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Minutes, 27 October 1839

Source Note

high council, Minutes, [, Hancock Co., IL], 27 Oct. 1839. Featured version copied [between 29 Mar. 1840 and 10 Oct. 1841] in Nauvoo High Council Minutes, fair copy, pp. 27–28; handwriting of ; CHL.
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843; fair copy; handwriting of and ; 67 pages; CHL.
Medium-size blank book. The paper, which is ruled with light blue lines (now faded) measures 7½ × 6⅛ inches (19 × 16 cm). The book consists of seven gatherings of between eleven and thirteen leaves each. The book has a brown leather binding; the bound volume measures 7¾ × 6¼ × ½ inches (20 × 16 × 1 cm). The outside covers are adorned with shell marbled paper, with a blue and tan body and veins of brown and yellow. The front and back covers of the volume are pasteboard. “Oliver Cowdery’s Sketch Book January 1836” was written across the front cover in black ink (now faded), and “SKETCH BOOK No 1” was written vertically in black ink on the back cover. The volume contains two flyleaves in both the front and back of the volume. The final flyleaf was ruled by hand and includes instructions for a stucco whitewash.
A Church Historian’s Office label containing an early call number and a brief description of the book’s contents is pasted on the inside front cover of the volume. The first three leaves were left blank and are followed by a short title page that reads “Oliver Cowdery’s Sketch Book, January 1, 1836”. Following the title page, the inscribed pages are numbered 1–88. ’s diary entries are found on pages 1–22. On pages 22–30, recorded fair copies of the Nauvoo high council minutes. Beginning partway down page 30, Hosea Stout took over for Sherwood, continuing to record fair copies of the high council minutes through page 88.
As the original custodian of the book, used it as a diary between 1 January and 27 March 1836. Although the circumstances are unknown, at some point the volume was transmitted to , likely between April 1836 and October 1839. When Sherwood began making copies of high council minutes, he drew upon loose copies of the minutes he had taken while acting as clerk of the high council, a position he held from 20 October 1839 through 19 January 1840. Sherwood may have begun copying the minutes into this book as early as 20 October 1839, the date of the high council’s first meeting. He then recorded the minutes for the high council meetings held between 20 October and 2 November 1839. On or before 9 October 1841, Sherwood transferred the volume to the custody of , who had succeeded Sherwood as clerk of the Nauvoo high council in February 1840. Similarly drawing upon earlier loose minutes, Stout copied into the book minutes for meetings between 1 December 1839 and 20 December 1840. Stout noted a gap existing in the minutes between 2 November and 1 December 1839, stating that the minutes for those meetings had evidently been lost prior to October 1841. Between 9 October 1841 and 14 February 1842, Stout copied minutes through 12 April 1840, providing the date of transcription for each set of minutes. After copying the minutes for 12 April 1840, however, Stout no longer included transcription dates. Evidence suggests that he continued to work on the volume throughout 1842, copying minutes of meetings through probably at least 5–6 September 1840. He likely finished copying the minutes, which run through 20 December 1840, during either 1842 or 1843 and then maintained custody of the book until at least 1845. On 29 January 1845, visited Stout “to learn something about the High Council records” that Stout had arranged, “as they were wanted for in writing the Church History.”
It is unclear whether transferred the record book to in 1845. Richards’s 1846 inventory of historical materials included the “Records of High Council 1–2, & Rough Book,” but it is unclear whether Stout’s book was included in that listing. Other inventories are similarly vague in their description of the high council records, and none includes ’s diary in its descriptions. Although Stout likely turned the volume over to Richards in 1845, the first Church Historian’s Office inventory to specify that the volume was in the office’s custody was one made in 1878 that lists “Nauvoo High Council Record 1836.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Nauvoo High Council, Minutes, 27 Mar. 1840.

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.

  2. [2]

    Stout, Journal, 29 Jan. 1845.

    Stout, Hosea. Journal, Oct. 1844–May 1845. CHL. MS 1910.

  3. [3]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    “Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]; “Historian’s Office. G. S. L. City April 1. 1857,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Inventory G. S. L. City March 19. 1858,” [1]; “Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office. G. S. L. City July 1858,” 8, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  5. [5]

    “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [9], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

Historical Introduction

On 27 October 1839, the met to consider several matters of church business. JS attended the meeting as well, asking the council to reconsider the wages of . On 21 October 1839, Mulholland had been appointed by the high council as a clerk “to attend to the land contracts and other business as may be needed by Joseph Smith Junior.” In accordance with a resolution passed at the ’s general earlier in October, the high council also voted to have JS’s wife select hymns to be published in a new hymnal for the church, replacing an 1835 hymnbook that was published in , Ohio. The high council resolved to help finance the publication of the new hymnal. The council also discussed the need to supply with money for a ferry the church was planning to operate between , Iowa Territory, and the , Illinois, area.
It is unclear who took the original minutes of the meeting. copied the minutes into the high council minute book sometime between 29 March 1840 and 10 October 1841.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The minutes do not state where the high council met. The week before, however, they met in the shop of Dimick Huntington, whose father, William Huntington, was on the high council. Both seem to have been living in Dimick’s cabin located in Nauvoo block 161, lot 1. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, draft, 20 and 21 Oct. 1839; Huntington, Reminiscences and Journal, [23]; JS to Dimick Huntington, Bond, 25 Sept. 1839, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; Miller, “Study of Property Ownership: Nauvoo,” 161.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

    Huntington, Dimick B. Reminiscences and Journal, 1845–1847. Dimick B. Huntington, Journal, 1845–1859. CHL. MS 1419, fd. 1.

