JS, Letter, , Kirtland Township, Geauga Co., OH, to , , Brantford Township, Wentworth Co., Gore District, Upper Canada, 19 Nov. 1833. Retained copy, [ca. 19 Nov. 1833], in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 62–65; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 1.
Historical Introduction
Between 4 October and 4 November 1833, JS and traveled to southwest and to preach to ’s family and friends. Their destination in Upper Canada was , the home of Nickerson’s two sons and , who had immigrated to Mount Pleasant and there opened a store together. After arriving in Mount Pleasant, JS and Rigdon found the Nickersons, who were in their late twenties at the time, and others in the area receptive to their message. According to Moses’s later autobiography, after listening to JS and Rigdon’s preaching for “some days,” he investigated “the doctrine advanced by them” and “became much interested; and, finally convinced of its truthfulness.” JS and Rigdon eventually fourteen people, including Eleazer Freeman and Moses. Before they left , JS and Rigdon Eleazer Freeman an and apparently designated him to preside over the small congregation in Mount Pleasant. Nevertheless, JS directed the letter featured here to Moses, apparently because Rigdon had promised to write to Moses but had been unable to do so. In this 19 November 1833 letter, JS informed Moses about matters in , Ohio; expressed his love and concern for the new Canadian members of the ; and attempted to bolster their faith.
received the letter, and by late December he wrote a response to rather than to JS. After acknowledging that he had received JS’s letter, Moses wrote that Rigdon and JS’s labors while in had been “the beginning of a good work: there are 34 members attached to the church at ,” all of whom remained “much engaged” in the Church of Christ. Moses expressed gratitude “for what I have received: the scriptures have been opened to my view beyond account,” and he informed Rigdon that “your friends in Canada often speak of you and brother Joseph.” He asked Rigdon and JS to send more preachers to Mount Pleasant to relieve and noted that “the work requires competent workmen; for the harvest is truly great.” Other missionaries were eventually sent to Mount Pleasant, and by summer 1834, missionary reported that he had “baptized two persons at Mount Pleasant, which increased the church in that place to 43.” Later in 1834, preached to many “attentive congregations” in Mount Pleasant and informed church leaders in “that the church in that place are prospering in the way of the Lord.”
Moses Nickerson, Wendhom, Canada, to [Sidney Rigdon], 29 Dec. 1833, in The Evening and the Morning Star, Feb. 1834, 134. “Wendhom” is most likely Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario, about nine miles south-southwest of Mount Pleasant.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
were blessed with health as usual. We parted with and mother Nickerson at , they were both in good health, and expressed a degree of satisfaction for the prosperity and blessings of their journey. Since our arrival here, has been afflicted with sore eyes, which is probably the reason why you have not previously heard from us, as he was calculating to write you immediately. But, though I expect that he will undoubtedly write you soon, as his eyes are considerably better, yet lest you should be impatient to learn something concerning us, I have thought that perhaps a few lines from me, though there may be a lack of fluency in address according to the literati of the age, may be received with a degree of satisfaction on your part, at least, when you call to mind the near relation with which we are united by the everlasting ties of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We found our families, and the in this place, well, generally: nothing of consequence transpires while we were abscent, except the death of one of our brethren, a young man of great worth as a private citizen among us, the loss of whom we justly mourn. We are favored with frequent intelligence from different sections of our country, respecting the progress of the gospel, and our prayers are daily to our Father, that it may greatly prevail <spread>, even till all nations shall hear the glorious news and come to a knowledge of the truth.
We have received letters from our breth[r]en in of late, but we cannot tell from their contents the probable extent that those persons who are desirous to expel them from that country, will carry their unlawful and unrighteous purposes. Our breth[r]en have applied to the of that State, who has promised them all the assistance that the civil law can give; and in all probability with us, a suit has been commenced ere this.
