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The Colesville Branch in Kaw Township Jackson County Missouri 1831 to 1833

Larry C. Porter

Originally, the Colesville Branch, from Broome and Chenango Counties, New York, had intended to settle in Ohio and participate in the general gathering of the Saints to that state. However, problems arising between certain members of the Colesville Branch and Leman Copley greatly interfered with their becoming established in Ohio, and they were sent on to settle in the Kaw Township in Jackson County, Missouri.

Leman Copley had been associated with the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, commonly known as Shakers, until his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in March 1831. Though living apart on his farm in Thompson Township (now Madison), Ohio, he and his wife Sally had enjoyed close ties with the Shaker settlement of North Union (present-day Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights), just 15 miles west of Kirtland. As a newly ordained LDS elder, Leman accompanied Sidney Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt on a proselyting mission to that Shaker community in March 1831 (see D&C 49). Their visit turned into a confrontation between the Mormon missionaries and Elder Ashbel Kitchell, who was avidly protecting his Shaker flock in his capacity as first disciplinarian and gospel organizer of North Union, a position which he had held since the spring of 1826. Rejected by Kitchell and his fellow Shakers, the brethren withdrew.

Leman was among those adherents to the Church who volunteered the use of his holdings to Bishop Edward Partridge under the law of consecration and stewardship. The Copley property, in Thompson Township, totaling 759 acres, became the initial location for the members of the Colesville Branch to settle upon their arrival from New York. Apparently the first of these immigrants were Joseph Knight, Sr., his wife Polly, and their daughter Lucy, who had come to Kirtland with the Prophet in January and February 1831. Emily Coburn, a sister to Sally Coburn Knight, may have also been at Thompson with the Knights, for she had likewise journeyed to Kirtland that same winter from Colesville, perhaps with Joseph Knight, Sr. They subsequently settled at the Copley farm the following March.[The majority of the Colesville Branch, under President Newel Knight, did not arrive in Ohio until the middle of May 1831. Jared Carter and a few other members of the Colesville Branch came to Kirtland slightly before the main body by circumventing the ice freshet which held the others bound in Buffalo harbor. Boarding a steamboat at Dunkirk, New York, they sailed to Fairport Harbor, Ohio. Then, as Jared explained, from Fairport "we went to Kir[t]land where we found Joseph, the se[e]r. Here we found that preparations was made for the Church from which we were to settle in Thompson. We went from here to Thompson and there continued until the boddy of the Church arrived to Fairport and then we moved our things and families to Thompson. Here we had some severe trials." Newel Knight related that a contract was agreed upon with Copley, and they began to work the property in good faith.[At the same time, Joseph Knight, Jr., observed, "[We] commenced preparing houses on a brother's land who had a thousand acres…. We planted and sowed a great deal."