Financing the Work of the Restoration: Beginnings of the United Firm in Kirtland, Ohio
The United Firm was established to oversee Church owned properties and for-profit business. In Kirtland, this included a store, ashery, and tannery.
Abstract
The Lord instructed Church leaders to establish the United Firm to oversee Church owned properties and for-profit businesses. Viewers visit Kirtland, Ohio, United Firm properties of the Newel K. Whitney Store, a tannery, and an ashery. Particular attention is paid to the process of producing potash and pearl ash. Doctrine and Covenants 104 discusses the stewardships that leaders received over these establishments. Since the Kirtland days, the Church has followed a similar pattern in establishing for-profit companies such as the Utah Railway, Utah and Idaho Sugar, the City Creek Development, etc. In Kirtland, profits from the United Firm were used to publish scripture and to build the Kirtland Temple.