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| Dating the Conference |
| Dating this conference
is problematic. In secondary sources the conference is dated June 3–6,
1831, but no contemporary report or first-hand
reminiscence refers either to a three- or four-day conference. The Levi Hancock and Lyman Wight accounts state the conference lasted two days, June 4–5, 1831. |
| The Far West Record and the Painesville
Telegraph of June 14 date the conference
June 3 (Thursday). |
| Levi Hancock, writing journalizing by August 1831, and Ezra Booth writing in October, date the conference June 4 (Friday). |
| Lyman Wight, writing from diary notes in 1857, dates the conference June 4. |
| John Whitmer, writing between late 1835 and 1837, has it both ways—June 4 on manuscript p. 22, and June 3 on p. 27. The dual dates suggest he was using the Painesville Telegraph's date of June 3 and Ezra Booth's date of June 4 in the Ohio Star. |
| Most conferences were held over weekends. Thursday is an unlikely starting date. June 4 is the date given by four independent sources who attended the conference (Hancock, Booth, Wight, and Whitmer in the first instance). This would mean that the Painesville Telegraph was off by a day, and the Far West Record and John Whitmer in the second instance probably got the June 3 date from the Telegraph. |
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| The Painesville
Telegraph reports Joseph called twenty-eight elders to leave for Missouri at the June 3 (Thursday) meeting—the only account giving that date for the revelation. |
| John Whitmer dates the revelation June 6 (Sunday) in BCR. |
| W. W. Phelps, writing in the Manuscript History sometime between 1841 and 1843, unaccountably dates the revelation the day after a June 6 conference—June 7 (Monday). |
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| Minutes of June [4], 1831 |
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First ordinations to the High Priesthood occur on June [4],
1831. John Corrill and Isaac Morley are ordained assistants to Bishop Partridge.
Exhortations by Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, and Harvey Whitlock.
Joseph ordains several more on June [6]. |
| Mormonism on the Wing |
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Painesville Telegraph's account of the conference
focuses on calling elders to go to Missouri to establish the New Jerusalem. |
Ezra Booth Letters (4) |
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High expectations for June conference. Joseph promised some would see
the Savior. He harrangues the audience, then ordains Lyman Wight and others
to the High Priesthood. Lyman declares he sees the Lord and Joseph delegates
him to ordain the others. The "man of sin" is manifest in demonic
possessions. Exorcisms. Joseph fails to heal a lame man, restore a crippled
hand, or raise the dead. |
| Lyman's Vision and the Man
of Sin |
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Five accounts in parallel columns:
Levi Hancock (after 1838)
Ezra Booth (October 1831)
John Whitmer ([1835–1837])
Zebedee Coltrin (1878)
Philo Dibble (reminiscence, Juvenile Instructor,
1892)
Plus brief accounts by John Corrill (1838), Manuscript History (W.W. Phelps), and Lyman Wight (1857). |
| David
Whitmer's Review |
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The possession of Harvey Whitlock was a manifestation
of "God's sore displeasure" at the ordination of men to the High
Priesthood. The "outpouring of the Spirit" spoken of is really the
devil appearing as an angel of light. |
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Kirtland 1830–1831
Ohio
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