Whitney Home

The Whitney home and store. Photo Courtesy Kenneth Mays

Newel Kimball and Elizabeth Ann Whitney were two devoted members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their home and store are important to the history of the Church.

Newel and Ann, as she was called, were converted to the gospel in November 1830 in Kirtland, Ohio. When Joseph and Emma Smith initially moved to Kirtland, they stayed with the Whitney’s for several weeks before moving to the Isaac Morley farm.

About the first of February, 1831, a sleigh containing four persons drove through the streets of Kirtland and drew up in front of the store of Gilbert and Whitney. One of the men, a young and stalwart personage alighted, and springing up the steps walked into the store and to where the junior partner was standing. ‘Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man!’ he exclaimed, extending his hand cordially, as if to an old and familiar acquaintance….’I am Joseph the Prophet,’ said the stranger smiling. ‘You’ve prayed me here, now what do you want of me?’ The Prophet, it is said, while in the East had seen the Whitneys, in vision, praying for his coming to Kirtland.

For the next two to three weeks, Joseph and Emma stayed in the Whitney home across the street. This was a blessing for the Smiths, especially Emma, who was six months pregnant with twins. Things were tight; the home is small, and the Whitney family was a large one.

Sections 41-44 of the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed while Joseph Smith was living at the Whitney home.

The Whitneys moved to Missouri in 1838, then to Illinois, and emigrated to Utah with the Saints.

The Whitney home was built in 1824. It was first photographed by George Edward Anderson in 1907. The Whitney home was acquired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1980s and was subsequently restored to its original condition. The restored home was dedicated along with the rest of the Historic Kirtland Village on May 18, 2003, by the late President Gordon B. Hinckley.

External Sources

Deseret News, “Picturing history: Newel and Elizabeth Whitney home, Kirtland, Ohio,” by Kenneth Mays

Ensign Peak Foundation, “Newel K. Whitney Home, Kirtland, Ohio, USA