Mormonopia» Mormon Church History

Paying Tribute to Mormon Church’s Ohio Roots

Graham — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:55:42 +0000

The New York Times has a nice article about the Church’s “Historic Kirtland”. It quotes some locals, as well as people from both the LDS and CoC churches.

Tim Powell remembers when the “Utah Mormons” first came to town with their plans in the early 1990s.

The Mormon faith’s first temple has stood for 174 years in Kirtland, Ohio, the site of the church’s headquarters in the 1830s.

They wanted to recreate a historic village that would explain the role this city played as the Mormon Church’s headquarters in the 1830s and celebrate the fact that the faith’s first temple is here…

Mr. Powell, who has lived in Kirtland all his life and been on the City Council for 14 years, and some others did not like the idea. He had read how Mormons had swept into two other towns that played significant roles in the church’s founding — Palmyra, N.Y., and Nauvoo, Ill. — resulting in conflicts with non-Mormons.

“In other places you could see the Mormons were taking over those towns,” said Mr. Powell, 55.

Mr. Powell fought the church’s project every step of the way, worried, he said, about allowing such a relatively large tourist development in the middle of town.

But now, eight years after it was completed, Mr. Powell concedes that he was wrong. “I was a skeptic,” he said. “But now that the dust has settled, I think people are pretty happy with it.”

I’ve never been to Nauvoo, but if I had to choose between Palmyra and Kirtland, I’d choose Kirtland in a second. I love going through the temple, and walking around the “Historic Kirtland” area. I also love the quarry. I know what you see isn’t from the same time frame, but you can still get a pretty good idea of what they had to do to get stone for the temple.

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Hill Cumorah crew: A voluntary labor force

Graham — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:22:11 +0000

From MPNnow.com:

When the Latter-day Saints come to town, much work gets done — beyond Hill Cumorah.

During their stay, cast members from the pageant provide more than 1,800 hours of volunteer labor in Wayne and Ontario counties. They do everything from pull weeds and mulch gardens to clean high school lockers and paint picnic pavilions.

On an related note, last week I posted about how I wondered if the new passport laws would affect how many people from Ontario went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. There were several members of my ward who went last week, and they said the place was only half full. However, there was the normal group of protestors yelling crazy things at the visitors.

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Exploring how media changed the church

Graham — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:00:06 +0000

Mormon Times has a short, but good, article about how the Church has changed as media has changed. There is a link to a lengthy document (113 pages) by Associate Professor Sherry Baker that covers the period from 1827 to 2007. It covers printing the Book of Mormon, to creating a temple video, to using the Internet.

The timeline focuses on technological and organizational developments rather than on what is written or broadcast in the media. It charts the church’s adoption of new technologies including telegraph, film, radio, television and Internet. It also looks at the introduction of church-produced media such as Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcasts, Web sites like FamilySearch and the beginnings and endings of church newspapers and magazines. She also notes major events that received extensive coverage by non-Mormon media.

I haven’t had time to read the entire thing, but I’ve skimmed over it, and it looks very interesting.

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Happy Anniversary to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Graham — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:00:16 +0000

Today marks the 179th anniversary of the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What kind of a gift do you get for that number?

Doctrine and Covenants 21 was received on April 6, 1830. A portion of the section mentions how we should listen to Brother Joseph (and the other seers, translators, prophets, and apostles of Jesus Christ) and promises protection:

Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;
For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.
For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory.
For thus saith the Lord God: Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good

I’m thankful I’m a part of this great work and know that it is true.

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173rd anniversary of dedication of Kirtland Temple

Graham — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:55:01 +0000

I am located near the Ontario/New York border, and am 2 hours away from Palmyra and 4 hours away from Kirtland. Since we are so close, I’ve been to both places many times. I love visiting them. The Church does an incredible job in restoring the sites, and making them quality destinations. I’ve always been a fan of Church history (the “wacky” stuff doesn’t bother me at all), and there is something special about visiting these early Church locations. The early saints had such faith in Brother Joseph. They walked with him and talked with him. He must have been quite the charismatic leader.

Today (March 27) marks the anniversary of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. The Kirtland Temple itself is a great example of what they would do for their leader. An announcement of a temple today is almost boring. It seems like every General Conference has a couple of them announced. But back then, hearing that they were going to build a temple must have been exciting and terrifying at the same time. They built it at great cost, and were only able to enjoy it for a brief period of time. One of my favourite things is going to the quarry up the street. You can see marks in the rocks where previous people were working. These are NOT marks from the early saints, but it gives you an idea of what they had to do to get the stone out. You can imagine Brother Joseph working shoulder to shoulder with the others to make the vision become a reality.

The prayer offered at the dedication of the temple is contained in D&C 109. The prayer is beautiful, but I particularly appreciate verse 22:

And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;

I do enjoy my time at the temple, and do feel more “powerful” after attending. Those words seem applicable to all temples.

You can see some pictures of one of trips to Historic Kirtland (taken several years ago) here and here, pictures of the Kirtland Temple here, pictures of the Newel K. Whitney store here, and the John Johnson farm here.

