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AYRES & OSBORN - MORMONS - KIRTLAND, OH
A Composition
S. W. TINKHAM wrote from Willoughby, OH, 6 Sept. 1837; letter addressed “To Buenos
AYRES or Ransom OSBORN, Town of Hixvill Williams County, Ohio, to be left at New
Rochester, Paulding County,” shortly after Buenos left Willoughby, OH, with his family,
to move to Hicksville, OH.
Willoughby, OH was/is in the Northeastern part of the state & Hicksville, OH in the
extreme West of the state. Hicksville is now in Defiance Co., OH.
TINKHAM said,
“I have not sold any thing you left it is such hard times
for money that there is no chance to sell any such
thing at presant there is as many Mormons a going awey as there is
coming in this Summer and there is not any chance to sell to them
they are what folks call pritty low on the edge they are at war
among them selves they have got so they have some clinches right in
there meetings they had quite a riot not long since they go so high
that some of the women Jomped out of the window and the scrape
was altogether amongst the Mormons, there has got to be two partys
of thim and it makes rather troblesome times amongst them.”
In a history of "Lake Co., OH--150 Years of Tradition" by Bari Oyler Stith, pub. 1988
by Windsor Publications, Inc. Northridge, CA, USA was found some information that
may have influenced changes in the life of Buenos Ayres' family.
Conditions mentioned there may have influenced the departure of Buenos Ayres
and others from the region. Buenos was married at Kirtland 1 Sept. 1833 and they
lived in Willoughby until their departure in the spring of 1837. His father, Asa, died
1 Dec. 1837 and mother, Mary, died 6 Dec. 1837 that same year, but we don't know
where. We know that Asa's property was sold in 1828 and they were last found in
the 1830 Federal Census in Kirtland, OH. The following information about the
Mormons is extracted from that Lake Co. History.
[Page 76]
“In 1830 Kirtland was a community of agricultural commerce and industry, a frame schoolhouse,
and four active religious congregations serving 1,018 people. By the time the New York adherents of
Joseph Smith, Jr. migrated into the county in the spring of 1831 over 1,000 of Sidney Rigdon's
converts [Campbellites] awaited their arrival.
A. G. Riddle later wrote:
"One almost wondered if the whole world were centering at Kirtland. They came, men, women, and
children, in every conceivable manner, some with horses, oxen and vehicles rough and rude, while
others had walked all or part of the distance. The future "City of the Saints" appeared like one
besieged. Every available house, shop, hut, or barn was filled to its utmost capacity. Even boxes
were roughly extemporized and used for shelter until something more permanent could be secured."
Although Kirtland represented only one stop on the Mormon trek to the true Zion, many
Gentiles [non Mormons] believed that the entire congregation planned to sink permanent roots into
the little community. By 1835 an ornate temple for worship overlooked the east branch of the Chagrin
River and a school for teaching the Hebrew language prospered.
[Page 77]
The Mormons then created their own money-lending institution, the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Bank,
to aid them in their economic endeavors throughout the county.
The Telegraph of the 1830s chronicles the Mormon/Gentile mistrust that festered almost from
the beginning. The fervency of the Mormon missionary effort caused the initial concern, particularly
when converts such as Martin Harris denounced as infidels all who challenged the Mormon Bible.
In a Sunday morning sermon, such an announcement might have been overlooked, but coming from
the floor of the Painesville Tavern in the middle of the week, Harris’ statement caused quite a stir.
Spiritual rivalry was further fueled by commercial rivalry. As Crary later remembered:
"With means the Mormons could have bought every farm in the township. The people all supposed
they had got to leave. It was a time of terror. Property was not safe from theft, and many believed
that life was not safe with such a crowd, who boasted that they should not hesitate to take life, if the
Lord commanded them to do so through the prophet; that they should live off and suck the milk of
the Gentiles; that the promise that the saints should inherit the earth was about to be fulfilled, and
that they were the saints."
The population of Kirtland tripled in the first six years of the Mormon occupation and by
1837 had outdistanced the combined growth of the communities in Painesville Township. This
posed not only an economic threat at a time when, as the county seat, Painesville was desperately
seeking to attract population and a major transportation network, but also inevitable political
problems. In a county high on nationalistic sentiment, Smith actively declared that God was about
to make a “full end of all nations” so that the “real government of God” could be instituted. He
further aligned his followers, who voted under his direction as a block, with the Jacksonian
Democrats in a county that was predominantly Whig.
Rumors further fueled personal antagonisms. New York examples of Mormon belief in faith
healing and their resistance to standard medical practices appeared in area newspapers, inciting
concern about public health measures. Especially emotional was the reaction to polygamy, which
many believed was actively practiced by the Kirtland Mormons, although present historians have
never been able to prove the practice of this belief in Kirtland.
Gentiles found a variety of outlets for their animosity. Eber D. Howe published hostile
editorials in the Telegraph as supplements to his scathing 1834 publication Mormonism Un Vailed;
or a Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time.
While Grandison Newell, owner of a sawmill and chair factory on the east branch of the Chagrin,
denied them employment, consumers rejected Mormon-made products and store owners refused
to sell them much-needed grain. Mobs hounded their movement throughout the county and lawsuits
plagued Smith, in particular.
With the collapse of their Anti-Bank, which provided them with a medium of exchange that
had been sorely lacking, the Mormon community found itself friendless, destitute, and unable to
cash in its worthless bills or raise credit. Their solution was to head west. Crary noted that “runners
were sent out with poockets full of Mormon money to buy teams where they could find people not
posted on the value of Mormon promises to pay. In 1838 the camp was ready to start, and left in a
body, making a string of teams more than a mile long.”
[Page 79]
William Cahoon lamented, "We turned the key and locked the door of our homes leaving our property
and all we possessed in the hands of enemies and strangers."
And so most of the Mormons moved westward toward their Zion, their abandoned temple an
eloquent reminder of their place in Lake County’s history. The dust from their passing had barely
settled when Lake Countians turned their attention to another controversy, the issue of slavery....
[Page 39]
In Kirtland, the abundance of abandoned buildings, a result of the Mormon exodus in the late 1830s,
aided in Nelson Slater’s choice of a location for his teacher’s seminary. The school opened in
September of 1839 after Slater obtained a lease for the use of the deserted temple and a state
charter for the Western Reserve Teacher’s Seminary and Kirtland Institute. The institute we
designed for students with no intention of teaching, while the seminary course of study focused on
the training of teachers of both sexes with an emphasis on quality as the key to the improvement of
public education....
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Note: This composition was not intended to offend LDS members, but simply to show the
influence that the times had on the lives of my direct ancestors. A xerox copy of the
original letter written by TINKHAM is in possession of this compiler. At this time it is not
clear the relationship between TINKHAM and the AYRES/OSBORN, though he mentions
being a "cousin."
Transcribed by Gloria Odom; from files:
AYRES OH32 - Transcribed letter of S. W. TINKHAM to Buenos AYRES & Ransom OSBORN
dated 6 Sept. 1837.
AYRES OH33 - Lake Co., OH - 150 Years of Tradition by Bari Oyler Stith; pages 16-19, 22-25,
38-39, 44.
AYRES OH29 - History of Defiance County, Ohio; Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1883.
This history includes potraits of early settlers that mentions many things about the families of
Buenos Ayres & Ransom Osborn, including their arrival in Hicksville, OH in 1836.
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