Footnotes
Mulholland inscribed a “1” on minutes of a 26 April 1839 meeting and a “2” on minutes of a 24 April 1839 meeting. (Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 24 and 26 Apr. 1839.)
Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL
Footnotes
Woodruff, Journal, 4 May 1839.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
John Smith and Don Carlos Smith, Kirtland Mills, OH, to George A. Smith, Shinnston, VA, 15–18 Jan. 1838, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL; see also Historical Introduction to Pay Order to Edward Partridge for William Smith, 21 Feb. 1838.
Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.
According to a later reminiscence of Edward Stevenson, who was nineteen years old at the time of the meeting, JS stood in silence on an open wagon for an unusual amount of time before he began to speak. According to Stevenson, JS began his discourse by expressing his emotions upon being reunited with the Saints: “To look over this Congregation of Latter Day Saints who have been driven from their homes and still in good faith without homes as pilgrims in a strange land and to realize that my life has been spared to behold your faces again seemed to me so great a pleasure that the present scene was so great a sattisfaction that words seemed only a vague expression of my soul’s grattitude.” (Stevenson, Autobiography, 129–130.)
Stevenson, Edward. Autobiography, ca. 1891–1893. Edward Stevenson, Collection, 1849–1922. CHL. MS 4806, box 5, fd. 1.
At this time, the church was considering purchasing land from Isaac Galland in Iowa Territory. Although no deed records indicate purchases were completed before the conference, Vinson Knight, a land agent for the church, apparently purchased shares in a “Half Breed Land Company” from Galland on 1 May 1839. These shares entitled Knight to purchase land in the “Half-Breed Tract” in Lee County, Iowa Territory, when the land was sold at public auction. (Kilbourne, Strictures, on Dr. I. Galland’s Pamphlet, 9; see also Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Alanson Ripley, Statements, ca. Jan. 1845, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, 1839–1860, CHL; and Woodruff, Journal, 21 May 1839.)
Kilbourne, David W. Strictures, on Dr. I. Galland’s Pamphlet, Entitled, “Villainy Exposed,” with Some Account of His Transactions in Lands of the Sac and Fox Reservation, etc., in Lee County, Iowa. Fort Madison, IA: Statesman Office, 1850.
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
While imprisoned in Liberty, Missouri, in winter 1838–1839, JS suggested that a committee be formed to gather anti-Mormon publications. JS later clarified that Babbitt and Snow were to gather anti-Mormon publications and other historical materials and that Thompson was to use these materials to draft a history that refuted libelous claims. Because of illness and other church assignments, Thompson was unable to complete the history before dying in 1841. (Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839; Snow, Journal, 1838–1841, 50–54; Authorization for Almon Babbitt et al., ca. 4 May 1839.)
Snow, Erastus. Journals, 1835–1851; 1856–1857. CHL. MS 1329, box 1, fds. 1–3.
Knight was appointed as acting bishop at Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, on 28 June 1838, before the Saints were forced to leave Missouri. The term “full Bishopric” may indicate he was appointed at this meeting to serve in an official capacity instead of as an acting bishop. In the October 1839 general conference, Knight was appointed as one of Commerce’s three bishops. (See Minutes, 28 June 1838; and Minutes, 5–7 Oct. 1839, in Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30–31.)