The last posts spun off of study and visits I made following German American religious communes in the American 19th century in anticipation of the New Millennium. My own family history encompasses the solidly American religious phenomenon of Joseph Smith’s Mormon movement. The German American efforts petered out for various reasons – communism and celibacy being major factors. Both groups were convinced that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was at hand. Both groups were convinced that, as the Elect, they would help usher in the New Age. The main difference is that the followers of Joseph Smith knew Jesus would return to the World in Independence, Missouri. They had it straight from the source.

MORMON SCHISMS

When most people think of the Mormon Church, they think of the soaring spires of the temple in Salt Lake City.  But journey to Independence, Missouri and go a few blocks west of Harry Truman’s home and you come to a big grass field known as the Temple Lot. Look closely at the buildings surrounding the Lot and others in the neighborhood.  There you will observe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – over 16 million members strong – is but one of the several branches of the Mormon tree.  Like many other religions, the Mormon movement has not been immune to dissent going back as far 1831 – only one year after Joseph Smith started the Church of Christ two schismatic churches arose.  Those two were only the beginning.

Steven Shields writes in his introduction to Scattering of the Saints of at least 400 different “expressions” of the movement in the subsequent years.  Branches of the tree would themselves split as time and individuals came to fore.

The death of Joseph Smith in Carthage, Illinois in 1844 came without a formal succession plan in place.  While Brigham Young did come to the fore and attract many of the followers in the movement to join him on his trek west to seek out a new Zion in the Great Basin, others stayed behind.

HISTORICAL BASIS FOR THE TEMPLE LOT

The Doctrine and Covenants is one of three canonical books held as basic building blocks for the Mormon movements. Note not all the branches agree even on this.  The D&C consists of revelations given, mainly to Joseph Smith, Jr. Different Mormon branches continue to add to the book as newer revelations come in.

Doctrine and Covenants section 57

1–3, Independence, Missouri, is the place for the City of Zion and the temple; 4–7, The Saints are to purchase lands and receive inheritances in that area

1 Hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, who have assembled yourselves together, according to my commandments, in this land, which is the land of Missouri, which is the land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints.

2 Wherefore, this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion.

3 And thus saith the Lord your God, if you will receive wisdom here is wisdom. Behold, the place which is now called Independence is the center place; and a spot for the temple is lying westward, upon a lot which is not far from the courthouse.

4 Wherefore, it is wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints, and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile;

5 And also every tract bordering by the prairies, inasmuch as my disciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold, this is wisdom, that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance.

Missionaries sent earlier to the area by Smith did not enthusiastically receive the new revelation. But now the scene began for New Jerusalem to rise. It was just a matter of timing.

VISITING THE TEMPLE LOT TODAY

AUDITORIUM

The evidence lies here in field in Independence surrounded by buildings of the then Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – RLDS, today reformed into the Community of Christ – roughly 250,000 members.  The Auditorium sits to the south, a vast meeting building erected at great expense and controversy to the RLDS church during the Depression.  Ground breaking in 1926, but not until 1958 before the structure officially become dedicated – a counterpoint to the Tabernacle sitting in Salt Lake City.

The pipe organ was built in 1959 by the Aeolian-Skinner Company of Boston. Eleven years earlier, the same company was responsible for the organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, as well.

sTONE CHURCH

To the north, across the street from the field of the Temple Lot are more RLDS-Community of Christ buildings. There is the Stone Church, serving as the RLDS main church and headquarters for many years. The old administration buildings extend behind the church. A spire originally planned to tower above the church, but the RLDS was never a rich church and funds dried up before the spire could go up.

Organs take up an important role in all three Community of Christ buildings here on the Temple Lot. The pipe organ in the Stone Church is the third such installation – 1974. Moving over to the Auditorium and the Community of Christ Temple, the size of the organs goes up considerably. Daily recitals switch between the Auditorium and Temple. I heartily suggest you visit one if you get the chance. The instruments are amazing.

HERITAGE PLAZA

On the west side of the Stone Church, the Heritage Plaza consists of The Fredick M Smith Study, a small structure dating to the early 1830’s.  Originally used as a slave cabin, the building used to be on a farm five miles east of Independence which Smith bought in 1937.  He used the cabin as a retreat eventually in moving full-time while his daughter’s family took over the main farmhouse.

Next to the Study is the Jones H. Flournoy House, one of the oldest homes in Independence.  Built by slaves in 1826, like the Study the house used to sit four blocks further east.  Flournoy was the man who sold land to Joseph Smith for his gathering place in 1831.  The 63.33-acre site was to become Zion, the site of the new Millenium.

