Footnotes
Whitney, “Aaronic Priesthood,” 5–6; Partridge, Genealogical Record, 1, 9–11; see also the full bibliographic entry for the Edward Partridge Papers in the CHL catalog.
Whitney, Orson F. “The Aaronic Priesthood.” Contributor, Apr. 1885, 241–250.
Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.
Footnotes
“From Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 125–126.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Phelps penned letters dated 6–7 November and 14 November 1833 detailing the events in Jackson County. (Letter from William W. Phelps, 6–7 Nov. 1833; Letter from William W. Phelps, 14 Nov. 1833.)
See, for example, James Lee, Agreement of Consecration, on verso of Edward Partridge, to “Honored Father” et al., 22 Oct. 1834, draft, Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL.
Partridge, Edward. Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.
For more information on Partridge’s role in implementing the law of consecration, see Historical Introduction to Letter to Edward Partridge, 2 May 1833.
See Historical Introduction to Letter, 30 Oct. 1833.
Partridge occasionally wrote drafts of letters before sending final copies. For example, a year later, on 22 October 1834, Partridge drafted a letter to his family living in Massachusetts before making and sending a final copy. (Edward Partridge, to “Honored Father” et al., 22 Oct. 1834, draft, Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL.)
Partridge, Edward. Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.
TEXT: Possibly “14”, “17”, or “19”.
Two of Partridge’s daughters, Emily and Eliza, later wrote reminiscent accounts of this period in the family’s history. According to Emily, the family lived in a house owned by a “Mr Bess.” Eliza wrote that Partridge “found a miserable old hous that he could have with one fireplace in it which he and a Brother by the name of John Corrill moved their families into. I think my Mother [Lydia Clisbee Partridge] as also Sister [Margaret Lyndiff] Corrill must have had their patience tried very much during this winter, the house open and cold and their cooking and children and Husbands and selves all around one fireplace for stoves were not in use then.” Emily later recorded, “Father and elder John Corrille, procured an old log cabin that had been used for a stable and cleaned it up as best they could and moved their families in. The two families consisted of fifteen or sixteen persons. There was a large fireplace in the room (which was a good sized one) and blankets were hung up a few feet back from the fire to keep us from freezing, for the weather was extremely cold—so cold that the ink would freeze in fathers pen as he sat writing close to the fire inside of those blankets. We took one side of the fireplace and brother Corrills family took the other. Our beds were in the back part of the room which was cold enough for the polar region.” (Lyman, Journal, 10; Young, “Incidents,” 77–78.)
Lyman, Amasa. Journals, 1832–1877. Amasa Lyman Collection, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 829, boxes 1–3.
Young, Emily Dow Partridge. “Incidents of the Life of a Mormon Girl,” ca. 1884. CHL. MS 5220.
By mid-December, exiled church members were living in each of the four counties then bordering Jackson County: Van Buren County to the south, Lafayette County to the east, Ray County to the northeast, and Clay County to the north. Most, however, lived in Clay County. (Letter from William W. Phelps, 15 Dec. 1833; see also Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 35–37.)
Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.
In a letter to Oliver Cowdery, John Corrill recorded that on 4 November 1833, “we . . . came to the conclusion, on seeing the rage of the people, that it would be wisdom for us to leave the county immediately, rather than to have so many lives lost as probably would be.” (“From Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 125.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
For housing, the refugees in Clay County built huts in the woods, occupied abandoned slave cabins and other vacant structures, set up tents, or lived in the open. One refugee recalled, “We gathered up what little we could take in wagons and crossed the Missouri river and pitched our tents in Clay county, on the bank of the river. Many were taken with chills and fever, and altogether the Mormons presented a pitiable spectacle. . . . We lived in tents until winter set in, and did our cooking out in the wind and storms. Log heaps were our parlor stoves, and the cold, wet ground our velvet carpets, and the crying of little children our piano forte; while the shivering, sick people hovered over the burning log piles here and there.” (Austin, Life among the Mormons, 72–73.)
Austin, Emily M. Mormonism; or, Life among the Mormons: Being an Autobiographical Sketch, Including an Experience of Fourteen Years of Mormon Life. Madison, WI: M. J. Cantwell, 1882.
