Footnotes
JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
“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.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
See Minute Book 1, 19 Mar. 1833. Wood was excommunicated on 3 February 1834 in Pontiac, Michigan Territory, for licentious sexual conduct. Although he was reinstated by 1840, in November of that year he was again excommunicated for “conduct unbecoming a man of God.” He evidently had not sought reinstatement by 1843. (Letter to J. G. Fosdick, 3 Feb. 1834; General Church Recorder, License Record Book, 36; News Item, Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1841, 2:335.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
“Orrin Porter Rockwell,” Daily Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 6 Mar. 1843, [3]; see also “Part 1: March 1843.”
Daily Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1869.
Wood may not have been familiar with the church’s various governing bodies or common church vocabulary, as suggested by his use of “reverend,” a title rarely used by early Latter-day Saints to refer to JS.
See Transcript of Proceedings, 18 Nov. 1843, State of Missouri v. Rockwell (Clay Co. Cir. Ct. 1843), [6], Historical Department, Nineteenth-Century Legal Documents Collection, CHL.
Historical Department. Nineteenth-Century Legal Documents Collection, ca. 1825–1890. CHL. CR 100 339.
Wood may have been referring to the disaffection that followed the excommunication of John C. Bennett in May 1842, when formerly committed Latter-day Saints such as George W. Robinson and Orson Pratt openly dissented from the church due to Bennett’s allegations against JS. (See Discourse, 29 Aug. 1842.)
Agnes Coolbrith Smith.
Following the economic panics of 1837 and 1839, many Americans struggled financially and availed themselves of state and federal relief laws. (See Balleisen, Navigating Failure, introduction and chap. 1; and An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors [14 Mar. 1835], Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri [1834–1835], pp. 330–331, sec. 21.)
Balleisen, Edward J. Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
The Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, Revised and Digested by the Eighth General Assembly, During the Years One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Four, and One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Five. Together with the Constitutions of Missouri and of the United States. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1841.
Newel K. Whitney provided emotional and financial support for Rockwell while he was in hiding in 1842. In early October 1842, Whitney, who was maintaining JS’s store in Nauvoo, recorded in the store’s daybook two entries providing goods to Rockwell. On 1 December 1842, church member Sybella McMinn Armstrong wrote a letter to JS on Rockwell’s behalf, stating that “if Joseph is not at Home Brother Whitney will be kind enough to wr[i]te.” (JS, Daybook, 6 Oct. 1842, 71; Letter from Sybella McMinn Armstrong and Orrin Porter Rockwell, 1 Dec. 1842.)
Smith, Joseph. Daybook, 1842–1844. Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids. Microfilm copy at CHL.