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Indenture from Warren A. Cowdery, 23 November 1836

Source Note

, Indenture, , Geauga Co., OH, to JS, , Geauga Co., OH, 23 Nov. 1836; handwriting of ; signatures of , , and JS; witnessed by ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and archival marking.
One leaf, measuring 10 × 7⅞ inches (25 × 20 cm). The document was trifolded for filing and was docketed by as follows: “Wn A. Cowdery’s | Indenture | To Joseph Smith”. After being trifolded, the document was folded again to form a square measuring 4 × 3¼ inches (10 × 8 cm).
’s docket on the verso suggests the indenture was in institutional custody as early as the , Illinois, period. Graphite notations by Andrew Jenson on the recto indicate institutional custody into the early 1940s.

Historical Introduction

, ’s oldest brother, moved to , Ohio, from , New York, on 25 February 1836, with his wife, Patience Simmonds Cowdery, and their ten children. In Kirtland, Warren began working in the and as a scribe for JS. This was a departure from his previous employment in , where he had been a physician and the local postmaster. On 23 November 1836, Warren and his fourth son, , entered into an indenture with JS. It was Lyman’s fifteenth birthday.
An indenture for a child in nineteenth-century was a legal contract made between a parent or government official and another adult for whom the child would provide labor or serve as an apprentice; this practice was sometimes called “binding out.” Indentures and apprenticeships were arranged for children from colonial settlement to the mid-nineteenth century; the practice increased in the eighteenth century and declined over the course of the nineteenth century. Indentures took many forms, such as immigrants indentured to pay for their travel to America, craft apprentices indentured to study and work under master craftsmen and learn a specific trade, and children bound to an adult to labor and possibly learn trade skills. The most common forms of indenture for children in the 1800s were apprenticeships and binding out. Binding out was particularly common for children who were orphaned, abandoned, or otherwise left without caretakers.
An indenture specified the conditions and duration of the child’s term of service, which generally involved some type of artisanal or vocational training. Under the terms of an indenture, the adult supervisor, often referred to as a master, was obligated to care for the child, providing food, quarters, clothing, and other basic necessities in exchange for the child’s labor. The arrangement documented here appears to be the only time a youth was formally indentured to JS as a servant. While at other times JS may have agreed to informal indentures, with individuals working as servants in his household, such arrangements were probably not documented as indentures with a specified term of service.
This indenture for differs from more traditional apprentice or master-servant relationships. It does not stipulate that JS provide any form of artisanal or vocational training but does, perhaps as a substitute, require that he fund Cowdery’s education. Though most nineteenth-century indentures required masters to provide a minimum education of reading, writing, and basic arithmetic for their indentured children, the agreement with JS specified that Cowdery should receive a classical—or collegiate-level—education. Tuition and books were also included in the expenses to be covered by JS. Lyman’s oldest brother, Marcellus, was a schoolteacher, as were some of his uncles, and this might have been a vocation Lyman’s father considered for him. The Cowderys might not have been able to afford tuition at that time, however, because of the family’s apparent financial difficulties after their move to . JS’s reasons for agreeing to the indenture are not clear. He may have needed additional labor in his household, on his lands, or in one of the mercantile stores he was associated with. The agreement may have simply formalized an existing working relationship between Lyman H. Cowdery and the Smiths, binding Lyman to work for JS for five years, until he reached twenty years of age.
Shortly after the indenture was signed, JS began to fulfill his commitment to ’s education. Lyman attended the High School, held in the attic of the , beginning in the winter of 1836–1837. JS paid the six-dollar tuition for Lyman, who enrolled as a student in the Classical department, taught by Professor H. M. Hawes. Students in the Classical department studied Latin and Greek, while those in the English department were less advanced and had a broader range of study that included reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and mathematics.
Within months of entering into this indenture, appears to have been integrated into JS’s household. He was referred to by his middle name, Hervy, in a letter from to JS in May 1837. Emma praised Lyman and suggested that JS offer him some encouragement since “he is very faithful not only in business, but in taking up his cross in the family.”
The arrangement did not last the full five years. became disaffected with leaders by summer 1837 and distanced himself from the church in 1838. His family, including , remained in after JS and the majority of church members moved to in early 1838. It is unknown what became of this indenture after JS’s move. Apprentices were not required to follow their masters out of the state; the Cowderys and JS may have mutually agreed to annul the indenture, or they may have simply allowed the agreement to lapse when JS departed to Missouri.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Cowdery, Diary, 25 Feb. 1836; Mehling, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy, 170–171.

    Cowdery, Oliver. Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL. MS 3429. Also available as Leonard J. Arrington, “Oliver Cowdery’s Kirtland, Ohio, ‘Sketch Book,’” BYU Studies 12 (Summer 1972): 410–426.

    Mehling, Mary Bryant Alverson. Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy: William Cowdery of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and His Descendants. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1911.

  2. [2]

    In the printing office, Warren A. Cowdery helped his brother Oliver with the Messenger and Advocate, taking over his duties as editor during Oliver’s trip with JS, Hyrum Smith, and Sidney Ridgon to the East Coast of the United States in summer 1836. In February 1837, when Oliver moved to Michigan to serve on the board of directors for the Bank of Monroe, Warren took over as the editor of the Messenger and Advocate and became the agent for JS and Sidney Rigdon in the printing office. It is not certain when Warren began serving as a scribe for JS, but he worked on JS’s 1834–1836 history and inscribed some early April 1836 entries in JS’s journal. (Oliver Cowdery, Long Island Sound, NY, to Warren A. Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, [4] Aug. 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, Sept. 1836, 2:373–375; Notice, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1837, 3:458–459; JS History, 1834–1836, 105; JS, Journal, 2–3 Apr. 1836.)

