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Deed from Orson and Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, 10 February 1843
Source Note
Source Note
and , Deed for property in , Hancock Co., IL, to JS as trustee-in-trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 10 Feb. 1843; printed form with manuscript additions in the handwriting of ; signatures of and ; witnessed by ; certified by , 10 Feb. 1843, on behalf of JS, 10 Feb. 1843, and , 8 July 1844; two pages; Hiram Kimball Collection, CHL. Includes docket and notations.
Single leaf, measuring 12⅛ × 7⅝ inches (31 × 19 cm), unevenly cut on all four edges. The leaf is a personalized printed form for deeds to JS as trustee-in-trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Attached to the leaf with a red adhesive wafer is a strip of paper measuring 2⅛ × 7⅝ inches (5 × 19 cm) and containing a printed form of certification by . Each form has been filled out and signed. The deed was folded for filing and docketed.
The document contains a docket and notations by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844 and as temple recorder from 1842 to 1846. Below the docket are notations by Clayton identifying when the deed was recorded in Nauvoo, Illinois, and notations by —who served as , Illinois, recorder from 1839 to 1847—identifying when the deed was recorded in a Hancock County deed book. An additional notation by records the transfer of the property to sometime between 1846 and 1848. After Kimball purchased the property, he was apparently given this earlier deed. This document and other papers in the possession of Kimball descendants were donated to the Church History Department (CHL) in 2013.
Footnotes
- [1]
JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.
Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
- [2]
See the full bibliographic entry for Hiram Kimball, Collection, 1830–1910, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 10 February 1843, and donated a city lot in , Illinois, to the through JS as trustee-in-trust. After JS was appointed to this position in 1841, he began receiving donations from Latter-day Saints, some in the form of land deeds. This document is one of at least ten such deeds JS received between September 1842 and February 1843. All of these deeds conveyed property to JS as trustee-in-trust for the sum of one dollar and indicated that the transfer was based on the “love and good will” the sellers had toward the church. At some point between 1841 and 1843, JS began printing form deeds with this language to simplify the process. The deed featured here is the earliest known instance of the printed form being used.
appears to have spent considerable time issuing, receiving, and recording deeds on behalf of JS as trustee-in-trust on 10 February 1843. One of the many deeds Clayton handled that day was this donation from the Hydes. On 31 October 1842, purchased this property in Kimball’s Second Addition to Nauvoo from , who was acting on behalf of his brother Ethan Kimball, for fifty dollars. On 10 February, the Hydes apparently brought this initial deed to Clayton to be recorded in ’s registry of deeds and at the same time indicated their desire to donate the property to the church. After Clayton completed the printed form, the Hydes signed it, with Clayton witnessing, and then certified it. Clayton then recorded it in the registry of deeds for JS and certified on the deed that he had done so. That same day, Clayton also deeded a separate property to on behalf of JS as trustee-in-trust. In July 1844, shortly after JS’s death, the deed to the donated property was recorded in a , Illinois, deed book.
Footnotes
- [1]
See Willard Richards and Jennetta Richards Richards to JS as trustee-in-trust, Deed, 23 Feb. 1843, JS Collection, CHL; Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, pp. 62–63, 92–97, 135–136; and Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. M, pp. 6–7, 12–13, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
- [2]
JS appears to have done this for other types of deeds he issued in his capacity as trustee-in-trust as well. (See, for example, Deed to Sarah Ann Whitney, 6 Sept. 1842.)
- [3]
Of the transactions known to have occurred on that day, Clayton assisted in deeding city lots to three parties, deeding eighty acres southeast of Nauvoo to another party, receiving two city lots as donations, and signing promissory notes for a property transaction JS made with John C. Walsh. Also on this day, Clayton, acting on behalf of JS as Nauvoo’s registrar of deeds, copied three of these deeds plus at least one related deed into the Nauvoo registry of deeds. (JS as trustee-in-trust to Parley P. Pratt, Deed, 10 Feb. 1843, Parley P. Pratt, Collection, CHL; JS as trustee-in-trust to Eliza Partridge et al., Deed, 10 Feb. 1843, CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. M, p. 48; vol. N, pp. 297–298, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, pp. 135–136; JS to John C. Walsh, Promissory Notes, 10 Feb. 1843–A, –B, –C, and –D, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; see also Letter to Richard M. Young, 9 Feb. 1843; and Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, pp. 68–72.)
- [4]
Ethan Kimball to Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, Deed, 31 Oct. 1842, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL; Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, pp. 69–70. On 21 January 1843, Willard Richards recorded that JS “went out in the City with Elder [Orson] Hyde to look at some Lots,” and it is possible the Hydes discussed donating this land to JS on that occasion. (JS, Journal, 21 Jan. 1843.)
- [5]
In April 1842, Marinda Hyde was sealed to JS as a plural wife. In several other instances, JS appears to have given or sold property to some of his plural wives. According to several later sources that are critical of JS, when Orson Hyde learned about his wife’s sealing to JS sometime in early spring 1843, he became angry and threatened to leave her. In deeding this property to Marinda, JS may have been attempting to provide for her should she require financial assistance. (Deed to Sarah Ann Whitney, 6 Sept. 1842; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. N, pp. 297–298, 10 Feb. 1843, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Editorial, Messenger and Advocate, 15 Mar. 1845, 156; Young, Wife No. 19, 325–326; Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 240–242.)
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Young, Ann Eliza. Wife No. 19; or, The Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Exposé of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy. Hartford, CT: Dustin, Gilman, 1876.
Compton, Todd. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001.
- [6]
Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. M, pp. 401–402, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
>
[1/2 page blank]
State of Illinois)
City of )
Recorders Office Feby 10th. 1843
I Joseph Smith Recorder in and for said City of in the county of and aforesaid do hereby certify that the within deed and certificate of acknowledgement were this day duly recorded in Book A. Pages 70 & 71 and numbered 79
Joseph Smith Recorder
by Clerk [1/4 page blank]
’s Deed To Joseph Smith For L4 B20 Kimballs 2nd. add
Filed for Record Feby 10th. 1843 No 79
<Entered for Record 8th July 1844 6290>
<H. [?] Will buy>
<Sold back to & & Trustees>
<Page 25> [p. [2]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Certification of JS in the handwriting of William Clayton.
Docket in the handwriting of William Clayton.
Notation in the handwriting of William Clayton. The various notations on this page are interspersed and have been transcribed chronologically according to inscription.
- [5]
On 10 February 1843, Clayton copied this deed into book A of the Nauvoo record of deeds as the seventy-ninth deed recorded in the volume. (Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, pp. 70–71.)
Notation in the handwriting of Chauncey Robison. On 8 July 1844, Chauncey Robison copied this deed into the Hancock County deed records as the 6,290th deed recorded in those volumes. (Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. M, pp. 401–402, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
- [6]
TEXT: Possibly “◊” or “◊◊”.
Notation in unidentified handwriting in faded or possibly erased graphite.
Notation in the handwriting of John S. Fullmer. As part of their preparations to leave Illinois in 1846, church members in Nauvoo elected Babbitt, Heywood, and Fullmer as trustees to replace Newel K. Whitney and George Miller, who were planning on traveling west with the main body of the Saints. (Young, Journal, 24 Jan. 1846; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 2, p. 144, 24 Jan. 1846, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Notation in unidentified handwriting. Similar handwriting appears on some of Kimball's financial records from the late 1840s, suggesting that this notation refers to an unidentified or nonextant financial record belonging to Kimball. (See, for example, James Aldridge and Mary Aldridge to JS as trustee-in-trust, Deed, 13 Jan. 1842, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.)
Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.