Day 11: John Johnson Farm

Today we were able to take a long 6 hour travel day to end up in Mentor, Ohio. After watching National Treasure 2, we stopped at the only sight to see of the day; the John Johnson Farm in Hyrum, Ohio, and it was well worth it to make the stop there and take the tour.

There were many things that happened in the Johnson house that aided in the growth of the Church in the early days, and a lot of amazing things came to pass there. The house showed that the Johnson's a lot of prosperity becaus they had 5 doors leading to the outside, 2 closets, 5 fireplaces with the same central chimney, and the fact that Sister Johnson loved to decorate so there are a lot of intricate details and decorations throughout the entire house.

Joseph and Emma were able to live there for a time, and Sidney Rigdon lived in a home across the street. While Joseph and Emma were there, they slept on the ground floor in the parlor to the left of the front door.

One familiar incidence that happened when they lived there was when they had adopted the twins and were struggling to get them to sleep because they were sick. When they babies had finally fallen asleep, Emma with a baby on one bed and Joseph with the other in another bed, an angry mob stormed the house, pulled Joseph out of bed and down the road, scratched him and then continued to tar and feather him. That night Emma and Sister Johnson spent their time cleaning up Joseph from the tar and feathers, and he was able to preach to the congregation the next morning from the front step of the Johnson home, and ended up baptizing a number of people. The feeling of knowing that happened there was incredible, and the original steps are still there, so I literally got to stand where Joseph stood at one of his weakest moments.
We finished up the tour and waited for the rest of the group to finish, and then we headed to dinner. It started raining and we were all able to have a good time out in the rain. We got back to our motel and me, Cher, and Taylor went on a stroll around the building, frolicking in the rain and going through the shrubbery. Then we got to play cards with the Arizona kids for a while and had a good time. Our hotel tonight is amazing.

The rooms are HUGE, we have 2 beds plus a couch, 2 separated areas, and 2 TV's, and the pool is a normal sized pool (bigger than average hotels) with fountains squirting off the sides into the pool. I so wished I could have jumped in!

Tomorrow we're off to Kirtland to see the temple! Until then, check out the newly updated pictures on the last 4 posts!