The bishopric’s decision is not recorded in the Missouri minute book (Minute Book 2).

Although this may be an accurate number for Kirtland proper, there were also many members in nearby settlements. In contrast, approximately 1,200 church members resided in Missouri at this time. (“The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 110–111.)

The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

Work on the Kirtland temple commenced on 7 June 1833, less than three weeks earlier. (Hyrum Smith, Diary, 7 June 1833, [15]; see also Minutes, 6 June 1833.)

Smith, Hyrum. Diary, Nov. 1832–Apr. 1833. Hyrum Smith, Papers, 1832–ca. 1911. BYU.

For earlier references to the “buffetings of Satan,” see Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78:12]; and Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:21]. What specifically prompted disciplinary action against Peterson is unknown. In August 1831, Peterson was chastened and was apparently stripped of his authority as an elder. He then promptly confessed his sins at a special church conference on 4 August, at which time he was forgiven. In October the next year, another disciplinary matter concerning Peterson was discussed before a conference of high priests and elders, which decided that Lyman Wight should reordain Peterson as an elder. (Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:60]; Minutes, 4 Aug. 1831; Minute Book 2, 2 Oct. 1832.)

Signatures of JS, Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G. Williams, Martin Harris, and Orson Hyde.

Martin Harris had been imprisoned in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and was in the Springville area of Susquehanna County as late as May 1833. Consequently, he had been in Kirtland only a short time when he signed this letter. According to a letter from his brother Emer Harris, Martin had been incarcerated at Montrose, Susquehanna County, for a few days in January 1833 on “a fals charge of slander” until “we got Bail to answer to Cort the Last Monday in Apriel.” The court postponed Harris’s trial date from 30 April to 3 September; though he was not present at the later trial, the court judged in his favor. Apparently neither JS nor any other church member in Kirtland was aware of Harris’s whereabouts or imprisonment. In late March, Sylvester Smith and Harpin Riggs were tasked to “Journey eastward” to find Martin Harris “and make known to him what the Lord is doing in this place.” Emer and Martin were still in the Springville area on 7 May 1833, though they probably left for Kirtland shortly thereafter. Why Martin Harris signed this letter along with the three men who constituted the presidency of the high priesthood is not known. He may have signed it because it discussed matters pertaining to the United Firm, of which Harris was a member, and the publishing activities of the Literary Firm, in which he had an interest. (Emer Harris, Springville, PA, to “Dearly Beloved Brethern,” Brownhelm, OH, 7 May 1833, Harris Family Papers, BYU; Minutes, 23 Mar. 1833–B; Nelson and Harper, “Imprisonment of Martin Harris in 1833,” 113–119.)

Harris Family Papers, 1818–1969. BYU.

Nelson, Mark B., and Steven C. Harper. “The Imprisonment of Martin Harris in 1833.” BYU Studies 45, no. 4 (2006): 113–119.

On 6 June 1833, a conference of high priests nominated and voted to accept Orson Hyde as “a Clerk for the presidency of the High priesthood.” This appears to be the first letter to which Hyde’s name is attached as clerk for the presidency and likely the first time that church leaders in Missouri would have learned of Hyde’s new position. (Minutes, 6 June 1833.)

In January 1833, JS urged Phelps, as the editor of The Evening and the Morning Star, to include more history to help make the Star “more interesting” and warned, “If you do not render it more interesting than at present it will fall.” (Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833.)

TEXT: “[Hole in paper]lation”.

The presidency instructed that after the plat of Zion sent with this letter was properly “laid off and supplied,” church members were to then “lay off another in the same way and so fill up the world in these last days and let every man live in the City for this is the City of Zion.” Each additional settlement was to have a bishop to oversee the consecration-based economy. (Plat of the City of Zion, ca. Early June–25 June 1833.)

See Acts 4:32; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 61 [2 Nephi 1:21]; and Old Testament Revision 1, p. 16 [Moses 7:18].

The “olive leaf” refers to a revelation dictated six months earlier and sent to Jackson County church leaders in January 1833. Two letters of rebuke were also sent with the revelation. On 2 May 1833, JS replied to a previous letter of complaint from Partridge, “begging your pardon for not having addressed you, more particularly in letters which I have written to Zion, for I have always felt, as though a letter written to any one in authority in Zion, would be the property of all, & it mattered but little to whom it was directed.” A subsequent letter from Partridge, the one referred to here (and no longer extant), apparently pointed out specific letters from the presidency to church leaders in Jackson County that had not been shown to him. (Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:1–126]; Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833; Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 14 Jan. 1833; Letter to Edward Partridge, 2 May 1833.)

TEXT: “thing[hole in paper]”.