The Papers
Browse the PapersDocumentsJournalsAdministrative RecordsRevelations and TranslationsHistoriesLegal RecordsFinancial RecordsOther Contemporary Papers
Reference
PeoplePlacesEventsGlossaryLegal GlossaryFinancial GlossaryCalendar of DocumentsWorks CitedFeatured TopicsLesson PlansRelated Publications
Media
VideosPhotographsIllustrationsChartsMapsPodcasts
News
Current NewsArchiveNewsletterSubscribeJSP Conferences
About
About the ProjectJoseph Smith and His PapersFAQAwardsEndorsementsReviewsEditorial MethodNote on TranscriptionsNote on Images of People and PlacesReferencing the ProjectCiting This WebsiteProject TeamContact Us
Published Volumes
  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 March 1840

Source Note

Elias Higbee

23 Oct. 1795–8 June 1843. Clerk, judge, surveyor. Born at Galloway, Gloucester Co., New Jersey. Son of Isaac Higbee and Sophia Somers. Moved to Clermont Co., Ohio, 1803. Married Sarah Elizabeth Ward, 10 Sept. 1818, in Tate Township, Clermont Co. Lived at ...

View Full Bio
, Letter,
Washington DC

Created as district for seat of U.S. federal government by act of Congress, 1790, and named Washington DC, 1791. Named in honor of George Washington. Headquarters of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of U.S. government relocated to Washington ...

More Info
, to JS, [
Commerce

Located near middle of western boundary of state, bordering Mississippi River. European Americans settled area, 1820s. From bank of river, several feet above high-water mark, ground described as nearly level for six or seven blocks before gradually sloping...

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL?], 24 Mar. 1840. Featured version copied [between Apr. and June 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 105–107; handwriting of
Howard Coray

6 May 1817–16 Jan. 1908. Bookkeeper, clerk, teacher, farmer. Born in Dansville, Steuben Co., New York. Son of Silas Coray and Mary Stephens. Moved to Providence, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania, ca. 1827; to Williams, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830; and...

View Full Bio
; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

While in
Washington DC

Created as district for seat of U.S. federal government by act of Congress, 1790, and named Washington DC, 1791. Named in honor of George Washington. Headquarters of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of U.S. government relocated to Washington ...

More Info
on 24 March 1840,
Elias Higbee

23 Oct. 1795–8 June 1843. Clerk, judge, surveyor. Born at Galloway, Gloucester Co., New Jersey. Son of Isaac Higbee and Sophia Somers. Moved to Clermont Co., Ohio, 1803. Married Sarah Elizabeth Ward, 10 Sept. 1818, in Tate Township, Clermont Co. Lived at ...

View Full Bio
wrote a letter to JS, the last in a series of letters apprising JS of the actions of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was considering the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
’s memorial to Congress.
1

See Historical Introduction to Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–A.


In this letter, Higbee informed JS that the Senate approved the committee’s resolution to no longer consider the church’s memorial and that he had retrieved all the documents the church’s delegation had submitted along with the memorial. He also updated JS on the prospect of submitting the memorial to the
United States

North American constitutional republic. Constitution ratified, 17 Sept. 1787. Population in 1805 about 6,000,000; in 1830 about 13,000,000; and in 1844 about 20,000,000. Louisiana Purchase, 1803, doubled size of U.S. Consisted of seventeen states at time ...

More Info
House of Representatives and on his plans to travel back to the
Commerce

Located near middle of western boundary of state, bordering Mississippi River. European Americans settled area, 1820s. From bank of river, several feet above high-water mark, ground described as nearly level for six or seven blocks before gradually sloping...

More Info
, Illinois, area.
Higbee

23 Oct. 1795–8 June 1843. Clerk, judge, surveyor. Born at Galloway, Gloucester Co., New Jersey. Son of Isaac Higbee and Sophia Somers. Moved to Clermont Co., Ohio, 1803. Married Sarah Elizabeth Ward, 10 Sept. 1818, in Tate Township, Clermont Co. Lived at ...

View Full Bio
presumably sent this letter to
Commerce

Located near middle of western boundary of state, bordering Mississippi River. European Americans settled area, 1820s. From bank of river, several feet above high-water mark, ground described as nearly level for six or seven blocks before gradually sloping...

More Info
. The original letter is not extant.
Howard Coray

6 May 1817–16 Jan. 1908. Bookkeeper, clerk, teacher, farmer. Born in Dansville, Steuben Co., New York. Son of Silas Coray and Mary Stephens. Moved to Providence, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania, ca. 1827; to Williams, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830; and...

View Full Bio
copied the version featured here into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between April and June 1840.
2

Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Historical Introduction to Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–A.

  2. [2]

    Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.

    Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 March 1840
Letterbook 2 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 105

Washington City

Created as district for seat of U.S. federal government by act of Congress, 1790, and named Washington DC, 1791. Named in honor of George Washington. Headquarters of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of U.S. government relocated to Washington ...

More Info
Mar. 24, 1840
Dear Brother
Our business is at last ended here. Yesterday, a resolution passed the Senate, that the Committee should be discharged; and that we might withdraw the accompanying papers, which I have done:
1

Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 23 Mar. 1840, 259–260. The church’s delegation to the federal government had submitted documents in support of its memorial, including affidavits and pamphlets. (Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 17 Feb. 1840, 179; Historical Introduction to Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.

I have also taken a copy of the memorial,
2

Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.


and want to be off for the west immediately— I have not gotten a letter from
Prest. [Sidney] Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

View Full Bio
, although I have frequently written to him— I have recd. a letter from
Bro. [Samuel] Bennett

Ca. 1810–May 1893. Market inspector, barometer manufacturer, physician. Born in England. Married Selina Campion, 9 Aug. 1836. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by 1839, in U.S. Ordained an elder, 23 Dec. 1839, in Philadelphia. Served...

View Full Bio
, stating that he was in the Jerseys—
3

Rigdon did not return to Washington DC from Philadelphia with JS and Elias Higbee in January 1840. Instead, he remained in Philadelphia until 5 March 1840, when he left for New Jersey. Bennett was appointed as the presiding elder of the Philadelphia branch in January 1840. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 27 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840; Minutes and Discourse, 13 Jan. 1840.)


and that he was calculating to have me come that way and go home with him, and also that he had business which he wanted me to attend to at the office here—
4

In a letter to JS earlier that month, Higbee wrote of a similar plan for returning home with Rigdon. The business to which Rigdon wanted Higbee to attend and the office to which he referred are unknown. (Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840.)


When he last wrote, he stated that as yet, he had [p. 105]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 105

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 March 1840
ID #
530
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:232–234
Handwriting on This Page
  • Howard Coray

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 23 Mar. 1840, 259–260. The church’s delegation to the federal government had submitted documents in support of its memorial, including affidavits and pamphlets. (Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 17 Feb. 1840, 179; Historical Introduction to Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)

    Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.

  2. [2]

    Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.

  3. [3]

    Rigdon did not return to Washington DC from Philadelphia with JS and Elias Higbee in January 1840. Instead, he remained in Philadelphia until 5 March 1840, when he left for New Jersey. Bennett was appointed as the presiding elder of the Philadelphia branch in January 1840. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 27 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840; Minutes and Discourse, 13 Jan. 1840.)

  4. [4]

    In a letter to JS earlier that month, Higbee wrote of a similar plan for returning home with Rigdon. The business to which Rigdon wanted Higbee to attend and the office to which he referred are unknown. (Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840.)

© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of UseUpdated 2021-04-13Privacy NoticeUpdated 2021-04-06