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Land Survey, May–July 1838

Source Note

Land Survey, , MO, May–July 1838; handwriting of and ; fourteen pages; CHL.
The 1838 land survey created by was the first entry in a multi-entry record book. gave the record book to , who used it to record his accounts in , Illinois, including work he did as an agent for JS.

Historical Introduction

In 1838, JS and other leaders conducted surveys in , Missouri, leading to the creation of a record book by . These surveys resulted from Latter-day Saint efforts to explore northern for potential settlement. The need for new settlements originated in summer 1836, when the residents of , Missouri, objected to the presence of the Latter-day Saints in their county. Hoping to avoid another violent expulsion, as had taken place in , Missouri, three years earlier, church leaders agreed to leave and settle further north. At the close of 1836, the Missouri legislature created , northeast of Clay County, as a place for the Saints to settle. Thereafter, many Missourians believed the Saints were obligated to confine their settlement to that location. By May 1837, however, a few Saints had established homes north of Caldwell in neighboring Daviess County, engendering strong opposition from the few settlers in the region who were not members of the church.
Despite this hostility, a November 1837 of church leaders, including JS, decided that the Saints should explore and identify potential settlement sites in addition to the their primary at in . The conference appointed a committee, including , , and others, to undertake this survey. These men spent around three weeks exploring the region north of Caldwell County, and they were all impressed with ’s potential for settlement, particularly the land along the , a tributary of the and the major river flowing through the county. Lyman Wight even purchased a farm in Daviess County near the Grand River in February 1838. After these initial efforts to explore and expand northward, plans for new settlements were delayed for a time.
Surveying efforts resumed in spring 1838, and on 18 May, a company consisting of several church leaders left for to survey the area explored by and . The group consisted of JS and of the church’s , and , , and members and . acted as the scribe for the company, and worked as the chief surveyor. The company arrived at Lyman Wight’s home along the on 19 May, and the residence quickly became their base of operations. The surveyors began laying out a settlement they named “,” which was centered on a nearby bluff. Sometime that summer, the name of this settlement was changed to “Adam-ondi-Ahman” in a JS revelation.
For roughly the next two months, JS and other church leaders surveyed land in the vicinity of what would become . Although JS was content to allow bishops and other to manage his property in , in he took an active role in the renewed surveying efforts. In May and June, JS made at least three multiday trips to Daviess County to assist in the surveying. , who worked as an assistant surveyor during this time, stated that the surveyors were directed to “survey certain quarter sections of land, for the use and behoof” of individuals chosen by a committee of church leaders or the leaders of the survey teams. Swartzell also asserted that much of the land they surveyed was reserved for influential church leaders. , the clerk and recorder of the church and scribe of the First Presidency, kept a record book identifying who had claimed or been assigned to specific portions of land. The record book includes land claims for forty-five men; it is not a comprehensive record of Latter-day Saint land claims in Daviess County.
The record book contains several errors. According to the rectangular survey system implemented by the , land was surveyed into a grid of horizontal township lines and vertical range lines, creating township squares that typically contained thirty-six numbered sections of one square mile each. However, the row of townships in the vicinity of was unusual; instead of the typical six rows of six sections each, these townships contained only five rows, meaning that on the official government surveys, which were conducted in 1835, these townships were missing sections 1–6. The Latter-day Saint surveying teams were apparently unaware of this irregular circumstance and surveyed considerable property in these townships as well as the townships north of Adam-ondi-Ahman as though the townships were the standard size. This discrepancy may have been discovered on 21 May 1838, when recorded in JS’s journal that they found “a mistake in the former survey” and sent a messenger to obtain a correct survey map, presumably from the government surveyors. After discovering the error, the survey party held a council that night and decided to focus on obtaining land closer to Adam-ondi-Ahman rather than further north. Nevertheless, Robinson made no effort to correct or revise the record book entries, and at least sixteen entries in the record book are for properties in the missing sections or townships further north. Moreover, three of these sixteen entries are incomplete, indicating that attempts to survey these claims may have been abandoned.
Because the land in had already been formally surveyed by the , the Saints’ survey was not performing a government function but was instead an attempt to claim potential property for settlement and future purchase. The government surveys would not be certified until September 1838, and this land would not be available for public sale until November of that year. In the meantime, United States law allowed settlers to make a preemption claim for up to two quarter sections of land containing 320 acres before the land became available for public sale. When it went on sale, the individuals who had obtained preemption rights would have the first opportunity to purchase the land. Rather than conducting a legal survey of the region, the church surveyors were likely identifying land that Latter-day Saints could claim under the preemption laws. However, due to a lack of extant records, it is ultimately unclear whether the individuals whose claims were recorded in the land book kept by did in fact obtain preemption rights for the lands associated with their names. Furthermore, many of the individuals in the land survey book most likely could not have bought all the land they claimed using preemption rights because they claimed 640 acres or more, double what was allowed.
By early June 1838, the attention of JS and other church leaders shifted from claiming sections of land to organizing, surveying, and building up a city at . In JS’s journal, recorded that during the month of June “the Surveyors run out the city plott” at Adam-ondi-Ahman and that JS and others “continued surveying and building houses &c for some time day after day.” On 28 June 1838, JS met with the Saints at Adam-ondi-Ahman, formally organized the settlement as a stake of , and appointed a and high council to “attend to the affairs of the church in .” Apparently, Robinson intended for the land survey book to be used to record information concerning city lots in and Adam-ondi-Ahman. However, this part of the record book was never completed.
These and other discrepancies suggest that the land survey record kept by represents a list of potential Latter-day Saint land claims in , Missouri, rather than a detailed record of the actual settlement of the county. Nevertheless, it is featured here as representative of JS’s land claims and surveying work in late spring and summer 1838.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    LeSueur, “Missouri’s Failed Compromise,” 113–144.

