Sidney Gilbert was appointed an agent to The Church to receive money and to purchase lands, and also to engage in the business of a general merchant, the proceeds of which business were to be used in the purchase of lands. Edward Partridge, by virtue of his office as bishop, was to divide to the Saints their inheritance as the lands were purchased. W. W. Phelps was to be established as a printer and publisher to The Church in Zion, assisted by Oliver Cowdery. Immediate preparations were to be made by the bishop and his agents for settling the families then on their way from the east to settle in Zion. The first Sunday after the arrival of the elders of this western mission, a public meeting was held over the western boundary of the United States. Such a congregation was present as was only possible in an American frontier district--Indians, Negroes (then slaves), and all classes and conditions of people from the surrounding counties--Universalists, Atheists, Deists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, both priests and people--a motly crowd, truly! At the conclusion of the services two were baptized, but they were not the fruits of this meeting as they previously believed the gospel. During the week following, the Colesville branch of The Church, which had emigrated bodily from Colesville, Broome County, State of New York, arrived and settled in the edge of an extensive prairie about twelve miles west of Independence, and in what must now be the suburbs of Kansas City. It is worth while observing as we pass, that this branch of The Church was made up wholly of northern people, and therefore constituted a different class of settlers from the old inhabitants of Independence, who came chiefly from the south. They had been commanded to come to western Missouri in a body, with a view to permanently settling in the land of Zion, when that place should be designated; and in this their mission differed from that given to the twenty-eight elders who were commanded to travel two and two, preaching the gospel through the western states en route for Missouri. These people were unquestionably plunged into new conditions. They had been reared in a district of New York where the land was heavily timbered, and where to clear a farm for cultivation took well-nigh the lifetime of one generation. But here they found alternate woodland and prairie, great stretches of open country which only needed to be fenced to be ready for plowing, and doubtless their hearts swelled with gratitude when they contemplated the possibilities and prosperity that could come to the industrious in such a goodly land.