We are informed, however, that those persons are very violent, and threaten immediate excision upon all those who profess this faith doctrine. How far they will [p. 63]
At Buffalo, New York, on 1 November, JS and Rigdon separated from the Nickersons because the home of Freeman and Huldah Chapman Nickerson in Perrysburg, New York, lay inland to the south, while Kirtland, Ohio, where JS and Rigdon were traveling, was to the southwest and could be reached either by boat on Lake Erie or by a road that skirted the lake. One account reported that “it was decided that the Prophet and Elder Rigdon should return by crossing Lake Erie, Freeman giving them the money to do so.” (Gates, Lydia Knight’s History, 22.)
Gates, Susa Young [Homespun, pseud.]. Lydia Knight’s History. Noble Women’s Lives Series 1. Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883.
By 29 December 1833, Sidney Rigdon had not yet written to Moses Nickerson. (See Moses Nickerson, Wendhom, Canada, to [Sidney Rigdon], 29 Dec. 1833, in The Evening and the Morning Star, Feb. 1834, 134.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
On 12 October 1833, a week into his and Sidney Rigdon’s mission to Canada, JS dictated a revelation that reassured them that their families were in the Lord’s hands. After returning to Kirtland, JS wrote in his journal that he found his “family all well according to the promise of the Lord.” (Revelation, 12 Oct. 1833 [D&C 100:1]; JS, Journal, 1–4 Nov. 1833.)
Frederick G. Williams wrote that temple construction had ceased in JS’s absence, an event that would have been of some importance to JS. (Frederick G. Williams, Kirtland, OH, to “Dear Brethren,” 10 Oct. 1833, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 56–60.)
The man who died was probably David Johnson. At age twenty-three, Johnson died on 31 October 1833 after being ill for five weeks. He had converted to the Church of Christ two years earlier. (Obituary for David Johnson, The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 117.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
In the December edition of The Evening and the Morning Star, editor Oliver Cowdery noted that church leaders in Kirtland had recently received “several communications from the elders abroad concerning the prosperity and spread of the gospel.” (Editorial, The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 120.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
The week before JS wrote the letter featured here, Oliver Cowdery expressed similar concerns, stating, “We have received some letters from our brethren in Missouri but it is hard to draw from them anything decisive as to the probable length that those depredators will go in their acts of wickedness and barbarity.” JS may have been referring to letters that are no longer extant. It is also possible that he was referring to the 30 October letter sent to church leaders in Kirtland from Missouri that described the increasing threats from the mob to expel the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri. The first written indication JS received of intentions to expel the Mormons from Jackson County was in a letter sent to Kirtland by John Whitmer in July 1833. The threatened expulsion occurred just two weeks before JS wrote the 19 November letter featured here, but given the typical three to four weeks required for mail to travel between Independence, Missouri, and Kirtland, Ohio, JS was likely not aware of the expulsion or of the week of violence that led to it when he penned this letter. (See Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland Mills, OH, to Samuel Bent, [Michigan Territory], 12 Nov. 1833, Cowdery, Letterbook, 10; Letter, 30 Oct. 1833; and Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
On 28 September 1833, church members in Missouri, including Edward Partridge, William W. Phelps, Isaac Morley, John Corrill, Sidney Gilbert, and John Whitmer, wrote to Governor Daniel Dunklin detailing the July hostilities against the Mormons and asking him for help. They concluded their letter with an appeal to the governor, “asking him by express proclamation, or otherwise, to raise a sufficient number of troops, who, with us, may be empowered to defend our rights, that we may sue for damages in the loss of property.” The petitioners expressed hope “that the law of the land may not be defied, nor nulified, but peace restored to our country.” (“To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 115, italics in original.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
In a letter dated 19 October 1833, Governor Dunklin told church leaders in Missouri, “I should think myself unworthy the confidence with which I have been honored by my fellow citizens did I not promptly employ all the means which the Constitution & laws have placed at my disposal to avert the calamity with which you are threatened.” After consulting with the state’s attorney general, the governor advised to Mormons “to make a trial of the efficacy of the laws” by taking their cases before the local circuit judge. If such a course failed, Dunklin wrote, “my duty will require me to take such steps as will enforce a faithful execution” of the law. (Daniel Dunklin, Jefferson City, MO, to Edward Partridge et al., 19 Oct. 1833, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.)
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.