This is the main floor of the Newel K. Whitney
store. It was here that Joseph Smith first met Newel K.
Whitney. Orson F. Whitney, Newel and Elizabeth Whitney's
grandson, gave this account of this first meeting:
About the first of February, 1831, a
sleigh, driven into Kirtland from the East, drew up in front of the
mercantile store of Gilbert and Whitney. A stalwart young man sprang
out and walked up the steps into the store and to where the junior
partner was standing. Extending his hand cordially, as if to an old and
familiar acquaintance, he said: "Newel K. Whitney, thou art the man!"
The merchant was astonished.
He had never seen this person before. "Stranger," said he, "you have
the advantage of me; I could not call you by name as you have me."
"I am Joseph the Prophet,"
said the stranger, smiling. "You have prayed me here, now what do you
want of me?"
Joseph Smith, while in the State of New
York, had seen Newel K. Whitney, in the State of Ohio, praying for his
coming to Kirtland; had seen him so vividly that he knew him when they
met. The purpose of this vision, in all probability, was to pave the
way for a meeting between the Prophet and the man who was to have the
honor of entertaining him and his family during the first weeks after
their arrival in Ohio. (Saturday Night Thoughts, p.34)
