section 115. So we transitioned the name even in those first years there. So Harry Truman, by the way, I don't think we mentioned this. He's like a store clerk, and then he 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 have got an A grade today, Hank, for good history. I'm a good student. There's your 20th century Jackson County historian now. And I got to hear this. When Joseph and the other man and Sidney Gilbert and his wife, when they get there, how do they describe the residents

of Jackson County, Missouri? Because 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. 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?

They're trying to escape. And if, you know, a federal marshal comes up the river, they can just pop over in 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, you know,

they're rough people. And here comes these Latter-day Saints. They're from the Northeast. Yeah, exactly. They're 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, Boggs 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 riffraff 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 uh 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, obey the laws of the land and try to do your very best. 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, and a spot for the temple. Temple. Oh, my goodness. Now, we haven't even got a real building yet. We do have Isaac Morley's property up there in Kirtland with the schoolhouse. But you mentioned temple. 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 Nephites.

And we had a church and we had synagogues in Israel but a temple wow this is new to me we don't even have a ward house yet so that's got to be eye opening to Joseph

so 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. 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 going to mention one thing. I forgot about this. When Joseph Smith says

these people are a hundred 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. He's talking primitive. Yeah. And part of it is just the fact this is such a remote area. St. Louis is a good, you know, it's a good size 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 yep we took a picture of a of a our jackson county pioneers and it was fun to see corporal lilburn w boggs in the as a soldier of the war of 1812 monument there for soldiers they got a lot of monuments because of course they try to try to honor everybody who's anybody in you know a war or history there's a lieutenant joseph boggs pennsylvania it says is a revolutionary soldier and then you'll find a corporal wilbur w boggs it looks like kentucky soldiers of the war of 1812

yeah i i don't know if our listeners know this, but Boggs is in Independence when the four missionaries get there. And doesn't one of them mend his suit or something? Oh, doesn't he have Mary Elizabeth Rollins tend his kids or something? Yes, you're both right. Eventually, Peter Whitmer Jr. was a tailor and he had a tailor shop, I think we could say, above the mercantile store of Liburn Boggs. And Mary Elizabeth Rollins, Leitner, later Leitner, does say how, of course, he liked her and said, you know, if 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 interplay and interactions with a number of Latter-day Saints there. Yeah, there's no question. And then he becomes governor later. He's actually lieutenant governor in 32. So while the Latter-day Saints are there. Yes, he's elected and he's from the West, of course. And the governor elected in 1832 is Daniel Dunklin. But Dunklin is a 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 to let you know that on the 26th of 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. And then they would have had to take flatboats. And you mentioned the Blue River. They would have come right up the

Blue River on flatboats. And then they were very close to the Joshua Lewis property. And there they, of course, they were united now with the prophet and his companions and the Joshua Lewis family. So now we've got kind of a core group of people, and some of the other missionaries are starting 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 set it back. 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 Copley's farm, but Copley, being a 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 all wanted to stay together as a group, it's actually Lehman Copley, C-O-P-L-E-Y.

And then Copley had consecrated some 700 acres, and then he pulls out of consecration. So they're out in the cold. So that's why Joseph wonders, what should I do? And the landlord gives him section, is it 54? And he charges him 60 bucks for improving his property. Yeah, 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. Uh, we fixed it up pretty nice for him, but you had your little Colesville Saint moment. Yeah. The Lord lets you have it. Probably didn't know the story at the time. So July 26th, there they are. And it's interesting on that day, Edward Partridge makes the first purchase of lands, at least in Caw Townships. It's now available. And that was 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 others be? In Colesville.

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 Sidney Rigdon and 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 Nauvoo? 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 has 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 whiz, I'm going to live law of consecration, but they didn't bring anything with them. They didn't have any means. Now, that's why he 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 writes them back, says, don't even send them unless they've consecrated. And you see in the revelation, I'm trying to think which one, were to send to have a certificate and make sure that they had could consecrate so and some just go without a yeah they just go yeah now titus billings he had something he consecrated and what did partridge do he just turned around and gave it right back to him but uh you you gotta you gotta have people

with some means or we just don't have a way to purchase the property. How's it going to 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. There's still more to come, but at least we have some numbers that we can, and some of the missionaries are now arriving behind Joseph.

You got to 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're hosting award activity for Colesville. They are tremendous people. In fact, again, 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 lesser-known Latter-day Saints.

You just take your hat off to them. Five days later, he gets Section 58, because we have a body of saints now. We're here. Tell us what we need to do. Please join us for Part two of this podcast.