Images courtesy of Manuscripts and Archives Divison, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Footnotes
“Miss Gould’s Gift to the Public Library,” New York Times, 13 Jan. 1900, BR8.
New York Times. New York City. 1857–.
Bibliothica—Scallawagiana, 35.
Bibliothica—Scallawagiana: Catalogue of a Matchless Collection of Books, Pamphlets, Autographs, Pictures, &c., Relating to Mormonism and the Mormons. . . . [New York City]: no publisher, [1880].
“Miss Gould’s Gift to the Public Library,” New York Times, 13 Jan. 1900, BR8.
New York Times. New York City. 1857–.
Woodward, “First Half Century of Mormonism,” 19.
Woodward, Charles L., comp. “The First Half Century of Mormonism. Papers, Engravings, Photographs, and Autograph Letters,” ca. 1880. Scrapbook. New York Public Library, New York City.
Footnotes
Letter from John E. Page, 8 Aug. 1842. For reference, communications from Philadelphia to Nauvoo took around two or three weeks. (See, for example, Historical Introduction to Petition from James B. Nicholson and Others, 22 Apr. 1842.)
Church member Edward Hunter relocated from Pennsylvania to Nauvoo in June 1842. On 10 May 1842, Hunter had sent JS a letter from Pennsylvania proposing to ship goods to Nauvoo; the “articles” referred to here are likely the goods Hunter proposed to send. (Hunter, Edward Hunter, 317–318; Letter from Edward Hunter, 10 May 1842.)
Hunter, William E. Edward Hunter: Faithful Steward. [Salt Lake City]: Mrs. William E. Hunter, 1970.
At the church’s April 1842 general conference, Page had been assigned to proselytize in Pittsburgh. The 1 July 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons stated that, according to Page, “the cause is progressing” in Pittsburgh “and that there is every prospect of a plentiful harvest in that city and the region round about.” (Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 Apr. 1842; Times and Seasons, 1 July 1842, 3:843.)
Nails were classified both according to their length and according to their weight. Although Clayton generally used an “s” to designate the length, the common abbreviation was “d,” the English symbol for a penny. According to one construction manual, “the origin of the designation is generally assumed to be in the old system of weights, the nails being made with as many pennyweights of metal as the number indicates.” The length of the nails went from 3 inches for a 10d nail to 1¼ inches for a 3d nail. JS may have made this request because Page was friends with Richard Savary in Pittsburgh, who was “a maker of all kinds of nails and vender of Nails and Iron of all kinds.” (Blackall, Builders’ Hardware, 13; Loveday, Rise and Decline of the American Cut Nail Industry, 4; John E. Page, Pittsburgh, PA, to Edward Hunter, Nauvoo, IL, 3 June 1842, Edward Hunter, Collection, CHL.)
Blackall, Clarence H. Builders’ Hardware: A Manual for Architects, Builders, and House Finishers. Boston: Ticknor, 1890.
Loveday, Amos J., Jr. The Rise and Decline of the American Cut Nail Industry: A Study of the Interrelationships of Technology, Business Organization, and Management Techniques. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983.
Hunter, Edward. Collection, ca. 1798–1965. Photocopy and typescript. CHL.
Brads were a specific type of nail “used in floors and other work, where it is deemed proper to drive nails entirely into the wood.” The word Groces appears to be an alternate (and pluralized) spelling of gross, meaning twelve dozen. (“Brad,” in American Dictionary [1828]; “Gross,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 4:445.)
An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
To obtain stone for the construction of the Nauvoo temple, the Saints blasted large limestone beds in the city, with the main bed being at the city’s north end. (McBride, House for the Most High, 21–23.)
McBride, Matthew. A House for the Most High: The Story of the Original Nauvoo Temple. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007.
For more information on Bennett’s conduct and how JSs responded to it, see Letter to the Church and Others, 23 June 1842; and Times and Seasons, 1 July 1842.
Likely an abbreviation for “Everlasting Covenant,” which was often used in the closing lines of church members’ correspondence. (See, for example, Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, between 22 and 28 May 1838; Letter from Alphonso Young, 6 May 1842; and Letter from Mephibosheth Sirrine, 25 May 1842.)