[2]: 75 In 1814, Whitney worked as an army sutler, selling supplies to American soldiers near Lake Champlain during the War of 1812.

Whitney lost all of his possessions in the Battle of Plattsburgh, but continued to work as a sutler for the army until they disbanded around Monroe, Michigan.

Whitney traded furs and other goods with Native Americans between the Great Lakes, often stopping in Monroe for supplies, where Algernon Sidney Gilbert had a store.

[2]: 76–79  In 1817, Whitney moved to Painesville, Ohio and worked as a clerk for Gilbert, who taught him bookkeeping.

Whitney moved to Kirtland in 1819 to court Smith,[2] and they married on October 20, 1822 in Geauga County, Ohio.

On June 1, 1822, Whitney purchased an apple orchard at the intersection of two main roads in northern Ohio, and by 1824 had built the Red Store there.

In 1828, Elizabeth's widowed sister and three children moved to Kirtland and helped to work in the store.

Whitney anticipated that he could make more money in the store after the decrease in the price of goods, but he could not afford to support his own family and Gilbert's.

Whitney and Sidney Gilbert & Co. purchased the southeast corner lot for an unknown purpose.

Ann worried about how Campbellites did not claim to have the authority to give members the Holy Ghost.

and Ann joined the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints) in 1830 without having read The Book of Mormon.

The first School of the Prophets was held in an upstairs room there, and Joseph Smith received several revelations there, including the Word of Wisdom.

He continued to operate his store as normal and offered limited support for the poor in an early bishop's storehouse.

[2]: 101–103  Whitney supported Gilbert's store in Missouri, which he started in 1831 and abandoned in 1833 when the members of the church were driven out of the state.

[7]: 50  Later that year, Newel was assigned to visit church members in New York, Albany, and Boston.

[3]: 32  Acting as the church's financial officer, the United Firm acquired over 100 acres of land in Kirtland, which Whitney paid taxes on.

[8] In 1833, the Overseers of the poor made a warning list of 22 unemployed families that might be expelled from Kirkland for being too dependent on their community.

Such a list shows the extent that the church (and Whitney) must have been supporting its members, many of whom were working to construct the temple.

[2]: 113–114  On October 31, 1835, Whitney brought his parents to visit Kirtland, where they met Joseph Smith and were subsequently baptized.

The Whitneys and the other members of the Quorum of the Anointed were "some of the highest ranking and most trusted leaders of the LDS church.

[3] In 1848, Whitney migrated to Utah, and in 1849 he was the bishop of the Salt Lake City Eighteenth Ward.