Footnotes
Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, p. [i]; “Mormonism in Ohio,” Aurora (New Lisbon, OH), 19 Jan. 1837, [3]. This was one of a few stores opened in the Kirtland area between 1835 and 1836. Reynolds Cahoon, Jared Carter, and Hyrum Smith started a store, sometimes referred to as the “Committee Store,” under the mercantile firm of Cahoon, Carter & Co. in June 1835. John F. Boynton and Lyman Johnson began their own dry goods store by 1837. (Advertisement, Northern Times, 9 Oct. 1835, [4]; Pratt, Account Book and Autobiography, Oct. 1836–Jan. 1837; Cowdery, Docket Book, 86, 98, 219, 224.)
Aurora. New Lisbon, OH. 1835–1837.
Northern Times. Kirtland, OH. 1835–[1836?].
Pratt, Orson. Account Book and Autobiography, 1833, 1836–1837. CHL.
Cowdery, Oliver. Docket Book, June–Sept. 1837. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
These goods included items ranging from pocketknives and washboards to shoes, fabric, and books. Some of these goods were likely purchased wholesale from merchants in New York City and Buffalo, New York. Receipts and invoices for the mercantile firms of Rigdon, Smith & Co; Cahoon, Carter & Co.; and H. Smith & Co. document purchasing agents’ trips to Buffalo in June 1836 and New York City in October 1836 to obtain goods for the stores in Kirtland and Chester. (Buffalo and New York City Invoices, June and Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)
JS Office Papers / Joseph Smith Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845. CHL. MS 21600.
Historical Introduction to Letter from Newel K. Whitney, 20 Apr. 1837.
Letter from Emma Smith, 3 May 1837. Emma Smith, Newel K. Whitney, and Wilford Woodruff each mentioned unidentified enemies threatening JS’s life in April and May 1837. (See Letter from Newel K. Whitney, 20 Apr. 1837; Letter from Emma Smith, 25 Apr. 1837; and Woodruff, Journal, 13 Apr. 1837; see also Introduction to Part 6: 20 Apr.–14 Sept. 1837.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
For more on JS’s absence from Kirtland, see Historical Introduction to Letter from Newel K. Whitney, 20 Apr. 1837. According to extant records, JS took out two bills of goods from the Chester store during this six-day period. One is dated 22 May, the same day he made the list of promissory notes, and the other includes three different dates: 19 May, 22 May, and 24 May. (“Bill of Goods Taken from the Chester Store,” 20 May 1837, JS Collection, CHL; “Bill of Goods Taken from the Chester Store,” 19–24 May 1837, JS Office Papers, CHL.)
Coffin, Progressive Exercises in Book Keeping, 60; “Receivable,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 8:231.
Coffin, James H. Progressive Exercises in Book Keeping, by Single and Double Entry. Greenfield, MA: A. Phelps, 1836.
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Three of the individuals named in the list have not been identified: E. Bevin, G. Kirkndall, and G. Coates. Samuel McBride may have been a relation of church member Reuben McBride, but no documentation indicates whether he too was a Mormon.
These were Sidney Rigdon, Samuel Smith, Alexander Badlam, and Edson Barney. (Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, pp. 5, 21, 31, 50.)
There is also a possibility that individuals buying goods from the store paid using promissory notes from other individuals. Promissory notes were negotiable and could be transferred from one person to another until paid. As specie and credible currency became scarcer in the Panic of 1837, and as skepticism increased toward the notes of the Kirtland Safety Society, promissory notes would have served as a replacement for other circulating mediums.
A list of Notes | $ | c[en]t |
taken from the store May 22. 1837 | ||
" J[ohn] B. Carpenter $52.00. = d[itt]o $44.20. = —— | 96 | 20 |
" .s $58.43. = do 50.63. = do 5.51. = | 114 | 57 |
" 25.16 26.75. = Samuel McBride $4.25 6.16 | 29 32 | 20 94 |
" $24.74. = do $16.21. = —— | 30 | 95 |
" $3.00 4.69. = do $6.63.—— | 19 11 | 63 32 |
" $5.75. = A[braham] Wood $2.43 = — | 8 | 18 |
" E. Bevin $13.52. = H[iram] Stratton $4.92. = | 18 | 44 |
" $50.00. = $251.53. = | 301 | 53 |
" Horace Burgess $11.00. = do $3.82 = —— | 14 | 82 |
" $8.08. = 6.37. = —— | 14 | 45 |
" G. Kirkndall $6.00. = $65.12.— | 71 | 12 |
" $13.49. = $15.47. = | 28 | 96 |
" L. Fisk $2.13. = 11.95. = G. Cortes [Coates?] $6.12 | 20 | 20 |
Amt. | $763 | 68 |
The “d[itt]o” used here indicates that the second amount listed in that row was another promissory note from the same individual.
The account for Edson Barney in the Chester store ledger lists a credit on the account in the amount of $58.43, paid for goods purchased 16 January 1837, but does not specify how or when the payment was made. (Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, p. 50.)
TEXT: “29” written over “39” and then canceled by implication when revised to “32”.
Rigdon was a partner in the firm running the Chester store. His account in the ledger lists $408.15 in goods purchased on credit from 28 September 1836 to April 1837. It is likely that his partnership allowed him to receive more store credit than was extended to others. The $50 note listed here does not appear in the ledger book, and no payments are recorded for his account. (Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, p. 5.)
The store ledger account for Samuel Smith records goods purchased to the amount of $251.53 on 21 November and 26 December, payments on the account totaling $253.33, and a note that indicates the account was settled on 3 March 1837, likely by the promissory note listed here. (Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, p. 21.)
Alexander Badlam’s account in the Chester store ledger records a charge of $84.40 and a credit of $50. Badlam’s account was settled by a note on 17 April 1837. It is not clear if the note in this list is the same as the one that settled the account or not. Within the ledger, Badlam was also listed as the individual receiving payments settling several store accounts on 23 June 1837. This may indicate that Badlam was working as an agent for the mercantile firm of Rigdon, Smith & Co. and may have helped resolve outstanding debts after May 1837. (Rigdon, Smith & Co., Store Ledger, Sept. 1836–May 1837, pp. 31, 52, 56, 69.)
Possibly Hezekiah, Alfred, or Sterry Fisk. (Backman, Profile, 25.)
Backman, Milton V., Jr., comp. A Profile of Latter-day Saints of Kirtland, Ohio, and Members of Zion’s Camp, 1830–1839: Vital Statistics and Sources. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Department of Church History and Doctrine and Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1983.