Johnson Farm

Located in a beautiful, tranquil area amid rich farmland, rolling hills and wooded areas, the John Johnson Home stands as one of Ohio's unique historic landmarks.

John Johnson, a prosperous farmer and his wife Alice (known to all as Elsa), welcomed the young Latter-day Saint Prophet, Joseph Smith, into their home in 1831. While living at the home, Joseph received many divine revelations that are accepted as doctrine by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the year that the Smith family stayed at the John Johnson Home, Ohio became the Church's Headquarters. Many people came from all over the United States to meet the Latter-day Saint Prophet.

Friendly tour guides provide interesting insights into the home's history as well as the important events that took place here.

While in the area, visit Historic Kirtland about 30 miles north of Hiram.

Kirtland Temple

An air of reverence about the Kirtland Temple touches member and friend of the church alike. This historical structure in the quaint, quiet village of Kirtland in the northeastern Ohio hills stands as a symbol of the sacrifice and the dedication of a small group of devoted Christians in the 1830's.

Located just east of Cleveland, the Kirtland Temple was the first temple in this dispensation. The Kirtland Temple symbolizes the eternal principle that human efforts can be directed by the will of God. Latter-day scripture contains some specific instruction about the building of the Temple. In obedience to this direction, the Latter Day Saints soon began construction of the building. They quarried sandstone from a nearby quarry and cut native timbers from the surrounding forests. When those first early missionaries returned home, they worked on the walls or at the quarries.

The Kirtland Temple is owned and operated by the Community of Christ, formerly know as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was built in 1833 and dedicated in 1836,and was one of the largest buildings in Northern Ohio. It is a combination of Greek, Georgian, Gothic, and Federalist architectural styles. The building has been designated a National Historical Landmark and has been recognized by The Architects Society of Ohio and The Ohio Historical Society.

The pulpits and the pews are among the distinctive features of the interior. Two sets of pulpits grace the main floor with another two sets on the second floor. The seats in the pew boxes are benches that can be shifted from the back to the front, thus making it possible for the congregation to face either the front or the rear pulpits.

The main floor of the Kirtland Temple was used for various services of worship, and the second floor was a school for the ministry. The third floor contained rooms for the "Kirtland High School," during the day and Church quorum meetings in the evening. The west third floor room was Joseph Smith, Jr.'s office.

Today the Kirtland Temple is open for tours through the year. The building is also used at various times for special services and classes.

Explore the Morley Farm

After touring Historic Kirtland, visit the Isaac Morley Farm—just one mile east of Kirtland.

The Isaac Morley farm became a gathering place for Church members who came to Kirtland. Joseph Smith lived at the farm for about six months, and many meetings were held in a nearby schoolhouse. Here Joseph administered church affairs and received many revelations. The fourth general conference of the Church, in which the first High Priests of the Church were ordained, was held at the farm. Visitors can take a guided tour of the grounds during summer months (May through October) and learn of the historical events that took place here.

Kirtland Flats

Visit the Kirtland Schoolhouse and learn of the simple nature of education in the early 1800s. The school house is a replica of the original built on this spot in 1819.

The Kirtland schoolhouse was a place of secular and spiritual education where the Saints responded to the commandment to receive "instruction in all things." Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the elementary aged children from the neighborhood gathered here to learn reading, grammar, penmanship, and arithmetic—the very basics of education in the early nineteenth century.

In addition to serving as a school, this building played an important role in the public life as Kirtland's "town hall" and as a gathering place for various groups. The school also served as a place for the Saints to gather weekly to worship through prayer, devotional music, sermons, and partaking of the sacrament.








Nestled within the beauty of Historic Kirtland, the Kirtland Sawmill stands as one of the few functioning sawmills from the 1830s.

The Kirtland Sawmill was built by the Church to provide work for newly gathered Saints and to process lumber for the building up of Kirtland, including the construction of the temple. On land owned by Newel K. Whitney and through the expertise of Joel Hills Johnson, the sawmill was constructed in 1834 to "cut lumber for the Lord's house."

A typical day for those building the temple began at the sawmill with a prayer meeting seeking a blessing upon the day's labor. Those working on the Temple itself then walked up the hill while the six or so men laboring at the sawmill went to work.







