This week was Donovan's spring break. We wanted to do something fun and memorable but also inexpensive. We couldn't think of much. During the week, Dan says how about we drive to Kirtland, Ohio? He found a decent priced hotel and it was only a 4 hour drive, so why not? Dan came home Thursday from work and off we went.
Kirtland is rich with history for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). The 8 years that the LDS saints lived there during the restoration of the church were very significant.
We got to our destination pretty late, so we crashed and started fresh in the morning. Our first stop was to tour the Kirtland Temple. We looked up the weather report for the day and were happy that rain was forecasted for the evening only when we would be resting. So it was very surprising when we woke up and it was snowing! I wish we had brought more than sweat jackets for the kids. At least we'd be in and out of buildings all day.
The Kirtland Temple was the first LDS temple in this dispensation that the saints were commanded to build. It took 3 years of toil and strife to finish it. What a beautiful building it is where many wonderful things happened. After the saints were persecuted and forced out of Kirtland in 1838, they had to leave the temple behind. The Community of Christ Church (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) gained ownership of the temple and now takes very good care of it and gives tours for a small fee. They don't allow any photography in the visitor center or inside the temple, so we didn't get many.
A friend of ours from AZ, Barry Edholm, is a wonderful carpenter and has worked on many restoration projects. The Community of Christ contacted him knowing that he was LDS and would have great respect for the temple and asked him to help restore some of the benches that were inside needing work. We were able to get directions from him as to which benches he worked on. We told our tour guide and he was eager to help us find them, which we did, and Barry's name was stamped on the bottom. I wish we could have atleast taken a picture of that since it didn't have anything to do with the sacredness of the temple. Oh well.
Donovan and Elliott dressed up in the period boys' clothes.
The Kirtland Temple
It doesn't look too big, but to give you something to measure, the spire on the top minus the weathervane is at least 8 feet tall. (They have the original inside the visitor's center and it towers over Dan's 6'4".)
Then we went to the Kirtland "village" which is owned by our church and gives free tours. These are all the original homes and businesses that were operating between 1830 and 1838 (restored with original furniture in many of the places).
The Tannery
The Johnson Inn
This was owned and operated by the Johnsons (more on them tomorrow) after they consecrated their farm house to the church. Many things happened here including the first Patriarchial Blessing, and it also housed the Egyptian mummies that contained papyri with the books of Moses and Abraham written on them (they were later given to the Chicago Museum and burned in their fire).
The Newel K. Whitney family house
(Inside)
The summer kitchen
A sister missionary demonstrating the "wife saver" a lever to hold your pot over the fire and it swings out so that a woman's skirt wouldn't catch fire. I guess in those days catching on fire while cooking was the 2nd leading cause of death to women, childbirth being the 1st.
dining table
Also where the ironing was done and babies entertained. The siver item in the rocking crib is a baby bottle of those days (I don't think that would be comfortable to suck on at all.)
parlor
guest room (Joseph and Emma Smith stayed here upon arrival in Kirtland for about 6 weeks)
The N.K. Whitney Store (with the Earls)
A good ol' game of checkers . . .
played with red and yellow corn cob pieces. Pretty cool!
Items normally found in the store in that time period.
The bartering room. This is where people um bartered. It was also the place where the Whitneys stocked items and food for those who needed it but couldn't afford it.
In this room ( I wish I got a better picture), the table is the actual one where Joseph Smith did some translating while he and Emma stayed on the top floor for around a year. The table is on loan from a museum.
The revelation room. This is another sacred place in history where God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to man. This is also where the School of the Prophets was held. These were classes that were taught to the priesthood holders on many subjects from church doctrine to learning Hebrew. Many inspiring revelations happened in this room which appear in the doctrine & covenants (modern scripture).
storage room
The Lumber Mill
This is where many logs were cut which helped to build the temple. It was run by the nearby river and only took 6 men to operate.
Here they also made the beautiful woodworkings that were installed in the temple.
The Ashery.
This was N.K. Whitney's original business besides the store. People would sell their ashes to Bro. Whitney and from there he would soak it and it would make lye (which is used to make soap), then they would take the dregs from what was leftover and make potash.
He would then continue the process by heating what was leftover in a very hot oven (on the other side) to make pearlash which was then sold and used to make glass. He could then take the ashes that the process produced to start all over again. It was amazing what could be done.
We then visited the Morley Farm.
Tours are only given in the summer months here, so we just walked around.
The Smith family also lived here for 6 months. Here their twins were born and died, then the Murdock family the next day bore twins but the mother died, so Bro. Murdock gave his twins to the Smiths. The first general conference in Kirtland was held in this home. And many other things happened.
The top of this hill is where the schoolhouse used to be.
They had these fun little wood chairs.
The boys tried them out.
Roswell had a lot of fun.
Joseph and Emma Smith's home by the temple. They lived here for 4 years until the saints left Kirtland.
There were other historical buildings that used to reside on the grounds of the temple, but are no longer there.
The Sidney Rigdon home
Then we visited the quarry where the stones were cut to build the temple.
You can see the leftovers of the square stones that were cut out.
You can also see the vertical lines in the stone where the drill marks remain from pounding the stone away. Remember, back then everything was done by hand.
There were a lot of stones cut! Dan even acquired a little piece of the sandstone from the quarry site that is the same as what was used to build the temple.
Donovan stopped on our walk from the quarry and said "take my picture mommy! Aren't I cute?" Yes you are baby!
And here's another cute baby! I think he was done being clothed. He depantsed and desocked all by himself, then decided to wear my shoes. Then he proceeded to take his shirt off too. Nothing but diaper (I'm glad he didn't try to take that off too!), but of course he was holding lambie for dear life -he LOVES his lambie!
It was a potluck. Dan had to work a late shift, so I got to go on my own with the boys.
Donovan's team.
Donovan getting his trophy. It was really neat, the coach did it individually and said something positive about each player. When it was Dono's turn, Coach said that he was worried in the beginning because Donovan didn't really follow the game and rarely moved from his spot. When Coach talked to him and told him he needed to hustle more, he wasn't sure what the response would be. The next game, Dono zipped here and there and followed the game. Afterwards, he says, "Coach, was that hustling enough for you?" Coach said he was very happy and that Dono did a great job. We had been told this previously, but it was nice to hear again.
Donovan with his trophy. He loves that thing. He would touch it all the time if he could, but I told him it might break, so he doesn't anymore (that I know of). We're proud of our little buddy!
