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Letter to Sirs, 1 April 1843

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to “Sirs,” [, Jo Daviess Co., IL], 1 Apr. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 1 Apr. 1843]; handwriting of ; signature of JS in the handwriting of ; one page; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes docket and archival marking.
One leaf measuring 10 × 8 inches (25 × 20 cm) and ruled with twenty-six horizontal gray lines on both sides. The document was folded twice horizontally for filing.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1842 to 1844. In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that Whitney kept, was inherited by Newel K. and ’s daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who was married to Isaac Groo. The documents were passed down within the Groo family. Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

  2. [2]

    Willard Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  3. [3]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.

    Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.

    Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.

Historical Introduction

On 1 April 1843 in , Illinois, JS composed a letter to theater performers, identified only as “Sirs,” responding to their earlier inquiry written from , Illinois, about the possibility of performing in Nauvoo. It appears that neither the 20 March 1843 letter of inquiry nor JS’s original reply is extant; the version of the response featured here is a copy made by JS’s scribe on or about 1 April. On the verso of the copy, Clayton wrote a docket that may read “To Lyman Powell” or, more likely, “To Lyne an[d] Powell,” possibly referring to Thomas A. Lyne and a “Mr. Powell,” who performed together in 1842 in , Illinois.
In the letter featured here, JS stated that he had no objections to theater performances provided that public shows complied with an ordinance passed by the City Council in July 1842 regulating such performances. The letter was probably composed in JS’s office, where JS and worked on the morning of 1 April 1843. Clayton signed JS’s name on the retained copy and added his own signature as scribe. The letter was presumably then sent. Lyne visited Nauvoo in April 1844, perhaps in response to the encouragement expressed in this letter. While in the city, he performed in the theater production Pizzaro, or The Death of Rolla and was into the . It is unknown if Powell responded to this letter, as no reply has been located.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The docket on the retained copy of the letter, featured here, includes “Galena” as the intended recipients’ location.

  2. [2]

    Lyne and Powell’s company briefly performed in Chicago’s Rialto Theater in August 1842. (McVicker, Theatre, 48–49; Sherman, Chicago Stage, 67–77, 447; Briggs and Briggs, “Early Theater in Chicago,” 171–172.)

    McVicker, J. H. The Theatre; Its Early Days in Chicago. Chicago: Knight and Leonard, 1884.

    Sherman, Robert L. Chicago Stage: Its Records and Achievements. Vol. 1. Chicago: By the author, 1947.

    Briggs, Harold E., and Ernestine B. Briggs. “The Early Theater in Chicago.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 39, no. 2 (June 1946): 165–178.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 1 Apr. 1843.

  4. [4]

    Clayton similarly signed earlier letters written on JS’s behalf. (See, for example, Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 30 June 1842; and Letter to Richard M. Young, 23 Dec. 1842.)

  5. [5]

    “Nauvoo Theatre,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 1 May 1844, [2]; Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Pittsburgh Branch, Church Records, 1838–1919, p. 1, microfilm, 1,927,909, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; see also Carmack, “Seven Ages of Thomas Lyne,” 53–72.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Carmack, Noel A. “The Seven Ages of Thomas Lyne: A Tragedian among the Mormons.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 14 (1994): 53–72.

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Sirs, 1 April 1843
ID #
1025
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:134–136
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