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Letter from Garret Bias, 7 March 1843
Source Note
Source Note
, Letter, [or possibly LaPorte Co.], IN, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 7 Mar. 1843; handwriting and signature of ; two pages; CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamp, and endorsement.
Bifolium measuring 12⅛ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. The second leaf has two small holes, most likely caused when the letter was opened. drafted a response to the letter on its last page. The document shows marked moisture damage. A portion of the upper left corner of the bifolium measuring 3⅞ × 3½ inches has been torn and is lost, resulting in missing text on each leaf. Other wear along creases of the folds on the second leaf has obscured some of the text.
The document was endorsed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844. After this, the early provenance of the letter is unknown. At some point the letter came into the possession of collector Floyd E. Risvold, who died in 2009. The letter was offered for sale in 2010 by Spink Shreves Galleries as part of lot 584 of the Floyd E. Risvold collection. The Church History Department (CHL) acquired the letter the same year.
Footnotes
- [1]
- [2]
Floyd E. Risvold Collection, 2:113.
The Floyd E. Risvold Collection: American Expansion and the Journey West. 3 vols. 2009. Catalog of the 27–29 January 2010 auction of the Floyd E. Risvold estate at New York City by the Spink Shreves Galleries and Spink Smythe of Dallas, TX.
- [3]
See the full bibliographic entry for Garret Bias, Letter, St. Joseph Co., IN, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 7 Mar. 1843, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 7 March 1843, , a resident of northwest , wrote a letter from , Indiana, to JS in , Illinois, proposing a sale of weapons in Nauvoo. Bias claimed he had obtained the arms, which were government issued, during the 1832 Black Hawk War, a conflict between federal and state military units and members of the Sauk and Meskwaki nations—designated by Euro-Americans as the Sac and Fox tribe—under the leadership of Black Hawk. It is not clear how Bias obtained the weapons. He did not serve in that military conflict; however, he was acquainted with Archibald Clybourn, who had a government contract for food supply at Fort Dearborn, a military installation in , where settlers fled during the conflict, and it is possible that Bias obtained the arms through Clybourn. It is also possible that Bias obtained the weapons from the fort at LaPorte County, Indiana, where he organized an independent military company in 1838. According to a county history, Bias’s unit carried “government flintlock muskets.” However he obtained the government weapons, by March 1843 Bias faced financial troubles. In September 1842, his wife, Mary Gasett Bias, divorced him, and LaPorte County arbitrators awarded her $400 in alimony. That same month, the St. Joseph County circuit court issued a judgment against Bias for $246.31 for funds owed to a Joseph Woolman. The courts in both LaPorte and St. Joseph directed the sheriff of St. Joseph County to seize Bias’s property and sell it to fulfill these judgments.
Perhaps hoping to alleviate his financial difficulties, wrote to JS, the lieutenant general of the , to propose the sale of fifty federally issued weapons still in his possession to the members of a new militia unit that he would form in , likely similar to the unit he had established in LaPorte County. Bias’s letter suggests that he was a member of the and that an agreement on this matter would finance his move to Nauvoo.
wrote his 7 March letter to JS from somewhere in but mailed it from La Porte, in LaPorte County, adjacent to St. Joseph County. The letter likely took a week or two to travel to . Though Bias did not pay postage, the letter was received by JS or by someone on his behalf. JS’s scribe penned a terse response on the last page of Bias’s letter on 28 March indicating that JS declined Bias’s offer, likely as a draft for a more formal response to be sent back to Bias. If Richards did send a response, Bias had not received it by 3 April 1843, when he wrote another dispatch to JS, again requesting his attention to the matter addressed in this 7 March 1843 letter.
Footnotes
- [1]
Jung, Black Hawk War of 1832, 3.
Jung, Patrick J. The Black Hawk War of 1832. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
- [2]
Both Bias and Clybourn purchased parcels of land at a public land sale in Chicago in 1833, and in May 1835, Clybourn sold one of the lots he acquired to Bias. (“Bias, Garret,” and “Clybourne, Archibald,” Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Illinois State Archives, Springfield; Clybourn v. Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Co., 4 Bradwell 463–465 [Ill. App. Ct. 1st Dist. 1879]; Gale, Reminiscences of Early Chicago, 145–147; Daniels, Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana, 20–22.)
Illinois State Archives. http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/home.html.
Bradwell / Bradwell, James B. Reports of the Decisions of the Appellate Courts of the State of Illinois. 18 vols. Chicago: Chicago Legal News, 1878–1886.
Gale, Edwin O. Reminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1902.
Daniels, E. D. A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis, 1904.
- [3]
History of La Porte County, Indiana, 718; Daniels, Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana, 188.
History of La Porte County, Indiana; together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages, and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.
Daniels, E. D. A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis, 1904.
- [4]
LaPorte Co., IN, Court Records, 1832–1922, Civil Order Book E, pp. 217–218, 22 Sept. 1842, microfilm 2,445,428, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
- [5]
St. Joseph Co., IN, Deed Records, 1830–1901, vol. M, p. 68, 5 July 1845; vol. J, p. 458, 29 July 1845, microfilm 1,605,747, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
- [6]
Bias noted his neglect to pay the postage in a letter approximately one month later. (Letter from Garret Bias, 3 Apr. 1843.)
- [7]
- [8]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Postage in unidentified handwriting.
- [14]
JS was lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion. (Minutes, 4 Feb. 1841; JS, Journal, 11 Mar. 1842.)
Circular postmark in red ink.
Endorsement in the handwriting of Willard Richards.