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Bond to Elijah Able, 8 December 1839
Source Note
Source Note
JS, , and , Bond for property in [], Hancock Co., IL, to , 8 Dec. 1839; printed form with manuscript additions in the handwriting of ; signatures of JS, , and ; one page; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes docket, notations, and archival markings.
One leaf, measuring 12½ × 7½ inches (32 × 19 cm). The document was folded twice horizontally. The bond may have been submitted as a freewill offering or tithing to . Along with many other personal and institutional documents kept by Whitney, the bond was inherited by his daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who married Isaac Groo. This collection was passed down in the Groo family and donated by members of the family to the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University between 1969 and 1974.
Footnotes
- [1]
Andrus et al., Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 1825–1906, 5–6.
Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
This bond records an 8 December 1839 transaction between and the in which Able purchased on credit a lot in the area of , Illinois. The bond is representative of dozens of others contracted in 1839 and 1840. It demonstrates the way in which new settlers of the Commerce area used credit to purchase land and arranged repayment schedules with the selling parties, in this case with the First Presidency. Like Able, many settlers could not purchase the land up front, so the financed their purchases with the intent of using the received payments to pay debts the church owed for land in the Commerce area.
In addition to exemplifying 1839 land transactions in the planned town of , this bond provides insights into racial views within the community. was a black man who joined the church in , Ohio, in 1832; was an and then a in 1836; and owned property in that community before relocating to the area. In during the 1830s and 1840s, selling real property to free blacks was controversial, and only a small minority of free blacks residing in the state owned land. Slavery had been prohibited throughout Illinois since the state adopted its first constitution in 1818. However, some black men and women remained enslaved in Illinois as remnants of the territorial-era policy that overlooked the antislavery clauses of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Even for free blacks, race-based prejudice was prevalent. They were publicly assumed to be slaves unless they could prove their free status until 1841, when the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that all people should be assumed free. The First Presidency’s willingness to sell land to Able in 1839 suggests Able continued to be accepted in the community.
Although JS, , and constituted the First Presidency at this time, only Hyrum Smith was in the area on this date, suggesting he likely represented the First Presidency in the transaction. According to the later transactions recorded on this bond, transferred his rights to the lot to John A. Mikesell and sometime before 9 March 1841, and Badlam then transferred his portion of the lot to JS. The circumstances surrounding these later transactions are not known.
Footnotes
- [1]
Examples of more Commerce-area bonds and promissory notes to which JS was a party are available on this website.
- [2]
Caption on Photograph of Elijah Able, copy, George A. Smith Photograph Collection, CHL; Elders License for Elijah Able, 31 Mar. 1836, in Kirtland Elders’ Certificates, 61; Record of Seventies, 20 Dec. 1836, 11; Elijah Able to Oliver Granger, Deed, 15 June 1837, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.
George A. Smith Photograph Collection, ca. 1862–1873. Photographs of originals. CHL. Originals in private possession.
Record of Seventies / First Council of the Seventy. “Book of Records,” 1837–1843. Bk. A. In First Council of the Seventy, Records, 1837–1885. CHL. CR 3 51, box 1, fd. 1.
Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.
- [3]
The 1840 Hancock, Illinois, census (in which Able is not included) lists only fourteen “Free Colored Persons” among the nearly ten thousand individuals then residing in the county. In 1850 only 14 percent of free blacks in Illinois owned real property. (1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 155–222; Zucker, “Race Relations in Ante-Bellum Illinois,” 326.)
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Zucker, Charles N. “The Free Negro Question: Race Relations in Ante-Bellum Illinois, 1801–1860.” PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1972.
- [4]
See Zucker, “Race Relations in Ante-Bellum Illinois,” 27–75, 157–185; Adams, “Lincoln’s First Freed Slave,” 235–259; and Bailey v. Cromwell, 4 Ill. (3 Scammon), 71–73 (Ill. Sup. Ct. 1841).
Zucker, Charles N. “The Free Negro Question: Race Relations in Ante-Bellum Illinois, 1801–1860.” PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1972.
Adams, Carl. “Lincoln’s First Freed Slave: A Review of Bailey v. Cromwell, 1841.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 101, nos. 3 and 4 (Fall–Winter 2008): 235–259.
Scammon / Scammon, J. Young. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. 4 vols. St. Louis: W. J. Gilbert, 1869–1870.
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That We Joseph Smith Junr & of the county of and State of are held and firmly bound unto of the county of and State of his heirs and assigns in the sum of Twelve hundred dollars for the payment of which well and truly to be made we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, firmly by these presents.
NOW THE CONDITION OF THE ABOVE OBLIGATION IS SUCH, that whereas, the said Joseph Smith Junr & have this day sold unto the said a certain lot of ground situated, lying and being in the county of and State of , and described on the plat of the Town of as being Lot No. four in Block No. one hundred & Eleven and received in payment for said lot Six— notes of hand bearing even date herewith, for the sum of Six hundred—— dollars, and payable as follows. with interest
The first for fifty dollars on demand
The second for one hundred & ten dollars on the 8th day of Decr 1840
The third for one hundred & ten dollars on the 8th day of Decr 1841
The fourth for one hundred & ten dollars on the 8th day of Decr 1842
The fifth for one hundred & ten dollars on the 8th day of Decr— 1843
The sixth for one hundred & ten dollars on the 8th day of Decr— 1844
with <The> interest for each and every note to be paid annually.
Now if the said his heirs, executors, or administrators shall well and truly pay or cause to be paid, the amount of said notes with such interest as may accrue thereon, according to the tenor and effect thereof, when due, We the said Joseph Smith Junr & —— bind ourselves our heirs, executors and administrators, to make or cause to be made, a good and sufficient Deed for the above described lot and then this Bond to become null and void, otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue.
Given under our hands and seals this Eighth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine
Acknowledged in presence of
Joseph Smith Jr LS
LS
LS [p. [1]]
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [1]
Although the lot cost $600, this bond obligated JS, Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith to pay twice the amount of the purchase price if they did not deliver title to the land.
- [2]
The lot of land Able purchased was located near the shores of the Mississippi River on the northwest corner of the intersection of Kimball and Hill streets.
- [3]
None of the promissory notes associated with this bond have been located.
Signatures of JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith.
- [4]
TEXT: All three instances of “LS” (locus sigilli, Latin for “location of the seal”) are inscribed within hand-drawn representations of seals.