Firmly entrenched
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Breaking ground on a new stake center in the Columbus Ohio Stake July 7 symbolically affirmed that the Church in Ohio — once driven from the state in mass exodus — grows more firmly entrenched.
After developing a thriving community in Kirtland, Ohio, in the early and mid-1830s, violence against the Church escalated to the point that it was no longer safe for members to remain.
The Prophet Joseph Smith, warned by the Spirit, moved immediately to Missouri. Members followed, leaving behind their comfortable homes, their cherished possessions, and their beloved temple built commandingly atop the hill in their extreme poverty.
During the next 3 1/2 decades, little if anything is heard of the Church in Ohio. In 1876, an Elder Niles Romney wrote in letters to the Deseret News that while passing through Ohio, preaching every night in one town after another, the Marion County Branch was formed, the first in Ohio after Kirtland.
"It seems as if a pall settled over Ohio in 1840, leaving it barren of gospel influence," wrote Ernie Shannon, Columbus stake historian in a newly published history, Heritage and Legacy of the Saints.
By the 1920s a branch was established in Columbus that served much of the central Ohio area. But the saints had no place to call their own in which to meet, holding meetings in members' homes and in rented facilities.
That was the case until 1929, when Archie Brown spearheaded the building of the stone meetinghouse that stands today at the corner of Indianola and Ninth Avenue, near the Ohio State University campus, as a monument to the perseverance and dedication of the Latter-day Saints of that era.
When Church President Heber J. Grant dedicated the meetinghouse on Feb. 16, 1930, Church membership in all of Ohio was estimated to be just less than 700 members.
The Indianola meetinghouse served the members of the Church in Columbus for almost 30 years.
During these years, missionaries baptized one member here, and another member there, many of whom soon immigrated to Utah. But in time, larger numbers of newly baptized members remained in Ohio, forming a basis for the Church to grow.
In 1962, the Columbus Ohio Stake was organized with Jim Mortensen as president. It was the first stake in Ohio. During the next 14 months, members said President Mortensen rarely stopped to rest, as if he intuitively knew his days were numbered.
While he was returning from a welfare meeting in Cincinnati in May of 1963, a car swerved into his lane and hit head-on. President Mortensen died the next morning. Stake members were devastated by his death. For some, the tragedy was a trial of faith.
A few years later, in May 1969, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, was sent to Columbus to preside over stake conference. Weeks prior to the conference, Don Mortensen (who was not related to President Mortensen) had been called to serve as the bishop of the Columbus 2nd Ward.
His ordination and setting apart was to occur following stake conference.
During the Saturday evening session of stake conference, it was announced that the new bishops were to gather in the stake office behind the old Olentangy Chapel in Columbus, Brother Mortensen remembered.
"When it was my turn, I sat in the middle of the room with my wife sitting across from me. Elder Hinckley stood behind me with his hands on my shoulders.
"He said, 'Brother Mortensen, we're going to set you apart as the bishop of the Columbus 2nd Ward, is that right?'
"'Yes sir,' I said.
"'Well, we're not going to do that,' he said.
"My wife looked at me with dismay and said, 'What did you do?"' Brother Mortensen said.
"After what seemed like an eternity, Elder Hinckley said, 'We're going to set you apart as the second counselor in the Columbus Ohio Stake presidency."'
A decade later in the late 1970s, a number of young, active families moved into the region, setting the stage for the creation of the Columbus East stake in 1976, and the Columbus North stake in 1986.
During these years, members demonstrated a resiliency and determination to attend the Washington D. C. Temple, preparatory to the day in September 1999 when the Columbus Ohio Temple was dedicated.
Dear to the members are President Hinckley's comments during the dedication of that temple.
In November 2004, continued growth of the Church in central Ohio required the creation of a fourth stake, the Columbus South. Each stake has roughly the same number of members as did the original Columbus Ohio Stake.
Today, more than 13,000 members reside among the four stakes in central Ohio.
"When one considers the work, the sacrifice, and the faith of central Ohio Church members for the past 130 years, it is inspiring and humbling," said Brother Shannon.
— History by Ernie Shannon and Ralph Henricks
