This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Footnotes
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery to Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Receipt, 10 Nov. 1964, Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Records, 1952–1967, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles; see also the archival notations on the folder housing the featured document at Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Records, 1952–1967. Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles.
Footnotes
In April 1840, the Nauvoo high council appointed Granger to “settle some buisness transactions for the church” in the eastern United States. JS then signed an agreement with Granger instructing him to “use all necessary dilligence” in settling debts JS and his counselors in the First Presidency had contracted in New York and Ohio. (Minutes, 12 Apr. 1840; Agreement with Oliver Granger, 29 Apr. 1840.)
JS was responsible for several outstanding debts to merchants in both New York City and Buffalo, New York. These debts, most of which originated from promissory notes produced in 1836 and 1837 and some of which had been renegotiated in 1839, were owed to prominent wholesale mercantile institutions such as Halstead, Haines & Co.; Keeler, McNeil & Co.; Leavitt, Lord & Co.; and Hempsted & Keeler. (“Schedule Setting Forth a List of Petitioners,” ca. 15–16 Apr. 1842, CCLA; Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838.)
“Schedule Setting Forth a List of Petitioner[’]s Creditors, Their Residence, and the Amount Due to Each,” ca. 15–16 Apr. 1842. CCLA.
To provide collateral for payments on debts that JS and others owed, the Kirtland House of the Lord was placed under mortgage in July 1837 to Mead, Stafford & Co. Three promissory notes were due in July 1838, 1839, and 1840 to reclaim the temple; this letter indicates that Granger successfully paid the notes. In February 1841, Granger and his wife, Lydia Dibble Granger, conveyed ten acres of land in Palermo, New York, to Zalmon and Robert Mead for $300, which may have served as a partial payment on the debt. (Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 33, pp. 115–116, 22 Feb. 1841, microfilm 1,011,773, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
A week before this letter was written, a JS revelation mandated the construction of two large buildings in Nauvoo—a temple and a boardinghouse called the “Nauvoo House.” The Nauvoo House was envisioned to be “a delightful habitation for man, and a resting place for the weary traveller.” According to a letter JS wrote to the Twelve Apostles, the temple would “be considerably larger and on a more magnificent scale than the one in Kirtland” and would “undoubtedly attract the attentio[n] of the great men of the earth.” JS also told the Twelve he was hoping “Cotton Factories, Founderies, Potteries &c &c” would be established in Nauvoo. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:55, 60]; Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.)