The Mormons fused their church leadership, developed their strong sense of community, and organized their unique ecclesiastical structure while they lived in Kirtland, Ohio, from 1831 to 1838. The women worked beside the men as they struggled with preparation for Zion’s Camp, built the temple, and experimented unsteadily with securing financial stability. At the same time as the temporal building of the community progressed, both the men and the women sought expression for their religious fervor. Motivated by spiritual force, many of the women sacrificed to get to Kirtland, and many of them experienced unusual spiritual phenomena while there. The combination of sacrifice and continued religious exhilaration provided faithful women with the determination ot remain with the Saints when the Kirtland era came to an end.
