Mormon Community

Kirtland became an early gathering place and headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1830s after the church was organized under divine inspiration by Joseph Smith in western New York in 1830. There, the Mormons, as they are known outside the faith, created a religious community and introduced doctrinal concepts, organizational programs, and social practices that have remained central to the religion. The Kirtland Temple, dedicated in 1836, was the spiritual center of the faith. Internal dissension and external persecution, arising largely from the religion's distinctive features, weakened the Mormon community in Kirtland, and in 1838 most of its members followed Smith westward to Missouri, Illinois, and eventually Utah.

Kirtland, Ohio · United States