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Memorandum of Deeds, 3 March 1842

Source Note

JS, Memorandum of Deeds, , Hancock Co., IL, 3 Mar. 1842; handwriting of ; one page; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes docket and archival marking.
Single leaf measuring 7⅝ × 6⅜ inches (19 × 16 cm). The memorandum is inscribed on one side of a leaf of ledger paper that has three red vertical lines printed on the right side of both the recto and the verso. The bottom edge of the leaf appears to have been cut by hand. The document was folded in half twice.
The memorandum was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that 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 Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24.

    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.

Historical Introduction

On 3 March 1842 JS’s scribe created or copied a memorandum of deeds in connection with JS’s discussions with concerning the estate of his deceased father, . In September 1837 JS and granted Oliver Granger power of attorney to settle a church debt they owed to a creditor in . In addition to resolving church debts, Granger purchased and managed other church members’ property in , Ohio. In April 1840 Granger and JS entered into an agreement whereby Granger assumed the debts the members of the had contracted on behalf of the church and promised to act as their in satisfying them. Over the course of the following year, Granger traveled to and New York to purchase land, negotiate with creditors, and pay off debts. In August 1841 Granger died in Kirtland from a “protracted and painful” illness, leaving JS and other church leaders uncertain of which debts he had settled.
Prior to his death deeded some of the land he had purchased from church members in to his oldest son, . Following Oliver’s passing, Gilbert claimed possession of his father’s financial papers, some of which JS considered church property. In early March 1842 Gilbert Granger traveled to , Illinois, to meet with JS regarding his father’s estate. Little is known about the nature of the meetings, but according to JS’s journal they commenced on 2 March and continued through the following day. JS’s journal states that the meetings “failed to effect any thing but to get Newels Note. Granger refusing to give up. the papers to the president. which he had rec[e]ived of his father. the same being church property.” JS’s later history added that Granger refused to give up church property even though JS “presented him Deeds, Mortgages and Paper to the amount of some thousands against his Father more than he had against the Church.”
The featured memorandum of deeds was likely produced either in preparation for or during the early March settlement discussions between JS and . It is unclear whether , who inscribed the document, copied a document inscribed by Granger, created the memo from a stack of deeds and other documents supplied by Granger, or created it based on their verbal discussions. The one-page memorandum is a list of deeds, all but the last of which were for properties purchased from various church members between June 1837 and April 1840. The last line of the memorandum concerns a parcel of land that Granger purchased from Oswego County, New York, church members Alonzo and Betsey Reed in October 1840. The dollar amounts inscribed at the end of each line do not match the prices that Granger originally paid for the parcels and are, in most cases, significantly less. This may suggest that JS was trying to buy the land from Gilbert Granger or that Granger was trying to sell the land to JS.
As JS’s 3 March 1842 journal entry indicates, the discussions did not produce JS’s desired outcome. It appears that retained possession of most of the records, including the deeds mentioned in the featured text, during JS’s lifetime.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Power of Attorney to Oliver Granger, 27 Sept. 1837.

  2. [2]

    For example, in 1839 Granger received powers of attorney from two church members, one from Aaron Johnson and another from John W. Clark, to rent out their houses and land in Kirtland. Also, William Marks provided Granger with a power of attorney to manage two Kirtland buildings he owned and receive payments for any debts owed to him. (Aaron Johnson to Oliver Granger, Power of Attorney, 15 Apr. 1839; John W. Clark to Oliver Granger, Power of Attorney, 15 Apr. 1839; William Marks to Oliver Granger, Power of Attorney, 7 May 1839, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.)

    Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Minutes, 12 Apr. 1840; Agreement with Oliver Granger, 29 Apr. 1840.

  4. [4]

    Benjamin Elsworth, Palermo, NY, 18 Oct. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:219–220; Oliver Granger, Kirtland, OH, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 6 July 1840, JS Collection (Supplement), CHL; Letter to Oliver Granger, 26 Jan. 1841; Historical Introduction to Pay Order from Oliver Granger for Samuel Clark, 5 July 1841.

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

  5. [5]

    Historian’s Office, Obituary Notices of Distinguished Persons, 1854–1872, 10–11; Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842. In October 1841 JS appointed Reuben McBride to “take up the power of Attorney which I gave to Oliver Granger” and settle the church’s debts. (Power of Attorney to Reuben McBride, 28 Oct. 1841.)

    Historian’s Office. Obituary Notices of Distinguished Persons, 1854–1872. CHL. MS 3449.

  6. [6]

    Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 34, pp. 157–158, 12 Aug. 1841, microfilm 1,011,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842; George A. Smith and Wilford Woodruff, “A History of This Record,” in Patriarchal Blessings, vol. 1; see also JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1842 and 7 Feb. 1843.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.

  7. [7]

    JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1842; JS History, vol. C-1, 1286.

  8. [8]

    On 2 March 1842 Richards inscribed a memorandum of promissory notes that also appears to be related to JS’s negotiations with Gilbert Granger. (Memorandum of Notes, 2 Mar. 1842, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.)

  9. [9]

    JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1842.

  10. [10]

    Many of these records ended up in the hands of Oliver Granger’s daughter Sarah Granger Kimball and her husband, Hiram Kimball, and remained with the descendants of Hiram Kimball’s brother Phineas Kimball before they were donated to the Church History Library. (See the full bibliographic entry for Hiram Kimball, Collection, 1830–1910, in the CHL catalog.)

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Memorandum of Deeds, 3 March 1842
ID #
1775
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:214–217
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