The Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) was first proposed as a bank in 1836, and eventually organized on January 2, 1837, as a joint stock company, by leaders and followers of the then-named Church of the Latter Day Saints.

According to KSS's 1837 "Articles of Agreement", it was intended to serve the financial needs of the growing Latter Day Saint community in Kirtland, Ohio.

Its preamble stated it was: ... for the promotion of our temporal interests, and for the better management of our different occupations, which consist in agriculture, mechanical arts, and merchandising.However, by November 1837, KSS failed and its business closed.

In the aftermath, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was fined for "running an illegal bank," though he was employed as the institution's Cashier.

Although the church held considerable real estate, estimated at approximately $60,000 in equity by historian Larry T. Wimmer, it also needed liquidity to repay outstanding loans.

[3] Hyde returned to the Ohio legislature in February with a petition, joined by several non-Mormons, for a bank based on far less capital stock.

[4] Although this rejection has been attributed to both political and religious differences, this Ohio legislature was much more restrictive in issuing bank charters than the previous legislative body.

Sidney Rigdon served as the KSSABC's chairman and president, Warren Parrish as signatory, secretary and teller; Joseph Smith was cashier.

The proposed capitalization of the "anti-bank" greatly exceeded the resources that were available from its backers, as noted by historian, Robert Kent Fielding: As it was projected, there was never the slightest chance that the Kirtland Safety Society anti-Bank-ing Company could succeed.

... according to the articles of incorporation capital stock was to be paid in by subscription but that the amount of payments were left to the discretion of the company managers.

The members, to be sure, pledged themselves to redeem the notes and bound themselves individually by their agreement under the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars.

Parrish and Frederick G. Williams assumed management of the KSSABC until the institution closed its doors in November with about $100,000 in unresolved debt.

According to LDS Church scholars, "Four of these suits were settled; three were voluntarily discontinued by the plaintiffs; and ten resulted in judgments against Joseph Smith and others.

[9] On July 28, Smith, Rigdon and Thomas B. Marsh headed to Upper Canada on church business and returned in late August.

Shortly after his resignation from the KSSABC in July he stated in the August 1837 Messenger and Advocate: I am disposed to say a word relative to the bills of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank.

Smith publicly denied claims that the KSSABC was created for the purpose of surreptitiously enriching the church leadership, but many disaffected members felt otherwise.

"[11] Woodruff records that Smith had an alleged revelation on the topic, but declined to share it, saying only that "if we would give heed to the commandments the Lord had given this morning all would be well."

According to Smith, they left "to escape mob violence, which was about to burst upon us under the color of legal process to cover the hellish designs of our enemies."