Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, as Recorded in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, Page 175
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Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, as Recorded in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book

Source Note

Nauvoo City Council, Ordinance, , Hancock Co., IL, 1 June 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 1 June 1843] in “A Record of the Proceedings of the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, Handcock County, State of Illinois, Commencing A.D. 1841,” Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1841–1845, 1 June 1843, pp. 175–176; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1841–1845.

Historical Introduction

On 1 June 1843, the City Council conducted financial business and passed two ordinances, one of which authorized JS to establish and operate a ferry out of Nauvoo, Illinois. A month earlier, JS had initiated plans to turn the steamboat Maid of Iowa “into a Nauvoo Ferry boat.” Steamboats were essential for the transit of people and goods to Nauvoo, but in Nauvoo felt “abused and imposed upon by some of the other boats” operating on the , the ’s busiest commercial waterway. JS sought to accommodate his community and the immigrants arriving from abroad by operating a ferry. On 12 May 1843, JS “purchased 1/2 of the Steamer,” and “ commenced running said boat between Nauvoo. & as a ferry boat” the same day.
A week after the Maid of Iowa purchase, JS “gave a warrant agai[n]st for running a boat on the Ferry.” Fuller was charged with illegally operating a boat at the ferry landing where JS owned ferrying privileges. Ferry rights at (later) were granted by the state legislature in 1839, and JS acquired all of the “right, title, interest, claim in and to the ferry privileges” in 1841. The charges against Fuller ended in a on 24 May 1843 because JS did not give him sufficient notice to cease his operation. It is possible that Fuller’s operation prompted the City Council to discuss and pass an ordinance regulating the ferry.
On 31 May, JS instructed to “draft a city charter for the ferry.” Later that evening the city council discussed a bill “for an Ordinance for a Ferry.” The city council adjourned to the next day, 1 June, when it again discussed and then passed the ferry ordinance. The city ordinance “to establish a Ferry across the , at the City of ” had five sections. Section 1 provided JS with sole authorization and license to run a ferry for commercial purposes for the “term of perpetual succession,” as well as control of the docks where the Maid of Iowa and other boats would bring passengers and goods to Nauvoo. Section 2 required JS to provide “speedy and safe transportation of all passengers”—along with their animals and personal property—and to provide enough employees to manage the operation. Section 3 designated any rival operation unlawful and subject to financial penalties and seizure of watercraft. Section 4 subjected the ferry rates and management to further city ordinances. Section 5 stated that the ordinance would take effect upon passage by the city council.
city recorder drafted a copy of the ordinance on a loose leaf of paper. He then copied the ordinance text into the official proceedings of the Nauvoo City Council, closing the transcript by naming JS as city mayor and himself as city recorder. The ordinance was printed in the 7 June 1843 issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor. The version in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, considered the formal city ordinance, is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1 June 1843, 175–176.

  2. [2]

    JS, Journal, 3 May 1843. The Maid of Iowa was a sixty-ton, 115-foot-long stern wheeler steamboat built by Levi Moffet and Dan Jones in Augusta, Iowa Territory. (“Dr. Levi Moffet on Account of Building Steam Boat, ‘Maid of Iowa,’” June–Nov. 1842; JS to Dan Jones and Levi Moffet, Financial Statement, 12 May 1843, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; License for Maid of Iowa, St. Louis, MO, 2 May 1844, Record Group 41, Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, National Archives, Washington DC; Enders, “Steamboat Maid of Iowa,” 321–335; Sonne, Ships, Saints, and Mariners, 134–135.)

    Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845. CHL.

    Record Group 41, Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1776–1973. National Archives, Washington DC.

    Enders, Donald L. “The Steamboat Maid of Iowa: Mormon Mistress of the Mississippi.” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 321–335.

    Sonne, Conway B. Ships, Saints, and Mariners: A Maritime Encyclopedia of Mormon Migration, 1830–1890. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987.

  3. [3]

    Editorial, Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [2].

