The replica tabernacle which stood in Kanesville (Council Bluffs) is no more as of 2022. The original tabernacle was built in late 1847 as a hasty construction so they could hold a conference. They tried to hold conference December 3, but the room was too small and the crowd too large. The meeting was postponed umtil a more comfortable arrangement could be found. Brigham Young and the apostles had been talking about reorganizing the first presidency of the church. For the past three years the church had been run by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles with Brigham Young as president of the quorum. Those apostles in Kanesville, which included most of them finally felt the inspiration to reorganize the first presidency. On the fourth day of a general conference held in the tabernacle the reorganization of the presidency was sustained by the crowd. This was Monday December 27, 1847. The first Presidency included Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards. A pattern was thus established for succession in the first presidency which includes the apostles agreeing (receiving revelation), and then the church sustaining by the uplifted hand.
The tabernacle was made of green cottonwood which shrunk and caused the building to be unsafe. They also found it was built on a spring. It was torn down a couple years after it was built.
There is now a memorial and a visitor center. The replica tabernacle built in the 1990s was made of cottonwood as was the original. This was subject to shrinkage which again made the building unsafe. It was torn down in 2022 after being closed a couple years.
POther important events that happened in Kanesville were the muster of the Mormon Battalion and the return and rebaptism of Oliver Cowdery after he had been excommunicated a few years prior.
When we visited the visitors center had just reopened. So our look was a bit premature.
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| The new first presidency: Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards |
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