Kirtland, Ohio

I saw, learned and experienced so much today that it’s hard to know where to begin. I started out the day by missing the freeway entrance, which turned out to be a very good thing because I took the back roads instead. Up and down across rolling hills and through small towns I saw every color of green imaginable. The off-and-on rain only deepened the greens and intensified the colors of flowering shrubs in every yard I passed. I even saw a dogwood tree blooming in the woods. It made me homesick for western Washington.
When I arrived in Kirtland I was a little lost, so when I saw the temple (it’s pretty hard to miss), I decided to stop there first. I’m so glad I did. There was a tour just starting with only two people, a couple from New Hampshire, and the guide, besides myself. The temple is owned and maintained by the Community of Christ church (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Our tour guide was a woman about my age who had been a lifelong member of their church but grew up in Bountiful, Utah. She was really great. Her love for the temple and respect for the people who built it was evident and her historical knowledge was really impressive. These tours usually last one hour, but she spent almost two and a half hours with us. The other two people with us were not LDS or C of C, but they were quite well acquainted with LDS history and beliefs and we had some interesting discussions.
My impressions of the temple:
It is beautiful, simple with ornate touches, imminently practical, brilliantly designed (though by amateurs with no blueprints) and it is smaller than I had imagined. Perhaps the most interesting part of the tour was at the end, when we sat in the main chapel portion and the guide described the dedication which took place on Sunday, March 27, 1836. As we sat there she gave a detailed description of where all the leaders sat, as well as the choir (in choir sections in all four corners of the large room). It was easy to visualize the people crowded into the pews, with Joseph Smith and other leaders sitting in their designated places, including David Patten (a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles). Diantha Morley Billings was singing with the choir that day so she would have been sitting in one of the corners. The windows were opened so the many people standing outside could hear as well.
The Community of Christ church has done a beautiful job of restoring this important building and they have a very nice visitors’ center adjacent to it. They also have a very nice bookstore and gift shop where I found several interesting items, including a book about Mormons buried in Kirtland cemeteries. I had to buy this book because it listed Diantha’s parents Thomas and Editha Morley and Titus’ brother Samuel. The Morleys are buried in the little cemetery across the street from the temple. I knew they had lived in Kirtland but had no idea they were buried there (it just had never occurred to me) so finding their graves was a happy surprise.
As for Samuel Billings, I had no idea he had ever come to Kirtland. According to this book he came to Kirtland in the early 1830s with two young daughters. He had been twice widowed and married again in Kirtland and fathered six more children. He eventually “settled on a farm on what used to be known as High Street, later changed to Billings Road.” He was a maker of violins and brooms (interesting combination) and introduced the culture of strawberries to the Kirtland area. He was also a herbalist and was often referred to as Dr. Billings. I’m going to have to do more research about Samuel and see if I can find the names of his first two daughters. There were two young Billings women who were in Nauvoo whose parentage I have been unable to track. Could they have been Samuel’s daughters?
After spending several hours in and around the Kirtland temple I drove about two miles to the Morley farm. There isn’t really much to see there. The LDS Church has purchased part of the original farm and they have a small one room building with a missionary couple to tell visitors about the farm. There is a picnic area outside and a trail around the property but by the time I got there it was raining hard, and there was no inclination to walk around outside. I had a nice visit with the missionary couple (from Salem, Oregon and friends with our friends, Ed and Ruth Cinquini) and then I went back down the road to the historic Kirtland Village.
This old part of Kirtland is owned and maintained by the LDS Church. It was restored to its current condition about seven or eight years ago. It includes the N.K. Whitney store and home, the John Johnson Inn, the sawmill and ashery and a visitors’ center. The buildings have been painstakingly restored using period furniture and fixtures and the walking tour is very interesting, but the missionaries did not give as much historic background as I heard at the temple site and what they did give was more stories of specific events, but without their historic context. I was glad I had studied the time period so thoroughly and thus was able to better picture what this part of the town looked like. However, I had to really use my imagination to look beyond the immaculately manicured lawns and flower beds that would never have existed in the 1830s. I understand why the Church would not want to replicate the mud hole that contemporaries described Kirtland to be, but it seems a little too antiseptic to be realistic. Still, it was very interesting, especially the panorama they have of the Kirtland area.
All in all, it’s been an amazing day. I thought I knew a lot about this area and this era of LDS history, but today proved to me that I have a lot yet to learn.
[Note: I'm actually posting this on Wednesday morning because of trouble with the Internet connection last night. I'm on my way to Charlottesville today and will post more Kirtland pictures in the next couple of days.]