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Letter from Jared Carter, 14 October 1843

Source Note

, Letter, [, Hancock Co., IL], to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 14 Oct. [1843]; handwriting and signature of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The letter was inscribed on the first three pages of the bifolium, trifolded twice in letter style, and later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859, docketed the letter a second time. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The letter’s early dockets, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its inclusion in the JS Collection 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, [3], 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 14 October 1843, member wrote a letter to JS inquiring about a business opportunity that might improve Carter’s financial situation and potentially employ hundreds of individuals in , Illinois. Carter was a and had experience conducting business for the church. He, , and had composed the committee to build the in , Ohio. In connection with their work on that committee, the men established the mercantile firm by 1835. In his capacity as a partner in the firm, Carter developed relationships with eastern merchants and commercial wholesalers, business contacts that he maintained after Cahoon, Carter & Co. disbanded. Carter moved with church members from to and then from Missouri to , settling in (later Nauvoo). However, his rapport with other church leaders deteriorated in Nauvoo. By March 1843, Carter’s relationship with JS had become strained because of the ongoing difficulties between JS and . Despite that uneasiness, Carter still wanted to help build up Nauvoo. After the death of , Carter asked to join the , hoping to reprise the role that he played in building the Kirtland temple. He claimed it was “his right” to serve on the committee. However, , who ultimately replaced Higbee on the committee, claimed that Carter was “insane— gone crazy,” further demonstrating the impediments Carter faced.
Though he had some struggles with church leaders in 1843, by October of that year, wanted to demonstrate that he and JS were “firm friends.” He also sought to better his financial situation and ostensibly to improve ’s economy. Finding no opportunity to speak personally with JS about his plan, Carter wrote him a letter, in which he proposed manufacturing footwear in Nauvoo to improve the quality of shoes for church members, reduce the importation of these products from eastern cobblers and wholesalers, create jobs in Nauvoo, and generate profits for himself and the church.
The letter’s lack of postal markings suggests that or someone else delivered it to JS’s or . , one of JS’s scribes, docketed the letter with the date 14 October 1843. JS presumably reviewed the letter sometime within the next few days. There is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    General Church Recorder, License Record Book, 33; Minutes, 6 June 1833; Historical Introduction to Blessing to Newel K. Whitney, 7 Oct. 1835.

  2. [2]

    Advertisement, Northern Times, 9 Oct. 1835, [4].

    Northern Times. Kirtland, OH. 1835–[1836?].

  3. [3]

    Historical Introduction to Mortgage to Mead, Stafford & Co., 11 July 1837; Historical Introduction to Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838; see also, for example, John Ayer, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.

  4. [4]

    Minute Book 2, 16 Jan. 1839, 177; Philemon Merrill et al. to the Nauvoo City Council, Petition, Nauvoo, IL, 3 Feb. 1842, [3], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.

  5. [5]

    For more on JS’s complicated relationships with both Carter and Rigdon, see, for example, Letter to Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843; and Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843.

  6. [6]

    Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 41–42; Clayton, Journal, 9 Sept. 1843.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  7. [7]

    Through the Kirtland firm Cahoon, Carter & Co., Jared Carter had established business connections with John Ayer, a cobbler and wholesale merchant in Buffalo, New York, and other merchants in the eastern United States. Carter could possibly have leveraged these mercantile contacts to make his business proposition realistic. However, in Nauvoo, Newel K. Whitney and Edward Hunter were the primary agents engaged in the church’s purchase of goods, including boots and shoes from firms in the eastern United States. Whitney and Hunter assisted JS and other Latter-day Saints with business in the eastern United States, including securing and transporting goods to Nauvoo. (John Ayer, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Newel K. Whitney, Invoice, 8 Apr. 1842, Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, CHL; Letter from Edward Hunter, 27 Oct. 1841; see also Letter from Edward Hunter, 10 May 1842.)

Page [1]

oct 14th [1843]
To President Smith
Dear sir I have 3 objects in writeing to you the firs[t] is to obtain an instumentality of usefulness the second is to be beenifited my self and family the third is to out do all jelacy that may have existed in the minds of any that we are not truly your firm friends for Comparetively why should a man stand as at abotom of a snowy hill in a thawy time where every little ball from the top of the hill Comes rolline on to him encreasing as rolling an hundred fold there fore you see what I disire is to get on top of the hill here a person can know much more by what they can see and get out of the way of this rolling froson water pardon me for I Cannot but acknowledge but that I disire beter things than I know [now] enjoy for my feet are quite wet in this down the hill place and I have become some what sickly and I have determined to Call on you for my physition now if it was acording to your Charctor to turn away any that Come to you perhaps I might dispare I will now state what I have on my mind I believe that if you will give me the means I can establish business that would make me usefull to my self and others the means that I have in view are these power by the word of the Lord form [from] you to rais means to establish machaniccle business or any business that might in wissdom be established I am purswaided that I have thoghtt of a form of the word if the same was given through [p. [1]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Jared Carter, 14 October 1843
ID #
1182
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:182–185
Handwriting on This Page
  • Jared Carter

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