Essentials in Church History / A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"

by Joseph Fielding Smith

Lyman E. Johnson and William E. McLellin

The same day charges were preferred against Lyman E. Johnson; these were sustained, and he was cut off from the Church. One month later, May 11, 1838, William E. McLellin was handled for his fellowship, and he also lost his standing in the Church. About this time Jacob Whitmer and Hiram Page also left the Church having partaken of the spirit of apostasy.

A Day of Sadness

This was a day of sadness for Joseph Smith. To see the witnesses who were associated with him in the incipiency of the Church fall by the wayside, touched his heart. Yet right must prevail, and righteousness triumph, even though it should cause wounds which could not be healed. To their credit, be it said, that none of the witnesses who had beheld angels and the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, ever denied their testimony concerning these things, notwithstanding the extreme bitterness of heart they manifested against Joseph Smith the Prophet.^[2]

Return of Elders Kimball and Hyde

April 1, 1838, a conference of the Church was held in Preston, England, in Temperance Hall (the “Cock Pit”), for the purpose of setting in order the branches in that mission. Joseph Fielding was sustained as President of the British Mission, to succeed Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards and William Clayton, an English convert, were chosen as his counselors. These men were ordained high priests. On the 20th of April, 1838, Elders Kimball and Hyde sailed from Liverpool for the United States, in the same ship which had carried them to England, the Garrick. They arrived in Kirtland, May 21, 1838, and immediately notified the Prophet, at Far West, of their good feeling and firmness in the faith.

Far West—The House of the Lord

In a revelation given April 26, 1838, the Lord accepted Far West as a central gathering place for the Saints in Missouri, and a place of refuge, which should be holy and consecrated to him. There a house was to be built to his name, and the beginning should be made on the 4th of July following, then the Saints were to continue their labors diligently until the house was finished. However, the presidency, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum Smith, the latter having taken the place of Frederick G. Williams, were not to get into debt. Other settlements in the region round about besides Far West, were to be selected as gathering places for the Saints, and stakes of Zion were to be established.

Stakes of Zion

In accordance with the revelation, about the middle of May, 1838, Presidents Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon with a number of other elders, including David W. Patten and Bishop Edward Partridge, took a trip in the wilderness north of Far West for the purpose of locating sites for settlements and the laying off of stakes of Zion. They pursued their course up Grand River, some twenty-five miles to a place they called Tower Hill, because they found ruins of an old Nephite tower there. Here Elder Lyman Wight had his home, and here they camped May 20, which was the Sabbath day. In the afternoon Presidents Smith and Rigdon, with their clerk, George W. Robinson, went up the river about one half mile, to Wight’s ferry, for the purpose of selecting and laying claim to a city plat. This was in Daviess County, township 60, ranges 27 and 28, which the brethren called “Spring Hill,” but by the mouth of the Lord, the record states, “it was named Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet.”^[3] We are also informed that this is the place where Adam assembled his posterity three years before his death, and there bestowed upon them his blessing. On that occasion the Lord appeared to them, and the posterity of Adam rose up and blessed him, and called him Michael, the Prince, the Arch-angel; and the Lord administered comfort to Adam, and said unto him: “I have set thee to be at the head—a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever.”^[4] The name of this place was first revealed as early as March, 1832, but it is evident that the Saints did not know where Adam-ondi-Ahman was until this visit of these brethren. Adam-ondi-Ahman is located on the north side of Grand River, in Daviess County, Missouri, about twenty-five miles north of Far West. It is situated on an elevation, which, said the Prophet, “renders the place as healthful as any part of the United States.” It overlooks the river in a wonderfully beautiful location.