Footnotes
“The Mormon Prophet,” Des Moines (IA) Register, 13 Mar. 1891, in Historical Department, Newspaper Clippings, 1831–1993, CHL.
Historical Department. Newspaper Clippings, 1831–1993. CHL.
“Signed on the Dotted Line: The Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection,” [6]–[7].
“Signed on the Dotted Line: The Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection.” Iowa Historian: The Newsletter of the State Historical Society of Iowa (Feb.–Mar. 2008): [6]–[7]. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. A copy of this digital newsletter is archived at publications.iowa.gov/6203/1 /Iowa_Historian_Feb-Mar_2008.pdf.
Footnotes
Mulholland had served as one of JS’s scribes since at least September of the previous year. The Nauvoo high council appointed him as a clerk for land contracts and subtreasurer of the church just seven days before JS departed for Washington DC. (JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1838; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25; Minutes, 27 Oct. 1839.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
This dispute—nicknamed the “Honey War” by a local newspaper because of stories that a Missouri tax collector cut down hollow trees containing beehives on the property of an Iowa resident in order to collect the honey instead of the tax—was a bloodless conflict that lasted throughout the 1830s. It climaxed in 1839 when a sheriff from Iowa Territory and a sheriff from Missouri both tried to collect taxes from residents on a tiny strip of land that each side claimed along the Des Moines River. The hostilities soon resulted in a standoff between both sides’ militias and elicited federal intervention. JS apparently learned of the conflict from a source other than Emma’s letter because he mentioned the dispute in a letter to Robert D. Foster a week before Emma’s letter arrived in Washington. (“The Border War,” Missouri Republican [St. Louis], 7 Dec. 1839, [2]; “The Honey War,” Missouri Whig, and General Advertiser [Palmyra], 26 Oct. 1839, [3]; Everett, Creating the American West, chap. 4; Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 12 Dec. 1839, 10; Letter to Robert D. Foster, 30 Dec. 1839.)
Daily Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1869.
Missouri Whig, and General Advertiser. Palmyra, MO. 1839–1841.
Everett, Derek R. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
JS arrived in Philadelphia on 21 December 1839. He remained in the region, visiting congregations in some of the outlying communities, until he departed around 31 January 1840 for Washington DC, where he arrived by 5 February. According to the postmarks on this document, Emma mailed the letter at Commerce on 12 December 1839; it arrived in Washington on 8 January 1840 and was then forwarded to Philadelphia, though it is unknown when it arrived there. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 21 Dec. 1839, 70; 27 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter to Robert D. Foster, 30 Dec. 1839; Minutes and Discourse, 13 Jan. 1840; Discourse, 5 Feb. 1840.)
The family of Orson Hyde—a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—consisted of his wife, Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, and his two-year-old daughter, Laura Marinda Hyde. Marinda Hyde was pregnant when the Hydes arrived at the Smith home and gave birth to a girl a week later on 13 December 1839. (1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City Ward 1, Salt Lake Co., UT, 2A.)
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
“The remains of Stena Fisks family” likely refers to the surviving family members of Sterry Fisk. Fisk died in Commerce on 26 July 1839; his seven-month-old daughter, Harriet, preceded him in death by nine days. (“Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Jacksonville, Illinois, is approximately thirty miles west of Springfield. JS would have passed through this town on either 2 November or 3 November. This letter is apparently not extant. (Doyle, Social Order of a Frontier Community, 21; Pay Order to James Mulholland for John Snider, 8 Nov. 1839.)
Doyle, Don Harrison. The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825–70. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983.
Likely Wilson Law or William Law.)
It is unclear exactly what Emma was referring to here, but surviving documents pertaining to land purchases in the planned town of Nauvoo suggest that business did in fact slow down during JS’s absence. Over fifty documents are extant relating to eighteen land transactions that occurred in September 1839. The extant documents created in October 1839 pertain to three or four land transactions, those composed in November 1839 pertain to fifteen, and those created in December 1839 pertain to six. These documents, as well as related promissory notes, are available on this website.
JS left Commerce on 29 October 1839. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 29 Oct. 1839, 66.)
“The chill fever” is “malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times) and followed by an interval or intermission.” (Carter, “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century,” 294.)
Carter, James Byars. “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century: A Genealogical Perspective.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 76 (Dec. 1988): 289–301.
Hyde departed Commerce for Philadelphia on 14 November 1839 to preach and to gather funds to aid destitute church members. (Orson Hyde, Commerce, IL, 4 Mar. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:71–73.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Mulholland arrived at the Smith home on Wednesday, 30 October, and died on Sunday, 3 November 1839. Notice of Mulholland’s death appeared in the Times and Seasons. Unaware that Mulholland had died, JS addressed a pay order to him on 8 November 1839. (“Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32; Pay Order to James Mulholland for John Snider, 8 Nov. 1839.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
With the departure of JS and Sidney Rigdon, who were part of the delegation to the nation’s capital, Hyrum Smith was the remaining member of the church’s First Presidency in the Commerce area. (See Historical Introduction to Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840.)