OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 49A

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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
Tid Bits -Part 49. A
by Darlene E. Kelley
Notes by 
S. Kelly
E.L Kelley
Madison Kelley
Henry Howe.

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Tid Bits - Part 49 A.

                Lake County 

Lake county was formed March 06, 1840, from Geauga and Cuyahoga, and so
named from its bordering on Lake Erie. The surface is more rolling than
level; the soil is good, and the country is known for its quality and
quantity of its fruit, as apples, pears, peaches, plums, and grapes. Its
situation tends to the preservation of the fruit from early frosts, the
warm lake winds often preventing its destruction, while that some twenty
miles inland is cut off.

Its Townships consists of ;  Concord, Kirtland, Leroy, Madison, Mentor,
Painsville, Perry, and Willoughby.
 
             First Settlement

Mentor was the first place settled in Lake County in the summer of 1799,
two families were there. Among the earliest settlers was the Hon. John
Walworth, who was born at New London, Ct., in 1765.
When a young man, he spent five years at sea and in Demerara, South
America. About the year 1792, he removed with his family to the then new
country east of 
Cayuga lake, New York. In 1799, he visited Cleveland, and after his
return in the fall of that year, journeyed to Connecticut and purchased
over two thousand acres of land in the present township of Painsville,
with the design of making a settlement. On the 20th of Feb. 1800, he
commenced the removal of his family and effects.  They were brought on
as far as Buffalo, in sleighs. At that place, after some little
detention, the party, being enlarged by the addition of some others,
drove two sleighs on the ice of the lake, and proceeded until abreast of
Cattaraugus creek, at which point they were about ten miles from land.
At dusk, leaving their sleighs and horses some 50 or 60 rods from shore,
they made their camp under some hemlock trees, where all, men, women and
children, passed an agreeable night, its earlier hour being enlivened by
good cheer and social converse. The next afternoon they arrived at
Presque Isle ( now Erie, Pa.), where, leaving his family, Mr. Walworth
went back to Buffalo for his goods. On his return to Erie, he, with his
hired hand and two horses and a yoke of oxen, followed the lake shore,
and arrived in safety at his new purchase. His nearest neighbors east
were at Harpersfield, 15 miles distant, within or near the present
limits of Mentor, was what was then called the Marsh settlement, where
was then living Judge Jesse Phelps, Jared Wood, Ebenezer Merry, Charles
Parker and Moses Parks. Mr. Walworth soon returned to Erie on foot. and
brought out his family ad effects in a flat boat, all arriving safe at
the new home on the 7th of April. The first fortnight they live in a
tent, during wich period the sun was not seen. About the expiration of
this time Gen. Edward Paine-- the first delegate to the legislature from
Lake County, in the winter of 1801/02 arrived with seven or eight hired
men, and settled about a mile distant. Mutually assisting each other,
cabins were soon erected for shelter, and gradually the conveniences of
civilization clustered around them.

Shortly after the formation of the State government, Mr. Walworth,
Solomen Griswold, of Windsor, and Calvin Austin, of Warren, were
appointed associate judges of Trumbull county. In 1805, Judge Walworth
was appointed collector of customs for the district of Erie. In August
he opened the collector's office at Cleveland, and in the March ensuing
removed his family thither. He held various offices until his decease,
September 10, 1812, and was an extensive land agent. Judge Walworth was
small in statue, and of a weakly constitution. Prior to his removal to
the West it was supposed he had the consumption; but to the hardships
and fatigue he endured, and the change of climate, his physicians
attributed the prolongation of his life many years. He was a fearless
man, and possessed of that indomitable perseverance and strength of will
especially important in overcoming the obstacles in the path of the
pioneer.

                Willoughby

Willoughby is on the Chagrin River, 3 miles from lake Erie and 11 miles
southwest of Painesville. The village and Township were originally
called Chagrin and changed in 1834, to its present name, in honor of
Prof. Willoughby, of Herkimer county, N.Y. It was settled about the year
1799, by David Abbot, Peter French, Jacob West, Ebenezer Smith, Elisha
Graham, and others. Abbot built the first grist mill on the sight of the
Willoughby mills: Smith was the first man who recieved a regular deed of
is land from the Connecticut land company. In 1796, Charles Parker, on
of the surveyors, built a house at the mouth of the river, and a number
of huts for the use of the land company; the house first erected in the
Township, and probably the first in the county. Parker became a settler
in 1802; in 1803 and 1804 John Miller, Christopher Colson, James Lewis
and Jacob West settled in Willoughby, Dr. Henderson, te first regular
physician, came in 1813, and the first organized town meeting was held
April 3, 1815. A bloody battle had been fought at an early date between
the Indians, on the spot where the medical college was built; human
bones have been discovered, supposed to be of those who fell in that
action.


