Heritage Trail: Our pioneers in Kirtland

        Our only pioneer ancestor who lived in Kirtland, Ohio, in the 1830s period was Thomas Grover.  Thomas was married with several daughters when he became an early member of the Church. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were the ones who shared the message and baptized him, and Thomas moved to Kirtland and helped build the Kirtland Temple. Shortly after his arrival, he called on Joseph who said, “How do you do, Brother Grover. If God ever sent a man he sent you. I want to borrow every dollar you can spare for immediate use.” Thomas gave five hundred dollars to Joseph Smith to help build Kirtland Temple and was promised his name would never be forgotten by posterity. Thomas was called to serve on the Kirtland High Council in January 1836 in the place of Luke Johnson, who was called as an apostle. He was ordained a high priest by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and was present in a solemn assembly on January 21, 1836 (D&C 137), where Joseph Smith recorded the ministering of angels and Thomas received his endowment.  

         Joseph said, “We then invited the High councilors of Kirtland and Zion in our room. . . the President of each quorum then anointed the heads of his colleagues, each in his turn, beginning at the oldest. The visions of heaven were opened to them also. Some of them saw the face of the Savior, and others were ministered unto by holy angels, and the spirit of prophecy and revelation was poured out in mighty power, and loud hosannas, and glory to god in the highest, saluted the heavens, for we all communed with the heavenly host.” Thomas and his family were privileged to attend the dedication of the Kirtland Temple just a few months after that experience.

   Ira Stearns Hatch visited the prophet Joseph Smith in Kirtland and there gained a remarkable testimony of the prophet’s divine calling. Without telling anyone of his intent, Ira had taken a large sum of money with him to donate to the Church if he found Joseph Smith to be a prophet. It was a three-day journey from New York, and Ira arrived in Kirtland and was directed to the outskirts of town where Joseph and other were cutting timber. As Ira approached, the prophet stopped his work and said, “Brother Hatch, I’ve been expecting you for three days. The Lord needs the money you have brought to help build the temple here in Kirtland.” Ira donated two hundred dollars to build the pulpit, and was baptized, but remained in New York for six more years hoping to convert his parents and siblings. He and his older sons returned and spent some more time in Kirtland helping to build the temple.