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Letter from Joseph Tippets, 2 April 1843

Source Note

, Letter, between and , [Hancock Co., IL], to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 2 Apr. 1843; handwriting presumably of ; four pages; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes address and archival marking.
Bifolium measuring 12½ × 7½ inches (32 × 19 cm) and ruled with thirty-two horizontal gray lines. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. The letter was refolded for filing.
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 Newel K. 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]

    Willard 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.

  2. [2]

    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 2 April 1843, Latter-day Saint wrote a letter to JS seeking counsel in the wake of his misfortunes. Tippets had joined the in the early 1830s in and, along with his extended family, had contributed substantial resources and labor toward building the in , Ohio, and purchasing land for the church in . With other church members, Tippets was expelled from Missouri in 1839 and relocated to . His first wife, Rosalia Elvira Perry, died in 1841, leaving him to raise two children on his own. In June 1842, he married Amanda Melvina Perry, Rosalia’s sister. In 1843 he lost his home in , Illinois, to fire. Emphasizing his faithfulness in paying to the church, in the letter featured here Tippets mentioned a blessing he had received from and asked JS when the prosperity it promised would be realized.
wrote the letter from the home of his father-in-law, , located in , “about fore miles from and about five from .” The letter lacks any postage marks, indicating that Tippets sent it to with a courier or delivered it himself, presumably when he attended the church’s April 1843 . There is no known reply.

Page [4]

of wheet and about twenty five or thurty bushels of oats I have paid my for <​the​> past year with an excepttion of a tenth of the corn, I have ben perticular in giving you a history of my concerns for the past and presant, and wish to ask your counsyl for the future if you can give me counsyl that will put me in the way of prospirity it will be received as a precious morcel and will make me happy endeed, I often think of the Choice blssings that ware pronounced uppon my hed buy and when the enemy of my soul pores forth his floods of trouble upon me I am led to cry out when shall these things be fullfilled will you help me brother Joseph buy your counsyl and prayrs that I may over come,
I am as ever your sinceer friend
I shal be at the ,
Joseph Smith [p. [4]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Joseph Tippets, 2 April 1843
ID #
1029
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:145–150
Handwriting on This Page
  • Joseph Tippets

Footnotes

  1. [21]

    In September 1842, Tippets donated “$20. on his tithing. It being in part of a Waggon & Horse value $100.” (Book of the Law of the Lord, 160.)

  2. [22]

    Tippets may have been referring to a blessing he received in 1835 after he helped build the House of the Lord in Kirtland; however, it is uncertain whether Joseph Smith Sr. gave that blessing. It is also possible that Tippets was referring to a patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith Sr.—who was ordained church patriarch in 1834 and died in 1840—although no record of such a blessing is extant. (Minutes and Discourses, 7–8 Mar. 1835; see also Historical Introduction to Blessing from Joseph Smith Sr., 9 Dec. 1834; and Eliza R. Snow, “Elegy,” Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:190.)

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

  3. [23]

    The church’s conference was scheduled to begin on 6 April 1843. (See Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 Apr. 1843.)

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