Leader of The Church in Missouri
Later in 1831, Whitmer joined the growing number of Latter Day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. Local opposition to Mormon settlement in the county resulted in the expulsion of most of the Latter Day Saints by the summer of 1833. Whitmer, along with many of the others, took refugee in neighboring Clay County. At a July 3, 1834 conference of the church, Whitmer's brother David was called to be president of the church in Missouri. John Whitmer and William Wines Phelps were called as David's counselors. Because David returned to Kirtland, Whitmer and Phelps were left to preside in his absence. Whitmer wrote several petitions to Missouri's governor, Daniel Dunklin, asking that the Latter Day Saints be allowed to return to their lands in Jackson County.
Working with sympathetic non-Mormon residents in Clay County, including Alexander Doniphan, Whitmer and Phelps began to purchase land northeast of Clay in what became a new county, set aside for Mormon settlement. Together with Phelps, Whitmer purchased land for the church in his name in what became Caldwell County and founded the town of Far West.
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