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  3. [3]

    Warren A. Cowdery may have also had an apothecary business in New York. (Mehling, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy, 170.)

    Mehling, Mary Bryant Alverson. Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy: William Cowdery of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and His Descendants. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1911.

  4. [4]

    Lyman Hervy Cowdery was born 23 November 1821 in Leroy, Genesee County, New York. He married Sarah H. Holmes in Kirtland, Ohio, on 30 August 1849. Together they had eight children. He worked for the Lake Shore Railroad and at one point was a station agent in Perry, Ohio. He died 24 March 1906 in Rochester, New York. (Mehling, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy, 171, 253.)

    Mehling, Mary Bryant Alverson. Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy: William Cowdery of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and His Descendants. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1911.

  5. [5]

    Herndon, “‘Proper’ Magistrates and Masters,” 40–42.

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis. “‘Proper’ Magistrates and Masters: Binding Out Poor Children in Southern New England, 1720–1820.” In Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray, 39–51. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

  6. [6]

    Herndon and Murray, Children Bound to Labor, 2. Government officials often placed children without caretakers into indentures. When government officials were not involved, indentures were generally voluntary, though often still motivated by financial difficulties. (Zipf, “Labor of Innocents”; Herndon and Murray, “Proper and Instructive Education,” 4–5.)

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and John E. Murray, eds. Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

    Zipf, Karin. “Labor of Innocents: Parents, Children, and Apprenticeship in Nineteenth-Century North Carolina.” PhD diss., University of Georgia, 2000.

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and John E. Murray, eds. “‘A Proper and Instructive Education’: Raising Children in Pauper Apprenticeship.” In Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray, 3–18. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

  7. [7]

    The term master used here originates from medieval indentures that involved an apprentice being bound to a master craftsman in the guild of the trade he was being taught.

  8. [8]

    In his memoirs, Joseph Smith III mentions several individuals who worked for his parents in Nauvoo, Illinois, as servants. One young woman, Lucy Walker, served as a maid and worked for her board and education. This may have been something like an informal indenture, where Lucy’s necessities and the cost of her education were provided in exchange for her work. (Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, “The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith,” Saints’ Herald, 18 Dec. 1934, 1614.)

    Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

  9. [9]

    Herndon and Murray, “Proper and Instructive Education,” 4, 13.

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and John E. Murray, eds. “‘A Proper and Instructive Education’: Raising Children in Pauper Apprenticeship.” In Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray, 3–18. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

  10. [10]

    Oliver Cowdery boarded with the family of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith while he taught school in the Palmyra, New York, area in 1828 and 1829. Marcellus Cowdery became a widely recognized educator in Ohio, established some of the first teachers institutes there, and served as the superintendent of city schools in Sandusky, Ohio, for twenty-three years. (Mehling, Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy, 170.)

    Mehling, Mary Bryant Alverson. Cowdrey-Cowdery-Cowdray Genealogy: William Cowdery of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and His Descendants. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1911.

  11. [11]

    See “To the Subscribers of the Journal,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 54–55.

  12. [12]

    “Our Village,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Jan. 1837, 3:441; Kirtland High School Register, ca. 1836–1837, CHL. According to George A. Smith, Marcellus Cowdery taught in the English department at the Kirtland High School in 1836 and 1837. (George A. Smith, “My Journal,” Instructor, Nov. 1946, 528.)

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

    Kirtland High School Register, ca. 1836–1837. CHL.

    Smith, George Albert. “My Journal.” Instructor, Nov. 1946, 514–517, 528.

  13. [13]

    Letter from Emma Smith, 3 May 1837.

  14. [14]

    Butts, Business Man’s Assistant, 15.

    Butts, I. R. The Business Man’s Assistant, Part I. Containing Useful Forms of Legal Instruments: Enlarged by the Addition of Forms. . . . Boston: By the author, 1847.

Page [1]

This indenture made and entered into this twenty third day of November in the year one thousand eight hundred & thirty six between and , his son, of the town of , county of Geauga and State of Ohio of the first part & Joseph Smith Junr of the town county and State aforesaid of the second part Witnesseth, that said of the first part agrees for the consideration herein after named to put, place and bind to said party of the second part his son, , for the full term of five years from the twenty third day of November A.D. 1836 and until he the said shall be twenty years of age— And the said also voluntarily places, himself under the care, protection superintendence and control of said party of the second part, for the term of five years from the twenty third day of November aforesaid, during which time he promises to be faithful, obedient and attentive to all the lawful command of said party of the second part reserving only and excepting the hours of devotion, school, refreshment and repose. Said party of the second part promises and agrees that he will, during the term of five years aforesaid board the said , clothe him in a respectful manner, and defray all his necessary and contingent expenses, for books tuition and maintainence in sickness and in health, until the expiration of the five years, aforesaid, It is expressly understood by the contracting parties [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Indenture from Warren A. Cowdery, 23 November 1836
ID #
333
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D5:312–317
Handwriting on This Page
  • Warren A. Cowdery

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    A more traditional age for a young man to be released from an indenture was 21, when he was considered to have reached adulthood, but there is record of some indentures releasing boys at older or younger ages. (Herndon and Murray, Children Bound to Labor, 1; Herndon and Murray, “Proper and Instructive Education,” 16–17; Hindle and Herndon, “Recreating Proper Families,” 34.)

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and John E. Murray, eds. Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

    Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and John E. Murray, eds. “‘A Proper and Instructive Education’: Raising Children in Pauper Apprenticeship.” In Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray, 3–18. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

    Hindle, Steve, and Rugh Wallis Herndon. “Recreating Proper Families in England and North America.” In Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray, 19–38. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

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