Introduction

In the latter part of the day on May 5, 1837, a sudden storm arose in northwest Oho and swept toward Lake Erie, carrying a driving rain and fierce winds. The wind smashed a Methodist chapel in Newberry Township. It also brought a “whirl wind or tornado” which started in the western part of Kirtland Township and passed just south of the temple leaving a trail of destruction in its path as it moved east.

It crushed one building in an instant; then demolished several others as it skipped along, Wilford Woodruff’s laconic account of the incident noted simply that the tornado “removed” the building where he was his employer, Joseph Young, sough protection. Woodruff never described how far or in what manner the cyclone carried them, although another tornado five years later that took almost the same route lifted a Methodist chapel off its foundation and moved buildings across the street. In Woodruff’s case, he ended his account declaring, “Soon all was calm again.”

Wilford Woodruff understandably included an expression of gratitude in his journal for the fact that no one was injured during his brief flight. Typically a faithful journal writer, however, he did not write for he next two weeks. Eighteen days after the incident Woodruff noted, “Spent several of the last weeks in laboring with my hands for Elder Joseph Young”—probably rebuilding after the destruction. Kirtland was booming with construction projects. The economy blossomed due to an influx of money form a lending institution in which both Joseph Young and Wilford Woodruff were investors. The thirty-year-old Woodruff had much to be grateful for with his recent marriage on April 13, 1837, to Phoebe Carter, who was eight days younger than him, and with his employers that provided means to pay his modest debts.

Nevertheless, all was not well and a major social and economic storm loomed on the horizon. The day before Joseph Young was due to pay Wilford Woodruff his wages, Woodruff went to what he called the “Deposit Office” of the Kirtland Safety Society that stood about 120 feet south of the temple, near the tornado’s track. Although he did not mention it in his journal, on that day, May 22, 1837, Woodruff redeemed his twenty shares of stock in the Kirtland Safety Society for the $5.25 first installment he had already paid on them and ended his involvement in Kirtland’s financial institution. Woodruff needed ready cash to add to his salary on the following day to finance his departure on a mission to the Fox Islands nine days later on May 31.

Before he left, Woodruff moved himself and Phoebe away from the home of Warren and Martha Parish where they were boarding. He described a spirit of “murmering, complaining & of mutiny” that had “been brewing in the family Circle in the secret Chamber & in the streets until many & some in high places had written up against Joseph. . . . And they were striving to overthrow his influence.” Although Wilford Woodruff conscientiously differentiated between the relatively few (“some”) leaders opposing Joseph Smith in contrast to the “many” members beginning to turn against him, the numbers of both would multiply significantly during the summer months. Joseph Smith appears to have considered the situation as even more severe than Woodruff described. According to a later biographer who had known Wilford Woodruff personally, when Joseph asked Woodruff to serve his mission, “the Prophet scrutinized him very closely, as though he would read his inmost thoughts and remarked: ‘Brother Woodruff, I am glad to see you; I hardly know, when I meet those who have been my brethren in the Lord, who of them are my friends, they have become so scarce.’”]

Three days later after redeeming his shares in the lending company, Wilford and Phoebe Woodruff moved out of the Parrish home. Kirtland’s economy collapsed during the next month as the entire social landscape of Kirtland’s quiet village profoundly changed. The resulting loss of money, land, titles, and livelihood contributed to mounting anger and confusion as accusations and counter-accusations obscured an eventual understanding of the most significant event in Kirtland’s economic history. The social and spiritual whirlwind that accompanied the collapse of Kirtland’s economy in 1837 profoundly reshaped Mormonism and influenced the Prophet Joseph Smith up until the day he died. He spent the last morning of his life discussing Kirtland and its troubles.

Part 4 explores in detail some of the key elements in the history of Kirtland’s economic development that led to the establishment of a lending corporation and then to its ultimate collapse followed by a transformation of Kirtland’s economy. Any attempt to understand the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland requires a detailed exploration of the events leading to the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society.