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Deed to Joseph McKune Jr., 28 June 1833
Source Note
Source Note
JS and , Deed for property in , Susquehanna Co., PA, to , 28 June 1833; handwriting of ; signatures of JS and ; witnessed by and Urania Lucretia Conant Morley; certification in handwriting of ; additional certifications in handwriting of Daniel Kerr and ; recorder’s entry in handwriting of Secku Meylert; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and seals.
Bifolium measuring 12⅜ × 8 inches (31 × 20 cm). The document was folded in sixths for filing. A docket on the recto of the second leaf in unidentified handwriting reads: “Deed | Joseph Smith | to | ”. A wax remnant, likely where a seal was attached, follows JS’s signature; a similar wax remnant follows ’s signature. A handwritten seal follows ’s certification. Accompanying ’s certification is an embossed seal that contains an image of the rising sun over mountains or clouds and a sheaf of wheat encircled with the words “COMMON PLEAS OF THE ”. Accompanying the recorder’s entry is an embossed seal that features an image of a yoke with “” encircled by the partially legible words “RECORDER’S SEAL SU[SQ]UE[HANNA COUNTY]”. Several pinholes appear in the corners where the document was pinned after being folded.
This document was originally created for JS and ; it was then likely sent to , after which it was returned to JS to be certified by a justice of the peace in , Ohio, before it was again sent to . The deed remained with the McKune family until it was sold to Mormon collector Wilford C. Wood in the mid-twentieth century, soon after which he donated it to the LDS church, perhaps as early as 1948.
Footnotes
- [1]
[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.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
This deed transferred ownership of JS and ’s thirteen-and-a-half-acre farm in , Pennsylvania, to JS originally moved to the Harmony farm in November or December 1827 and later purchased it from his father-in-law, , on 6 April 1829. JS agreed to pay $114 of the $200 purchase price by 1 May 1829 and the remaining balance by 1 May 1830. He made a down payment of $64 on the day the agreement was signed and another payment of $50 three weeks later, thereby meeting the first payment deadline. However, JS missed the second payment deadline, which apparently resulted in the addition of an interest penalty of an undisclosed amount to the final sale. On 25 August 1830, JS paid the remaining balance in full and Isaac Hale signed the deed to the property over to JS. and the justice of the peace, , notarized the deed on 25 August 1830, and signed over her dowry rights on 26 August 1830.
JS moved to , New York, in late summer 1830, and by late January 1831 he and had moved to , Ohio. According to local tax records, Allen Treadwell apparently rented their property in , but by June 1833 JS and Emma sold their Harmony property for $300 to , whose father owned the property directly east of JS’s farm. On 28 June 1833, JS and Emma Smith had this deed drawn up. It was notarized on 3 July 1833 by , the justice of the peace in Kirtland, and by a second witness, Urania Lucretia Conant Morley, and then was apparently sent to . On 17 December 1834, however, it was certified again in by Daniel Kerr, an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to adhere to a Pennsylvania law that required the deed to be acknowledged by the grantor or a witness to the deed before “one of the judges of the supreme court or before one of the justices of the court of common pleas of the county,” which Alpheus Russell was not. On 29 December 1834, , the clerk of the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas, recorded and certified the deed and stamped it with the county’s embossed seal. Soon thereafter the deed was sent back to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. There, Secku Meylert, the deputy of county recorder Christopher L. Ward, copied it into the county “Deed Book No 9” and stamped the deed with the county embossment seal. The county charged McKune $1.81 for taxes and fees associated with the filing.
Footnotes
- [1]
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.
- [2]
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.)
- [3]
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.
- [4]
- [5]
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.
- [6]
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.
December 17. 1834.
The State of Ohio )
ss )
Personally appeared Joseph Smith Jr who acknowledged that he did sign and seal the foregoing instrument and that the same is his free act and deed.— I further certify that I did examine the said seperate and apart from her said husband and did then and there make known to her the contents of the foregoing instrument— and upon that examination she declared that she did voluntarily sign, seal and acknowledge the same and that she was still satisfied therewith
Before me Daniel Kerr Associate Judge of Com. Pleas
The State of Ohio )
ss )
[seal]
I, , Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for said County, do hereby, certify that Daniel Kerr Esquire, before whom the within Deed appears to have been acknowledged on the seventeenth day of December A.D. 1834, was at that time and still is, one of the associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for said County, duly commissioned & sworn, according to law: and further that I am well acquainted with the hand writing of the said Judge, and do verily believe the above signature, purporting to be his, is true and genuine.
In Testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand and affix the seal of said Court at in said County, this 29th day of December A.D. 1834
, Clerk.
| paid | ( Fees | $1.31 |
| ( Tax | 0.50 | |
| $1.81 | ||
| Recorded 13 Jany 1835 | ||
[p. [3]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Alpheus Russell handwriting ends; Daniel Kerr begins.
Daniel Kerr handwriting ends; David D. Aiken begins.
David D. Aiken handwriting ends; Secku Meylert begins. Fee notations written upside down in light brown ink at a different time than Meylert’s following recording statement.
- [10]
Although this document was originally created and signed in 1833, it was not recorded until January 1835. This delay was probably caused by the stipulation in Pennsylvania law that required a justice of the court of common pleas or a justice of the state supreme court to acknowledge the deed. As a result, after JS sent the deed to McKune, it was apparently sent back again to Ohio to obtain the necessary outstanding endorsements.