Footnotes
Though many others spelled her name “Jacques,” as well as a variety of other spellings, extant evidence indicates that Vienna consistently spelled her last name “Jaques.” (Photograph of Vienna Jaques, ca. 1867, George Albert Smith, Miscellaneous Portraits, ca. 1862–1873, CHL; Vienna Jaques, Salt Lake City, to Brigham Young, 2 July 1870, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833, in Doctrine and Covenants 84:7, 1835 ed. [D&C 90:28].)
Smith, George Albert. Miscellaneous Portraits, ca. 1862–1873. CHL. PH 5962. The original portrait of Vienna Jaques within this collection is in private possession.
Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.
Under the date of 4 March 1859, the Historian’s Office journal records that “Pres. Young sent over to the Historian Office after the autograph of Joseph Smith. which was furnished him from a letter that Joseph wrote himself & sent to Vienna Jaques.” (Historian’s Office, Journal, 4 Mar. 1859.)
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
JS History, vol. A-1, addenda, 1–2.
Historian’s Office, Journal, 28 May 1845.
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
The Historian’s Office journal includes a transcript of this letter after an entry dated 15 February 1859. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 15 Feb. 1859.)
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
Footnotes
George Hamlin, “In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Mar. 1884, 12:152.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
According to one Boston area newspaper, “Mormonite preachers have recently visited this city, and made about 15 converts to their strange doctrines, who have been baptised and joined the Mormon church.” According to Orson Hyde’s and Samuel Smith’s journals, during that summer the two men also preached in areas surrounding Boston and once lodged at Jaques’s second home in Fox Point wharf, near Providence, Rhode Island. (See “Mormonism,” American Traveller [Boston], 28 Aug. 1832, [2]; Samuel Smith, Diary, 22 June–7 Aug. 1832; and Hyde, Journal, 25 June–7 Aug. 1832.)
American Traveller. Boston. 1825–1844.
Smith, Samuel. Diary, Feb. 1832–May 1833. CHL. MS 4213.
Hyde, Orson. Journal, Feb. 1832–Mar. 1833. CHL. MS 1386.
George Hamlin, “In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Mar. 1884, 12:152.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
A copy of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon that apparently belonged to Vienna Jaques is held at the Church History Library. On the first page of the book is inscribed the following: “The Writeing above is Joseph Smith’ own handwriteing which he wrote, the day he gave the book me Vienna Jaques on the 22d of November 1832.” This note, apparently written by Jaques, follows a notation written by JS: “Vienna Jaque[s] Book Novem 22d. 1832.” A letter JS wrote to Missouri in late November 1832 indicates that Jaques was in Kirtland by that time. (Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 Nov. 1832.)
Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:28–31].
“Mormonism,” American Traveller (Boston), 28 Aug. 1832, [2]. Later histories stated the amount donated by Jaques was $1,400. However, neither the evidence cited in those histories nor extant contemporaneous evidence corroborates that figure. According to Edward Tullidge’s Women of Mormondom, published in 1877, Jaques “went to Kirtland in 1833, being a single lady and very wealthy. When she arrived in Kirtland she donated all of her property to the church.” It is not clear if Tullidge interviewed Jaques for this publication. One obituary for Jaques similarly states that she collected her “considerable means” and that “by her liberality rendered” much “pecuniary assistance to the Church in its infancy.” Another obituary simply stated, “She was well known and widely respected for her life-long integrity and many virtues of character.” (Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 441; George Hamlin, “In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Mar. 1884, 12:152; “Vienna Jacques Dead,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 13 Feb. 1884, 49.)
American Traveller. Boston. 1825–1844.
Tullidge, Edward W. The Women of Mormondom. New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1877.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:28–30]; Minutes, 30 Apr. 1833; Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 2 July 1833; “Obituary,” 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.
Vienna Jaques, Statement, 22 Feb. 1859, CHL; see also [Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:18.
Jaques, Vienna. Statement, 22 Feb. 1859. CHL. MS 3172.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
JS earlier stated that letters to Missouri were meant to be available to all church members. (Letter to Edward Partridge, 2 May 1833.)
In response to an early report of Jaques’s safe arrival, the presidency of the church remarked, “We rejoiced greatly to hear of the safe arival of Sister Viana and brother William [Hobert] and thank our heavenly father that their lives have been spared them till their arival.” (Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 2 July 1833.)
See Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:28].
Members of the Church of Christ viewed chastisement as a manifestation of divine love that had a salutary, disciplining effect, turning ordinary believers into true disciples. Several months earlier, a revelation expressed this idea: “Verily thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation and I have loved you.” (Revelation, 1 June 1833 [D&C 95:1]; see also Hebrews 12:5–11.)
Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:28–31].
In the weeks before this letter was drafted, JS wrote to church leaders in Missouri in a more sympathetic tone. He encouraged them to “be of good cheer” and hoped that his letters would “refresh the hearts and revi[v]e the spir[i]ts” of those afflicted. (Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 10 Aug. 1833; Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 18 Aug. 1833.)
The “why’s & wherefores of all there calamities” were later explained in a December 1833 revelation: “Behold I say unto you there were jar[r]ings and contentions envyings and strifes and lustful and covetous desires among them Therefore by these things they poluted their inheritances they were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God Therefore the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers to answer them in the day of their trouble In the day of their peace they esteemed lightly my council but in the day of their trouble of necessity they feel after me.” (Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:6–8]; for examples of this behavior during the previous two years, see Letter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832; Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833; and Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 14 Jan. 1833.)
See Isaiah 30:21.
JS issued a similar warning in a January 1833 letter: “Repent, is the voice of God, to Zion, & yet strange as it may appear, yet it is true mankind will presist in self Justification until all their eniquity is exposed & their character past being redeemed, & that which is treasured up in their hearts be exposed to the gaze of mankind.” (Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833; see also Revelation, 1 Nov. 1831–B [D&C 1:13–16].)
See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 453 [3 Nephi 1:12].
See Romans 8:28; Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:24]; and Revelation, 6 Aug. 1833 [D&C 98:3]. One month after this letter was written, another revelation similarly stated, “Therefore let your hearts be comforted for all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly and to the sactifycation [sanctification] of the church for I will raise up unto myself a pure people that will serve me in righteousness and all that call on the name of the Lord and keep his commandments shall be saved.” (Revelation, 12 Oct. 1833 [D&C 100:15–17].)
See Isaiah 51:3.