Kirtland Camp facts for kids
The Kirtland Camp was a large group of several hundred Latter-day Saints who traveled from Kirtland, Ohio to northern Missouri in 1838. This journey was led by important church leaders called the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies. The people who stayed with the group until the end settled in Mormon towns in Daviess County, Missouri. However, they soon had to leave the area because of conflicts with other settlers during the 1838 Mormon War.
Why the Kirtland Camp Started
After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was started by Joseph Smith in New York, many of its members were asked to move to Kirtland, Ohio. By 1835, about 900 Mormon settlers lived in Kirtland, making up half of the town.
However, Kirtland became a difficult place for Latter-day Saints to live in the late 1830s. There were disagreements within the church and problems with people who were not members. Many church leaders and members who had money moved to new settlements in northern Missouri.
Several hundred other Mormons also wanted to leave but were too poor to do so. These people came together under the leadership of church leaders like Joseph Young, Henry Harriman, Zerah Pulsipher, Josiah Butterfield, James Foster, Elias Smith, and Benjamin Wilber. These men were serving as the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy.
The leaders began planning the journey in the Kirtland Temple on March 6, 1838. They invited all church members in the area to join. Even though they faced poverty and opposition, the group was organized. Over 500 members left Kirtland in June 1838.
The Long Journey West
The Kirtland Camp traveled almost 800 miles from Kirtland, Ohio, to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri. The journey lasted from July 6 to October 4, 1838. Members of the camp agreed to live by a special set of rules that guided their organization and behavior. The group was split into four smaller sections to make it easier to manage everyone.
The company generally followed well-known roads, passing through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois before reaching Missouri. As you might expect with such a large group, there were many delays. These were caused by people getting sick, wagons breaking down, crossing rivers, bad road conditions, problems with animals, and not having enough food.
Sometimes, parts of the group would stop to find temporary jobs. This helped them earn enough money and food to keep going. Because of these difficulties, members slowly spread out along the path or left the group entirely. By the time they reached Springfield, Illinois, only 260 members were left in the main company.
Even with warnings about growing tensions between Mormons and other people in Missouri, the group kept moving toward their goal. They arrived at the church's main center in Far West, Missouri, on October 2. From there, they went to Adam-ondi-Ahman, the main Mormon settlement in Daviess County, Missouri, by October 4.
Unfortunately, the group arrived in Missouri during the 1838 Mormon War. They were only able to settle in the area for a few weeks. After Joseph Smith and other church leaders surrendered in early November, the Kirtland Camp members were forced to move to Far West. In February, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs ordered all Mormons to leave Missouri. Other members of the Kirtland Camp who arrived in Missouri later became victims of the Haun's Mill massacre on October 30, 1838.
What the Kirtland Camp Taught Us
The Kirtland Camp was the first big effort to organize a large group to help Latter-day Saints move. It allowed hundreds of poor Mormons to travel west. This helped them join the main body of the church and escape the difficult situation in Ohio.
This journey set an example for later migrations of Latter-day Saints. These included the move from Missouri in 1839 and the more famous travels from Illinois to Utah. B. H. Roberts, a well-known historian of Mormonism, said that this journey was "perhaps the greatest work achieved by the First Council of the Seventies" in the early days of the church.
