Press Release
Nineteen-year-old Jedd Morley of Price was pleased when he opened his mission call from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to learn he had been called to the Columbus, Ohio Mission.
Four generations ago, his great-great-great-great Grandfather, Isaac Morley, had left the tiny Western Reserve Village of Kirtland to follow his faith, first to Missouri, then on to the Great Salt Lake valley.
Isaac Morley, one of the earliest settlers of Kirtland, and a successful farmer and businessman, had joined the Church in 1830. He invited many early converts to live on his 80-acre farm, where he built a small home for Joseph and Emma Smith shortly after the Prophet’s arrival in Ohio.
The Morley farm sits just about one-mile north on Chillicothe Road from the center of the present-day Historic Kirtland sites – where the original Whitney store and home date back to the 1820s. The Church constructed a visitors’ center and historic village including a sawmill, ashery, schoolhouse, and replica of the John Johnson Inn. On average, the sites see around 60,000 visitors each year.
While living at the farm, Smith received 13 revelations now included in the canon of scripture known as “The Doctrine and Covenants.”
The church first purchased and restored the original Newell K. Whitney store and home in 1989. In April 2000, plans were announced to restore the remaining buildings, while reconstructing others, and building a new visitors center. Following the completion of the project, Church president Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the site on May 18, 2003.
The modern-day Morley learned a great deal about great grandfather growing up in Price, Utah. Isaac Morley’s biography – penned by another grandson – is required reading for family members.
When Elder Morley arrived in Tiffin, Ohio, the initial area where he served, he was aware his ancestor’s home was in the state, but had no idea just how close he was.
Tiffin is 114 miles from Kirtland.
In the fall of 2018, the church absorbed the previous Cleveland Mission, adding it to the Columbus, Ohio Mission, and paving the way for Morley to serve near his ancestor’s home.
“Honestly, once I realized missionaries were serving and living at the farm, I got really excited and prayed for the chance just to see the farm. It never even crossed my mind that I might have the chance to actually live there myself,” Elder Morley said.
Prayers answered, what Morley calls “a tender mercy,” he was transferred to serve on his great-grandfather’s land in November 2018.
“It was especially humbling when I came to Kirtland and heard the prophesy that Elder (M. Russell) Ballard had made: that the descendants of the early Saints would return here to build up Kirtland once again,” he said. “I am, literally, playing a very small role in fulfilling that prophesy. I feel a great responsibility in my work here.”
Elder Morley said there “is a very special spirit that still resides in this place, especially in the evenings. Sometimes, I can feel his (Isaac Morley’s) spirit very near, and I am in awe that I am walking and falling asleep on the same ground he walked.”
Morley said he has had many opportunities to reflect upon his ancestor’s conversion to the church, the roles he played in its westward trek and in the legacy he left for his posterity.
Isaac Morley arrived in the Great Salt Lake valley in 1848, He was later dispatched by Brigham Young to establish a community of Saints in what is present-day Manti, Utah. Morley served as a senator in the general assembly of the provisional State of Deseret. In 1851, 1853 and 1855, he represented Sanpete county in the legislative council of the Utah Territory.
Ballard said at the 10th anniversary celebration of Historic Kirtland that “there is a strength that comes from looking to those who have gone before, and the historic village is one way for current Church members to feel of the testimony and strength of early Church members.”
Elder Morley believes that to be true.
“My testimony has been amazingly strengthened by just being here, walking where the prophet walked, where Jesus Christ, himself, visited. I know this is Jesus Christ’s Church, just as my great-grandfather did. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to be here and to feel the power that comes from this place.”
“This will definitely be something I will share with my own descendants someday,” he said. “I want to bring my children and my grandchildren here and have them experience the spirit that is here, just as I have. This will always be one of the most precious experiences of my life.”
