Palmyra, New York History The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had its beginnings in a grove of trees near Palmyra, New York, in 1820, when God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to young Joseph Smith. This remarkable vision was followed by other heavenly manifestations, including instructions to translate an ancient record written on gold plates which had been buried at the nearby Hill Cumorah. In March of 1830, the Book of Mormon, a second witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ, was published by E. B. Grandin in Palmyra. On April 6, 1830, the Church was officially organized in Fayette, New York, with six members and some 50 others present. Samuel H. Smith, the Church's first missionary, began his ministry in New York, and during the 1830s Church missionaries were active throughout the state. In 1837, a small congregation was established in New York City, followed by branches of the Church in Long Island and Brooklyn. The Church's first U.S. mission, based in New York City, was established in 1839. As Church headquarters gradually moved westward, first to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally to Salt Lake City, Utah, most Church members in New York followed. On February 4, 1846, Samuel Brannan headed a company of Latter-day Saints aboard the ship Brooklyn that sailed from New York harbor to San Francisco. There was little Church activity in New York after 1855 and throughout the Civil War years. By 1890 the New York Conference of the Church was organized and the Eastern States Mission opened in 1893 with headquarters in Brooklyn. In 1900 the mission listed 975 members. The Church purchased the original 100-acre Joseph Smith farm near Palmyra in 1907, including the grove of trees where the First Vision took place. In the 1920s the Church acquired the Hill Cumorah, and the first Book of Mormon pageant was produced on that site in 1928. The annual event now draws between 80,000 and 100,000 spectators every summer. By 1930 small congregations of the Church were present in Albany, Brooklyn, Erie, Hudson, and Rochester. As membership in the state grew, the New York Stake (equivalent to a diocese) was created in 1934. A second stake was organized in Rochester in 1962. At the present time there are 14 Church stakes in New York State. Church membership in New York stood at 17,000 in 1974. By 1980 this had increased to 26,000, and to nearly 40,000 in 1990. Today there are more than 60,000 Latter-day Saints in 161 congregations throughout the state. Church leaders announced plans for a temple in Palmyra in February, 1999. A second temple has been announced for Harrison, New York.