Joseph and Emma Smith’s Five Homes in Ohio

On the day that Joseph and Emma Smith first arrived in Kirtland, Joseph received a revelation in which the Lord directed the Church to provide him and his family with a home where he could live and continue work on the inspired translation of the Bible (see Doctrine and Covenants 41:7).

Despite this, Joseph and Emma spent several years reliant on the kindness and hospitality of Church members to provide them with a place to live.

These are the five places where Joseph and Emma Smith lived during the seven years that the Church was headquartered in northeast Ohio.

When Joseph and Emma Smith arrived at the Newel K. Whitney Store in Kirtland on February 4, 1831, Newel and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, immediately invited them to live in their home until a more permanent arrangement could be found. “We were glad to welcome them and share with them all the comforts and blessings we enjoyed,” Elizabeth Ann recalled.¹

Since the previous October, when missionaries first arrived in Ohio, the Whitneys had held many meetings in the parlor of their home. During the four weeks that Joseph and Emma lived in the Whitney Home, the home continued to serve as a center for Church activity.

Many Saints came to the Whitney home to attend meetings and to visit with the Prophet. While living here Joseph Smith received several revelations now found in the Doctrine and Covenants.²

Among the most significant is Doctrine and Covenants 41. Received on the first day that Joseph and Emma lived with the Whitneys, this revelation introduced the office of bishop and called Edward Partridge to serve in the position. After Partridge was sent to Missouri to serve as bishop there, Newel K. Whitney was called to serve as bishop in Ohio.³

Joseph and Emma’s time living in the Whitney Home was always intended to be temporary. On the day that Joseph and Emma arrived and Joseph received the revelation that a home should be built for them, Isaac Morley, a wealthy local farmer, agreed to have a home built on his nearby farm.

Morley oversaw the construction of a small home for Joseph and Emma, which was completed in just four weeks. Joseph and Emma moved into their home on the Morley Farm in early March 1831.

Isaac and his wife, Lucy, had been eager to help build the restored Church since their baptism in November 1830. As new converts were baptized in Ohio and Saints from New York arrived, many found temporary homes at the Morley Farm.

While Joseph and Emma lived on the farm, Joseph continued to hold meetings with the Saints and to receive revelations. Records indicate that Joseph dictated a significant number of revelations, including as many as 13 which are now included in the Doctrine and Covenants.⁴

The revelations during this period provided Joseph and the Saints with significant insight into the role of Jesus Christ as our advocate, how to conduct meetings, how to teach one another the gospel, and the purposes of gifts of the Spirit.

During meetings and conferences held at the Morley Farm, elders were called to fulfill missions and prophecies were made about the global destiny of the restored gospel.

This was also a challenging time for Joseph and Emma. On April 30, 1831, Emma gave birth to twins who lived only a few short hours. These were the second and third infants which Joseph and Emma had lost in just under three years.

On the same day, Julia Murdock, another Latter-day Saint living at the Morley Farm, had died while giving birth to twins. Joseph and Emma’s grief over the loss of their infant twins was somewhat lessened when Julia’s husband, John, asked Joseph and Emma to adopt his twins, Joseph and Julia.

After just six months of living at the Morley Farm, Joseph and Emma moved again. In September 1831, they moved to Hiram, Ohio, to the home of John and Elsa Johnson. In two revelations received in August and September 1831, Isaac Morley was directed to sell his farm (see Doctrine and Covenants 63:38–39; 64:20). After a large portion of the farm was sold in October 1831, Isaac and Lucy relocated their family to Missouri.⁵

Learning that Joseph and Emma would soon be without a home, John Johnson, a wealthy convert, invited them to move into his home in Hiram, Ohio, 44 miles (71 km) south of Kirtland. In September 1831, shortly before the Morley Farm was sold, Joseph and Emma Smith moved with their four-month-old twins into the home of John and Elsa Johnson.

The Johnsons, who had moved to Ohio in 1818, owned a successful farm and dairy and were among the most prosperous residents in Portage County. In the Johnson home, Joseph welcomed a constant stream of visitors, most of whom had to be fed and housed for the night.

