Show REMINDERS OF THE P PAST T the temple and village of kirtland minutely described old landmarks KIRTLAND lake county october ad 1888 editor deseret news your correspondents arrived at niagara falls on saturday last where r e we spent two days taking 1 in uh such sights as we never had the privilege of resting our eyes upon before but as this ono of 0 the grandest of the worlds natural wonders has been described so often by those who are able to wield the pen better thau than we can we will pass over this interesting part of our journey and simply state that we ar lived iu iii this historical place kirtland kinland at 7 last night ye put pat up at house named after the original owner jacob bump who is known in church history as the man woo wanted to fight president brig ham young because the latter testified that joseph was wab a true prophet bump was at that time apostatizing the house now called the kirtland kielland Ki rlland hotel is situated opposite the street east of the temple and is owned by E L kelley the president of the josephite branch at kirtland this branch contains about 30 members who hold bold regular sabbath schools and meetings every sunday sometimes on the temple and at other times in the large upper room of the hotel in the evening we were introduced by W H V kelley one of the twelve apostles in the re be anizel church during our quite bite interesting conversation w with ith him in regard to whether joseph smith the prophet ever taught or practiced the doctrine of plural marriage we named a number of witnesses woo who had testified under oath that they knew he did but mr kelley remarked that he could coula not take their testimony because they were interested parties arties pray who are not interests inter interested estU parties in tion with a doctrine that concerns the moral condition of the whole human family this morning we were waited upon by gower gomer T griffiths who is also one of f the tap twelve of the Jesep josephite hite faction and areal a real gentleman in all his bearr bear ings he conducted us through cie temple and waited whited patiently upon us while we examined every part of the building and took a number of measurements ure ments the lower large room has been carpeted and aad nicely fitted up for meeting purposes while the upper large room where the school ot the prophets was held in early days and the elders studied languages and the sciences is only partly repaired as yet the five school rooms in the attic story have also been whitewashed and cleaned but not used for many years heating apparatus sufficient to heat up the whole building in a very short time has been furnished by the reorganized church who has had possession of the building since 1880 when the court of common pleas in painesville gainesville Paines ville lake co ohio gave a decision to the effect that the reorganized church was the rightful owner of the building there being no defendants represented in court to dispute their claim previous to this the temple had been claimed and 0 occupied C u witti out any legal t title ft 1 whatever by various parties whose rights of ownership if they ever pretended to have had any were ruled out by the aforesaid court we ascended into the old wooden tower and even went outside where we had bad a fine view of the village ot of kirtland and surrounding country lake erie brie northwest north west lyest six miles distant is in plain view and so also is the towns of willoughby and mentor east and southward the course of the east fork of the chagrin river and its tributaries tributa ries on which kirtland Kirtlan tl is situated is plainly marked by the narow valley through which it flows making the country immediately around kirtland somewhat broken and hilly while further away it consists of gently rolling prairies and ad timberland westward the chimneys of cleveland about twenty twenty miles distant can be seen an and the rich vineyards and well cultivated farms observed in every direction goes to show that joseph the prophet and the early elders of the church manifested the same good judgment here in selecting oat gath herlog eriv 9 places forthe saints as they did I 1 in n missouri had the saints been permitted er to remain iheke in peace evirt kart land would no doubt today have haie been a flourishing city instead of an unimportant village as it his is now with inhabitants we spent event about three hours in the lower room of the tern tem pie and felt deeply impressed when we reflected upon what took place inside of those walls more than ART years ago we stood in the pa zvi it breastwork of which the savior 01 r placed paced his feet on the ad of april 1886 when ah comforting words to the assembled saints tolling telling them that he accepted of 0 the house which they had built to his holy name with great sacrifice agats and in the midst of financial poverty it was also alio bere that moses appeared aud delivered to the joseph the keys tor for the gathering of israel from the four corners of et toe the earth and where elijah the prophet gave to this generation the keys tor for turning taming the hearts ot of the c children 1111 to their lathers fathers and the hearts of abe fathers to the children furthermore in this very room scores of the brethren received the he ministrations of angels saw glorious visions spoke in tongues on bess uess prophesied and rejoiced as only saints of the most high can rejoice under the influence of toe the liely holy spirit how often we have