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Sections 10, 11, 14, and 15 in Mirabile Township (Township 29 West, Range 56 North), Caldwell County, Missouri, were entered by W.W. Phelps and John Whitmer and designated as a center of church gathering. A town was platted occupying the conjoining corner quarters of these sections and was named Far West. The new town was laid out around a central square containing a potential site for a temple. Public Square lies to the north of the Temple site. [Daily Morning Herald; "Biography of Patriarch Alexander Hale Smith," by Vida Smith, Journal of History, 4:3]. Streets crossed at right angles, with main streets laid out one hundred and thirty-two feet wide. Town blocks contained four acres, divided into four corner blocks. One central block in each quadrant of the town was reserved for schools. [Bertha Booth plat of Far West]
Levi Jackman was an early landowner in the city Far West. [MRP, 246.] Jackman provides an early glimpse of the city. As an early resident he noted: "We laid out a town on a beautiful elevated place and called it Far West. We soon organized our city and county. I was elected one of the Justices of the Peace, and had considerable business to do. We were prosperous and happy for a season." [A Short Sketch of the Life of Levi Jackman, typescript, BYU-S; FWR, 270.]
"Soon a town of respectable proportions stood where the wild prairie grass had waved tall and luxuriant." [Burr Joyce, Herald, 18 (1871): 837.] Albert and Catherine Petty were early residents. Albert served as a blacksmith, gunsmith, wagon maker, and for a time a justice of the peace. Unfortunately, the Pettys lost their two daughters due to illness in November 1836. [Charles Brown Petty, The Albert Petty Family: A Genealogical and Historical Story of a Sturdy Pioneer Family of the West, Based on Records of the Past and Knowledge of the Present (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News Press, 1954).] David Osborn provides a second very early description of Far West, "The first time I saw Joseph Smith was at Far West, in 1837. There were but three houses in town at that time. On the south side of the elder Peter Whitmer's house was a wagon with a box on. Here were seated Joseph, Sidney Rigdon and others. There was quite a congregation including old residents (Gentiles) of Caldwell County." [David Osborn Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 173, New Mormon Studies CD-Rom]
Edward Partridge provides a bit later description evidincing considerable growth by late 1837, ". . . I still live where I did when I wrote to you last fall or winter. I expect to move into the village this fall, our town or City is called Far West, it contains about 100 buildings -- 6 stores, and a post office &c. Br. Wm. W. Phelps is post master. The town plot has been consecrated in part, and I have the care of it for the benefit of the church. [Edward Partridge to James Partridge, Far West, Missouri, 12 October 1837, Missouri State Historical Library, Columbia, Missouri; cited in Leland Gentry, A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri from 1831-1837 (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, Thesis, 1965), 74]. Phelps probably operated the post office out of his home, north of town.
Bishop Edward Partridge
Among the rapidly gathering church members were craftsmen of various kinds, skilled mechanics, and artisans. [History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 119].
Joseph Holbrook, one such craftsperson, describes a time of wide-spread construction, "I have built a house assisted others in building, so that I have plenty to do and the brethren paid me well for it. I buit an office for Bishop Edward Patridge [sic] in Far West and finished it. I also built a dwelling house for him. I built two other dwelling houses [for] Morgan Gardner and George Slade. I also built a school house for the district where I live, 22 feet square, beside farming considerable each year. [Joseph Holbrook, 38, 39].
Joseph Holbrook
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Warren Foote provides another description of the city of the Saints dating from about 1837. "Far West is situated on a high rolling prairie between Shoal Creek on the north, and Goose Creek on the south, which empties into Shoal Creek a short distance east of Far West. The houses are very scattering, and small, being chiefly built of hewed logs. The basement for the Temple is dug, and the corner stones were laid the 4th of July last. The town contains one printing press, one tavern, and a few small stores, and groceries. It will be a beautiful city, if it is ever built up, as it is intended to be." [Warren Foote, autobiography (1817-1846), typescript, BYU Special Collections.]
As fall approached in "1838, less than two years after its founding, the town had 150 houses, 8 stores, 6 blacksmith shops, and 2 hotels. Some 5000 adherents were living in the town and in the surrounding country." ["Far West," This Week in Missouri History, State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia, n.d.]
