Footnotes
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 8; see also the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection in the CHL catalog.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.
Footnotes
Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 247, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 31–32, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Agreement with George W. Robinson, 30 Apr. 1839; Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds (South, Keokuk), vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 270–275; Leonard, Nauvoo, 58; Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.
Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
See, for example, Letter to Father Bigler, 27 May 1839; and Minutes and Discourse, 6–8 Apr. 1840.
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25–26; “Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32. JS was also responsible for ensuring that town plot rails—lengths of wood used in constructing fences—were apportioned properly and that anyone who took the rails without authorization either returned the rails or paid for them. Meanwhile, in March 1840, the Nauvoo high council designated JS and his counselors in the First Presidency as the proper body “to Superintend the affairs of the Ferry” over the Mississippi River. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 15 Mar. and 2 May 1840, 50, 58.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Thompson made a third copy of the memorial, which closely follows the copy featured here, in JS Letterbook 2 sometime before he died in August 1841. (JS, Memorial, 18 June 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 148–149; “Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:519.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The other Thompson copy does not include the phrase “and at considerable distances from each other.” Many church members forced from Missouri moved to Quincy, Illinois. Others moved elsewhere in Illinois and across the Mississippi River to Iowa Territory. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Leonard, Nauvoo, 33–34; Alanson Ripley, “Keokuk,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:24; [Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney], “A Leaf from an Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Nov. 1878, 7:91; JS, Journal, 15–17 June 1839.)
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
In April 1839, JS and his fellow prisoners in Missouri escaped while traveling to Boone County, Missouri, for trial. (Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 25–26; Lyman Wight, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 31–32, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; JS, “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” Times and Seasons, July 1839, 1:7.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That after the release of your memorialist from prison he immediately took such steps by direction of the Conference as has secured to the church the present Locations viz the Town plat of Nauvoo and lands in the Iowa.” Two conferences of the church in spring 1839 dealt with land purchases. At the 24 April 1839 conference, for example, JS was appointed as part of a committee to “visit the Iaway Territory immediately” to investigate purchasing property. According to JS’s journal, after this appointment he “went to Ioway made purchases & returned.” On 30 April 1839, the church also purchased from Isaac Galland and Hugh White around 177 acres, which was part of what would later constitute Nauvoo, in the Commerce, Illinois, area. In May and June 1839, the church acquired nearly 18,000 acres of land within what was known as the Half-Breed Tract in Iowa Territory. In August 1839, JS and his counselors in the First Presidency bought land at Commerce from Horace Hotchkiss, John Gillet, and Smith Tuttle. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; JS, Journal, 24 Apr.–3 May 1839; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 247, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 31–32, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776; Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; JS History, vol. C-1, 931–932; Leonard, Nauvoo, 58; Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.)
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
At a 24 April 1839 meeting, the council resolved that church members should gather to Commerce “as soon as they possibly can.” A general conference of the church in October 1839 unanimously voted that Commerce “should be appointed a stake and a place of gathering for the saints.” (Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839.)
This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That in order to secure said lands your Memorialist had to become responsible for the payment of the purchase money and had to use considerable exertion in order to commence a Settlement of the Saints and a place of gathering, knowing that from the Constitution and laws of the Church it was absolutely necessary to have a place for the gathering: the well being of the Church called for it, so that the constituted authorities could meet together to settle differences and legislate for the good of the whole society.” (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Alanson Ripley, “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:123.)
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.