Minutes, , OH, 1 Oct. 1831. Featured version, titled “Minutes of a Conference held in Geauga County Ohio, October 1. 1831,” copied [between ca. 6 Apr. and 19 June 1838] in Minute Book 2, p. 6; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minute Book 2.
Historical Introduction
JS moved his family in mid-September from , Geauga County, Ohio, to , Portage County, but by 1 October he returned to visit , where he and other church held a . Conference participant was in Kirtland the day after the conference, suggesting that the meeting was held in or near Kirtland. The conference provided a setting for instruction and . As clerk of the conference, kept the minutes. In 1838, copied them into Minute Book 2.
JS History, vol. A-1, 153. JS may have returned to Geauga County to meet with Reynolds Cahoon and Samuel Smith, who arrived in Kirtland from Missouri on 28 September. JS may have also gone to Kirtland to attend Orson Hyde’s baptism, which apparently occurred on 2 October. The history JS initiated in 1838 recounts that Hyde’s baptism occurred on “the first Sunday in October,” which was 2 October. Hyde later recollected that he was baptized on 30 October, but he was listed as an elder and clerk of a conference of elders held in Kirtland on 10 October, indicating that he was already a member of the church at that time. (Cahoon, Diary, 28 Sept. 1831; JS History, vol. A-1, 154; “History of Orson Hyde,” 8, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1858–1880, CHL; Minute Book 2, 10 Oct. 1831.)
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Joseph Coe, Report, 7 Mar. 1832, Missionary Reports, 1831–1900, CHL. Coe moved his family to Mentor, Geauga County, Ohio, on 22 September, but he attended a meeting in Kirtland on the morning of 2 October.
Nine present. The duty of the Elders was declared by the Spirit to go forth and warn the inhabitants of the earth of the things known in the in these last days. Br & were to the under the hand of Br. Joseph Smith jr.
A 20 July 1831 revelation in Missouri had told Phelps to “be planted” in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, “& be established as a Printer unto the Church.” Phelps was in Kirtland, Ohio, in fall 1831 to procure supplies for his printing operation. Without providing an exact date, a later JS history recounts that a conference held around this time directed Phelps “to stop at Cincinnati, on his way to Missouri, and purchase a press and types, for the purpose of establishing and publishing a monthly paper at Independence.” (Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:11]; JS History, vol. A-1, 154.)