Site of the Whitney and Gilbert Livery Stable

Site of the Whitney and Gilbert Livery Stable. . , Algernon Sidney Gilbert and his longtime friend and business partner Newel K. Whitney operated a livery stable on this corner from 1829 to 1831. The two met as young traders on the Michigan frontier and moved to Ohio together, opening a store in Mentor under Gilbert's name., Whitney left the firm and established his own store in Kirtland around 1822., Following a bankruptcy, Gilbert moved to Kirtland and worked for N. K. Whitney and Co. He helped Whitney manage his affairs, including the construcion of the ashery, where potash was made. The two men engaged in a number of ventures as partners, such as the livery stable that once stood on this site., Gilbert and Whitney were both baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the fall of 1830 and were early associates of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Gilbert moved to Independence, Missouri, in 1831 to establish the firm Gilbert, Whitney and Co., using Whitney's capital from his Kirtland store., In response to mob violence in July 1833, Gilbert and others offered themselves as a ransom if members of the mob would let the Latter-day Saints leave unmolested., In late fall, mobs ransacked the store and demolished homes in outlying communities. Gilbert died of cholera in June 1834 while caring for members of Zion's Camp who were stricken with the disease.