Minutes, , OH, 12 Sept. 1831. Featured version, titled “Minutes of a Conference held in Kirtland Geauga County Ohio Sept. 12, 1831,” copied [between ca. 6 Apr. and 19 June 1838] in Minute Book 2, p. 6; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minute Book 2.
Historical Introduction
JS and other church held a in , Ohio, on 12 September 1831 to discipline three members of the church. This conference appears to have followed the same format as two other conferences that met in early September to discipline members. But whereas the earlier conferences involved individuals who had been commanded to travel to in the summer of 1831, this conference dealt with people who had received no such and had remained in . The minutes do not detail their transgressions, but the individuals may have been part of an apostasy that occurred while JS and others were absent on their journey to Missouri. spoke in an October 1831 conference in , Cuyahoga County, Ohio, about a “falling away” that had transpired “since he took his journey to the Land of ,” while wrote in his history of the church that “in the absence of the Elders many apostitized.” The conference may have been following instructions given in an 11 September revelation, which commanded the elders to bring unrepentant members before the church “that ye may be Justified in the eyes of the law that ye may not offend him who is your lawgiver.” Whether the individuals who were disciplined actually attended this conference is unclear.
As clerk of the conference, recorded the minutes. copied them into Minute Book 2 sometime in 1838.
Minutes of a held in Geauga County Ohio Sept. 12, 1831.
Present.
Joseph Smith jr.
Upon sufficient or satisfactory testimony to this Conference, it was voted that our brethren George Miller, a in the Church of Shalersville, John Woodard an Elder in the Church of , and Benjamin Bragg a Priest in the Church of Warrensville, be silenced from ministering in their respective offices.
This conference was probably held in the morning, because JS and his family moved to Hiram, approximately thirty miles southeast of Kirtland, this same day. (See JS History, vol. A-1, 153.)
In late 1830 or early 1831, John Murdock preached in Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and Warrensville, Ohio, and baptized several individuals, including John and Eunice Woodard. John Woodard attended the June 1831 conference just outside of Kirtland and is listed in the minutes as an elder. In May 1831, Reynolds Cahoon visited the church in Orange and “found some verry far from the truth.” (Murdock, Autobiography and Journal, 18; Minutes, ca. 3–4 June 1831; Cahoon, Diary, May 1831.)
Murdock, John. Autobiography, ca. 1859–1867. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 4.
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
John Murdock baptized Bragg in Warrensville, Ohio, either in late 1830 or early 1831. Warrensville is located just west of Orange. (Murdock, Autobiography and Journal, 18.)
Murdock, John. Autobiography, ca. 1859–1867. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 4.