    Miller, Rowena J. “Study of Property Ownership: Nauvoo; Original Town of Nauvoo, 1839–1850,” ca. 1965. In Nauvoo Restoration, Inc., Corporate Files, 1839–1992. CHL.

  2. [2]

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25–26.

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839.

  4. [4]

    The 1835 hymnbook was also compiled by Emma Smith and published as A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835).

  5. [5]

    See Agreement with Daniel C. Davis, 21 Oct. 1839.

  6. [6]

    On 29 March 1840, the high council assigned Sherwood to compile the minutes of the meetings held prior to that date. Sherwood continued as the recorder until 10 October 1841, when Hosea Stout began recording minutes. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 30–31, 53–54.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Minutes, 27 October 1839
History Draft [6 August 1838–30 December 1839] History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 27

Octr. 27. 1839—
met according to adjournment— when Joseph Smith Junr informed this Council the wages of his clerk must be reconsidered— Accordingly it was voted <​that​> the wages of be $30'/" pr month during the times of his services as a Clerk—
Voted to discontinue the resolutions of 21 inst respecting the Red Store, that the Markham house supply the place resolved that this Council & Treasurer pay to $150— for that portion of Ferry owned on the side at as pr Charter
Voted that be the person to select hymns— compile & publish a hymnbook for the use of the and that a letter be written to at i[n]forming him of the same and for him to not publish the hymns taken by him from — [p. 27]
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Page 27

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes, 27 October 1839
ID #
8834
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:27–29
Handwriting on This Page
  • Henry G. Sherwood

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Mulholland began working as JS’s clerk in late August or early September 1838 and was paid twenty dollars per month prior to this meeting. Mulholland was also appointed “sub Treasurer” of the church’s business at the 21 October 1839 meeting of the Nauvoo high council. (JS, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838, [3]; see also Historical Introduction to JS, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838; Note, in JS, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838, [5]; and Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

  2. [2]

    The high council minutes of 21 October 1839 do not contain any resolutions referring to a “Red Store.” The “Markham house” was likely Stephen Markham’s residence. In May 1839, Markham was appointed as an agent to JS “to gather up And receive such means in money or otherwise as shall enable us to meet our engagements which are now about to devolve upon us” because of land purchases in the vicinity of Commerce. As of May 1839, Markham was renting a house near Lima, Illinois. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25–27; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, draft, 21 Oct. 1839; Authorization for Stephen Markham, 27 May 1839; Foote, Autobiography, 44.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

    Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.

  3. [3]

    In June 1839, Knight made several purchases of land on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, including part of the town of Montrose and other acreage in the Half-Breed Tract. The rights to the Illinois side of the ferry were apparently secured by George W. Robinson in April 1839 when he, on behalf of JS and his counselors in the First Presidency, purchased land from Isaac Galland. In February 1839, the Illinois legislature gave Galland the rights to operate a ferry across the Mississippi River to Montrose. As part of Robinson’s agreement with Galland, Robinson obtained the rights to the ferry. The purpose for the $150 is not clear. It may have been meant as a payment to Galland for the rights Robinson had obtained, but the minutes suggest it was a payment for the rights of the ferry on the Iowa side of the river. The payment also may have been used to buy necessary equipment for the ferry or to reimburse Knight for money he had provided for the purchase of a horse boat to use as a ferry. The money also may have been meant to defray the monthly salary of Daniel C. Davis, whom the high council had appointed a week earlier to be the “master” of a ferry on the river and who had entered into an agreement with JS for that purpose on 21 October 1839. (Alanson Ripley, “Keokuk,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:24; 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; An Act to Incorporate the Commerce Hotel Company [28 Feb. 1839], Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, p. 154, sec. 11; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 274, 30 Apr. 1839, Hancock County Recorder’s Office, Carthage, IL; Agreement with George W. Robinson, 30 Apr. 1839; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 20 and 21 Oct. 1839, 24, 26–27; Knight, Account Book, 7; Agreement with Daniel C. Davis, 21 Oct. 1839.)

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

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Illinois Office of Secretary of State. Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–1993. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. Draft. CHL.

    Knight, Vinson. Account Book, 1839–1842. Microfilm. CHL.

  4. [4]

    An 1830 revelation instructed Emma Smith “to make a selection of Sacred Hymns as it shall be given thee.” (Revelation, July 1830–C [D&C 25:11].)

  5. [5]

    Before Brigham Young and other members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles left on their mission to England in 1839, they and JS spent several days selecting hymns that Young took with him, apparently in hopes of publishing them. (Kimball, “History,” 111; JS, Journal, 8–20 July 1839.)

    Kimball, Heber C. “History of Heber Chase Kimball by His Own Dictation,” ca. 1842–1856. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 2.

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