Footnotes
Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:11–12]; Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78:3].
Minutes, 26–27 Apr. 1832; Revelation, 12 Nov. 1831 [D&C 70:3–5]; Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 217, 229–230; Minutes, 30 Apr. 1832. The six men were JS, Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, William W. Phelps, and Martin Harris.
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.
Minutes, 30 Apr. 1832; “The Evening and the Morning Star,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1832, [8]; Minutes, 11 Sept. 1833.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:11]; Revelation, 15 Mar. 1833 [D&C 92:1]; Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96:6–9].
Revelation, 12 Nov. 1831 [D&C 70:5–8]; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:17–18].
In January 1834, for example, Oliver Cowdery reported that “we exerted every possible means to pay bro. Gilbert’s debts in N.Y.” (Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, 1 Jan. 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 14–17.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Order from Newel K. Whitney, 18 Apr. 1834; Balance of Account, 23 Apr. 1834; “New York Account Book Sept. 1834,” Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.
Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.
Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 30 Mar. 1834, underlining in original.
When the United Firm was formed, its members were told to bind themselves together “by a bond & Covennant.” Phelps and Gilbert were given the responsibility of drafting a legal bond for the firm, giving firm members joint responsibility for the firm’s debts. (Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78:11–12]; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:11, 15]; Minutes, 26–27 Apr. 1832.)
JS, Journal, 11 Jan. 1834.
JS, Journal, 10 Apr. 1834.
JS History, vol. A-1, 477, 527–528; Noble and Noble, Reminiscences, [6]–[7].
JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.
Noble, Joseph B., and Mary Adeline Beman Noble. Reminiscences, ca. 1836. CHL. MS 1031, fd. 1.
See, for example, Minutes, 24 Sept. 1834; and Minutes, 28 Nov. 1834.
JS, Journal, 23 Apr. 1834.
Max Parkin published an annotated version of Pratt’s copy of the revelation. (Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” 41–57.)
Parkin, Max H. “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” BYU Studies 46, no. 3 (2007): 5–66.
Revelation, 23 Apr. 1834, in Revelation Book 2, p. 100 [D&C 104].
Revelation, 23 Apr. 1834, in Doctrine and Covenants 98, 1835 ed. [D&C 104]; see also Whittaker, “Substituted Names in the Published Revelations of Joseph Smith,” 103–112; “Substitute Words in the 1835 and 1844 Editions of the Doctrine and Covenants,”; and Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” 58–60. Even though the United Firm no longer existed in 1835, using pseudonyms was presumably a way to protect those who had been involved in the firm “from unnecessary scrutiny by a sometimes unfriendly public and peering creditors.” (Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” 58.)
Whittaker, David J. “Substituted Names in the Published Revelations of Joseph Smith.” BYU Studies 23 (Winter 1983): 103–11.
Parkin, Max H. “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” BYU Studies 46, no. 3 (2007): 5–66.
On 30 April 1834, Newel K. Whitney deeded a one-acre lot to Rigdon for one hundred dollars. The lot was on Chillicothe Road directly across from the site for the House of the Lord the Saints were building. Whitney purchased this lot from Jemima Doan on 25 February 1832 for ninety dollars. (Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 15, p. 322, 25 Feb. 1832, microfilm 20,236; Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 18, pp. 488–489, 30 Apr. 1834, microfilm 20,237, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Rigdon had worked as a journeyman tanner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before coming to Ohio in 1826. The tannery described here, located east of the Whitney store, was owned by Arnold Mason and not deeded to Rigdon until 3 May 1834. On 2 April 1833, a council of high priests instructed Ezra Thayer to purchase the tannery. Although no records detailing any discussions between Thayer and Mason have been located, the two may have worked out the terms of the agreement in the time between that council and this revelation because the revelation speaks about the tannery as if it were already owned by the United Firm. (Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 405; JS History, vol. A-1, 65–66; Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 18, pp. 487–488, 3 May 1834, microfilm 20,237, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Minutes, 2 Apr. 1833.)
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.