COMMUNITY OF CHRIST TEMPLE

On the east side of the Temple Lot is the Independence Temple serving as the headquarters for the Community of Christ.  With court rulings against RLDS concerning ownership of the actual Temple Lot plot, church president Frederick Smith asked his church’s historian if the temple could be “shifted considerable from that spot and still be in the confines of the sixty-three acres.”  His historian, Samuel Burgess, answered that since no land was actually owned at the 1831 dedication, “the exact spot is not known.”

In 1968, RLDS President W. Wallace Smith announced a revelation a Temple’s time had come for the church.  The exact spot selected in 1974 though another ten years elapsed before the new Temple would arise under a new president, Wallace B. Smith.

The Temple, built between 1990 and 1994, but with functions quite quite different from temples of the LDS church.  Temple construction became another point of contention and disagreement within the then RLDS movement.

According to the revelation, the location of their Temple is in the “Center Place”, the “plot of ground set apart for this purpose … by my servant Joseph Smith, Jr.”  President Smith clarified, however, the temple was not a signal for “the Second Coming” but a symbol “revealing the contemporary meaning of life and the ministry of JESUS CHRIST” according to The Temple:  Ensign of Peace, a RLDS brochure.  As Community of Christ, they have moved further away from the earlier millennial meaning of the Temple Lot.  This move is just one of many the Community of Christ has taken towards redefining their movement, its purpose and goals.

Temple organ

Inside the Temple is a large meeting hall with an amazing pipe organ from Casavant Freres in Montreal. There are daily recitals switching from the Temple to the Auditorium which I highly recommend attending – they are about 20-30 minutes in length. The organist will let you have a quick go at it if you know anything about playing. Practice sessions for the organist occur in off hours. The organist at the Temple playing a recital when I was there told me their favorite time to play was at daybreak – the light coming into through the spire being special – or at night during a thunderstorm.

cost of change

That movement away from their tradition has come at a cost.  Of a claimed 250,000 members, at least 25,000 dissented by forming into one of many splinter groups at the end of the twentieth century – though the temple matter was but one of many other changes dissenters disliked (the main problem was ordination of women into the priesthood).  One of the larger splinter groups, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with headquarters just down West Lexington Avenue – the street bordering the Community of Christ Temple to the north – at the former William Chrisman High School.

CHURCH OF CHRIST (TEMPLE LOT) “RE-GATHERS” FIRST

Close at hand to the actual Temple Lot, sits a church built on the north side of the actual Temple Lot belonging to another Mormon branch, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot).  This is one of the Mormon branches arising from the death of Joseph Smith.  Popular belief has all Mormons of the time gathered and living in Nauvoo, Illinois. But many Mormon congregations lie scattered far away.  Five such groups were in southern Illinois and eastern Indiana.  These groups came together under the leadership of Granville Hedrick in May 1863 at the height of the Civil War.  Ordained as the “President, Prophet, Seer and Revelator” – Joseph Smith Jr.’s previous title – by John E. Page, one of Smith’s apostles in July.

Hedrick gathered his group to Independence in 1867 following a revelation and they purchased the two-acre lot including the Temple Lot.

Many more Mormon congregations staying in the Midwest came together in 1860 under the leadership of Joseph Smith III. They would eventually follow Hedrick’s group back to Independence after a sojourn in Lamoni, Iowa. Their gathering began the late 1880’s with the building of the Stone Church.

CONFLICT BETWEEN rlds AND CHURCH OF CHRIST

The land was the scene of a long court battle won initially by the RLDS church in 1891 but reversed on appeal.  In the 1930’s, the church attempted to build Joseph’s temple, but with the Depression grinding along, they were unable to erect the building.  The foundation excavation filled in 1946 with no further plans to build at this time announced.

The small church attracted a number of RLDS members during the 1920’s in response to controversy surrounding Frederick M. Smith’s Supreme Directional Control.  This allowed him to attempt to build his version of Zion in Independence, beginning the erection of the Auditorium, rebuilding a hospital complex, increasing the church’s administrative structure and social programs.  These programs were all in the face of strong opposition within the RLDS membership and Leadership.  Smith got around the opposition by forcing a vote at a General Conference in 1925 and claiming a revelation giving him holy grounding.

Costs for his projects increased the church’s debt enormously.  The Depression compounded the financial difficulties with major drops in tithe funds coming into the church.  In 1931, financial matters were taken away from Smith and only with drastic reduction in church staff and services until the debt was retired in 1942.

The Church of Christ gained almost 400 members from the RLDS from a previous 100 members.  This church would not be immune to schism either with several twigs branching off in the intervening years.  Membership around the world today stands at a little over 7,000.

