JS, Letter, [Pike Co., IL], to , , Geauga Co., OH, 4 June 1834. Retained copy, [between ca. June and ca. Oct. 1839], in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 56–59; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
Historical Introduction
On 4 June 1834, JS dictated this letter to his wife from the eastern banks of the in , where he and the rest of the had arrived earlier that morning. In the roughly two and a half weeks that had passed since he wrote to Emma on 18 May, JS and the expedition had traveled through and into Illinois, frequently using the National Road, a thoroughfare that ran from Maryland, through Indiana, and into Illinois.
Residents of the towns they passed through noticed the company, particularly its relatively large numbers of armed men. Having received recruits from of the church along the way, the expedition’s numbers were approximately 170 at this point. Many observers, however, estimated a much larger number for the group. For example, the Huron Reflector, published in Norwalk, Ohio, stated that the expedition had 300 members, each marching “with the Book of Mormon in one hand and a musket in the other.” The Richmond Palladium, an newspaper, described the expedition as numbering “about two hundred,” nearly all of whom carried firearms. The Sangamo Journal of , Illinois, reported that the “generally armed” group consisted of between 250 and 300 men. also reported that a man in , Illinois, counted the members of the expedition as they passed, giving the final count as more than 500. “This thing was attempted many times in villages and towns as we passed through,” Kimball explained, “but the people were never able to ascertain our number.” Similarly, later remembered, “I never heard of our being numbered less than twice our actual number.”
After arriving at the , the group had to wait for a ferry before crossing. Using the extra time, JS dictated this letter to , detailing the camp’s organization, the food its members ate, the health of individual members, the attention the expedition received from curious onlookers, and the burial mounds they discovered in that, for JS, confirmed the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. JS also shared his fears that he did not have enough men to protect the Saints once they were restored to their lands. He expressed hope that members of the church would quickly move to to strengthen the church there.
In general, JS downplayed the difficulties the expedition was encountering, probably to alleviate any concerns might have had about him. Although he mentioned spies of “the enemy,” he did not discuss threats that these individuals sometimes made against the camp, including declarations that the expedition would never reach . Likewise, JS stated that the camp experienced a “tolerable degree of union,” even though other accounts explained that the day before JS dictated this letter, he told the group that “the Lord was displeased” with them because of fault-finding and complaining. JS also depicted the expedition as having sufficient food, but according to , their food was sometimes “scanty.” later stated that at one point, he was so “weary, hungry and sleepy” that he “dreamed while walking along the road of seeing a beautiful stream of water by a pleasant shade and a nice loaf of bread and a bottle of milk laid out on a cloth by the side of the spring.”
The original of this letter has not been located. JS likely dictated it to , who penned a note at the end of it to his wife, . The letter was probably mailed to on 5 June after the group crossed the and camped near the town Louisiana, Missouri, where a post office was located. In 1839, copied the letter into Letterbook 2, including the note from Williams to his wife.
Bruce, Robert. The National Road: Most Historic oroughfare in the United States, and Strategic Eastern Link in the National Old Trails Ocean-to-Ocean Highway. Washington DC: National Highways Association, 1916.
Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 10; Woodruff, Journal, 1 May 1834; Radke, “We Also Marched,” 149. George A. Smith later remembered that Parley P. Pratt and Amasa Lyman were sent to a branch of the church at Eugene, Indiana; they returned on 26 May with “a company and some additional funds.” Pratt himself recalled that he “was chiefly engaged as a recruiting officer,” calling on branches of the church in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri for “men and means.” (George A. Smith, Autobiography, 20; Pratt, Autobiography, 122.)
Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Smith, George A. Autobiography, ca. 1860–1882. George Albert Smith, Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322, box 1, fd. 2.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
George A. Smith, Autobiography, 26–27. George A. Smith also remembered an incident on 3 June in which some of the expedition’s members angrily hurled partially rotting ham at JS’s tent door, declaring, “We don’t eat dirty, stinking meat.”
Smith, George A. Autobiography, ca. 1860–1882. George Albert Smith, Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322, box 1, fd. 2.
Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.
Register of Officers and Agents, 161 (second numbering); “Extracts from H. C. Kimball’s Journal,” Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1845, 6:788.
A Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth Day of September, 1817; Together with the Names, Force, and Condition, of all the Ships and Vessels Belonging to the United States, and When and Where Built. Prepared at the Department of State, In Pursuance of a Resolution of Congress, of the 27th of April, 1816. Washington DC: E. De Krafft, 1818.A Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the 30th of September, 1829; together with the Names, Force, and Condition, of All the Ships and Vessels Belonging to the United States, and When and Where Built. Washington DC: William A. Davis, 1830.A Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the 30th of September, 1831; together with the Names, Force, and Condition, of All the Ships and Vessels Belonging to the United States, and When and Where Built. Washington DC: William A. Davis, 1831.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
occasionaly the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity, and gazing upon a country the fertility, the splendour and the goodness so indescribable, all serves to pass away time unnoticed, and in short were it not at every now and then our thoughts linger with inexpressible anxiety for our wives and our children our kindred according to the flesh who are entwined around our hearts; And also our brethren and friends; our whole journey would be as a dream, and this would be the happiest period of all our lives. We learn this journey how to travel, and we look with pleasing anticipation for the time to come, when we shall retrace our steps, and take this journey again in the enjoyment and embrace of that society we so much love, which society can only cause us to have any desire or lingering thoughts of that which is below. We have not as yet heard any thing from and and do not expect to till we get to Church, which is only fifty miles from this place. Tell [Joseph Smith Sr.] and all the family, and to be comforted and look forward to the day when the trials and tribulations of this life will be at an end, and we all enjoy the fruits of our labour if we hold out faithful to the end which I pray may be the happy lot of us all.
From your’s in the bonds of affliction.
Joseph Smith Jr.
N.B. The enclosed bill we could not get changed and is of no use to us now, and we send to you & to be divided between you, that you may be able to procure such necessaries as you need &c.
I embrace this opportunity to fill up this sheet to you, my beloved companion, not that I have anything important to communicate, but remembering your request to write to you while on the road, but as I write every week to , you will know all the particulars of our journey. In consequence of my being away from the encampment last sunday (the cause you will see in my next to ) did not write to him as usual but shall now embrace the first opportunity to bring up my journal which you will find some what more interesting, than any previous to it—
I want you to make use of the money I send you in wisdom, for such things as you need, and make yourselves as comfortable and contented as you can and continue to pray to the Lord to hasten the day when we shall be permitted to behold each other’s face again and enjoy the blessing of the family circle in peace and in righteousness, and be prepared to meet every event that awaits us in life.
Tell the children to remember that passage of scripture which says, “children obey your parents in all things”, for this is right, and God will bless them. I [p. 58]
On 3 June, the Camp of Israel passed through the vicinity of what is now Valley City, Illinois, where several members of the camp climbed a large mound. At the top, they uncovered the skeletal remains of an individual JS reportedly identified as Zelph, a “white Lamanite.” Archeologists have since identified the mound as Naples–Russell Mound #8 and have classified it as a Hopewell burial mound of the Middle Woodland period of the North American pre-Columbian era (roughly 50 BC to AD 250). (Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” 31, 34; Farnsworth, “Lamanitish Arrows,” 25–48.)
Faulring, Scott H. “Early Marriages Performed by the Latter-day Saint Elders in Jackson County, Missouri, 1832–1834.” Mormon Historical Studies 2 (Fall 2001): 197–210.Godfrey, Matthew C. “‘Seeking after Monarchal Power and Authority’: Joseph Smith and Leadership in the Church of Christ, 1831–1832.” Mormon Historical Studies 13 (Spring/Fall 2012): 15–37.
Farnsworth, Kenneth W. “Lamanitish Arrows and Eagles with Lead Eyes: Tales of the First Recorded Explorations in an Illinois Valley Hopewell Mound.” Illinois Archaeology 22 (2010): 25–48.
The Salt River, or Allred, settlement, located near Paris, Missouri, was the designated rendezvous site for the Ohio company, led by JS, and the Michigan contingent, led by Hyrum Smith and Lyman Wight. JS’s company arrived there on 7 June, and Hyrum’s company came the following day. With the addition of the Michigan group, the expedition consisted of approximately 205 men and around 12 women and 10 children. (Bradley, Zion’s Camp 1834, 28; Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 11; “Journal of the Branch of the Church of Christ in Pontiac,” 7–8; Radke, “We Also Marched,” 149.)
Bradley, James L. Zion’s Camp 1834: Prelude to the Civil War. Logan, UT: By the author, 1990.
Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.
“Journal of the Branch of the Church of Christ in Pontiac,” May–June 1834. CHL. MS 4610.
Notes and paper money were issued by a variety of state banks, as well as the Bank of the United States, during the 1830s, and a note from one institution may not have been accepted by another. As William Thomson, who visited the United States from Europe in the early 1840s, stated, “The greatest annoyance I was subjected to in travelling was in exchanging money. It is impossible to describe the wretched state of the currency—which is all bills issued by private individuals, companies, cities, and states.” (Thomson, Tradesman’s Travels, 60.)
Thomson, William. A Tradesman’s Travels, in the United States and Canada, in the Years 1840, 41, and 42. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1842.
According to George A. Smith’s account of the expedition, Williams stayed in Jacksonville, Illinois, the night of Sunday, 31 May. He returned to camp on 1 June with some residents of Jacksonville and then went back to Jacksonville with them. (George A. Smith, Autobiography, 23–25.)
Smith, George A. Autobiography, ca. 1860–1882. George Albert Smith, Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322, box 1, fd. 2.