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Letter from Jedediah M. Grant, 17 or 18 August 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Philadelphia Co., PA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 17 or 18 Aug. 1843; handwriting of ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal stamps, postal notation, dockets, use marks, and notation.
Bifolium measuring 12⅞ × 8 inches (33 × 20 cm). The author inscribed the letter on the first three pages of the bifolium and on the upper quarter of the fourth. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red wax seal, and postmarked. A small section of the upper layer of paper was removed, likely when the letter was opened, and wax residue remains on the verso of the second leaf. The bifolium was later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. It was later docketed by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1859. The notation “copied by A.J.” was apparently added by a clerk or secretary for Andrew Jenson, who served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The document was listed in a Church Historian’s Office inventory from 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 and notation, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; Clayton, Journal, 7 Oct. 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

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

    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]

    Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  3. [3]

    Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 48–52, 55.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  4. [4]

    “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.

  5. [5]

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

Historical Introduction

On 17 or 18 August 1843, member wrote a letter from to JS in , Illinois, reporting on the state of the church in the area and relaying information about two letters that were sent to Philadelphia member . Though previous proselytizing efforts in Philadelphia had produced a large congregation, the branch experienced significant turmoil and division in the years after its organization in 1839. In late spring 1843, JS and the summoned , a Philadelphia church leader often at the center of branch discord, to Nauvoo to answer charges that he had defamed other local members.
In April 1843, was selected to preside over the church in . He departed in mid-May and arrived in Philadelphia by early June. In the featured letter to JS, Grant indicated that the branch was prospering and had experienced no further division since his arrival. The second half of Grant’s correspondence focused on a matter of spiritual turmoil occasioned by two letters sent from to branch member —one dated 11 March 1843 and the other dated 2 June 1843. sent at least one of the letters from , Illinois, apparently on behalf of JS. The Conrad family had reportedly entertained JS and other church leaders in their home during winter 1839–1840, when JS was likely introduced to Conrad, who was twenty-one years old at that time.
In his letter to JS, indicated that the letters to mentioned “Matrimony” and contained “words of Council” that upset her family enough that Conrad and her mother were “about to denie, the faith.” Grant also reported that the Conrad family asked him to “explain certin mistryes &c.” He informed JS that he had obtained the original letters and burned them “as a witness before the Lord, that. I will be true to you in time & in Eternity.” Though Grant destroyed the March and June correspondence, some of the letters’ content can be gleaned from Grant’s report that they referenced matrimony, the Conrad family’s emotional reaction to the letters, the cryptic nature of Grant’s descriptions in the featured text, and ’s subsequent observation that “appeared for a while to feel very jealouse” after reading Grant’s letter, all of which suggest that the original letters sent to Conrad contained information about the secret practice of plural marriage and possibly a marriage proposal from JS.
’s description of the Conrad family’s trepidation after reading the letters intimates that it was the first time the family had learned about the doctrine of plural marriage. In August 1843, the doctrine was known only to a select group of church members, though the number of individuals participating in the practice had grown since the previous year, and JS had dictated a revelation on the practice in July. The revelation circulated among a small group of individuals in , including members of the Nauvoo , but it is highly unlikely that lay members in or other East Coast cities were aware of the revelation at this point in time.
originally dated the letter to JS “August, 17,th.” but later inserted “or (18).” JS’s clerk recorded in his personal journal that JS received a letter from Grant by 31 August. There is no known response. married William B. Wilkinson by late 1844. A branch record indicates that Susan Wilkinson was cut off from the church in November 1844. She was likely restored to fellowship sometime before migrating to Salt Lake City with her husband and children in 1862.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 23 Dec. 1839, 2; Smith, “History of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Branch,” 363–364; Historical Introduction to Petition from James B. Nicholson and Others, 22 Apr. 1842; Historical Introduction to Letter from Peter Hess, 16 Feb. 1843; Historical Introduction to Letter from Eliza Nicholson, 23 Apr. 1843; Historical Introduction to Letter from Sybella Armstrong, 1 May 1843; Historical Introduction to Minutes and Discourse, 27 May 1843.

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    Smith, Walter W. “The History of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Branch.” Journal of History 11, no. 3 (July 1918): 358–373.

  2. [2]

    In May 1843, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles voted that Winchester be “silenced,” give up his license, and move his family to Nauvoo. (Historical Introduction to Minutes and Discourse, 27 May 1843; Woodruff, Journal, 27 May 1843.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 Apr. 1843; Obituary for Jedediah M. Grant, Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 10 Dec. 1856, 317.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  4. [4]

    Clayton, Journal, 10 May 1843; Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 4 June 1843, 40.

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

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

  5. [5]

    Clayton, Journal, 2 June 1843.

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

  6. [6]

    JS spent over a month in the Philadelphia area between mid-December 1839 and late January 1840, after he, Sidney Rigdon, and Elias Higbee visited Washington DC to petition the federal government for redress and reparations. While in Philadelphia, JS organized a branch of the church and presided over a regional conference. Susan Conrad, along with some of her family members, joined the church in Philadelphia in spring 1840. (“Part 2: 8 November 1839–25 January 1840”; Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 23 Dec. 1839 and 13 Jan. 1840, 2; “Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 6–7, 10–11, 14–15; Petition from James B. Nicholson and Others, 22 Apr. 1842; Susan C. Wilkinson Autograph Album, [5–66], CHL; “Deaths,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 11 Apr. 1888, 208.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    Wilkinson, Susan C. Autograph Album. CHL.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  7. [7]

    Clayton, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843.