    LeSueur, Stephen C. “Missouri’s Failed Compromise: The Creation of Caldwell County for the Mormons.” Journal of Mormon History 31, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 113–144.

  2. [2]

    See William W. Phelps, Far West, MO, 7 May 1837, Letter to the Editor, Messenger and Advocate, July 1837, 3:529; and Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 746–749.

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

    Johnson, Clark V., ed. Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict. Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 16. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992.

  3. [3]

    Minute Book 2, 10 Nov. 1837, 86; Documents Volume 5, Introduction to Part 7: 17 Sept. 1837–21 Jan. 1838; Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.

  4. [4]

    In January 1838, Oliver Cowdery told JS that Daviess County was “a great and precious country” that contained “a great many of the finest mill-Sites I have seen in the western country or world” and claimed to have identified “between forty and fifty choice locations” for future settlement. Cowdery also informed his brother that he was “delighted” with the prospect of settling in Daviess County. (Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838; Oliver Cowdery, Far West, MO, to Warren Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 82.)

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  5. [5]

    “Lyman Wight, Autobiography, 9, in Lyman Wight, Mountain Valley, TX, to Wilford Woodruff, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 24 Aug. 1857, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 18 May 1838; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 9–10. The composition of the survey team shifted over time as the work continued. For example, William Swartzell was hired on 27 May as an assistant surveyor and as the cook for the team.

    Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

  7. [7]

    JS, Journal, 19 May 1838. JS’s journal suggests that the site was renamed before the end of the surveying trip or perhaps shortly thereafter. William Swartzell, in diary later published as a pamphlet attacking JS and the church, claimed that he was present when JS renamed the settlement on 11 June 1838. (Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 11–12.)

    Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

  8. [8]

    See Historical Introduction to Receipt from Samuel Musick, 14 July 1838.

  9. [9]

    JS, Journal, 18 May–5 June 1838.

  10. [10]

    Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 9–10.

    Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

  11. [11]

    See “Latter-day Saint Land Claims in the Vicinity of Adam-ondi-Ahman.”

  12. [12]

    See White, History of the Rectangular Survey System, 18–97.

    White, C. Albert. A History of the Rectangular Survey System. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991.

  13. [13]

    “Fractional Township 60 North of the Base Line Range 27. West of 5th Principal Meridian,” Daviess Co., MO, 15 Sept. 1838; “Fractional Township 60 North of the Base Line Range 28 West of 5th Principal Meridian,” Daviess Co., MO, 15 Sept. 1838, in Public Land Survey Township Plats, reel 47. The row of townships in the vicinity of Adam-ondi-Ahman were designated 60 north of the baseline for the fifth principal meridian.

    Public Land Survey Township Plats, Compiled 1789–1946, Documenting the Period 1785–1946. National Archives Microfilm Publications, microcopy T1234. 67 reels. Washington DC: National Archives, no date.

  14. [14]

    JS, Journal, 21 May 1838.

  15. [15]

    “Fractional Township 60 North of the Base Line Range 27. West of 5th Principal Meridian,” Daviess Co., MO, 15 Sept. 1838; “Fractional Township 60 North of the Base Line Range 28 West of 5th Principal Meridian,” Daviess Co., MO, 15 Sept. 1838, in Public Land Survey Township Plats, reel 47; Walker, “Losing Land Claims and the Missouri Conflict in 1838,” 257–258.

    Public Land Survey Township Plats, Compiled 1789–1946, Documenting the Period 1785–1946. National Archives Microfilm Publications, microcopy T1234. 67 reels. Washington DC: National Archives, no date.

    Walker, Jeffrey N. “Losing Land Claims and the Missouri Conflict in 1838.” In Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, edited by Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, 247–270. Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.

  16. [16]

    An Act for the Relief of the Purchasers of Public Lands, and for the Suppression of Fraudulent Practices at the Public Sales of the Lands of the United States [31 Mar. 1830], Public Statutes at Large, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., vol. 4, chap. 48, pp. 390–392; An Act to Grant Pre-emption Rights to Settlers on the Public Lands [22 June 1838], Public Statutes at Large, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., vol. 5, chap. 119, pp. 251–252; Walker, “Losing Land Claims and the Missouri Conflict in 1838,” 248–251.

    The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.

    Walker, Jeffrey N. “Losing Land Claims and the Missouri Conflict in 1838.” In Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, edited by Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, 247–270. Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.

  17. [17]

    An Act for the Relief of the Purchasers of Public Lands, and for the Suppression of Fraudulent Practices at the Public Sales of the Lands of the United States [31 Mar. 1830], Public Statutes at Large, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., vol. 4, chap. 48, p. 391.

    The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.

  18. [18]

    JS, Journal, 4–5 June 1838; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 12. William Swartzell recorded that he left his job as a surveyor and cook on 14 June and instead began making shingles to support the house construction at Adam-ondi-Ahman.

    Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

  19. [19]

    Minutes, 28 June 1838.

  20. [20]

    In an entry at the beginning of the book, Robinson noted that in addition to a record of “Lands Surveyed, Locations made, and names to whoom located,” the volume was to include surveyed town plats for Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman.

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[ used the remainder of the volume as a Nauvoo account book; the account book is not reproduced here, but can be found elsewhere on the Joseph Smith Papers website.] [p. [12]–[13]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Land Survey, May–July 1838
ID #
3095
Total Pages
13
Print Volume Location
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  • George W. Robinson

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