The community needed a wide range of businesses to keep pace with the needs accompanying such rapid development, Anxious to facilitate the provision of "necessaries," John Corrill was appointed "Keeper of the Lord's Storehouse" in May 1837. [FWR, 22 May 1837]. On 11 June 1837, the High Council met again at the Committee Store [or Lord's Storehouse], at Far West. John Whitmer and W. W. Phelps presided. In order to promote as much private business as possible, the Council opted for a policy of free enterprise. "Resolved by the Council and all present that the building committee be upheld in the mercantile business, by our prayers; that Lyman Wight, Simeon Carter and Elias Higbee be upheld in conducting a leather store; that John Corrill, Isaac Morley, and Calvin Bebee engage in the mercantile business if they choose; that the right of no man shall be infringed upon, to do as he choose according to the law of God and man; and that the above named men shall be upheld in purchasing goods as other men. [Minutes of a High Council Meeting, June 11, 1837, in Missouri, LDS History of the Church, Vol. 2, 491.]
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 For a time the Committee store provided the space were folks could meet infomally and facilitate many community related activities. Anson Call wrote, "While at Far West I happened in John Corl's [Corrill] or the Church store. . . . [translation manuscripts] carry them over to Joseph's office." [Anson Call, Diary, summer 1838, page 9, BYU?]
Anson Call
As the communtiy grew, more business establishments were needed.
Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner observed, "Our people [church members] moved to Far West, Caldwell County, and soon had a flourishing town, and a settlement all around of farms, etc. The brethren persuaded Mr. Lightner to go there and keep a store for their accommodation, as the Church was not able; for the most of them had been stripped of all they had. He concluded to go and build a log house for his store, and leave me in Liberty until it was completed. We soon left for Far West, my husband furnishing the supplies for the brethren until they could harvest their crops. It was customary among the Missourians to credit the farmers a year. Mr. Lightner followed the rule, for he knew they could not pay until they could earn the money. [Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, 198].
Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner
George M. Hinkle was also associated with a mercantile establishment. [FWR,*.] For a time Cowdery was a partner in Hinkle's store, in order "to get his fees or living." Lyman Littlefield wrote, "In August, 1836, the Saints commenced settling in Caldwell County. My father moved there and selected a place about two miles south of Far West, on the road leading to Liberty, Clay County. In addition to opening a farm, he formed a partnership with Mr. Calvin Graves, and purchased a stock of dry goods and family groceries and commenced business in Far West. Also, they took a stock of goods to Grand River, in Daviess County. In both of these places they were selling many goods and prospering. About this time the writer left the printing office [in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri] and clerked in the store at Far West." [Lyman Omer Littlefield, Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints, 34.] |
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The thriving community attracted other tradesmen. In 1837, the Council passed a resolution allowing Lyman Wight, Simeon. Carter, and Elias Higbee to operate a leather store. [FWR, 77.] John P. Barnard, a blacksmith, was living in Far West at the time of Joseph Smith's arrival in March 1838. 
Barnard took a wagon out an met Joseph's party en route. [Elden J. Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young (Salt Lake City, UT: Elden J. Watson, 1968), 27]. At least five other blacksmiths operated shops in town. 
By the time Heber C. Kimball came to Far West in July, 1838, "it had more than 5,000 inhabitants, 150 houses, 2 hotels, and at least 14 business establishments. . . " [Stanley B. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball, 56]. Initially, John Whitmer and Wamsley opened hotels, located on the south side of the public square. In 1838 these hotels (taverns) were operated by Joseph and Lucy Smith and John M. Burk. In June 1838 the High Council found it necessary to remind the families of Mr. J. Smith, Jr., John Burk [keepers of public houses], and Adam Lightner [grocer] of the ban on "ardent spirits in the place." [FWR, 191.] The Whitmer Hotel was a frame structure. It "stood until about 1900, and was then used as a stable on a nearby farm." [Bertha Booth, 35.] Warmsly's Hotel was built of logs in 1836..It stood east of John Whitmer's hotel. [Richard
Holzapfel, Jeffery Cottle, Ted Stoddard, eds., Church History in Black and White: George Edward Anderson's Photographic Mission to Latter-day Saint Historical Sites (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center Brigham Young University, 1995), 80.] Samuel Russell, an LDS missionary during a return visit to old Far West remarked, "Passing the Hughes place a short distance- on your right a lane opens up to the east. . .While still facing east- immediately on your right is the old shell of the Holman Store. . . .While a little farther on & more to the right in the field Still stands (and is occupied) the old Wamsley place. [Samuel Russell, 1835-, correspondence, 3 November 1882, MS 4180, f2, LDS Archives].
Reed Peck makes mention of the printing office were two issues of the Elder's Journal was published, [Reed Peck Manuscript, 14-15.]
Eliza Partridge learned the tailor's trade while living in Far West, and became a skillful seamstress. [Autobiography of Emily Partridge Young, 37.]
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For more information on facilities and events at the Far West Cultural Center, follow these links:
Testimonies
** GROUP ARRANGEMENTS **
To FarWestHistory.com
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