Kirtland

            In the Luppold and Haddad selection Migration to the Western Reserve by George W. Knepper, there is a story about Nathan Muzzey who reportedly moved to the Western Reserve with a broken heart.  His love was supposedly rebuffed by a woman named Emma Hale (33).  Saturday, while at the Kirtland Temple Visitor Center, I was looking at the portraits of the church founders and their wives.  I scanned the faces and name plates on each portrait and my eyes landed on the wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the church.  Her name was Emma Hale Smith.  I couldn’t help but wonder if the connections were making themselves evident again. 

            Knepper doesn’t say where Nathan Muzzey moved from, only that he was a Yale graduate and I believe Dr. Stith mentioned in class that he also attended Dartmouth.  We know that most of the early residents of the Western Reserve came from Connecticut but, of course, that is no guarantee Muzzey came from there as well.  A Wikipedia article states that Joseph Smith met Emma Hale in Pennsylvania and they married in 1827.  A free Google book called Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College published by the school states that Muzzey was born in 1762 in Massachusetts.  He would have been 65 in 1827 when Joseph Smith married his Emma Hale.  I find it difficult to believe it was the same Emma.  But, it sure was interesting learning about them.

             The field trip to the Kirtland Temple was my first experience learning about the history of the Mormon people and their struggles in the Western Reserve.  I really enjoyed hearing how the people built their church, using everything they had, monetarily and spiritually.  As interesting as their story was, I was really interested in the structure of the church.  I was glad our tour guide included some of the facts of the construction and issues they’ve dealt with over the years.  It really helped to understand some of the issues that preservationists will encounter in the field.  It helped that Nick pointed out several architectural elements to look for before we went into the church.  We had a good reference point when he talked about them after the tour. 

            I also enjoyed the tour of Kirtland Village. It was interesting to hear how they found the original locations of many of the original structures and reconstructed them to tell the story of the early Mormon people.  My favorite structure was Newel K. Whitney general store.  It was one of the original structures, restored to its original condition and stocked with items Whitney would have stocked.  They took great care in recreating the environment of the Western Reserve in the 1830’s.