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Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 18 August 1841

Source Note

, Letter, , New York Co., NY, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 18 Aug. 1841; handwriting of ; two pages; BYU. Includes address, postal stamps, postal notations, and docket.
Bifolium measuring 9⅞ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm) and ruled with twenty-eight horizontal blue lines that are now faded. An embossed logo for a paper mill appears in the top left corner of the first page and reads “Southworth Co., Springfield”. The letter was written on the recto and verso of the first leaf. The bifolium was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The second leaf was torn, likely when the letter was opened. The letter was later folded for filing.
A docket in the handwriting of , who served in a clerical capacity for JS from 1841 to 1842, appears on the verso of the second leaf. The first page is torn along the top horizontal fold. According to a notation on a photocopy of this document, the letter was acquired at an auction in 1964 by Brigham Young University, where it remains as part of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See John S. Fullmer, [Nauvoo, IL], to George D. Fullmer, Nashville, TN, 28 Mar. 1841, in Fullmer, Letterbook, 124; Letter to Smith Tuttle, 9 Oct. 1841; and JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Isaac Galland, [Keokuk, Iowa Territory], 17 Jan. 1842, JS Collection, CHL.

    Fullmer, John S. Letterbook, 1836–1881. John S. Fullmer Journal and Letterbook, 1836–1881. CHL.

Historical Introduction

wrote this letter to JS on 18 August 1841 in regarding his intention to buy land near , Illinois. The letter followed up on a previous communication Bernhisel sent to JS on this same subject. In that earlier letter, Bernhisel included a certificate of deposit for $425 to be used for procuring land on his behalf. To confirm JS’s receipt of the deposit, Bernhisel sent the letter featured here and another nonextant communication to an “Elder Kimball,” likely . Though JS answered Bernhisel’s first letter in a communication dated 3 August 1841, evidently Bernhisel had not yet received it. That letter was intended primarily to inform Bernhisel that JS had indeed received his letter and deposit.
A docket in the handwriting of JS’s clerk indicates that JS received this 18 August letter. JS also received an additional letter from less than a month later. JS responded to both letters in mid-November 1841.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841.

  2. [2]

    Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 3 Aug. 1841.

  3. [3]

    See Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841.

  4. [4]

    See Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841.

Page [2]

and a small piece of ground near the may be better than a larger one at a greater distance from it You will greatly oblige me by writing immediately after making the purchase, if time and other avocations will permit. Henry Moore arrived here from some ten or twelve days ago, and intends to take his departure for the west about the middle of next month— I hope you will have the kindness to excuse <​me​> for again trespassing on your precious time—
[W]ith perfect respect I am yours in the Gospel
176 Hudson street [p. [2]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 18 August 1841
ID #
673
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D8:231–233
Handwriting on This Page
  • John M. Bernhisel

Footnotes

  1. [5]

    Bernhisel had previously clarified that he preferred more land and timber over proximity to the city center, which led JS to look in the prairie for a suitable tract of land. (Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841.)

  2. [6]

    Henry Moore joined the church in England and was one of the first British converts to sail for America. Moore had arrived in New York a year earlier in July 1840 aboard the ship Britannia. He was in Nauvoo by December 1840, when he entered a financial agreement with JS. It is likely that when Moore returned to New York in the summer of 1841, Bernhisel mistakenly designated his return as his arrival from England. A recent shipload of Saints had arrived in New York on the Rochester, including Wilford Woodruff, with whom Moore and his wife, Mary, departed to Nauvoo on 9 September 1841. (JS History, vol. C-1, 1061; “Emigration,” Millennial Star, Sept. 1840, 1:136; JS, Agreement with Henry Moore, Hancock Co., IL, 23 Dec. 1840, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; Woodruff, Journal, 9 Sept. 1841.)

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

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

  3. [7]

    This address was located on the lower west side of Manhattan Island.

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