Before the restoration of Kirtland as it was in Joseph Smith's time, one of the first things you would spot upon entering Kirtland was the Whitney Store, where the Word of Wisdom revelation was received. In fact the old highway used to go right next to this store.

Visit Newel K. Whitney's store, restored to its 1830 condition. Whitney's general store, established in 1826, was the first store in the Kirtland area.

Late in 1830, members of the newly organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were directed to gather to Ohio. The Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma were among the first to travel to Kirtland, arriving at Newel K. Whitney's general store in early February 1831. The Whitneys, who were converts, welcomed the Smiths and opened their home to the Prophet and his wife.

Several months later, in December 1831, Newel K. Whitney was called as the second bishop of the Church. As bishop, he used part of his store to organize goods that were used to help the needy. He also allowed Joseph and Emma to live at the store and use a room as an office. While living at the store, Joseph received about 20 divine revelations that have since been included in the Doctrine and Covenants. A room in the store also housed the School of the Prophets, allowing leaders of the Church to study the gospel together.

While in the area, see the John Johnson Farm Home about 30 miles south of Kirtland.

Come Visit Kirtland & Start with the Visitors' Center

Come visit Historic Kirtland, a small settlement in northern Ohio, where members of The Churchhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered shortly after the Church was founded. Between 1831 and 1838 Joseph Smith and early members of the Church established Church headquarters in Kirtland, built a temple, and laid a foundation of strength for the future.

A discovery of Kirtland and the surrounding area begins at the Historic Kirtland Visitors' Center. A new film dramatizes the significant events that unfolded here during the 1830s. Guided tours of the historic village, including the Newel K. and Elizabeth Ann Whitney Home, Newel K Whitney Store and John Johnson Inn, begin here. These tours will help visitors appreciate the history of Kirtland's faithful residents while the Church was headquartered here.

Other nearby historic sites include the *Kirtland Temple, the temple quarry, the Sidney Rigdon home, the Kirtland Temple cemetery, the Isaac Morely farm, the Hyrum Smith home, the Johnson home in Hiram, and Fairport Harbor.

Whitmer Farm

Here is the humble home where on 6 April 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formally organized with six members. During a tour of the small home you can learn about the many other noteworthy events that occurred here.


Members of the Whitmer family did much to further the budding Church. They took in the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and his wife Emma for a period of time and allowed Joseph and Oliver Cowdery to work on the translation of the Book of Mormon in their home. Joseph also received revelations comprising 20 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, and some of the first priesthood ordinances were performed in or near this home.

Grandin Bookstore

In this building, Joseph Smith, latter-day prophet and translator of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, met with E. B. Grandin to discuss printing the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. The book, translated from gold plates, is a religious history of a group of people who lived on the American continents centuries ago. Among many things, they wrote of Christ's visit to the ancient Americas after His Resurrection.

Hill Cumorah

The Hill Cumorah Pageant: America's Witness for Christ is a testimony in drama and music that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. The pageant portrays the account of a group of people who left Jerusalem about 600 B.C. and were guided to what is now the American continent. Live actors depict events that lead up to the climactic visit of Jesus Christ to the Americas.

A history of this people, written on gold plates, was deposited in this hill approximately A.D. 420 by Moroni, the last survivor of a great civilization. In 1827, Moroni returned as an angel and delivered the gold plates to Joseph Smith, who translated them through the power of God. The translation of the gold plates is called the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant: America's Witness for Christ is a magnificent, family-oriented production complete with earthquakes and lightning. Seven sound stages, all with digital sound and state-of-the-art lighting, transform the hill into a scene from America's past. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has hosted this spectacular, all-volunteer pageant since 1937.

While you're in the Palmyra area, visit the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center and interesting sites relating to the Book of Mormon and its translator, Joseph Smith. Additional information about historic sites, calendar events, and other items of interest in Palmyra can be found at www.hillcumorah.org.

Visit Joseph Smith Farm & Linger in the Sacred Grove

The Joseph Smith Sr. family moved to this 100-acre property in western New York around 1818. Joseph Smith Jr. labored with his father and brothers to remove trees and prepare this heavily forested land for farming.

