Footnotes
JS’s journal notes that in October 1835, the number of church members in the Kirtland area was “about five or six hundred who commune at our chapel and perhaps a thousand in this vicinity.” Milton Backman estimated the number of Saints in Kirtland in 1836 at 1,300, with an annual growth of 200 to 500 members from 1833 to 1838 and the period of 1835–1837 experiencing the greatest amount of growth. (JS, Journal, 30 Oct. 1835; Backman, Heavens Resound, 139–140.)
Backman, Milton V., Jr. The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983.
“The Closing Year,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1836, 3:426.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
See Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:63–74].
See Backman, Heavens Resound, 139–140.
Backman, Milton V., Jr. The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983.
For a list of the men in these positions, see “General Church Officers, October 1835–January 1838,” “Church Officers in the Kirtland Stake, October 1835–January 1838,” and “Church Officers in Zion (Missouri), October 1835–January 1838.” John Morton, the second counselor in the elders quorum presidency, was not in Kirtland for this meeting or others at the end of December 1836, and Edmund Bosley was made a temporary counselor in his absence. (Kirtland Elders Quorum, “Record,” 21 Dec. 1836.)
Kirtland Elders Quorum. “A Record of the First Quorurum of Elders Belonging to the Church of Christ: In Kirtland Geauga Co. Ohio,” 1836–1838, 1840–1841. CCLA.
Town officials called “overseers to the poor” could “warn out” indigent new arrivals in order to absolve the town from the responsibility of providing for them. In 1833 some members of the church in Kirtland, including JS, were “warned out.” (Historical Introduction to Warrant, 21 Oct. 1833.)
Frederick G. Williams made a similar argument in a June 1836 meeting. (Minutes, 16 June 1836.)
Newel K. Whitney, as bishop in Kirtland, had been instructed to assist the traveling elders and their families. (Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:71]; Revelation, 4 Dec. 1831–B [D&C 72:9–23].)
In the months preceding this conference, JS bought hundreds of acres of land in Kirtland at considerable expense to himself and other church members. (See Mortgage to Peter French, 5 Oct. 1836.)
Warren A. Cowdery, in the May 1837 Messenger and Advocate, advised new arrivals to Kirtland not to assume they could trust everyone there and specifically cautioned them about speculators. He suggested they ask only trusted friends for advice about land purchases. Cowdery warned them to “beware of such as attack you as soon as you enter this place, and begin to interrogate you about the amount of money you have,” since they would “take advantage of your honest simplicity, obtain your available means, and then desert you.” (Editorial, LDS Messenger and Advocate, May 1837, 3:505.)
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:72]. Here “Book of Commandments” refers to the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.