John Johnson Farm- Amish Country

Our second day in Ohio we went to the Kirtland temple in the morning then headed south to Amish country. We ate at a place called Mary yoders that Bryan has talked about for years. I actually really admire the amish people. Anyone that debated to their religion who are so peaceful are people I can support. We saw a lot of homes with their clothes on clothes lines and people out with a hours working in the fields. 

I loved this spot sign for all the horse and buggies. 

I wanted to go to an authentic Amish store but were told to go here and it was just a second hand store. Honestly the kids loved it so it worked out. Ty found some old country CDs and he was so happy about it. Stockton thought this grinch was the best thing ever. 

I really wanted to go see the John Johnson farm in Hiram Ohio. It's sad it isn't even a farm anymore. When Bryan were there on his mission it was a working church farm with orchards and strawberry patches. 

I've been really into reading about my family history for the last few years. I found a man who was buried in Millville from Hiram, Ohio. George Pitkin and his wife Amanda were living there in 1830. George was the sheriff in town. When Joseph moved there George was baptized by Joseph. He was good friends with the prophet. 

The night Joseph was assaulted, tarred and feathered George was there that night to help him peal the tar off his body. It all happened in this home. I felt so close to George while I was there. I felt like he was there with us. It was really cool to be in the room they said was Josephs office because I just knew George had been there many times. And now his 5th great grandchildren were sitting there because of him. 

These are what the doors looked like when the Johnsons lived there. 

Joseph and Emmas room. yes this is what the floors looked like then. 

Josephs office where many revelations were given. 

The day after Joseph was tarred and feathered he stood on these same steps and preached to a group of people (including some of the people who attacked him the night before) about forgiveness. I know many will roll their eyes about Joseph Smith but I can't get over the fact that he never wavered in his testimony of what he knew. Even after he had no money, few followers at this time and was almost killed. And soon after this he lost another child, his 4th child to die. 

When Joseph would preach people would gather in this grassy area to listen. They made a little covering for people to sit under. I'm sure George and Amanda would come to listen to the prophet here. 

This side door is where friends of the prophet would come into get to the office. 

So this guy used to be a member of the church and left because Joseph spelled his name wrong on something. he said no prophet of God could spell someones name wrong. He even lead mobs who attacked the prophet. Then lo and behold he had part of his headstone a word spelled wrong. It was disciple. It's closer to the John Johnson farm so we had to go see it.  

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My kids tease me that I'm 80 years old but I don't care. I love going to cemeteries and find my family there. I feel really close to my family when I honor them. I knew George Pitkins parents and sisters were buried in Hiram in a really old cemetery and I wanted to find it. There are a ton of cemeteries in this area I'm not sure if a lot of old towns are like that or not. This one was hard to find. Really small and super old. A lot of the graves were from people who fought in the American revolution. 

We found Paul and Abigail Pitkins grave! They are my 5th great grandparents. I wish I had nicer things to put on their grave but I did have a couple little flowers I picked. We also cleaned off some of the bird poop off it. This cemetery didn't look like many people visit it. The graves were too old. we were only like a week after Memorial Day and It didn't look like anyone had put stuff on them. It was a honor to go there. 

A covered train bridge!