 In 1893 Christopher Crary wrote a memoir of his Kirtland life, which provided a great deal of material for Anne B. Prusha's 1982 history of Kirtland.From 1831 to 1838 Kirtland was the headquarters for the Latter Day Saint movement.Joseph Smith moved the church to Kirtland in 1831, shortly after its formal organization in April 1830 in Palmyra, New York.