               Kirtland and the Mormans.
                    by Henry Howe

Nine miles southwest of Painsville, on the east branch of Chagrin river,
in a beautiful farming country, is the little village of Kirtland. It
became famous in the history of Mormonism. While the Mormans were in
Kirtland, they eventually numbered about 3,000 persons. On their
abandoning it, most of the dwellings went to decay, and had the
apearance of a depopulated and broken down place. In the center of the
village is seen the Morman Temple; on the right was the Teacher's
Seminary, and on the left, on a line with the front of the temple, the
old banking house of the mormons. The temple, the main point of the
attraction, is 60 by 80 feet, and measures from its base to the top of
the spire 142 feet. It is of rough stone, plastered over, colored blue,
and marked to imitate regular courses of masonry. It cost about $40,000.
In front, over the large window, is a tablet, bearing the inscription: "
House of the Lord, built by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, A.D.
1834." The first and second stories are divided into two " grand rooms "
for public worship. The attic is partioned off into about a dozen small
apartments. The lower grand room is fitted up with seats as an ordinary
church, with canvas curtains hanging from the ceiling, which on the
occasion of prayer meetings, are let down to the tops of the slips,
dividing the room into several different apartments for the use of the
separate collections of worshippers. At each end of the room is a set of
pulpits, four in number, rising behind each other. Each pulpit is
calculated for three persons, so that, when they are full, twelve
persons occupy each set, or twenty four persons the two sets. These
pulpits were for the officers of the priesthood. The set at the further
end of the room are for the Melchisedek priesthood, or those who
minister in spiritual concerns. The set opposite, near the entrance to
the room, are for the Aaronic priesthood, whose duty it is to simply
attend to te temporal affairs of the society. These pulpits all bear
initials, signifying the rank of their occupants.

On the Melchisedek side are the initials 
P.E. i.e., President of the Elders; 
M.P.H. President of the High Priests;
P.M.H. President of the High Council and 
M.P.C., President of the of the Full Church. On the Aaronic pulpits are
the initials P.D., i,e., President of Deacons;
P.T.A., President of the Teachers; P.A.P., President of the Aaronic
Priesthood, and B.P.A., Bishop of the Aaronic Priesthood.
The Aaronic priesthood were rarely allowed to preach, that being the
especial  duty of the higher order, the Melchisedek.

I have a communication from a resident of Kirtland, dated in the autumn
of 1846. It contains facts of value, and is of interest as coming from
an honest man, who has been a subject of the Morman delusion, but whose
faith, I am of opinion , is of late somewhat shaken. 

" The Mormans derive their name from their belief in the book of Morman,
which is said to have been translated from gold plates found in a hill,
in Palmyra, N.Y. They came to this place in 1832, and commenced building
their temple, which they finished in 1835. When they commenced building
the temple they were few in number, but before they had finished it they
had increased to two thousand. There are in the church two Priesthoods
-- the Melchisedek and the Aaronic, incuding the Levitical, from which
they derive their officers. This place, which they hold to be a "stake
of Zion." was laid off in half acres for a space of one square mile.
When it was mostly sold, they bought a number of farms in the vicinity,
at a very high price, and were deeply in debt for goods in New York,
which were the causes of their eventually leaving for Missouri. They
established a bank at Kirtland, from which they issued a number of
thousand more dollars than they had specie, which gave their enemies
power over them, and those bills became useless.

They adhered to their prophet, Smith, in all things, and left here in
1837, seven hundred in one day. They still hold this place to be a stake
of Zion, to be eventually a place of gathering. There is a president
with his two counsellors, to preside over this stake. The president is
the highest officer; next is the high priest, below whom are the
elders-- all of the Melchisedek priesthood. The lesser priesthood are
composed of priests, teachers, and deacons. They have twelve apostles,
whose duty it is to travel and preach the gospel. There are seventy
elders or seventies, a number of whom are traveling preachers; seven of
the seventies preside over them. There are two seventies organized in
Kirtland. They ordain most of the male members to some office. They have
a bishop with two counsellors to conduct the affairs of the church in
temporal things, and sit in judgement upon difficulties which may arise
between members; but their is a higher court to which they can appeal,
called the high council, which consists of twelve high priests. The
president and his council sit as judges over either of these courts.
There are, however, three presidents who preside over the whole in all
the world -- so termed.

The method of conducting worship among the Mormans is simular to other
denominations. The first ordinance is baptism for remission of sins;
they lay on hands for the gift of the holy Ghost, and to heal the sick;
anoint with oil; administer the sacrament; take little children and
bless them; they hold to all the gifts of the Apostolic church,
believing there is no true church without them, and have the gift of
speaking in different tongues; they sometimes interpret for themselves,
but commonly there is some one to interpret them.

