Footnotes
This serialized history drew on the journals herein beginning with the 4 July 1855 issue of the Deseret News and with the 3 January 1857 issue of the LDS Millennial Star.
The labels on the spines of the four volumes read respectively as follows: “Joseph Smith’s Journal—1842–3 by Willard Richards” (book 1); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843” (book 2); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843–4” (book 3); and “W. Richards’ Journal 1844 Vol. 4” (book 4). Richards kept JS’s journal in the front of book 4, and after JS’s death Richards kept his own journal in the back of the volume.
“Schedule of Church Records, Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]; “Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office G. S. L. City July 1858,” 2; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]–[12], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 7.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.
Footnotes
Historical Introduction to JS, Journal, Dec. 1841–Dec. 1842.
Source Note to JS, Journal, 1835–1836; Source Note to JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838.
See Appendix 3.
The trial was held before the Nauvoo Municipal Court, with Orson Spencer presiding in place of the mayor, JS, who was absent. William Clayton, who attended the trial before it adjourned, reported that Higbee “seemed very wrathy and vicious and threatened to sue J. at the County court.” (Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 90; Clayton, Journal, 16 Jan. 1844.)
Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book / Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court. “Docket of the Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” ca. 1843–1845. In Historian's Office, Historical Record Book, 1843–1874, pp. 51–150 and pp. 1–19 (second numbering). CHL. MS 3434.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
The city council passed several ordinances, including an ordinance authorizing former city marshal Henry G. Sherwood to complete a city directory and to keep an office “for the purpose of giving Intelligence or information” to citizens or visitors of Nauvoo. The council also passed an ordinance that authorized witnesses and jurors in civil court cases to be paid fifty cents per day for their services and an ordinance licensing the retail sale of liquor. This last ordinance, which was the result of a discussion begun three days earlier, gave the mayor of Nauvoo authority to sell distilled liquors “in such quantities as he may deem expedient” for “Medical and Mechanical purposes.” The ordinance also provided for other persons, “not exceeding one to each Ward of the City,” to obtain a license from the mayor and sell “like quantities” of alcohol for the same purposes. (JS, Journal, 13 Jan. 1844; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 16 Jan. 1844, 201–202.)
According to the minutes of the city council, JS “explaind at length respecting what, in substance, he had said at previous councils on the same subject.” Higbee also spoke, “stating his distraction of mind the past week” and repeating his commitment to be JS’s friend. JS’s comments about Higbee on 5 January 1844 were then stricken from the council minutes of that date with five large X’s. Several months later, however, Higbee sued JS for five thousand dollars in damages for his comments on 5 January and on other occasions. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 5 Jan. 1844, 39; 16 Jan. 1844, 45; JS, Journal, 15 Jan. and 6 May 1844.)
JS wrote in response to a letter Seymour and Newton French had written on 27 December 1843. In his portion of the letter, French congratulated JS on “obtaining deliverance” from his enemies and asked about “the State of Zion in Nauvoo, and other matters of moment.” Seymour, writing after French, expressed his “interest in the caus of Christ” and asked JS about the advisability of moving to Nauvoo. In his response to Seymour, JS asked that Seymour give his respects to French “and all friends” and told him that “Nauvoo is the beloved city of the gathering saints, where all thus mean to serve God, by obedience, and faithfulness to the end, will come, and all that will, may come. . . . Gather the saints that have made a covenant by sacrifice, Saith the Lord.” There is no evidence that either French or Seymour moved to Nauvoo. (Newton French and James Seymour, Lenox, OH, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 27 Dec. 1843; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to James Seymour, Lenox, OH, 16 Jan. 1844, JS Collection, CHL, underlining in original.)
Probably William W. Phelps.