Footnotes

1. [1]

   Revelation, 11 Sept. 1831 [D&C 64:21]; see also Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96:1].

2. [2]

   Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:119].

3. [3]

   Minutes, 23 Mar. 1833–A; see also Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” 19–22.

   Parkin, Max H. “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” BYU Studies 46, no. 3 (2007): 5–66.

4. [4]

   Minutes, 2 Apr. 1833. Just two and a half weeks before the 2 April council meeting, Williams had been admitted to the United Firm, which was responsible for overseeing church property. (Revelation, 15 Mar. 1833 [D&C 92].)

5. [5]

   The building committee, consisting of Hyrum Smith, Jared Carter, and Reynolds Cahoon, eventually decided to use sandstone, not brick, for the edifice. (Johnson, Reminiscences and Journal, 17–18; see also Robison, First Mormon Temple, 32–34.)

   Johnson, Joel Hills. Reminiscences and Journals, 1835–1882. 3 vols. Joel Hills Johnson, Papers, 1835–1882. CHL. MS 1546, fds. 1–3.

   Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.

6. [6]

   Revelation, 4 Dec. 1831–A [D&C 72:2, 8]; see also Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96]; Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30–34]; Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51:3]; and Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:7].

7. [7]

   Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96:9].

8. [8]

   Frederick G. Williams, admitted to the United Firm on 15 March 1833, was the first person added to the firm after its initial organization. All members of the United Firm were also high priests. Johnson’s immediate ordination as a high priest followed a precedent set more than a year earlier when Sidney Gilbert was ordained a high priest on 26 April 1832, the same day a revelation called him to be a member of the United Firm. Johnson had previously been ordained an elder by JS at a conference of elders in Kirtland on 17 February 1833. (Revelation, 15 Mar. 1833 [D&C 92]; Note, 15 Mar. 1833; Minutes, 26–27 Apr. 1832; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:11]; Minutes, 17 Feb. 1833.)

9. [9]

   In a letter to the leaders in Missouri dated 25 June 1833, JS noted that Johnson “has just come to Kirtland to live.” (Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 25 June 1833.)

10. [10]

    Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 22, pp. 497–498, 23 Sept. 1836, microfilm 20,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

11. [11]

    Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 25 June 1833