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Letter from Emma Smith, 7 March 1839

Source Note

, Letter, , Adams Co., IL, to JS, , Clay Co., MO, 7 Mar. [1839]. Featured version copied [between 29 May and 30 Oct. 1839] in JS Letterbook 2, p. 37; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

On 7 March 1839, wrote the following letter to JS, who remained imprisoned in , updating him on her situation since her departure from , Missouri, the previous month. Accompanied by , Emma and her children left Far West on 7 February 1839 and arrived in in mid-February. She and her children found lodging in the home of and , about four miles east of , Illinois. In late February or early March 1839, church leaders in Quincy decided to send important documents to JS, and family members of the prisoners were invited to send letters with the courier. In this 7 March letter, which Emma likely wrote in the Clevelands’ residence, she expressed her feelings upon leaving her imprisoned husband and described the sufferings of the Latter-day Saint refugees during their winter migration to Illinois.
Church leaders in chose Latter-day Saint to deliver the letters and other documents to the prisoners. Rogers left Quincy on 10 March and arrived in on the evening of 19 March. JS acknowledged receipt of his ’s letter and expressed profound gratitude for it in his 20 March 1839 general epistle to the church. The following day, he wrote a personal response to her letter. Emma Smith’s original letter, which is apparently not extant, was copied into JS Letterbook 2 by between 29 May and 30 October 1839.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Far West Committee, Minutes, 7 Feb. 1839; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 6–7 and 15 Feb. 1839.

    Far West Committee. Minutes, Jan.–Apr. 1839. CHL. MS 2564.

  2. [2]

    See Historical Introduction to Letter from Edward Partridge, 5 Mar. 1839.

  3. [3]

    Rogers, Statement, [1], CHL; Historical Introduction to Letter from Edward Partridge, 5 Mar. 1839.

    Rogers, David W. Statement, [not before 1846]. CHL.

  4. [4]

    Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839.

  5. [5]

    See Letter to Emma Smith, 21 Mar. 1839.

  6. [6]

    Mulholland copied his own 29 May 1839 letter to Edward Partridge on page 15 of JS Letterbook 2, making that the earliest likely copying date for documents he subsequently copied but that had dates preceding 29 May.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Emma Smith, 7 March 1839
Letterbook 2

Page 37

March 7th
Dear Husband
Having an opportunity to send by a friend I make an attempt to write, but I shall not attempt to write my feelings altogether, for the situation in which you are, the walls, bars, and bolts, rolling rivers, running streams, rising hills, sinking vallies and spreading prairies that separate us, and the cruel injustice that first cast you into prison and still holds you there, with many other considerations, places my feelings far beyond description.
Was it not for conscious innocence, and the direct interposition of divine mercy, I am very sure I never should have been able to have endured the scenes of suffering that I have passed through, since what is called the Militia, came in to , under the ever to be remembered ’s notable order; an order fraught with as much wickedness as ignorance and as much ignorance as was ever contained in an article of that length; but I still live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven, that I should for your sake.
We are all well at present, except who is quite sick.
Little who is now in my arms is one of the finest little fellows, you ever saw in your life, he is <​so​> strong that with the assistance of a chair he will run all round the room.
I am now living at ’s four miles from the village of . I do not know how long I shall stay here. I want you to write an answer by the bearer. I left your change of clothes with when I came away, and he agreed to see that you had clean clothes as often as necessary.
No one but God, knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home, and allmost all of every thing that we possessed excepting our little Children, and took my journey out of the State of , leaving you shut up in jail that lonesome prison. But the reflection recollection is more than human nature ought to bear, and if God does not record our sufferings and avenge our wrongs on them that are guilty, I shall be sadly mistaken.
The daily sufferings of our brethren in travelling and camping out nights, and those on the other side of the would beggar the most lively description.
The people in this are very kind indeed, they are doing much more than we ever anticipated they would; I have many more things I could like to write but have not time and you may be astonished at my bad writing and incoherent manner, but you will pardon all when you reflect how hard it would be for you to write, when your hands were stiffened with hard work, and your heart convulsed with intense anxiety. But I hope there is better days to come to us yet, Give my respects to all in that place that you respect, and am ever your’s affectionately.
Joseph Smith Jr [p. 37]
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Source Note

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Page 37

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Emma Smith, 7 March 1839
ID #
427
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D6:338–340
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Mulholland

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    For more information on the events leading to JS’s arrest and imprisonment, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.

  2. [2]

    For more information on the expulsion order that Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued on 27 October 1838 and the state militia’s occupation of Far West, see Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.

  3. [3]

    Whereas most of the Saints had left Missouri, Kimball was instructed to remain in Far West to assist the prisoners until their release. (Heber C. Kimball, Far West, MO, to Vilate Murray Kimball, Quincy, IL, 2 Apr. 1839, Heber C. Kimball, Collection, CHL; Alanson Ripley, Statements, ca. Jan. 1845, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, 1839–1860, CHL.)

    Kimball, Heber C. Collection, 1837–1898. CHL. MS 12476.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

  4. [4]

    See Romans 12:19.

  5. [5]

    Church members began leaving Far West in significant numbers in January and February 1839. They traveled through snow and other hazards, and upon reaching the Mississippi River, some found that they had to wait up to two weeks before the river thawed sufficiently to cross safely by boat. According to one estimate, as many as one hundred families camped on the Missouri side of the river in late February. (Hartley, “Saints’ Forced Exodus from Missouri,” 354–364; see also Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.)

    Hartley, William G. “The Saints’ Forced Exodus from Missouri, 1839.” In Joseph Smith: The Prophet and Seer, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson, 347–389. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010.

  6. [6]

    The citizens of Quincy provided temporary shelter, basic assistance, and employment for the Mormon refugees. (See Bennett, “Study of the Mormons in Quincy,” 88–95; and Hartley, “Saints’ Forced Exodus from Missouri,” 366–370.)

    Bennett, Richard E. “‘Quincy the Home of Our Adoption’: A Study of the Mormons in Quincy, Illinois, 1838–1840.” In A City of Refuge: Quincy, Illinois, edited by Susan Easton Black and Richard E. Bennett, 83–105. Salt Lake City: Millennial Press, 2000.

    Hartley, William G. “The Saints’ Forced Exodus from Missouri, 1839.” In Joseph Smith: The Prophet and Seer, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson, 347–389. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010.

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