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

  8. [8]

    By fall 1843, apostles Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Orson Hyde, and Parley P. Pratt had married Lucy Ann Decker, Sarah Perry Peake, Sarah Longstroth, Martha Browitt, and Elizabeth Brotherton, respectively, as plural wives; several other men and women had also entered into plural marriages by this time. (Lucy Ann Decker Young, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 10 July 1869; Sarah Perry Peake Kimball, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 7 Sept. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:48, 82; Obituary of Sarah Longstroth Richards, Obituary Notices and Biographies, CHL; Orson Hyde, Affidavit, Springtown, Sanpete Co., Utah Territory, 15 Sept. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, CHL; “Autobiography of Elizabeth B. Pratt,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Dec. 1890, 19:94–95; Clayton, Journal, 27 Apr. and 26 May 1843; Mercy F. Thompson Autobiographical Sketch, 1880, CHL; Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132].)

    Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.

    Obituary Notices and Biographies, 1854–1877. CHL.

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

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

    Thompson, Mercy Rachel Fielding. Autobiographical Sketch, 1880. CHL. MS 4580.

  9. [9]

    Historical Introduction to Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132].

  10. [10]

    Clayton, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843.

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

  11. [11]

    A 4 November entry in the Philadelphia branch record referred to a “Susan Wilkinson,” indicating that she was married by this time. Her eldest son, Robert Morris Wilkinson, was born in mid-1845. (Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 4 Nov. 1844, 75; Death Certificate for Robert Morris Wilkinson, 19 May 1928, Utah Death and Military Death Certificates, 1904–1961, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    Utah Death Certificates, 1905–1967 / Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Death Certificates, 1905–1967. Utah State Archives Series 81448. Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City. Available at https://archives.utah.gov/.

  12. [12]

    Wilkinson was among a group of Philadelphia branch members who were apparently cut off for sustaining Sidney Rigdon as head of the church in the wake of JS’s June 1844 murder. (Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 4 Nov. 1844, 75; “Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 6; William B. and Susan Wilkinson, U.S. Federal Census, 1850.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    U.S. Federal Census. 1850.

  13. [13]

    Susan C. Wilkinson Autograph Album, [66], CHL; “A Representative Woman: Mary Isabella Horne,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Sept. 1882, 11:59; “Deaths,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 11 April 1888, 16.

    Wilkinson, Susan C. Autograph Album. CHL.

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

Page [2]

I will now, tell you sumthing about your old Friends, in this, <​,​> in so doing, I will try to be a wise servent and as harmless, as a dove, Sister Bangor [Sarah Banger], left the, , in April. and has not come back yet, she is vary friendly, and so is the old gentleman;— Br Pawson, and family would be glad to see you, and in fact all your old friends to[o] numourous to mention, , and, her, daughtors, they have ben tried some what of late; one of the Girls, is vary much apposed to, the doctrin of the Saints, she will not let the old Lady & the others rest becaus they are Mormons, She wants to rule the family, she is not willing that any of the Saints should come to the House, if theair Should come a Lettor to the Office, She wants to see it, least it should come from a Mormon, She watches vary close!!
A few days befor the came to this , I, was cauled upon to visit a. family that was sumwhat troubled in mind!!! Sum person had given them, <​(or her)​> a, <​few,​> word<​s​> of Council, the first cost the giver, 50, ct, and the Last cost the Receiver, 25, ct,
March, the 11th., & June the 2ct. , again, I was cauled upon to explain certin, mistryes &c. they were unable to comprehend, cirten items, made, known, and yet, unknown, I confesed that it was a grate Mistery that, I, could not interpet. altho <​I​> read vary close, the one out of the Church had not read, but the, Three in the, Church read, and, cept [kept] reading, untill, two of them, was about to denie, the faith, , & the Mother!!! Miss. A. has bin the meanes of ceaping [keeping] them in the Church, and sending for, me to explain, after reading, I preached, bore testimony, &c, will you answor it no I cannot think of doing it, you may write if you will. so I copied from the March number a few words thinking to write in a few days, [p. [2]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Jedediah M. Grant, 17 or 18 August 1843
ID #
1143
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:57–64
Handwriting on This Page
  • Jedediah M. Grant

Footnotes

  1. [7]

    See Matthew 10:16.

  2. [8]

    According to the Philadelphia Branch minutes and member records, Banger withdrew from the church for undisclosed reasons on or around 14 April 1842. (Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 14 Apr. 1842, 30; “Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 16–17.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

  3. [9]

    Possibly James Pawson. (“Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 4–5.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

  4. [10]

    Conrad joined the church in 1840 along with at least three daughters and a son. (“Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 6–7, 10–11, 14–15; “Deaths,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 11 Apr. 1888, 208.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  5. [11]

    In 1843, the United States post office charged twenty-five cents postage for letters inscribed on one sheet of paper and mailed over four hundred miles; a letter inscribed on two sheets of paper and mailed over four hundred miles cost fifty cents. (American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, 87–88.)

    The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the Year 1841. Boston: David H. Williams, 1840.

  6. [12]

    Elizabeth Conrad was Susan Conrad’s mother. William Clayton confirmed they were the recipients of these letters in a 31 August journal entry, stating that JS “received a letter from Jedediah M. Grant containing information of Conrads having rec’d a letter &c.” (“Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 6–7, 10–11; “Deaths,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 11 Apr. 1888, 208; Clayton, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

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

  7. [13]

    This likely referred to Susan Conrad’s sister Ann Conrad, who joined the church in May 1840. (“Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 10–11; Petition from James B. Nicholson and Others, 22 Apr. 1842.)

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 1840–1854. Microfilm. CHL. Original at CCLA.

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