"On the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring"1 of 1820, young Joseph went into these woods to pray, to a place where he "had previously designed to go."2 Here, God the Father and His resurrected Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith to commence the Restoration of the gospel in the latter days.

Joseph Smith's family moved away from this farm in 1830. The Church acquired the land in the early 1900s. The exact location of Joseph Smith's First Vision is unknown, but it occurred somewhere within a 10-acre forest on the western boundaries of the farm. This forest has been referred to as the Sacred Grove since 1906.

First Vision

In his own words.
(Read at the Sacred Grove - allow 3 hours to visit the grove, the log cabin, the Smith Farm House, and the barn.)

"In accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.


Image of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove looking up at Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

One of them . . . said, pointing to the other--"This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"


It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other--"This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)--and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home." (Joseph Smith History 1:14-20)

Why Visit Church History Sites?

"In great deeds, something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger to consecrate ground for the vision place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar and generations that know us knot and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and won from them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! The shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of vision pass into their souls." (Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Gettysburg: A Meditation on War and Values, Kent Gramm, p. 157.)

I am a believer in sacred space. It is wonderful to stand in places where Jesus walked, where great prophets of the past prayed and received revelation. Planning a Church History trip for your loved ones provides not only the opportunity to testify, but also the experience of which memories are made. Come visit the sacred sites of Church History and know that you will want to return again and again.

Independence/Nauvoo

Many families and their friends will want to divide their visits to Church History sites into two separate tours. One tour is to Palmyra and Kirtland which gives one half of the story and the other tour would be to Independence and Nauvoo which presents the rest of the overview of the restoration.

These slides feature the tour one might take for the latter tour. Flights are plentiful into Kansas City, which is in easy driving distance from Independence. Indeed, Independence is a suburb of Kansas City.

A probable itinerary would have you first travel to the Liberty Jail in Liberty and then on over to Independence for a tour of the visitor's center and a stroll on Temple Lot. Following the visit to Independence, you would want to travel 45 minutes to Far West, where you would visit the grounds where the monument commemorating Section 119 of the Doctrine and Covenants is housed. Next a short trip over to Haun's Mill and then a drive through Gallatin to Adam-ondi-Ahman gives a great overview to the Independence period.

Following the visits to the aforementioned sites, the tour will proceed to Nauvoo, but will likely stop in Hannibal to take a step back into the Mark Twain era. Continuing North the tour will focus on Nauvoo. While staying at the Nauvoo Family Inn, the tour will likely included an overview of Nauvoo, a side trip to Carthage, Montrose, and Quincy. Not to be neglected will be a visit to the Nauvoo Burial grounds outside of Nauvoo, reportedly said by President Hinckley to be the second most sacred site in the United States next to the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York.

The Sacred Grove, Palmyra, New York

Our family friendly tour begins in Palmyra, New York where it all began on a beautiful spring morning in 1830. After flying into the Rochester Airport, you will be bused to the Marriott in Rochester to refresh and unpack. Then the motor coach will take you 30 minutes away to Palmyra with a first stop at the Sacred Grove, where it all began on a beautiful spring morning in 1830. You will have at least an hour of peaceful solitude in the grove as you begin your tour. Our next visit will be to the log cabin where Joseph saw the Angel Moroni. You will stand in the actual air space where this occurred. Following the visit to the cabin, you will visit the Smith Farmhouse, also on the same property as the Sacred Grove and the log cabin.

Our next stop will be the Palmyra Temple which overlooks the Sacred Grove through beautiful stained glass windows depicting the grove. We will continue on to the Grandin Bookstore where the Book of Mormon was printed, visit Alvin's grave and then see the Martin Harris home.

Following our stops in Palmyra we will stop at the Hill Cumorah on the way out of town. Here we will climb to the top of the Hill and see the statue of the Angel Moroni and visit the vistors center.

Our last stop in the Palmyra area will be the Whitmer farm in Fayette, New York. This is where the Book of Mormon was translated and also where the Church was organized on April 6, 1830.