Footnotes
Some church members rented land from original settlers in Clay County. Other church members purchased land from settlers or from the government through land patents or preemption claims that allowed them to live on the land before paying for it. (See Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 200–208.)
Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.
Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 207.
Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.
For more on the tensions in Clay County, see Historical Introduction to Letter to John Thornton and Others, 25 July 1836; and William W. Phelps et al., Liberty, MO, to Daniel Dunklin, 7 July 1836, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
Partridge, Phelps, and other Missouri church leaders had traveled to Kirtland in early 1835 and remained there until the dedication of the House of the Lord and the solemn assembly held in spring 1836. (Partridge, Journal, 27 Mar.–6 May 1836; William W. Phelps, Liberty, MO, to Oliver Cowdery, 2 June 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1836, 2:341.)
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836; William W. Phelps, Liberty, MO, to Oliver Cowdery, 2 June 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1836, 2:340–341.
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836. Partridge wrote that a “mob began to appear, and our suits were coming on, at Richmond on the 6th July, which both together made us delay moving to the North.” On 26 May 1835, Judge John F. Ryland granted a change of venue from Jackson County, Missouri, to Ray County, Missouri, for two lawsuits growing out of the violent expulsion of Mormons from Jackson County in 1833; Phelps and Partridge were involved in both lawsuits. (Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836; for more on the Saints’ move from Clay County, see Historical Introduction to Letter to John Thornton and Others, 25 July 1836; and Historical Introduction to Letter to William W. Phelps and Others, 25 July 1836.)
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
It is likely that JS appointed Corrill and provided him with a power of attorney, though no documents giving power of attorney to Corrill or another agent are extant for the Missouri land transactions. A power of attorney was necessary for an agent to purchase land and conduct business for another individual. In his 1839 redress petition, Corrill stated, “Your petitioner further testifies that he acted as Agent, and entered some 2000 acres of land lying in Caldwell county for, and took Duplicates in the names of Joseph Smith Jun, Hirum [Hyrum] Smith & Oliver Cowdery.” Corrill may have acted as the agent who purchased land for Hyrum Smith in May and early June 1836. These land purchases were the earliest made by a church member in what would become Caldwell and Daviess counties. (John Corrill, Affidavit, Quincy, IL, 9 Jan. 1840, photocopy, Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, CHL; Johnson and Romig, Index to Early Caldwell County, 202; Land Patents for Hyrum Smith, Caldwell Co., MO, nos. 7548, 7549, 7550, 7551, 7552, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior; for more on the appointment of an agent through a power of attorney, see Power of Attorney to Hyrum Smith, 5 Sept. 1837.)
Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, 1839–1843. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2145.
Johnson, Clark V., and Ronald E. Romig. An Index to Early Caldwell County, Missouri, Land Records. Rev. ed. Independence, MO: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, 2002.
General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.
The first application for JS, assigned the land entry case file number 7873, involved a patent for four hundred acres of land in Rockford Township, in what would become Caldwell County. (Land Entry Case File no. 7873, in Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC.)
Hawkins, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office, 2.
Hawkins, Kenneth. Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49. Reference Information Paper 114, rev. ed. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2009.
Hawkins, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office, 2–3.
Hawkins, Kenneth. Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49. Reference Information Paper 114, rev. ed. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2009.
Land Patents for JS, Caldwell Co., MO, nos. 7873 and 7874, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. For more on the process and potential delays in obtaining land patents, see Rohrbough, Land Office Business, 221–249.
General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.
Rohrbough, Malcolm J. The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789–1837. New York: Ocford University Press, 1968.