CHURCH OF CHRIST HEADQUARTERS

The main floor of this church is a meeting hall.  In the basement is an interesting museum-visitors’ center devoted to their movement and to the Temple Lot.  Included are a couple of 1831 cornerstones placed for what would have been Joseph’s temple.

To build a temple is not the main objective of the Church of Christ.  The main focus is missionary work and “building up the Kingdom of God” according to Apostle William Sheldon.  They see themselves as the physical custodian of the property and “the spiritual custodian of the Kingdom of God.”

ldS REJOINS THE FRAY

On the southeast corner of the Temple Lot is the large Visitors’ Center built by the LDS Church.  They had purchased the land in 1904 but only after attempts by the City of Independence to purchase the property and concerned about possibility of eminent domain declaration by the city, the church developed the center beginning in 1968 – dedicated in 1971.

The LDS church originally owned the land to the Temple Lot.  Land in Independence had been purchased in the name of William Partridge, a bishop in the church – bishops in the early Mormon church were primarily responsible for financial affairs.  Partridge died in the succeeding years and the Partridge family went west with Brigham Young.  In need of money for the journey, the widow of William was allowed to sell the lot for $300 by Young.

Next to the Visitors’ Center is another large LDS congregational building serving as a stake house – the LDS equivalent of a diocese center.

lDS TEMPLE

In 2008, the LDS church announced plans for a temple in the Kansas City area, but instead of using some of the twenty-six acres purchased in 1904, the church built its temple twelve miles north near the city of Liberty – dedicated in 2012.  The LDS officially still sees Independence as the site for the New Jerusalem but not wanting to cause unrest among its members of an impending End of Times.  Additionally, the present-day temple accommodates activities – mostly unique to the LDS church – probably not the same in function as a new Millennial Temple’s role would play.

MORE BRANCHES OF THE TREE NEARBY

There are several other churches in and around Independence that split of the Community of Christ beyond the Remnant Church. One found just south of the Temple Lot area is the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just doing a quick map search brings up a dozen or so churches, four blocks north of the Lot is the Waldo Avenue Restoration Branch which has a school attached, as well. The Waldo Avenue church is where the Restoration movement comes together for general meetings of the different branches.

And there are more

The Church of Jesus Christ founded by Alpheus Cutler in 1853 sits on S. Cottage Street, a few blocks south from the Auditorium. Cutler was a native of New Hampshire, not far from where both Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young – both from Vermont – hailed. He was an early member of Smith’s church in western New York.

Cutler moved west with the movement, first to Kirtland, Ohio and then on to Missouri in 1837. A stonemason, he laid the cornerstones for a would-be temple planned in Far West, Missouri – about 30-40 miles northeast of Independence. Moving on to Nauvoo, Illinois, he was one of the main supervisors for the building of the Nauvoo Temple. He figured high up in the hierarchy of Smith’s leaders.

With Smith’s death, Cutler followed Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles at first. As one of the wagon train captains, he was responsible for the founding of Winter Quarters an encampment of 2,500 pioneers wintering over above the Missouri River – near where North Omaha, Nebraska – 1846-1847.

In the fall of 1847, Cutler was given leave to go off to conduct mission work among Native Americans in Kansas. Cutler had been a member of the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo specializing in “Lamanite” – Native American – affairs. Brigham Young sent emissaries to bring Cutler back to the new gathering point in Utah but Cutler did not think his mission had anything to do with anyone other than him. Finally, in 1851, Young excommunicated Cutler, though Young hoped Cutler still would come west.

a new church

But Cutler decided to organize his own Mormon sect, relocating to Manti, Iowa – a few miles south of Shenandoah in the far southwestern corner of the state – he formed his new church in 1853. His church attained its greatest number of adherents at 183. Cutler tried to introduce a form of communalism – United Order – failing like other attempts in other Mormon branches. After Cutler’s death in 1864, some members went north to Clitherall, Minnesota while others stayed around Manti. Many converted as RLDS missionaries worked among them. In the 1920’s the church headquarters relocated to Independence, though there are only a dozen or so followers left today. Those members are reported to practice a form of United Order, though much of the church’s activities hides in secrecy, easier to maintain due to the limited number of members remaining.

The church is unique among the non-LDS branches in that they follow many of the practices Joseph Smith introduced in Nauvoo in his last years – baptism for the dead, endowments for the afterlife. Usually these exercises done occur a temple in the LDS world, but being so small, the church on Cottage Street uses all three floors for its work behind closed doors. That said, meetings are open to all.

THE TEMPLE LOT ITSELF

In the open field where Joseph Smith’s temple was to arise are four replica cornerstones lying in the grasses. Two of the original cornerstones sit in the Church of Christ Visitors’ Center nearby. The open field attests to the unknown future of Independence’s role in the End of Times.