“Ann and Newel Whitney and the Covenant Path,” Liahona, Jan. 2025.
Ann and Newel Whitney and the Covenant Path
Like Ann and Newel Whitney, we too travel the covenant path by repenting, serving, sacrificing, and rejoicing along the way.
The Whitneys’ store in Kirtland (shown here in 1907) funded much of the Church’s growth in Ohio and Missouri in the1830s.
Photograph by George Edward Anderson, 1907
When 18-year-old Elizabeth Ann Smith moved to Ohio, she met a handsome businessman named Newel K. Whitney. She described him as “a young man [who] had come out West to ‘seek his fortune.’ He had thrift and energy, and he accumulated property faster than most of his … associates.” They were married in October 1822 and were “a happy couple, with bright prospects in store.”
They settled in Kirtland, Ohio, where Newel ran a successful trading company.
We can see the patterns of the Lord’s dealings with His children by looking at the experiences of the Whitneys and of so many others. For example, we can see how they came to know the Savior and how He helped them see themselves as children of the covenant. Knowing about them gives deeper insights into the Lord’s revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Preparing to Receive the Word of the Lord
Ann’s parents chose to raise her without religion. Newel had a business mindset. But as they set up house in Kirtland, Ann sensed something missing in their lives. They began looking for a church that followed the gospel as taught by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. For a while they worshipped with Alexander Campbell’s Disciples of Christ.
“One night,” Ann recalled, “… as my husband and I, in our house at Kirtland, were praying to the Father to be shown the way, the Spirit rested upon us and a cloud overshadowed the house. … A solemn awe pervaded us. … We heard a voice … saying, ‘Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming.’”
In New York, hundreds of miles away, the Lord told Joseph Smith to send missionaries to preach the gospel. When those missionaries—led by Oliver Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt—preached in Kirtland, Ann listened and later wrote, “I knew it to be the voice of the Good Shepherd.” The witness of the missionaries, other believers like Lucy and Isaac Morley, and most importantly, the Holy Ghost, led them to make sacred covenants. Ann and Newel were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in November 1830.
Arriving in Kirtland in 1831, Joseph Smith introduced himself to Newel, saying, “I am Joseph, the Prophet. … You have prayed me here.”
Illustration by Paul Mann
Meeting the Prophet Joseph
Another revelation told the Saints to “go to the Ohio,” where they would receive “a blessing such as is not known among the children of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 39:14–15; see also 37:1).
Joseph and Emma Smith arrived in Kirtland in February 1831, and Newel and Ann took them into their home for a month. Eighteen months later, they again provided a home for Joseph and Emma in their remodeled store.
The Whitneys began to see a clearer picture of their eternal identity. Later that year, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph that Newel was to serve as the bishop in Kirtland. Newel said, “I cannot see a Bishop in myself, Brother Joseph; but if you say it’s the Lord’s will, I’ll try.”
Joseph replied, “You need not take my word alone. Go and ask Father for yourself.”
After praying, Newel heard a voice from heaven say, “Thy strength is in me.”
This was a period of growth for Newel and Ann as they worked together to keep their covenants. Ann wrote about one way they served others:
“According to our Savior’s pattern … , we determined to make a Feast for the Poor … ; the lame, the halt, the deaf, the blind, the aged and infirm.
“This feast lasted three days, during which time all in the vicinity of Kirtland who would come were invited. ... To me it was “a feast of fat things” [Isaiah 25:6] indeed; a season of rejoicing never to be forgotten.”
Newel later served as a missionary with Joseph Smith and as a partner in the United Firm, a business cooperative for addressing the needs of the Saints. The proceeds from his store funded much of the Church’s growth in Kirtland and Missouri, and he served the Church in many other ways. Perhaps most importantly, Ann and Newel had 14 children and raised 10 to adulthood.
Others gathered to build the stakes of Zion. The Kimballs, Youngs, Crosbys, Tippets, and many more were trying to center their lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each brought energy and specific talents. Early revelations guided, rebuked, and reassured them and directed the expanding Church.
Building the House of the Lord
For the early members of the Church, on a collective and an individual level, receiving the promised endowment of power was the center of their temporal and spiritual striving (see Doctrine and Covenants 38:32).
The Lord repeatedly commanded the building of temples in Kirtland and Missouri. In Kirtland, the Saints succeeded with heroic effort to raise a remarkable building. It was their best effort to build something worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The temple still stands today. Newel’s store, along with his nearby ashery, were essential parts of the economy in Kirtland that supported the temple project.
In 1836, the Savior appeared in the temple and accepted their efforts. He promised that His people “shall greatly rejoice in consequence of the blessings which shall be poured out, and the endowment with which my servants have been endowed in this house” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:9). Then Moses, Elias, and Elijah came and conferred keys critical to the last dispensation (see Doctrine and Covenants 110:11–16).
Undated illustration of Newel K. Whitney as a young man
Persecution and Worldly Cares
The coming days would try the Saints, including the Whitneys. In a nationwide economic downturn and banking panic, many turned against the Church and the Prophet. Commanded to move to Missouri, Newel hesitated. He had poured his life into his store in Kirtland. Much of the wealth it made sustained the Church. How could he just walk away?
The Lord chastised him for paying too much attention to worldly things and for “littleness of soul” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:11). Newel repented and obeyed. He settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he continued serving as bishop and later as Presiding Bishop.
Temple Ordinances
In Nauvoo, the temple was again the center of temporal and spiritual activity. As the walls of the temple began to rise, the Lord organized the Relief Society through His prophet. Emma Smith was the first president, and Sarah Cleveland and Ann Whitney were her counselors. Emma delegated important duties to Ann and asked her to lead the organization when she was not there.
The Lord continued to reveal temple ordinances to the Prophet. In 1842, with the Nauvoo Temple still unfinished, Joseph Smith gathered Church leaders, including Newel, in the upper floor of his Red Brick Store and administered the endowment ordinance. When part of the temple—the attic—was dedicated, both Ann and Newel administered the endowment to other Saints before they left for the Salt Lake Valley.
Along the covenant path, Ann and Newel sought the Savior, repented, served wholeheartedly, consecrated, sacrificed, and rejoiced. They came to know Jesus Christ and see themselves as children of the covenant. Millions after them have followed the same pattern to make and live sacred covenants and build the Lord’s kingdom. The effort to know their stories helps us during our seasons of ease and trials.
Undated photograph of Ann Whitney later in life
Near the end of her life, Ann wrote: “To feel you have acquired a little insight into the purposes of God in your creation … can you realize that these things are worth living for, worth suffering for? Can any sacrifice be too great … if we would follow in our Master’s footprints?”