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Letter from James M. Adams, 16 November 1842

Source Note

, Letter, , Ashtabula Co., OH, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 16 Nov. 1842; handwriting of ; three pages; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes address, docket, and archival marking.
Bifolium measuring 10⅛ × 7⅞ inches (26 × 20 cm) when folded. The letter was inscribed in blue ink. It was trifolded twice in letter style with the outer edge of the second leaf folded in a triangular pattern to form a seal flap. The letter was addressed and sealed with an adhesive wafer, which was pressed with a blind-stamp pattern of three circles.
received the letter, likely by 25 January 1843, when he recorded the reception of the donations associated with the letter, and docketed it. In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that Whitney kept, was inherited by Newel K. and ’s daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who was married to Isaac Groo. The documents were passed down within the Groo family. Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Book of the Law of the Lord, 279–280.

  2. [2]

    Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

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

  3. [3]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.

    Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.

    Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.

Historical Introduction

On 16 November 1842, wrote to JS informing him of the status of the of the in , Ohio. Adams had presided over the Saints in Andover since at least 1837. By 1841 there were about thirty members of the church in the area, though in his letter Adams noted that “a number” of individuals had been since that time. The occasion for Adams writing this letter seems to have been the arrival of Samuel Russell, a church member who was on his way to , Illinois, after attending to personal financial business in the eastern . It appears Adams quickly made arrangements with Russell to carry the donations from the Andover branch with him to Nauvoo; Adams then scrambled to gather what donations he could from the branch with only a few days of notice. Once Adams had assembled the donated goods, he penned this letter to JS describing the conditions of the church in Andover and providing an inventory of their donations. Adams then gave the letter and goods to Russell to transport to Nauvoo.
Russell arrived in by 13 January 1843 and probably presented the letter and most of the branch’s goods to the temple recorder on that date. However, Russell did not differentiate between the cash donations from Andover and his own financial resources. After Russell arrived in Nauvoo, his brother, , argued that Samuel had used too much of the family’s money on his business in the East and claimed twenty dollars of donations from the Andover branch as well as twenty-five pounds of dried apples to recoup these costs. The day he arrived in Nauvoo, Samuel met with JS to explain the problem. Although JS subsequently spoke to Daniel, he was unsuccessful in retrieving the donated money or apples.
The loss of the tithing money from the branch was representative of a broader problem with tithing donations at this time. In spring 1843, JS stated that “many complaints [have] come to me of money being sent which I never received.” Indeed, at a 6 April 1843 of the church, JS complained that collecting donations for the church “have had to[o] great latitude to practise fraud.” JS argued that measures should be taken to ensure that only authorized of the church or members of the received donations on behalf of the church and that even then, the agents or apostles should be held strictly accountable for all the money they received. During his sermon, JS used the loss of the Andover branch’s tithing donations as an example for why tighter regulations were needed.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Erastus Snow, Troy, NY, to Don Carlos Smith, Kirtland, OH, 2 Dec. 1837, in Elders’ Journal, Nov. 1837, 22; Erastus Snow, Journal, 1835–1837, [84], [86].

    Snow, Erastus. Journals, 1835–1851; 1856–1857. CHL. MS 1329, box 1, fds. 1–3.

  2. [2]

    “Minutes of a Conference,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1841, 2:459.

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

  3. [3]

    The letter identifies this individual only as Brother Russell, but when the editors of JS’s history fleshed out some of JS’s later remarks regarding the donations referenced in this letter, they identified Samuel Russell as the church member who brought the letter and donations to Nauvoo. (JS History, vol. D-1, 1514–1515.)

  4. [4]

    William Clayton recorded the Andover branch’s donations in the Book of the Law of the Lord on 25 January 1843, but this likely represented a recording date rather than a reception date. JS’s journal entry for 13 January implies that the goods had already been delivered by that time. (Book of the Law of the Lord, 279–280; JS, Journal, 13 Jan. 1843.)

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 13 Jan. and 6 Apr. 1843; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 6 Apr. 1843; see also “Special Conference,” Times and Seasons, 1 May 1843, 4:182; and JS History, vol. D-1, 1514–1515.

    Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

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

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 6 Apr. 1843; see also “Special Conference,” Times and Seasons, 1 May 1843, 4:182; and JS History, vol. D-1, 1514–1515.

    Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

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

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from James M. Adams, 16 November 1842
ID #
949
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D11:224–229
Handwriting on This Page
  • James M. Adams

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