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Show 74 John Tanner and His Family of all efforts to raise the necessary means to lift the mortgage, it appeared doomed to failure. It was at this juncture that John Tanner arrived. M. R. Werner, the journalist, in his book Brigham Young (New York, [1925]), gives an interesting if slightly irreverant account of the part played by John Tanner: Manna from Heaven arrived in the form of John Tanner, a convert from New York. He had been healed of a lame leg by a Mormon elder," and he therefore felt called upon to sell his extensive prop erty in New York State and live in Kirtland. He arrived there just as the mortgage on the temple ground was about to be foreclosed. It is said that a few days before his arrival, the Prophet Joseph and his brethren had assembled in prayer-meeting and asked God to send them a brother with means to lift the mortgage. Perhaps this was so, but perhaps someone had whispered to Tanner had just sold two large farms and Smith that John of valuable 2,200 timberland. Nevertheless, the day after his arrival in Kirtland, Tan ner was invited by the Prophet to meet with the High Council. The result of the meeting was that he lent Joseph Smith $2,000 and took his note, lent the Temple Committee $13,000 and took their note, and besides these loans, made liberal donations to the Temple Fund. A short time later he signed a note for $30,000 worth of merchan dise. And they made him an elder; they should have made him a Joseph acres Saint! 6 There are as many versions of John's gifts to the church at Kirtland as there are about his being cured of his lame leg.' The Werner account may be more dramatic than accurate, but that his considerable is not in doubt, and that it gifts were him financially is completely broke following story of his beyond question. The book, Scraps of at Kirtland: Biography, gives the generosity About the middle of December [1834] he received an impression by dream or vision of the night, that he was needed and must go im mediately to the Church in the West. He told his family of the in struction he had received and forthwith made preparation for the start, while his neighbors, with deep regret at what they considered insane purpose, tried their utmost to dissuade him; but he knew the will of God in the present crisis and nothing could deter him from doing it. an |