See Leviticus 26:6; Ezekiel 39:26; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 60 [2 Nephi 1:9].
Pratt was one of four men sent to Missouri by revelation in late 1830 from New York and had recently been the instructor for the school of the prophets in Independence. In his response to the letter featured here, JS stated, “I know that Zion, in the own due time of the Lord will be redeemed, but how many will be the days of her purification, tribulation and affliction, the Lord has kept hid from my eyes; and when I enquire concerning this subject the voice of the Lord is, Be still, and know that I am God!” (Revelation, Oct. 1830–A [D&C 32:1–3]; Revelation, 2 Aug. 1833–A [D&C 97:3]; Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 10 Dec. 1833.)
TEXT: “ph[hole in paper]”. Supplied text from a copy of the letter in Partridge, Genealogical Record, 10.
Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.
That is, the Missouri River, which forms the border between Jackson and Clay counties.
The Leonid meteor shower occurs annually in mid-November as the earth passes through dust and other particles left from comet Tempel-Tuttle. This meteor shower appears with particular intensity at intervals of approximately thirty-three years, and it was one of these more remarkable displays that Partridge and others viewed on 13 November 1833. Newspapers across the nation reported the event, and one article called it a “remarkable exhibition of Fire Balls.” The following month the church’s newspaper, The Evening and the Morning Star, also reported the spectacle, and JS recorded it in his journal. (Hitchcock, “On the Meteors of Nov. 13, 1833,” 365; Denison Olmstead, “The Meteors,” Maryland Gazette [Annapolis], 21 Nov. 1833, [2]; “Signs in the Heavens,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 116; JS, Journal, 5–13 Nov. 1833; see also Littmann, Heavens on Fire, 272.)
Hitchcock, Edward. “On the Meteors of Nov. 13, 1833.” The American Journal of Science, &c. 25, no. 2 (Jan. 1834): 354–411.
Maryland Gazette. Annapolis. Jan. 1827–Dec. 1839.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Littmann, Mark. The Heavens on Fire: The Great Leonid Meteor Storms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Partridge’s daughter Eliza later wrote, “I saw the stars fall. They came down almost as thick as snow flakes and could be seen till the daylight hid them from sight. Some of our enemies thought the day of judgment had come and were very much frightened but the Saints rejoiced and considered it as one of the signs of the Latter days.” Jackson County resident Josiah Gregg concurred. He thought the meteor shower caused many of his neighbors “to wonder whether, after all, the Mormons might not be in the right; and whether this was not a sign sent from heaven as a remonstrance for the injustice they had been guilty of towards that chosen sect.” (Lyman, Journal, 9–10; Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, 317–318.)
Lyman, Amasa. Journals, 1832–1877. Amasa Lyman Collection, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 829, boxes 1–3.
Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies; or, The Journal of a Santa Fé Trader, during Eight Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies, and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico. Vol. 1. 2nd ed. New York: J. and H. G. Langley, 1845.
In a later history, Partridge stated that church members attempted to obtain peace warrants from justices of the peace in both Jackson and Lafayette counties but were largely unsuccessful. Nevertheless, probably two days after Partridge sent the letter featured here to JS, Missouri attorney general Robert Wells suggested that if the Mormons requested help from Governor Dunklin to reinstate them on their properties, the governor would likely respond favorably by assigning them a military escort. This advice from Wells instigated a series of appeals from the Mormons. ([Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:20; Jan. 1840, 1:33; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 15–16; Robert W. Wells, Jefferson City, MO, to Alexander Doniphan and David R. Atchison, 21 Nov. 1833, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
This passage refers to a revelation JS dictated two years earlier on 30 August 1831, which read, “The land of Zion shall not be obtained but by purchase or by blood otherwise there is none inheritance for you . . . & if by blood as ye are forbidden to shed blood lo your enemies are upon you & ye shall be scourged from city to city & from Synagogue to synagogue & but few shall stand to receive an inheritance.” (Revelation, 30 Aug. 1831 [D&C 63:29–31].)
TEXT: “agai[page torn]”.