Five members of the High Council were also objected to by the people,
and new ones chosen in their stead. John Gaylord, James Forster,
Salmon Gee, Daniel S. Miles, Joseph Young, Josiah Butterfield and Levi
Hancock were retained in office as Presidents of the Seventies, while
John Gold was rejected.
A similar conference was held at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, then the head-quarters of the Church in that region, on the 7th of November 1837, and another on the 5th of February, 1838. The Priesthood was reorganized and the Church set in order, in the same manner as had been done in Kirtland. Hyrum Smith was sustained, in lieu of Frederick G. Williams, as one of the three First Presidents, in which office he had before been acting. Elder Boynton and the two Elders Johnson were reinstated in the Quorum of the Twelve, though later they again fell away. Bishops Edward Partridge, Isaac Morley and Titus Billings were retained in office; while Presidents William W. Phelps and John Whitmer were severed from the Church; the former afterwards returned.
Against these brethren "Elder Lyman Wight stated that he considered all other accusations of minor importance, compared to their selling their lands in Jackson County; that they had set an example which all the Saints were liable to follow. He said that it was a hellish principle, and that they had flatly denied the faith in so doing."
Thus was the line of demarcation being drawn. Thus were "the inhabitants of Zion" commencing to "judge all things pertaining to Zion." There had been a day of calling; a day of choosing now had come, and they who were "not Apostles and Prophets" were beginning to be known.
During the absence of the Prophet and Elder Rigdon in Missouri, whither they had gone to superintend the work of purification, Warren Parrish, John F. Boynton, Luke Johnson, Joseph Coe, and others, in Kirtland, dissented from the Church and combined together for its overthrow. They were encouraged and assisted by apostates and prominent Elders of the Church in Missouri. These dissenters called themselves "the Church of Christ," the "old standard," openly renouncing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and denouncing the Prophet Joseph and all who adhered to him, as heretics.
So bitter became the apostate and mobocratic spirit in Kirtland, that they who raised their voices in defense of the Prophet of God, at once endangered their lives. Apostle Brigham Young, who stood firm and immovable at Joseph's side, was forced to flee to save himself from the fury of the enemy, who were enraged at his bold, outspoken stand in favor of the Prophet, and against his foes and traducers. Three weeks later, on January 12th, 1838, the Prophet and President Rigdon also fled from Kirtland, for Missouri, followed by human blood-hounds, armed and thirsting for their lives, a distance of two hundred miles.
Kirtland was now no longer a fit abiding place for the Saints. The faithful of the body of the Church commenced migrating to Missouri, where the work of purification went on.
At Far West, in April, 1838, Presidents Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer were excommunicated from the Church. The charges sustained against the former were for urging vexatious law-suits against the brethren, slandering President Joseph Smith, contempt of the Church in not attending meetings, leaving his calling in which God had appointed him by revelation, for the sake of filthy lucre, and turning to the practice of law; disgracing the Church by being connected in the bogus business, dishonesty, and, finally, for "leaving or forsaking the cause of God, and returning to the beggarly elements of the world, and neglecting his high and holy calling, according to his profession."
President Whitmer was charged with not observing the Word of Wisdom; neglecting meetings and possessing the same spirit as the dissenters, writing letters to the dissenters in Kirtland, unfavorable to the cause of God and the character of His Prophet, neglecting the duties of his calling and separating himself from the Church, and signing himself President of the Church of Christ, after being cut off from the Presidency, in an insulting letter to the High Council.
On the same day Apostle Lyman E. Johnson was excommunicated, and soon after Apostle William E. McLellin fell away.