The Far West area in Missouri was the site of horrendous acts of hatred towards the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The "Extermination Order" issued by Governor Boggs sealed the fate of the Latter-Day Saints people and they fled the state of Missouri for safety. Before, everything went chaotic the Latter-Day Saints had laid the temple stones for the Far West Temple, but were never able to finish building the temple.
Four days after laying the cornerstones of the Temple, Joseph Smith received a revelation, Doctrine and Covenants 18. This revelation prophesied to Joseph Smith that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles should "depart to go over the great waters, and there promulgate my gospel, the fullness thereof, and bear record of my name", in the Spring of 1839. The Lord also directed the Twelve to "take leave of my saints in the city of Far West, on the twenty-sixth day of April next, on the building-spot of my house" (D&C118:4-5). The Lord also revealed who should be the new members of the Quorum of the Twelve for the four members who had left the Church.
By the time Sping of 1839 came the members of the Twelve Apostles were living in Nauvoo, away from the mobs of Missouri. It would have been very dangerous for the Twelve to return again to the Far West Temple site. The Twelve Apostles did in fact return to the Temple site, as the prophet Joseph Smith had prophesied.
The members of the Twelve returned to Far West early in the morning on April 26, just past midnight. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, and John E. Page were the members who returned. They met at Bro. Samuel Clarks home and excommunicated 31 people from the Church before returning to the Far West Temple site. Others along with the Apostles sang a hymn, then Alpheus Cutler, the temples master workman commenced relaying the foundation of the Temple, agreeable to the revelation. They rolled a large, ton weight stone onto the southeast corner. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball then ordained Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith as apostles in the Quorum of the Twelve. They also ordained Darwin Chase and Norman Shearer as seventies. All four men were ordained while sitting on the southeast cornerstone. Then, the apostles individually prayed vocally while kneeling on the cornerstone. After the son Adam-ondi-Ahman was sung and the meeting was adjourned.
The apostles and seventies made their way back to Nauvoo and in August and September they left of their missions to England.
What Happened to the Far West Temple
The Far West Temple walls were built to the height of 2-2.5 feet above the ground. By 1886 all that was left was "a depression in the earth three or four feet deep. . . and some fragments of crumbling walls."
John Withmer, one of the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon, was the only resident of the old town site of Far West for many years after the Saints left. He owned 625 acres, including the Far West Temple site, where he lived for 38 years.
In 1909, 80 acres was purchased for the Church, under the direction of President Joseph F. Smith, who was born in Far West. The 80 acres included the Far West Temple site. By 1996 the Church owned 593 acres in Far West, including the John Whitmer Home Site.
On August 3, 1968 President David O. McKay dedicated the monuments at the Far West Temple site.