Peter Whitmer Sr. Log Home and Farm - Insight Into D&C 21

In speaking of the Peter Whitmer Sr. log home in Fayette, New York, Elder Orson Pratt declared, “That house will, no doubt, be celebrated for ages to come as the one chosen by the Lord in which to make known the first elements of the organization of His kingdom in the latter days.”[1]

In addition to the organization of the Church in the home on April 6, 1830, there were other significant events associated with the Restoration that occurred in the Peter Whitmer Sr. log home—

• From June 1829 to July 1, 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery worked on the translation of the Book of Mormon in the home.
• Three witnesses—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris—were shown the metal plates by the angel Moroni in the woods near the home.
• It is claimed that Mary Musselman Whitmer, wife of Peter Whitmer Sr., was shown the gold plates by an angel near the home.
• Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer heard the voice of the Lord in a bedroom of the Whitmer home, outlining the procedures for organizing the Church.
• While residing in the log home, Joseph Smith applied for a copyright for the Book of Mormon manuscript on June 11, 1829, through Richard R. Lansing, clerk of the Northern District Court.
• Twenty revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants were received by Joseph Smith in the home (sections 14–18, 20–21, and 28–40).
• The first three conferences of the Church were held in the home—June 9, 1830; September 26, 1830; and January 2, 1831. Elder Orson Pratt wrote of the third conference:

In one small room of a log-house, nearly all the Latter-day Saints (East of Ohio) were collected together. They desired the Prophet of the Lord to inquire of God and receive a revelation to guide and instruct the Church that were then present. Brother Joseph seated himself at the table. Brother Sidney Rigdon . . . was requested to act as scribe in writing the revelation from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph.[2]

The revelation received was a call for the Saints to gather to Ohio (D&C 37 and 38).

• Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson left from the Whitmer farm on their journey to the borders of the Lamanites.
• In 1980, in commemoration of the sesquicentennial organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the reconstructed Peter Whitmer Sr. Log Home on April 6, 1980. The dedication was part of the general conference telecast and broadcast by satellite to the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.