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Land Ownership in Kirtland

Keith W. Perkins

The original Latter-day Saint landowners in Kirtland, Ohio, were residents of Kirtland who had been converted to the Church in 1830 and 1831. Some of the most prominent converts were Newel K. Whitney, A. Sidney Gilbert, and Isaac Morley. Newel K. Whitney and his partner Sidney Gilbert owned the N. K. Whitney and Company Store, which played a major role in providing for the numerous Latter-day Saints who later moved to Kirtland. They paid taxes on $2,500 worth of merchandise, making this one of the largest mercantile stores in northeastern Ohio at the time. Isaac Morley owned a large farm consisting of 130 acres. It was to his farm that most of the Saints gathered when they immigrated to Kirtland in 1831.

As the Saints began to gather to Ohio, the amount of property owned and managed by Church leaders in Kirtland significantly increased. In April 1832, Frederick G. Williams purchased 144 acres for $2,000. On May 3, 1834, this property was conveyed without monetary remuneration to Joseph Smith, as agent for the Church. In April 1833, Joseph Coe and Ezra Thayre purchased, for the Church, the Peter French farm of 103 acres for $5,000. It was on a small portion of this property that the Kirtland Temple was later built. Much of the money for this purchase must have been donated by John Johnson from the sale of his farm in Hiram, Ohio, since most of this property was later deeded to him. On October 5, 1836, another large farm, consisting of 239 acres, was purchased by the Church for $11,777.50.