Kirtland, Ohio
As for the Kirtland Temple, it’s likely that those who tour the building will receive a lot of historical information. The building is owned by our cousins, the Community of Christ, and they usually run their tours in a historical fashion, as opposed to the Mormon sites which are almost always part of the Mission and staffed by missionaries. While the LDS missionaries are encouraged to study the history of the sites they service they are also expected to stay “on script” at most sites; the RLDS sites are usually staffed by historians or history students and, as such, you’ll probably get a different tour each time you go.
One persistent likely Mormon myth about the Kirtland Temple is that the Saints sacrificed their fine chine for the stucco in the walls. There are a few problems with this. The current wall coatings are reconstructed. The building has seen a LOT of abuse through its lifetime before the RLDS received it from a lawsuit (and after they received it they had many financial troubles in attempting to restore it). There are pieces of the original stucco produced by Artemus Millet that still exist and, while they do contain glass, there does not appear to be any fine glassware or china in it. There was a glassware factory nearby Kirtland; the glass in the mix is probably glassware that had already broken or had been bought from the glassware factory – trash. The Church was very poor at this time (it has been estimated that the Kirtland Temple is the most expensive Temple that the Church ever built compared to their financial power at the time of construction), so it’s not surprising that they would use cheaper glass if the same end result could be attained.
The ritual ceremonies revealed for the Kirtland Temple included ritual washings and anointing with oils and spices. The rituals were, at this time, for men only and took many hours; but apart from the ritual endowments, the Temple was usually used as a meetinghouse (the Church actually never built chapels until they arrived in Utah and usually met for Sunday meeting in members’ homes, outside, or in temples once they were completed enough for people to sit in the assembly halls).
During the end of the Kirtland apostasy many apostates attempted to take over the Kirtland Temple once during services leading to a confusing and tense situation where the Church authorities occupied one set of pulpits while the apostates occupied the other set and both attempted to speak over the other while the apostates threatened anyone who left or moved on them with physical violence.
Hiram, Ohio
To the south is the Johnson Farm in Kirtland Ohio. The Johnson parents were converted through a miraculous healing of Sister Johnson by Joseph Smith and invited the Smith family to lodge with them. It was also here that some [probably only one] of the Johnson sons participated in the midnight attack on Joseph Smith in early 1832. They barred the door to the Johnsons’ room and dragged Joseph outside into the stormy evening and a waiting mob. The drunken crowd beat, choked, and even threatened Joseph with castration but finally left him mostly naked, covered with tar and feathers in a nearby field. When he arrived home Emma, not being able to distinguish the tar and feathers from bloodied flesh in the dim lamplight, fainted. The Johnsons (after breaking through their door [scaring away the person holding their door]) helped Emma to clean up Joseph through the night. The next morning, Sunday, Joseph arose and preached a sermon from the front porch of the Johnson home (he was lucky the sermon was not expected further away as he only had to travel a few yards from inside the house to the porch). He preached and said nothing of the attack, and several of the mobbers [those] who were listening in the crowd later joined the Church.
It is also at the Johnson home that much of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible was received.
Okay, I’m still at work, but a few Internet resources for backing up the Johnson attack as written: Mormon Times article, Luke Johnson’s account, Joseph’s account, and a FAIR article talking about Eli Johnson and the supposed reasons for the attack.
Due to skimming these sources I touched up the post a bit. I’ll post more detailed info tonight.
Comment by NoCoolName_Tom — July 1, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
Comment by NoCoolName_Tom — July 1, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
Comment by NoCoolName_Tom — July 1, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
After talking to my sister, apparently the issue at hand is that most Mormons do not realize that the Johnson Family was very much a Lehi family, complete with Nephis and Lamans.
Comment by NoCoolName_Tom — July 6, 2009 @ 9:51 am
Have you been to the Mormon Temple in Mesa, Arizona. An amazing place.
Comment by arizona glass — June 3, 2010 @ 12:04 am