The Johnsons not only provided a bedroom on the main floor where Joseph, Emma, and their children could live, but they also gave Joseph a large room on the second floor which served as his office. In this upper room, Joseph held meetings with Church members and leaders, continued working with scribes on the inspired translation of the Bible, and dictated profound revelations, including 16 now found in the Doctrine and Covenants.⁶

During a conference of elders held here in early November 1831, the decision was made to publish a compilation of Joseph Smith’s revelations.⁷ Later, on February 16, 1832, while Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were working on the translation of the New Testament, a vision was opened to them in which they saw Jesus Christ and were taught more about the resurrection of the dead.

Shortly after this vision, enemies of the Church broke into the Johnson home, pulled Joseph from his bed, and dragged him to a nearby clearing. His clothes were torn from his body, and he was covered in hot tar and feathers. After a long night of having the tar painfully removed from his body, Joseph preached a Sunday sermon to a gathered crowd of Saints, who were joined by members of the mob.

Unfortunately, the Smiths’ infant son, Joseph—one of the adopted twins—died shortly afterward from his exposure to the cold. For the next several months, mob activity and threats continued to swirl around Joseph Smith in Hiram and the surrounding communities.

As tensions rose in Hiram, Newel K. Whitney remodeled several rooms inside his store in Kirtland to provide Joseph and Emma with a new place to live. In September 1832, Joseph, Emma, and their daughter, Julia, moved into rooms on the upper floor of the store.

For nearly two years, Joseph and Emma lived in the Whitney Store, which became not only a home for their young and growing family but also the center of Church activity. While living here, Joseph Smith continued to receive revelations, including 16 now included in the Doctrine and Covenants.⁸ On November 6, 1832, Joseph Smith III was born in the N. K. Whitney & Co. Store.

Joseph Smith built an office in the building, where he continued work on the inspired Bible translation and met with Church leaders. For the 18 months that Joseph and Emma lived in the Whitney Store, it was the headquarters of the Church and the setting of many important events in Kirtland.

Among many other things, the revelations received here provided new insights into the priesthood, commanded the Saints to build a house of God, and taught us how to become more Christlike.

On March 8, 1833, after several months of discussion and revelation, the First Presidency of the Church was fully organized in the Whitney Store, and Joseph Smith’s counselors, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, were set apart.⁹

In a room in the back of the store, Joseph Smith began holding classes for the School of the Prophets, a training program for Church leaders and missionaries to prepare them for service. It was in this setting that the Word of Wisdom, the Lord’s law of health, was first revealed.

In late 1833, a home was completed for Joseph and Emma and their children. This small home was located south of the Whitney store, up the hill near where the house of the Lord was under construction.¹⁰ This was the first home that Joseph and Emma had owned since they left their home in Harmony, Pennsylvania. From her new kitchen, Emma Smith was able to watch as the promised temple rose above the landscape.

In this home, Emma ran a dairy, hired female workers, and began running a household. Here, with the assistance of William W. Phelps, Emma compiled the first hymnal of the Church. Another child, Frederick Granger Williams Smith, was born in June 1836, and for more than three years the Smith family was able to remain settled in the home. While living here, Joseph Smith received all or part of 5 revelations.¹¹

During the time that Joseph and Emma lived in their home, the Church continued to grow. In response to the increasing need for leadership, the Lord revealed new offices of the priesthood, changes in administrative structures, and other eternal truths to Church members. On February 17, 1834, Joseph Smith organized the first stake of the Church with the calling of a high council.

In other meetings held during this time—and possibly in the home—Joseph Smith’s revelations expanded the understanding of priesthood, organized Zion’s Camp, formally organized the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and prepared the Saints for the endowment of power promised in the temple. From his position near the temple site, Joseph was able to oversee the construction of additional Church facilities, including a print shop, a schoolhouse, and the Kirtland Safety Society.

The Smith Family lived in this home until early 1838, when dissension in the Church and a rise in mob activity prompted them to leave. On January 12, 1838, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon left Kirtland en route to Latter-day Saint settlements in Northwest Missouri. Emma, pregnant with another child, followed soon after.¹²