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April 1957 Juvenile Instructor – Draw It With Chalk

Graham — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:00:56 +0000

As I mentioned before, I borrowed a few old Church magazines from a long-time member of my ward. I previously shared some from a May 1958 issue that had a picture of the Romney family (including a young Mitt).

Here is the cover of the April 1957 Juvenile Instructor (note: this and all other pictures are clickable so you can see a larger version):

I love the description inside the cover of the picture:

Anyway, the main reason why I’m posting about this is because of a fascinating article in it called “Draw It With Chalk”.

Wow, they are both excellent artists! I can’t imagine talking the time to punch holes in a pattern, put dots on the board, then connecting all the dots. In today’s technologically advanced world, it seems so funny to have someone draw something so elaborate on a chalkboard. Today, you’d find a nice picture online and either photocopy it or maybe even show it on a projector.

The one thing I can say, is that I’m impressed the Church was providing this sort of help to their instructors. If you have a teacher who is willing to put in that much time into preparing their lesson, you definitely have a very dedicated, and most likely good, teacher.

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10 Religious Holidays Not Yet Exploited by Hallmark

Graham — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:05:06 +0000

Last week mental_floss blog posted about 10 Religious Holidays Not Yet Exploited by Hallmark. Coming in at #4 was Pioneer Day. After a brief history of the Church, it describes the day as follows:

And what better reason to set aside Pioneer Day every July 24 for some fireworks, picnics, Mormon folk music, and, of course, prayers of thanksgiving? Celebrating Brigham Young’s arrival to the city on that fateful day often involves historical reenactments, with Mormons revisiting parts of the trails their ancestors took across the country and replaying their forefathers’ entrance into the Salt Lake Valley. Much of the celebration is focused on community, with contests, concerts, parades, and games organized for the families. It isn’t just a Mormon event, though; non-Mormon residents of Utah also participate in the festivities. In fact, Pioneer Day is widely considered to be bigger than the July 4th holiday in the state.

I’ve never been present at a Pioneer Day celebration and I’ve never seen any of the Church broadcasts, so I can’t comment on it other than to say that although I appreciate the pioneer heritage of the Church, Pioneer Day seems very Utah-specific, and as a worldwide Church, I can’t see it catching on.

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See Church History through old Life Magazine photos

Graham — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:01:18 +0000

You may have heard that Google has added photos that were previously published by Life magazine. The announcement was as follows:

Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We’re digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive — about 10 million photos.

I hadn’t thought about this in a “church” sense at all, until I saw a post on the LDS Tech web site. The person had search for Mormon and come up with some interesting pictures. I then also search for Salt Lake City, latter-day, and joseph smith and found some other interesting images.

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The Busy George Romneys – Juvenile Instructor May 1958

Graham — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:00:22 +0000

Note: Clicking any of the pictures in this post will bring up a larger version

The first in my series of postings is from the May 1958 issue of the Juvenile Instructor. As I was flipping through the magazine, I came across an article called “The Busy George Romneys” by Melba M. Ferguson. Given the recent presidential run of Mitt Romney, the article certainly caught my attention.

The article stated how busy George Romney was (he was president of American Motors Corporation at the time as well as president of the Detroit Stake). Even with how busy he was, his family still made time for family night. Looking over the article, there were several pictures that showed young Mitt, who was around 11 years old at the time.

In the picture above, Mitt is second from the left beside his mother. The picture below (it has a caption) shows Mitt with his shells. I didn’t know he had a shell collection. Why didn’t that come up in the debates?!

The last picture (below) is a nice family photo. I can’t believe how much the current Mitt looks like George!

My favourite part of the article was as follows:

Things had already begun when Mrs. Romney came home that night from a Relief Society union meeting. President Romney and the boys were in the process of taking down the Christmas tree; and Jane was doing her packing in the living room so she could be near her father and brothers.

As Mrs. Romney took off her hat and coat, she could see Mitt’s dark eyes shine when he requested that the family sing, “In the Good Old Summertime.” President Romney and Scott paused in the act of taking down the decorations, and laughed.

“… Good Old Summertime” in January? With snow on the ground outside, and all the carols there on the piano!

But Mitt had a reason.

He wanted his father to show slides during the past summer, because it made him “warm and happy” just to remember all the family fun at Lake Huron.

…the article continued later on…

President Romney showed beach pictures when Mitt and Scott had selected. They were gay – of the boys and Jane on water skis. Then there some of Lynn in her cap and gown. And some of all the family at various stages of a summer trip west – at Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite.

Refreshments had been previously requested. NO fruitckate! NO cider! NO Christmas candy! But, please, some fresh-popped corn!

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Juvenile Instructor series of postings

Graham — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:59:41 +0000

I was visiting with an elderly couple in our ward recently and noticed an old Juvenile Instructor lying on one of their tables. I picked it up and started to leaf through it. I commented to them that I liked looking through the old magazines. The doctrine has essentially remained the same but the way it is presented is quite different (this is as much a generational thing as it is a church thing). The woman went off and came back with a whole stake of them. I borrowed a dozen or so of them and she says she has lots more. So gradually over the coming weeks/months, I’ll post some of the more interesting things I saw.

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