Even as late as 1835, . . . in the Kirtland area, there were only twentyone Mormons who held property of their own. . . . Some however, had evidently bought farms or sites with an eye open to the possible appreciation of land values as population grew. Joseph Smith invested in four acres containing twenty-four rods of road across from his store on the heights, . . . for four hundred dollars; . . . The Mormon stress on gathering heightened the speculative fever.

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The most important sales in 1836, were made to five persons who evidently intended to profit by selling housing lots to the incoming Saints. It was for them a season of preparation. First to act was John Boynton, apostle of the Church. . . .

Next to act was Jacob Bump, the master mason, . . .

The third person to prepare himself for subdivision was John Johnson. . . .

Joseph Smith Jr., Prophet to the Church, was the next person to make preparations to sell inheritances to the incoming Saints. He already owned more than one hundred and forty acres of land adjoining the temple besides his four acres of business property on the Chillicothe Road. Now he associated himself with Jacob Bump and Reynolds Cahoon to make two more large acquisitions. The first was from Peter French. The old farmer, after selling out to the Mormons . . . had moved, . . . to a new site . . . On October 4, he again profited from the Church as he signed a contract with Smith and his associate, agreeing to sell his two hundred and forty acres of land for nine thousand seven hundred seventy-seven dollars and fifty cents. Barely two weeks passed before these associates bought again, this time from non-Mormon Alpheus Russell. . . . When he was offered twelve thousand nine hundred and four dollars for his one hundred and thirty-two acres, it was more than his puritanism could stand and the Yankee in him succumbed to the offer. The partners were evidently speculating, for both of these purchases were made on mortgage contracts which covered the full purchase price. Smith made two other smaller purchases by himself. He bought an eight-acre farm from Samuel Canfield for one hundred and sixty dollars and recorded it in the name of his wife, Emma, and an additional thirteen acres in a different location, from the same seller, for five hundred dollars. The Prophet’s uncle, John Smith, in association with Jared Carter and Oliver Granger, was the last of the five big land purchasers. . . . As the Saints gathered in Kirtland, the tempo of land sales gradually increased. There was no uniformity of prices; they ranged from a low of twenty dollars per acre to a high of thirty-five hundred dollars which Joseph Smith paid to Jacob Bump . . . One of the higher prices was the eight hundred dollars which Smith charged David Elliott for a half acre plot. Likely many lands were bargained for which never reached the stage of deed records. In view of the recorded prices, the Prophet’s warning to his congregation, delivered in December, to beware of falling victim to speculators and extortioners, was eminently justified. How he accounted for his own conduct is not a matter or record.

Through the early months of 1837, Smith was busy trying to effect the largest real estate promotion of them all in order to bring some kind of regularity into his rapidly growing but poorly organized city.