Footnotes

1. [1]

   Savary, Genealogical and Biographical Record of the Savery Families, 62; Savary, Savery and Severy Genealogy, 18; Patent for Richard Savary, “Machine for Making Wrought Spikes and Nails,” 2 Apr. 1838, patent no. 664; Patent for Richard Savary, “Improved Process of Uniting Iron and Steel with Copper, Brass, &c.,” 11 Aug. 1863, patent no. 39,531, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Full-Text and Image Database, U.S. Department of Commerce; John E. Page, Pittsburgh, PA, to Edward Hunter, 3 June 1842, Edward Hunter, Collection, 1816–1884, CHL. Savary’s references to Enlightenment ideas and the irrationality of religious passions and his skepticism regarding the divinity of the Bible are consistent with the tenets of a deist religious philosophy. Most deists believed in a god who created the universe and set it in motion but no longer maintained an active presence in human affairs. Deists dismissed notions of providence, miracles, or revelation and therefore rejected the divinity of Jesus and the Bible as a manifestation of God’s will. For many deists, reason—not supernatural or biblical revelation—was the principal source of knowledge. (Schlereth, Age of Infidels, 4–5, 8; McBride, Pulpit and Nation, 135–137; Porterfield, Conceived in Doubt, 26, 97.)

   Savary, A. W. A Genealogical and Biographical Record of the Savery Families (Savory and Savary) and of the Severy Family (Severit, Savery, Savory, and Savary). . . . Boston: Collins Press, 1893.

   Savary, A. W. Savery and Severy Genealogy (Savory and Savary): A Supplement to the Genealogical and Biographical Record Published in 1893, Comprising Families Omitted in That Work, and Other Notes, Additions, and Corrections; Being a Continuation of the Notes, Additions, and Corrections in the Original Work from Page XX. Boston: Fort Hill Press, 1905.

   U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent Full-Text and Image Database, 1790–. U.S. Department of Commerce. Accessed 8 May 2017. http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/ PTO/index.html.

   Hunter, Edward. Collection, ca. 1798–1965. Photocopy and typescript. CHL.

   Schlereth, Eric R. An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States. Early American Studies Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

   McBride, Spencer W. Pulpit and Nation: Clergymen and the Politics of Revolutionary America. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017.

   Porterfield, Amanda. Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

2. [2]

   Letter from George Gee, 30 Dec. 1841; Letter from Levick Sturges et al., 30 Jan. 1842.

3. [3]

   Letter from Levick Sturges et al., 30 Jan. 1842; see also Petition from Richard Savary et al., ca. 2 Feb. 1842. Likely referring to Page and Gee, a local newspaper noted, “A number of preachers of this sect have lately been holding forth in our city, and on Sunday afternoon last baptised the results of their labors—four converts, one of them a journeyman baker on Wood street, the remainder young ladies. These were all taken to the Allegheny river, at the foot of Wayne street, and introduced to the church of Latter Day Saints, by being pitched head foremost into the muddy waters, amid the cheers of some thousands of our citizens!” (“The Mormons,” Iron City, and Pittsburgh Weekly Chronicle, 12 Feb. 1842, [4], italics in original.)

   Iron City, and Pittsburgh Weekly Chronicle. Pittsburgh. 1841–1845.

4. [4]

   Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:732. It is possible that JS responded to Savary in a separate, nonextant letter and that the printed response in the Times and Seasons was merely excerpted from that correspondence.

5. [5]

   Savary, Savery and Severy Genealogy, 18; Entry for Samuel Fields, in Sloan and Richards, “Record of the Names of the Members . . . and Date of Certificate,” 1841–1845, [9].

   Savary, A. W. Savery and Severy Genealogy (Savory and Savary): A Supplement to the Genealogical and Biographical Record Published in 1893, Comprising Families Omitted in That Work, and Other Notes, Additions, and Corrections; Being a Continuation of the Notes, Additions, and Corrections in the Original Work from Page XX. Boston: Fort Hill Press, 1905.

   Sloan, James, and Willard Richards. “A Record of the Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Who Have Handed In Certificates, with the Names of the Persons, and Their Office, Who Gave Same, Also the Branch from Which They Came, and Date of Certificate.” Oct. 1841–Jan. 1846. In Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 1837–1838, 1840–1846, 1862. CHL.