[2]. The fire here alluded to broke out on the night of the 16th of December, 1835, and in fourteen hours there was consumed over seventeen million dollars' worth of property. The burnt district covered several acres of ground in the most prominent business part of the city.
[3]. See Doctrine and covenants sec. 111.
[4]. "Kirtland Safety Society Bank" was the full title of the proposed institution, and Oliver Cowdery had the plates on which bank notes were to be printed so engraved.
[5]. Dr. Willard Richards was born at Hopkinton, Middlesex county, Masschusetts, June 24, 1804, and from the religious teachings of his parents (Joseph and Rhoda Richards), he was the subject of religious impressions from his earliest moments, although careless and indifferent in his external deportment. At the age of ten years he removed with his father's family to Richmond, in the same state, where he witnessed several sectarian "revivals," and offered himself to the Congregational Church in that place, at the age of seventeen, having previously passed the painful ordeal of conviction and conversion, according to that order, even to the belief that he had committed the unpardonable sin; but the total disregard of that Church to his request for admission, led him to a more thorough investigation of the principles of religion, when he became convinced that the sects were all wrong, and that God had no Church on earth, but that He would soon have a Church whose creed would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and from that time kept himself aloof from sectarian influence, boldly declaring his belief to all who wished to learn his views: until the summer of 1835, while in the practice of medicine near Boston, the Book of Mormon, which President Brigham Young had left with his cousin Lucius Parker, at Southborough, accidentally or providentially fell in his way, which was the first he had seen or heard of the Latter-Day Saints, except the scurrilous reports of the public prints, which amounted to nothing more than that "a boy named Jo Smith, somewhere out west, had found a gold Bible." He opened the book without regard to place, and totally ignorant of its design or contents, and before reading half a page, declared "God or the Devil has had a hand in that book, for man never wrote it." He read it twice through in about ten days, and so firm was his conviction of the truth, that he immediately commenced settling his accounts, selling his medicine, and freeing himself from every incumbrance, that he might go to Kirtland, seven hundred miles west, the nearest point he could hear of a Saint, and give the work a thorough investigation; firmly believing that if the doctrine was true, God had some greater work for him to do than to peddle pills. But no sooner did he commence a settlement than he was smitten with palsy, from which he suffered exceedingly, and was prevented executing his design until October, 1836, when he arrived at Kirtland, in company with his brother (Doctor Levi Richards, who attended him as physician), where he was most cordially and hospitably received and entertained by his cousin, President Brigham Young, with whom he tarried, and gave the work an unceasing and untiring investigation until the day of his baptism.
Chapter XXXIII.
Meetings of the Quorums of Priesthood in the Kirtland Temple—The Prophet's Instructions on Priesthood.
The Arrangements for Classes and Meetings in Kirtland Temple.
During the winter, the House of the Lord at Kirtland was filled to overflowing with attentive hearers, mostly communicants; and in the evenings the singers met under the direction of Elders Luman Carter and Jonathan Crosby, Jun., who gave instruction in the principles of vocal music. On Monday evenings the quorum of High Priests meet in the west room of the attic story, where they transact the business of their particular quorum. On Tuesday evenings the Seventies occupy the same room. On Wednesday evenings the rooms are occupied by the quorum of Elders. And on Thursday evening a prayer meeting is held in the lower part of the house, free to all, though generally conducted by Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sen. The Twelve, the High Council and other quorums, generally meet each week to transact business, and during the week the "Kirtland High School is taught in the attic story, by H. M. Hawes, Esq., professor of the Greek and Latin languages. The school numbers from one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and forty students, divided into three departments—the classic, where the languages only are taught; the English department, where mathematics, common arithmetic, geography, English grammar, writing, and reading are taught; and the juvenile department, the last two having each an assistant instructor. The school commenced in November, and on the first Wednesday in January the several classes passed a public examination in presence of the trustees of the school, parents and guardians, and their progress in study was found of the highest order.