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Letter from Hinkle, 12 June 1842

Source Note

Hinkle [likely ], Letter, , Adams Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 12 June 1842; unidentified handwriting; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal stamp, postal notation, and dockets.
Single leaf measuring 12½ × 8 inches (32 × 20 cm). The leaf is ruled with thirty-eight blue lines (now faded). The top, right, and bottom edges have the square cut of manufactured paper; the left edge is uneven, suggesting that the leaf was torn out of a blank book or was once part of a bifolium. The leaf was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The folding of the letter transferred ink from Hinkle’s signature and the last two lines of the letter to the portion of the leaf directly below the signature. The recto of the leaf bears residue from the wafer and a portion of paper from opening the letter. The leaf was later folded twice horizontally for filing and docketed. Some discoloration of the paper has occurred in the address block on the verso of the leaf.
, who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844, docketed the letter. It was also docketed by , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets, the circa 1904 inventory, and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

  2. [2]

    “Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

  3. [3]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 12 June 1842, a man signing his name “Hinkle” wrote a letter from , Illinois, to JS in , Illinois. The letter chided JS for denying that he had prophesied the death of former governor , who had been shot in the head by an unknown assailant on 6 May 1842. The Quincy Whig published a report of “several rumors” about who fired the shot, “one of which throws the crime upon the Mormons,” and also stated that in 1841 JS prophesied Boggs’s “death by violent means,” a charge that repeated in July 1842. JS and other Latter-day Saints denied these accusations. The author of the letter featured here claimed to have heard such a prophecy and also asserted that JS had ordered the poisoning of wells in Missouri, apparently during the 1838 conflict between members and their opponents in that state.
Although the letter does not provide the first name of the author, he was likely , a former church member who had served as a colonel of the regiment in the state militia. Hinkle had drawn JS’s ire after surrendering JS and other church leaders to the militia as part of a negotiated truce during the 1838 conflict. Because JS believed Hinkle had betrayed him with this surrender, he declared Hinkle “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and one who had made the Saints suffer “an ocean of tribulation, and mean abuse.”
The contents of the letter suggest that is the author, but that identification is not certain. First, the handwriting of the letter does not appear to be Hinkle’s, although someone else could have written the letter for him. Second, Hinkle was apparently not living in at this time. He had been excommunicated in March 1839 in Quincy, but he had apparently moved more than a hundred miles up the to Muscatine County, Iowa Territory, by 1840, when he formed an offshoot church called The Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride the Lamb’s Wife. In 1842, Hinkle was still leading that church, which appeared to be headquartered in Muscatine County. If the letter was not written by George M. Hinkle, however, it is not clear what other individual with the surname Hinkle might have written it.
The letter was postmarked 14 June 1842 in . JS presumably received it shortly thereafter. There is no record of a reply from JS.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Assassination of Ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 21 May 1842, [3]; John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 2 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2]; see also Bennett, History of the Saints, 281–282.

    Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

    Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

    Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

  2. [2]

    Letter to Sylvester Bartlett, 22 May 1842; JS, Nauvoo, IL, 27 May 1842, Letter to the Editor, Quincy (IL) Herald, 2 June 1842, [2]; Minutes, 26 May 1842.

    Quincy Herald. Quincy, IL. 1841–before 1851.

  3. [3]

    Letter to the Church in Caldwell Co., MO, 16 Dec. 1838.

  4. [4]

    A comparison of this letter with one Hinkle wrote in 1835 to Reuben Middleton suggests that this 1842 letter is not in Hinkle’s handwriting. (George M. Hinkle, Portage Co., OH, to Reuben Middleton, Washington Co., IL, 22 Oct. 1835, Reuben Middleton, Papers, CHL.)

    Middleton, Reuben. Papers, 1835 and 1838. CHL.

  5. [5]

    “Extracts of the Minutes of Conferences,” Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:15; Hallwas and Launius, Cultures in Conflict, 52; “History of the Rise and Progress of This Church,” Ensign, 15 July 1844, 1:13.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Hallwas, John E., and Roger D. Launius. Cultures in Conflict: A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1995.

    The Ensign. Independence, MO. 1844–1845.

  6. [6]

    “Conference Minutes,” Ensign, Oct. 1844, 1:61.

    The Ensign. Independence, MO. 1844–1845.

  7. [7]

    The 1840 census includes a William Hinkle living in Quincy. (1840 U.S. Census, Quincy, Adams Co., IL, 42.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

Page [1]

June 12th. 1842
Come! Come! Joe,
That tale in the Herald and Whig denying your having prophecyed the violent death of wont do, too many people have heard you myself among the rest.
I also know all about the Arsenic you directed to be thrown in the wells in —. I hate the Missourian’s as bad as you but it is useless denying what can be proved.
Hinkle [27 lines blank] [p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Hinkle, 12 June 1842
ID #
226
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:140–142
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See JS, Nauvoo, IL, 27 May 1842, Letter to the Editor, Quincy (IL) Herald, 2 June 1842, [2]; and Letter to Sylvester Bartlett, 22 May 1842.

    Quincy Herald. Quincy, IL. 1841–before 1851.

  2. [2]

    At a hearing held in 1838 in Missouri for JS and other church leaders, two men testified that in October 1838, Sidney Rigdon presided over a meeting of the Danites, a secret paramilitary organization pledged to uphold the church’s First Presidency, and that he stated that if the Saints “could not get rid of the mob in any other way, they could poison them to death.”a John Corrill, who became disaffected from the church during the 1838 conflict, also claimed he had heard rumors that church leaders had planned to “scatter poison, pestilence, and disease, among the inhabitants” of Missouri “and make them think it was judgments sent from God.” However, Corrill also said that when he confronted JS and Rigdon with this charge, “they both denied it promptly.”b Although George Hinkle himself testified against JS and Rigdon in 1838, he never mentioned anything about arsenic or poisoning in his testimony.c

    (aBurr Riggs, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838; William W. Phelps, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence,” [77], [93]. bCorrill, Brief History, 31; see also Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde, Affidavit, Richmond, MO, 24 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA. cSee George M. Hinkle, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence,” [38]–[45].)

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

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