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  4. [4]

    “Steam Ferry at Nauvoo,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 May 1843, [2]. The Maid of Iowa brought roughly two hundred British Latter-day Saints to Nauvoo on 12 April 1843. (JS, Journal, 12 Apr. 1843.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 12 May 1843; “Steam Ferry at Nauvoo,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 May 1843, [2]. James Adams purchased the other half of the Maid of Iowa on 23 May 1843 in exchange for 1,760 acres of land in and around Nauvoo, Illinois. JS closed the contract for his half of the Maid of Iowa on 2 June 1843. (JS, Journal, 2 June 1843.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 19 May 1843. Ferry did not refer to a single watercraft but rather to “the right of transporting passengers over a lake or stream.” (“Ferry,” in American Dictionary [1828].)

    An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.

  7. [7]

    Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. N, pp. 403–404, 5 Aug. 1841, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. In February 1839, Isaac Galland secured ferry rights at Commerce through an Illinois state legislative act to incorporate his Commerce Hotel Company. Section 11 of the act authorized the company to establish and keep a ferry “for the term of ten years.” In April 1839, Galland sold his ferry rights to George W. Robinson, who bought them on behalf of the church. In August 1841, Robinson deeded the ferry rights and some land originally purchased by Galland to JS. (An Act to Incorporate the Commerce Hotel Company [28 Feb. 1839], Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 152–154; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12G, pp. 247–248, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Agreement with George W. Robinson, 30 Apr. 1839.)

    Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly, Their Session Began and Held at Vandalia, the Third Day of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 20 and 24 May 1843.

  9. [9]

    JS, Journal, 31 May 1843; Willard Richards, Journal, 31 May 1843.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  10. [10]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 31 May 1843, 16.

  11. [11]

    On 10 June 1843, the Nauvoo City Council passed an ordinance “to regulate the rates of toll at the Ferry in the City of Nauvoo.” The rates of toll for crossing the Mississippi River included six and a quarter cents for a sheep or hog, twelve and a half cents for a foot passenger, and a dollar and a half for a four-wheel carriage and up to four horses. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 10 June 1843, 181–182.)

  12. [12]

    Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, draft, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.

  13. [13]

    “An Ordinance,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 June 1843, [3].

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A
*Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, as Recorded in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book
Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1841–1845 Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, as Published in Nauvoo Neighbor History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 175

An Ordinance to establish a Ferry across the , at the City of .
Sec. 1. Be it Ordained by the City Council of the City of , that Joseph Smith is authorized and licensed to keep a Ferry for the term of perpetual succession across the , within the limits of said , on said , bounded north near the north West corner of section No. thirtyone, township seven north, of range eight west, of the fourth principal meridian; and south near the south east corner of fractional section No twelve, in township six north, of Range nine West, of the fourth principal meridian, according to the charter of said City of , (which Charter was granted by the state of , on the 16th. day of December AD. 1840,) embracing all Ferries heretofore authorized by the State of , if any there be, within the aforesaid limits.
Sec. 2. And be it further ordained, that the said Smith shall furnish said Ferry with a good flat boat, or a good Boat to be worked by Steam or horse power, and skiff or yawl in such case, sufficient for the speedy and safe transportation of all passengers, together with their teams, animals, goods and effects; and further, that said Boat or Boats shall be furnished with a suitable number of Men, to manage them with skill and ability.
Sec. 3. And be it further Ordained, that if any Person or persons, except those whose Ferry is established and confirmed by this Ordinance, shall, at any time, run any boat, or boats, or other craft, for the purpose of conveying passengers or their property across said as aforesaid, within said boundaries as aforesaid, he, she, or they, so offending, shall forfeit every such boat, or boats, or other Craft, to the owner or proprietor of the Ferry, and the owner or proprietor of the Ferry, aforesaid, may at any time, after such forfeiture shall have accrued, enter upon and take possession of such boat, or boats, or other Craft, to his [p. 175]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Ordinance, 1 June 1843–A, as Recorded in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book
ID #
8445
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:363–367
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Sloan

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Perpetual succession” is the continuation, in perpetuity, of the right and transmission of the rights and obligations of a corporation. (“Succession,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:419.)

    Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.

  2. [2]

    Section 13 of the Nauvoo charter, passed in December 1840, provided exclusive power to the city council “to license, regulate, and restrain, the keeping of ferries” within the city. (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)

  3. [3]

    For more on different types of ferries, see Historical Introduction to Agreement with Daniel C. Davis, 21 Oct. 1839.

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