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Affidavit from Daniel Avery, 28 December 1843

Source Note

, Affidavit, before JS as mayor, , Hancock Co., IL, 28 Dec. 1843; handwriting of ; signature of ; certified by ; nine pages; JS Office Papers, CHL. Includes dockets, redactions, and notations.
Two bifolia and one loose leaf measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The upper left corners of the rectos of the bifolia and leaf are embossed with an elongated octagon containing the words “D & JAMES | SPRINGFIELD”, the insignia of a Springfield, Massachusetts, paper mill firm established by brothers David and John Ames in 1828. The bifolia and leaf were numbered 1–3, apparently at the time of inscription. The final page is blank except for the docket and notation made the following day. Upon completion, the affidavit was trifolded for storage. At some point, the leaves were stapled together in the upper left corner of the rectos. In 2018 the document underwent conservation to reattach the leaves of the bifolia.
, who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844, docketed the affidavit the day after its inscription. A few graphite redactions and markings were apparently made in 1855, when the document was copied into JS’s history. Sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, an unidentified clerk in the Church Historian’s Office docketed the document a second time. Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941, added his initials below Bullock’s docket. In 2012 the document was cataloged as part of the JS Office Papers at the CHL. The document’s early dockets and notation as well as its later inclusion in JS’s history and in the JS Office Papers by 2012 indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whiting, “Paper-Making in New England,” 309; Gravell et al., American Watermarks, 235.

    Whiting, William. “Paper-Making in New England.” In The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History, edited by William T. Davis, vol. 1, pp. 303–333. Boston: D. H. Hurd, 1897.

    Gravell, Thomas L., George Miller, and Elizabeth Walsh. American Watermarks: 1690–1835. 2nd ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2002.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845, in the CHL catalog.

  3. [3]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

  4. [4]

    JS History, vol. E-1, 1831–1833; Vogel, History of Joseph Smith, 1:c.

    Vogel, Dan, ed. History of Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: A Source and Text-Critical Edition. 8 vols. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2015.

  5. [5]

    Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

    Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.

    Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  6. [6]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 28 December 1843, in , Illinois, swore an affidavit before JS as mayor recounting his kidnapping and imprisonment by a group of Illinoisans and Missourians and the legal proceedings he underwent in . Avery had been kidnapped by a mob on 2 December and carried to Missouri to face a manufactured charge of horse theft. After spending about three weeks in prison in Missouri awaiting trial, Avery obtained a writ of from the Clark County, Missouri, court and was discharged after a hearing on 25 December. He arrived in Nauvoo at “about dusk” the next day. Coming just one day after returned from his long imprisonment in , Missouri, Avery’s arrival in Nauvoo was heralded by JS and others in the city. In his journal, JS recorded that he “rejoiced exceedingly this day” because Rockwell and Avery were released and “Mo [Missouri] was again rid of the Brethn.”
Two days after his arrival in , went before JS as mayor and gave his statement for an affidavit. , clerk of the mayor’s court, wrote the affidavit as Avery presumably dictated it, and both Avery and Phelps signed the completed document. The next day, corrected the affidavit’s spelling and grammar. Bullock also made a copy of the affidavit and added a notation on the back of the document: “Copied for Governor.” This copy was presumably sent to governor as one of the “affidavits relative to the late Kidnapping” of Avery and his son, , included in a bundle of documents that Phelps sent to Ford on 30 December 1843.
The original affidavit was retained in , while the copy sent to is apparently not extant. The original affidavit, as corrected by , is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 26 Dec. 1843.

  2. [2]

    JS, Journal, 25 and 26 Dec. 1843.

  3. [3]

    William W. Phelps, Nauvoo, IL, to Thomas Ford, Springfield, IL, 30 Dec. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Affidavit from Daniel Avery, 28 December 1843 History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [5]

arrest me and take me before a magistrate that night. but middleton and McCoy objected as I was sick. The Sheriff, however executed his writ and left me in their care till mor[n]ing: It being late before we breakfasted. he came in the Morning and made the second scope of his Authority and took me. He quized me the night before to draw something out for testimony but as innocence can not be effected with truth, he was as wise at one end the story as the other.
At Waterloo I was examined by a M[a]gistrate who committed <​me​> upon <​the substance of​> an affidavit made by my in duress with a bowie Knife at his breast, and <​upon​> a promise thus he should be liberated from Monticello Jail where he was Confined after being Kidnapped as some three or four weeks previous. My bonds were fixed at $1000. And, as I had no bail in such a strange place, I was started for Jail in Marion County. The <​dept​> Sheriff took me to Mustgrove [Samuel Musgrove], <​the Sher◊riff​> a distance [p. [5]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Affidavit from Daniel Avery, 28 December 1843
ID #
7690
Total Pages
10
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:428–436
Handwriting on This Page
  • William W. Phelps

Footnotes

  1. [14]

    On 13 November 1843, Daniel Avery’s son Philander was brought before John Dedman, a justice of the peace in Clark County, Missouri, and forced to sign a confession implicating his father in the theft of McCoy’s horses. Philander Avery later swore that his testimony against his father “was extorted from him through fear while in duress” because he was threatened “with death or seven years imprisonment . . . with a Bowie knife presented, to intimidate.” After his testimony, Avery was remanded to jail in Clark County; however, because the county lacked a jail, he was transferred to a jail in Lewis County, Missouri, on 14 November. According to notations on the mittimus, Avery escaped from the Lewis County jail the next day. (Philander Avery, Testimony, [Clark Co., MO], 13 Nov. 1843, State of Missouri v. Philander Avery [Clark Co. Cir. Ct. 1843], Clark County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Clark County Courthouse, Kahoka, MO; Philander Avery, Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 20 Dec. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL; John Dedman, Mittimus, [Clark Co., MO], 13 Nov. 1843, State of Missouri v. Philander Avery [Clark Co. Cir. Ct. 1843], Clark County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Clark County Courthouse, Kahoka, MO.)

    Clark County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Clark County Courthouse. Kahoka, MO.

  2. [15]

    On 4 December 1843, Avery was brought before John Dedman, the same justice of the peace who presided over his son Philander Avery’s confession on 13 November. Based on Philander Avery’s coerced testimony, Dedman set Daniel Avery’s bail at $1,000 and ordered him to appear at the next session of the Clark County Circuit Court. When Avery was unable or unwilling to pay bail, Dedman remanded him to jail in Clark County. However, since Clark County lacked a jail, Avery was instead sent to Lewis and then Marion counties. (John Dedman, Mittimus, [Waterloo, MO], 4 Dec. 1843, State of Missouri v. Daniel Avery [Clark Co. Cir. Ct. 1843], Clark County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Clark County Courthouse, Kahoka, MO.)

    Clark County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Clark County Courthouse. Kahoka, MO.

  3. [16]

    Musgrove was elected sheriff of Clark County, Missouri, in 1842. (History of Lewis, Clark, Knox and Scotland Counties, Missouri, 290.)

    History of Lewis, Clark, Knox and Scotland Counties, Missouri, from the Earliest Time to the Present, Together with Sundry Personal, Business, and Professional Sketches. . . . St. Louis: Goodspeed Publishing, 1887.

  4. [17]

    TEXT: Possibly “Sheoriff” or “Sherriff”.

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