Footnotes
[Wilford C. Wood], Note Regarding McKune Family; Mrs. Hilton M. Le Couver, Binghamton, NY, to Wilford C. Wood, 28 Apr. 1947; Wilford C. Wood, Woods Cross, UT, to George Albert Smith et al., Salt Lake City, 17 Dec. 1948, microfilm, Wilford C. Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
Wood, Wilford C. Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
Footnotes
See Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 Apr. 1829; JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 5; and Knight, Reminiscences, 3; see also Susquehanna Co., PA, Tax Assessment Records, 1813–1865, Harmony Township, PA, Tax Record for 1828, p. [11]; Tax Record for 1829, p. [12]; Tax Record for 1830, p. [12]; Tax Record for 1831, p. [13], microfilm 1,927,832, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
Knight, Joseph, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. CHL. MS 3470.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Though the agreement between Isaac Hale and Joseph Smith said nothing about interest, a notation on the agreement indicates that on 21 June 1830, Hale “received the interest on the within in full up to this date.” (Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 Apr. 1829.)
Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 Aug. 1830. It is unclear how JS obtained the final eighty-six dollars that he paid Hale for the property. He may have earned the money by farming, or he may have acquired the money from sales of copies of the Book of Mormon. It is also possible that he borrowed the money from a local resident or member of the fledgling church. Also on 26 August 1830, JS arranged payment for a debt he owed to a local merchant, George H. Noble. Through Jesse Lane, the same justice of the peace who certified Elizabeth Hale’s agreement of her husband’s sale of the land to JS on 26 August, JS placed a lien on his property to extend the deadline for the debt that he owed Noble. On the same day, knowing that JS could not pay him the $190.95 owed him, Noble filed an “amicable” agreement, which required JS to use his land as collateral to guarantee that he would eventually pay his debt to Noble. Since all of this business was transacted on the same day, it is possible that Hale originally owed Noble eighty-six dollars and that JS assumed that debt to cover the final payment he owed Hale for the farm. JS settled his debts with Noble by 3 June 1831. (Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830, George H. Noble & Co. v. JS [Susquehanna Co. C.P., 1830]; George H. Noble & Co. to Levi Westfall, Power of Attorney, 3 June 1831; Susquehanna Co., PA, Court of Common Pleas, Docket Book, vol. 6, p. 455, 29 Nov. 1830, Susquehanna County Prothonotary Office, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, PA.)
Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830. George H. Noble & Co. v. Joseph Smith (Susquehanna Co. C.P. 1830). Susquehanna County Historical Society, Montrose, PA.
Susquehanna County, PA, Court of Common Pleas. Docket Book. Vol. 6. Susquehanna County Prothonotary Office, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, PA.
The 1833 tax record states that Allen Treadwell had paid the tax for the property the previous year, and the 1832 record indicates that Treadwell paid taxes on the same size of property in 1832 that JS had paid in 1831. Allen Treadwell may have been a relative of Samuel Treadwell, who owned a large piece of property to the west of the Hale farm. (Susquehanna Co., PA, Tax Assessment Records, 1813–1865, Harmony Township, PA, Tax Record for 1831, p. [13]; Tax Record for 1832, p. [15]; Tax Record for 1833, p. [8], microfilm 1,927,832, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Supplement to the Act, Entitled “An Act for Acknowledging and Recording of Deeds” [18 Mar. 1775], Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, vol. 8, chap. 706, sec. 1, p. 413.
The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801. Vol. 8, 1770–1776. [Harrisburg, PA]: Wm. Stanley Ray, 1902.
Other features on the property included a stone fence (parts of which are still present) and probably an orchard. (See Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc., “Archeological Field Investigations . . . Joseph Smith, Jr. House Site,” 5; and “Bird’s Eye View of Home of Joseph Smith,” 1907, George Edward Anderson, “Church History in Photographs,” CHL.)
Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc. “Archeological Field Investigations and Addenda 1 and 2; Joseph Smith, Jr. House Site, Town of Oakland, (Formerly Harmony), Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania; HAA #3072, #3367 and #3402, Collection #1367.” Archaeological report submitted to Crawford and Stearns, Syracuse, NY, on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 2005. Copy in editors’ possession.
Anderson, George Edward. “Church History in Photographs,” 1907. CHL. PH 679. Selected photographs from this collection are available in Richard Nietzel Holzapfel, T. Jeffery Cottle, and Ted D. Stoddard, eds., Church History in Black and White: George Edward Anderson’s Photographic Mission to Latter-day Saint Historical Sites; 1907 Diary, 1907–8 Photographs (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995).
Signature of JS.
Signature of Emma Smith. In Pennsylvania, a woman had dower rights to one-third of her husband’s property, which would become legally hers after his death; therefore, when a married man sold property, his wife was also required to acknowledge on the deed that she agreed to the sale. (“Dower,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:493–494; see also Killinger v. Reidenhauer, 6 Sergeant and Rawle 531–535 [Pa. Sup. Ct. 1821].)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Sergeant and Rawle / Sergeant, Thomas, and William Rawle, Jr. Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1846.
Orson Hyde handwriting ends; Alpheus Russell begins. When Hyde drafted the deed, he did not leave sufficient room on the document for the notarizations that follow, indicating that the deed was probably written before it was taken to the justice of the peace. From this point to the end of this page, the writing is extremely small and condensed.
Alpheus Russell was a justice of the peace in Kirtland, Ohio, and the owner of the quarry where some of the stone was later quarried for the Kirtland temple.
Signature of Urania Lucretia Conant Morley. Urania was married to Alfred Morley, younger brother of Isaac Morley. (Duncan, History of Montgomery County, Kansas, 641; History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, 246.)
Duncan, L. Wallace. History of Montgomery County, Kansas. Iola, KS: Iola Register, 1903.
History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men. Philadelphia: Williams Brothers, 1878.
TEXT: “Seal” is surrounded by a hand-drawn representation of a seal.
See An Act Establishing a Fee Bill [28 Mar. 1814], Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, vol. 6, chap. 3,994, pp. 228–236.
Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from the Fourteenth Day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred. Republished, under the Authority of the Legislature. With Notes and References. Vol. 6. Philadelphia: John Bioren, 1822.