Many needy arrived in Kirtland
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In the first months and years after the command to "go to the Ohio" was issued (D&C 37:1), Latter-day Saints began arriving in Kirtland. Many of the arriving saints, including the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife, needed assistance of some kind.
In a soon-to-be published book, Joseph Smith's Kirtland - Eyewitness Accounts, Karl R. Anderson wrote:"Most of the faithful saints who followed the Lord's command to `go to the Ohio' acted out of pure faith. Like the children of Israel who had faith that God would sustain them in their journey to the promised land, many came on foot, leaving behind them their worldly goods as well as family and friends. What few possessions these faithful converts were able to carry could not sustain them for long. But the saints already in Kirtland welcomed these pilgrims and shared their meager substance willingly."
A major problem confronting the incoming saints was finding housing of any kind. "New arrivals often appeared at the doorstep of friends, acquaintances, and strangers with no notice," Anderson wrote. "Brotherly love dictated that members move over and offer hospitality, however meager - at times even sleeping on the floor and giving up their own beds."
Anderson noted that in the seven years Joseph and Emma were in Ohio, they lived in five locations. For at least the first three years they shared quarters as guests of other families. Anderson wrote that the shortest stay was a few weeks, when they lived with Newel K. Whitney and his wife and five children in the home across the street from Whitney's store.
