Life of Joseph Smith from 1831 to 1837

The life of Joseph Smith, Jr. from 1831 to 1837, when he was 26–32 years old, covers the period of time from when Smith moved with his family to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, until he left Ohio for Missouri early in early January 1838. By 1831, Smith had already published the Book of Mormon, and established the Latter Day Saint movement. He had founded it as the Church of Christ, but eventually dictated a revelation to change its name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Move to Kirtland, Ohio
After receiving what Smith described as revelations, Smith and his wife Emma Hale Smith moved to Kirtland, Ohio, early in 1831, arriving about February 3. They lived with Isaac Morley's family while a house was built for them on the Morley farm. Many of Smith's followers and associates settled in Kirtland, and also in Jackson County, Missouri, where Smith said he was instructed by revelation to build Zion.

Tarring and feathering
On March 24, 1832, Joseph was dragged from his bedroom in the dead of night. His attackers strangled him, tore off his clothes, beat him, and attempted to force him to ingest poison. They then tarred and feathered his body, and left him for dead.

According to recorded accounts of the event, the mob broke down the front door, took Smith's oldest surviving adopted child from his arms, dragged Smith from the room, leaving his exposed child on a trundle bed and forcing Emma and the others from the house, the mob threatening her with rape and murder. The child was knocked off the bed onto the floor in the doorway of the home as Smith was forcibly removed from his home. The child died from exposure (many accounts say pneumonia) five days after the event from the condition that doctors said he developed the night of the mob violence.

The historian Fawn Brodie references an account that one of John Johnson's sons, Eli, meant to punish Smith by having him castrated for an intimacy with his teenage sister, Nancy Marinda Johnson, but author Bushman disputes this. He feels a more probable motivation is recorded by Symonds Ryder, a participant in the event, who felt Smith was plotting to take property from members of the community and a company of citizens violently warned Smith that they would not accept those actions.

Zion's Camp
As early as 1831, Smith had stated that the City of Zion would be built in Jackson County, Missouri, with Independence as the centerplace for Zion. Many Latter Day Saints began to gather to that area. Many local non-Mormons in Jackson County became alarmed at the movement's rapid growth. Forming vigilante groups, many burned Latter Day Saint homes and destroyed the church print shop. Many Latter Day Saints were threatened and abused and by 1833, nearly all had fled from the county for their safety. The Mormon refugees then settled temporarily in neighboring counties, including Clay County in particular.

In 1834, Smith called for a militia to be raised in Kirtland which would then march to Missouri and "redeem Zion." About 200 men and a number of women and children volunteered to join this militia which became known as "Zion's Camp." It was agreed that Smith would be the leader of the group.

Zion's Camp left Kirtland on May 4, 1834. They had marched across the Illinois River, reached the Mississippi River, and entered Missouri by June 4. They crossed most of the state by the end of June and news of their approach caused some alarm among non-Mormons in Jackson and Clay Counties. Attempts to negotiate a return of the Latter Day Saints to Jackson County proved fruitless, but Smith decided to disband Zion's Camp, rather than attempt to "redeem Zion" by force. Many members of the camp subsequently became ill with cholera.

Although the Latter Day Saints failed to achieve their goal of returning to Jackson County, Missouri's legislature later approved a compromise which set aside the new county of Caldwell specifically for their settlement in 1836.

While the march failed to return Latter Day Saint property, many of its participants became committed loyalists in the movement. When Smith returned to Kirtland, he organized the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the First Quorum of the Seventy, choosing primarily men who had served in Zion's Camp.

Doctrine and Covenants
During the Kirtland period, Smith's followers published a collection of his revelations, titled the "Book of Commandments," which was renamed the Doctrine and Covenants in later printings.

Kirtland Temple
In Kirtland, the church's first temple was built. Work was begun in 1833, and the temple was dedicated in 1836. At and around the dedication, many extraordinary events were reported: appearances by Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Elias and numerous angels; speaking and singing in tongues, often with translations; prophesying; and other spiritual experiences. Some Mormons believed that Jesus' Millennial reign had come. Smith may have first practiced polygamy during the building of the Kirtland temple.

In Salem, Massachusetts
Construction of the Kirtland Temple had only added to the church's debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors. Having heard of a large sum of money supposedly hidden in Salem, Massachusetts, Smith traveled there and announced a revelation that God had "much treasure in this city". After a month, however, he returned to Kirtland empty-handed.

Kirtland Safety Society
By mid to late 1837, many Latter Day Saints (including some prominent leaders) became disaffected in the wake of the Kirtland Safety Society banking debacle, in which Smith and several of Smith's associates were accused of various illegal or unethical banking actions when the bank, with the charter held by Smith, collapsed just prior to a nationwide banking crisis. Many critics leveled accusations that Smith was actively misleading KSS members from the beginning of the financial enterprise as it was operating without an official Ohio bank charter and required reserves. Supporters of Smith, on the other hand, hold that the financial institution's collapse was more than partially due to state and federal financial regulations and that the charges against Smith and his associates are at best inflated.

Move to Missouri
Opposition and harassment grew against Smith and those of his associates who supported him. On January 12, 1838, Smith and Rigdon left Kirtland for Far West in Caldwell County, Missouri, in Smith's words, "to escape mob violence, which was about to burst upon us under the color of legal process."

Most of the remaining church members who remained loyal to Smith left Kirtland for Missouri shortly thereafter.