Footnotes
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.
Editorial, Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [2].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)