with breathless attention listened to our aged veterans when they related what they had bad seen ana heard in this house but chow 0 ow changed the scene the wicked nd ungodly y who drove the saints away have loag ago desecrated this once holy place and a d the kirtland temple now stands st doln in solemn loneliness as a strange sentinel bearing silent witness of the glorious day which once was a similitude of what we trust shall some time in future be enjoyed on the same ground yes when the lord opens the way for the saints to rebuild the waste places of zion ands the land shall be dedicated fur for the gathering ot of gods people p I 1 et then hosannah bos annab to god and t he lamb shall again sound in the hills bills of kirtland and the voices of united thousands filled with t the he power of the holy ghost be be raised to heaven in the spirit of god like afire a fire is burning asin the days gone by only with a stronger chorus then shall the savior again visit his people and hot holy beings once more administer to their the r fellow laborers in the flesh gol god hasten the day 0 the temple and principal part of 1 the village of kirtland stand on ft high ground it may be termed a hill bill as ther tare lower lands all around it but a strip ot of high land lying beyond the chariton river biver between it and willoughby lough by obscures it from view from the railway and the first glimpse we had ot the temple yesterday was from the point where the road crosses this ridge about a mile from the temple our obliging guide having showed us all through the building w we e took a walk around the village vill 4 6 near the morth northeast east corner of the temple emple stands a little square cottage which once oace was the office of oliver cowdery but bat is now occupied by J T griffiths Griffitt ke when olivor oliver cowdery used it it stood west of the temple near oliver grances grangers Gr angers anees residence which eding yet eta About bout a block north of the temple temple on the west side of the chester cheater road on the slope ot the kill hilli stands in a good state of preservation ou joseph smith the prophets old house bouse now occupied p le d by milton mcfarland a blacksmith s m 1 th who has a shop antho on the opposite apposite side of of the street east of the temple is sidney Rig dons old residence a one and aad a halt hall store frame building on the east side of the road leading to chester formerly known as rigdon bigdon street this is ext door to the hotel where we are stopping one block south of 01 the temple on what in the good old kirtland days was called hyriam street yet hyrum smiths old dwelling a distally metcalf it now two blocks west et temple our guide pointed out to us as the he t place where the late president brigham toonis K I 1 a house once stood opposite YOE 0 from the temple north on the e brow ot the bill is the village church yard in which rest many ft saints awaiting toe the morning mornin tal 4 t the e glorious resurrection I 1 some 0 me years ago one of et the good christians of kirtland under undertook toog to plow a certain part of the grave yard leveling head boards mounds from disrespect to the IM cormons mormons Mor mons 11 later later an attempt was mate made to replace some of the old gravestones but it is a question whether they were I 1 put int to in the proper places or not among the tombstones which evidently had not been disturbed we not noti iceLa ceka tude rude sandstone designating the resting place ot th the elate late oliver Gran granger gior mid and another bearing the inscription eunice thompson who died sept W 1881 27 years old we copied the of a few others down the hill in a northeasterly direction on what is called the kirtland fa plats ate stands standa vet yet 06 late N K whit n old dwelling a one story frame house h ouse also the building formerly known k aown as whitneys Whit store where joseph smith president of the reorganized church was born in 1832 1882 the old johnson hotel a two story brick house and ollier ether buildings which once belonged belong bd to the saints the old whitney residence resi deade dende is 16 now DOW owned by lalley harris and Whit whitneys store by J V F wells who still carries on the business of a merchant at the old stand the present village of kwauk cen canta talUs ibs about 49 40 dwellings considerably scattered and the whole place has a somewhat ancient appearance and seems to testify of ft a condition of affairs that has seen better days of late years it has been visited by a great many people from all parts or of the country who directly come oat t of curiosity to see chemor monN mon temple emple some show all due respect to the building while others oth erso w mt mr griffiths informed us exhibit a wicked and mocking spirit in looking over the temple register in which every visitor is required to sign his or her name we ascertained that over persons had visited the building during the last year among them were some of our friends from utah we leave h wim hearts contrasting in present with the past crossing the east fork of th he je chagrin river ou on a substantial wooden bridge we see a 4 short il Usta stance uce u up the stream the celebrated kirtland h mills ills we have now climbed the hill bill on the opposite side from which we are taking a last look at the be temple and now proceed on cur car return trip to willougby from where we take the cars to chicago thence to nancoo and carthage ANDREW EDWARD Jo JOSEPH 8 BLACK |