A revelation dated 1 August 1831 directed that “a meeting be called,” in accordance with a June 1831 revelation stating that the next conference of would convene in . On 4 August 1831, a group of elders convened that conference at the home of and Margaret Kelsey Lewis in , about eight miles west of . The Lewises had been converted the previous winter by the missionaries sent to preach to the American Indians. Having just reached Kaw Township, members of a congregation, who had migrated from , New York, to before moving on to Missouri, also joined the conference. The 1 August revelation identified at least one item of business for the conference: taking away “that which has been bestowed upon ,” likely the office of elder, so that he would only “stand as a member in the Church,” and no longer as an elder. Neither the revelation nor the minutes specify why action had to be taken against Peterson but, according to other sources, the offense may have been related to Peterson’s breaking an engagement to marry. In addition to hearing Peterson’s confession of his “transgressions,” this “first conference in the land of ” provided opportunities for worship and exhortation.

, clerk of the conference, kept the minutes, which copied into Minute Book 2 in 1838.