through the crowd in rapid succession to the number
of thirty, and were immersed, with no intermission of the discourse on
the part of Rigdon. Mr. Card was apparently the most stoical of men--of
a clear, unexcitable temperament, with unorthodox and vague religious
ideas. He afterward became prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga county.
While the exciting scene was transpiring below us in the valley and in
the pool, the faces of the crowd expressing the most intense emotion,
Mr. Card suddenly seized my arm and said, 'Take me away!' Taking his
arm, I saw that his face was so pale that he seemed to be about to
faint. His frame trembled as we walked away and mounted our horses. We
rode a mile toward Willoughby before a word was said. Rising the hill
out of the valley, he seemed to recover, and said, 'Mr. Barr, if you had
not been there I certainly should have gone into the water.' He said the
impulse was irresistible."

Kirtland is on the Kirtland branch of the Chagrin River, so named from
the disappointment of a party of early surveyors, who thought they were
in the valley of the Cuyahoga, the first river to the westward. The
village is nine miles west of Painesville, three from Willoughby and
twenty-two from Cleveland. Mentor is the nearest station on the Lake
Shore Railway. Besides the Temple, the Mormons erected a number of
substantial buildings, which show that they expected to remain in
Kirtland. The residences of Smith and Rigdon are almost under the eaves
of the Temple, and the theological seminary is now occupied by the
Methodists for a church. A square mile was laid out in half-acre lots,
and a number of farms were bought--the "Church farm" being half a mile
down one of the most beautiful valleys which it is possible to conceive
in a range of country so uniformly level.

Many an interesting story is told regarding the Mormon methods of
carrying on business with the merchants of Cleveland. A bank was
started, like other "wild-cat" banks of that period, without a charter
from the State of Ohio. The institution was called "The Kirtland Safety
Society Bank." A number of its bills of issue may be seen at the rooms
of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. An examination
of these bills shows that early in 1837 Smith was cashier and Rigdon was
president, Two or three months later either Rigdon or Williams was
secretary, and Smith was treasurer. Thus the process of inflation must
have been both easy and rapid.