Ohio, LDS Communities in

From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism

See this page in the original 1992 publication.

The Church became established in Ohio after Rigdon, Sidneyand his Reformed Baptist congregations at Mentor and Kirtland converted in October-November 1830. Others around the vicinity of Kirtland, Ohio joined the Church. A December 1830 revelation initiated a Gatheringof Church members to Ohio (D&C 37:1-2), where they were to be "endowed with power from on high" (D&C 38:32). See History of the Church: c 1831-1844, Ohio, Missouri, and Nauvoo Periods.

Smith, Joseph and Rigdon, Sidney lived at Hiram, Ohio, from September 1831 to September 1832, where both were tarred and feathered. There Joseph Smith received sixteen revelations later published in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Between 1831 and 1838, Kirtland served as Church headquarters. See such entries as Kirtland, Ohio; Schools of the Prophets; and Whitney Store. Here many more revelations were received, and in the Kirtland Temple, in 1836, Latter-day Saints experienced an increased outpouring of spiritual manifestations and visitations.

By 1838, the Church had organized more than two dozen branches in communities mostly in northeastern Ohio.

Some early Ohio converts had formed a communal society prior to their conversion. This communitarian impulse was redirected by a revelation, Doctrine and Covenants: Section 42; see Consecration: Consecration in Ohio and Missouri. Management of temporal affairs was seen as an integral part of building the Kingdom of Godon the earth. Joseph Smith's role in the development of the Kirtland Economybecame a focal point of dissent in the wake of the failure of an unchartered Kirtland bank during the Panic of 1837.

In early 1838, threatened by malcontents, Joseph Smith and other Church leaders fled Kirtland, moving Church headquarters to Missouri. Most Latter-day Saints soon left Ohio, although a Church organization was maintained at Kirtland for several years. ]

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