A prophet has lately risen among the Mormans, viz., James J. Strang of
Wiscousin, who claims to be the successor of Joseph Smith. He has been
with them only about two years, and was a young lawyer of Western New
York. He claims to have received communications from Heaven at the very
hour of Smith's death, commisioning him to lead the people. he has
established a stake in Walworth County, Wisconsin, called the city of
Voree, by interpretation signifying
" Garden of Peace." to which they are gathering from Nauvoo and other
places.
He has lately visited Kirtland and re-established it as a stake of Zion,
and organized the church with all its officers. There are now here about
one hundred members, who are daily increasing, and it is thought that
the place will be built up.

Stang is said to have found plates of brass or some other metal. He was
directed by an angel, who gave him a stone to look through, by which he
made the discovery. They were found three feet under ground, beneath an
oak of a foot in diameter. These he has translated; they give an account
of a race who once inhabited that land and became a fallen people. Stang
preaches pure Bible doctrine, and receives only those who walk humbly
before their God."
               ++++++++++++

The Mormans continued to use the temple at Kirtland. This sect is now
divided into three factions, viz,: the Rigdonites, the Twelveites, and
the Strangites. The Rigdonites are the followers of Sidney Rigdon, and
are but a few in number. The Twelveites-- so named after the twlve
apostles -- are fanatical, and hold to the spiritual wife system and
plurality of Gods. The Strangites mantain the original doctrines of
Mormonism, and are located at this place and Voree. [ Henry Howe goes on
to say ] " We derive, from a published source, a brief historical sketch
of Mormanism." ;

"Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormanism, was born in Sharon, Vermont,
December 23, 1805, and removed to Manchester, Ontario county, N.Y.,
about the year 1815, at an early age, with his parents, who were in
quite humble circumstances. He was occasonally employed in Palmyra as a
laborer, and bore the reputation of a lazy and ignorant young man.
According to the testimony of respectable individuals in that place,
Smith and his father were persons of doubtful moral character, addicted
to disreputable habits, and, moreover, extremely superstitious,
believing in the existance of witchcraft. They at one time procured a
mineral rod, and dug in various places for money. Smith testified that
when digging he had seen the pot or chest containing the treasure, but
never was fortunate enough to get it into his hands. He placed a
singular looking stone in his hat, and pretended by the light of it to
make many discoveries of gold, silver and other treasures, deposited in
the earth. He commenced his career as the founder of the new sect, when
about the age of eighteen or nineteen, and appointed a number of
meetings in Palmyra for the purpose of declaring the devine revelations
which he said were made to him. He was, however, unable to produce any
excitement in the village; but very few had curiousity sufficient to
listen to him. Not having means to print his revelations, he applied to
Mr. Crane, of the Society of Friends, declaring that he was moved by the
Spirit to call upon him for assistance. This gentleman bid him go to
work or the State prison would end his career. Smith had better success
with Martin Harris, an industrious and thrifty farmer of Palmyra, who
was worth about $10,000, and who became one of his leading disciples. By
his assistance, 5,000 copies of the Morman bible ( so called ) were
published, at an expense of about $3,000.
It is possible that Harris might have made the advances with the
expectation of a profitable speculation, as great sale was anticipated.
This work is a duodecimo volume, containing five hundred and ninety
pages, and is, perhaps, one of the weakest productions ever attempted to
be palmed off as a devine revelation. It is mostly a blind mass of
words, interwoven with scriptural language and quotations, without much
of a leading plan or design.

Soon after the publication of the Morman bible, one Parley B. Pratt, a
resident of Lorrain county, Ohio, happening to pass through Palmyra, on
the canal, and hearing of the new religion, called on the prophet, and
was soon converted. Pratt was intimate with Sidney Rigdon, a very
popular preacher of the denomination called " Reformers," or "
Disciples." About the time of the arrival of Pratt at Manchester, the
Smiths were fitting out an expedition for the western country, under the
command of Cowdery, in order to convert the Indians, or Lamanites, as
they termed them. In October, 1830, this mission, consisting of Cowdery,
Pratt, Peterson, and Whitmer, arrived at Mentor, Ohio, the residence of
Rigdon, well supplied with new bibles. Near this place, in Kirtland,
there were a few families belonging to Rigdon's congregation, who,
having become extremely fanatical, were daily looking for some wonderful
event to take place in the world; seventeen of these persons readily
believed in Mormanism, and were all re-immersed in one night by Cowdery.
By the conversion of Rigdon soon after, Mormanism received a powerful
impetus, and more than one hundred converts were speedily added. Rigdon
visited Smith at Palmyra, where he tarried about two months, receiving
revelations, preaching, etc. He then returned to Kirtland, Ohio, and was
followed a few days after by the prophet, Smith, and his connections.
Thus, from a state of almost beggery, the family of Smith were furnished
with the " fat of the land " by their disciples, many of whom were
wealthy." 

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Tid Bits continued in part 49 B.