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The Aftermath

When the long line of the Kirtland Camp teams and wagons moved south from the temple on July 6, 1838, along the old Chillicothe road toward Chester, few Latter-day Saints remained in Kirtland. Probably more apostates lived there than active members of the Church, but these dissenters divided into many factions and consequently were unable to unite under a common religious banner. A few Saints traveled with this large migrating company the first seven miles to Chester and then returned to their homes.

Two days after the camp left Kirtland, Joseph Smith received a revelation in Far West directing William Marks, a member of the Kirtland high council, and Bishop Newel K. Whitney to settle their business affairs as quickly as possible and leave for Missouri. Complying with these instructions, the two men left Kirtland in the fall of 1838. Before they reached western Missouri, however, they learned of the expulsion of the Mormons from that state. Therefore, like a number of other Kirtland Saints, they did not reach the Missouri frontier, but settled temporarily in other areas and then gathered in Nauvoo.

While nearly all of the faithful Kirtland Saints abandoned that community in 1838, a few members were still living there in November 1839 when Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball stopped there while en route to the British Mission. Brigham Young wrote that he met "a good many friends and brethren who were glad" to see him. Many of these persons, he added, lacked the energy or the disposition to move to Missouri in 1838. The Kirtland Temple was still available for use by the Latter-day Saints at that time, for on Sunday, November 17, Elder Young preached in a meeting in the morning and John Taylor preached in the afternoon. That evening, after Elder Taylor had "washed himself in pure water with castile soap," members of the priesthood gathered in the temple, and Elder Young anointed Elder Taylor "with pure sweet oil, and pronounced such blessings as the Spirit gave utterance." They also participated in the ordinances of sealing the anointing and of washing of the feet.

A Second Gathering

In the early 1840s there was a temporary growth of the Church in Kirtland through conversions and renewed migration. In April 1840, Hiram Kellogg, a leader of the Kirtland Branch, reported that as a result of recent baptisms, membership in the congregation had increased to about 125. Six months later, leaders of the Church in Nauvoo called Almon W. Babbitt to preside over the Saints in northeastern Ohio and again designated Kirtland as a gathering place for members of the Church living in the eastern states. Immediately following this announcement, Latter-day Saints commenced a new migration to the Western Reserve, and by the spring of 1841 membership of the Kirtland branch had increased to between three hundred and four hundred members.