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Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844

Source Note

Lucinda Madison Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
, Charges against
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
Preferred to the
First Presidency

The highest presiding body of the church. An 11 November 1831 revelation stated that the president of the high priesthood was to preside over the church. JS was ordained as president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832. In March 1832, JS appointed two...

View Glossary
(including JS) and
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Members of a governing body in the church, with special administrative and proselytizing responsibilities. A June 1829 revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to call twelve disciples, similar to the twelve apostles in the New Testament and ...

View Glossary
, [
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL], ca. 10 Apr. 1844; handwriting of
William Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
; signature of
Lucinda Madison Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
; notation in the handwriting of
William Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
; two pages; JS Collection (Supplement), CHL.
Single leaf measuring 6⅝ × 6¾ inches (17 × 17 cm). The document is ruled with twenty blue horizontal lines, now faded. It was hand cut from a larger leaf. The recto contains the letter from
Lucinda Madison Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
in blue ink, and the verso features a notation from
William Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
in black ink. Marks rotated the orientation of the document and made his notation perpendicular to the printed lines on the paper. The document was trifolded vertically and then folded four times horizontally. The document has undergone some conservation, with separation along the folds rejoined with strips of cellophane tape sometime after 1930.
1

Cole et al., Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions, 22; Edelman, “Brief History of Tape,” 45–46.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Cole, David J., Eve Browning, and Fred E.H. Schroeder. Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.

Edelman, Jonathan. “A Brief History of Tape.” Ambidextrous 5 (Falling in 2006): 45–46.

The document was inscribed and presumably used by
Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
while helping the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
high council

A governing body of twelve high priests. The first high council was organized in Kirtland, Ohio, on 17 February 1834 “for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the church, which could not be settled by the church, or the bishop...

View Glossary
handle
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
’s case. Afterward, the custody of the document is uncertain. The Church Historical Department (now CHL) published a register of the JS Collection in 1973. However, the department’s staff continued to locate documents authored by or directed to JS in uncataloged church financial records and in name and subject files. The department also acquired additional JS documents from donors, collectors, and dealers. These newly located and acquired documents were kept together in a supplement to the JS Collection that was closed to further acquisitions in 1984 and was named the JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844.
2

See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, in the CHL catalog. A preliminary inventory of the supplement was created in 1992 and its cataloging was finalized in 2017.


Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Cole et al., Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions, 22; Edelman, “Brief History of Tape,” 45–46.

    Cole, David J., Eve Browning, and Fred E.H. Schroeder. Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.

    Edelman, Jonathan. “A Brief History of Tape.” Ambidextrous 5 (Falling in 2006): 45–46.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, in the CHL catalog. A preliminary inventory of the supplement was created in 1992 and its cataloging was finalized in 2017.

Historical Introduction

In April 1844,
Lucinda Madison Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
informed the
First Presidency

The highest presiding body of the church. An 11 November 1831 revelation stated that the president of the high priesthood was to preside over the church. JS was ordained as president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832. In March 1832, JS appointed two...

View Glossary
and the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Members of a governing body in the church, with special administrative and proselytizing responsibilities. A June 1829 revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to call twelve disciples, similar to the twelve apostles in the New Testament and ...

View Glossary
that her husband,
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
, was teaching the “abominable doctrine of spiritual wives” and that he had abandoned their family. After the charges were referred to the
high council

A governing body of twelve high priests. The first high council was organized in Kirtland, Ohio, on 17 February 1834 “for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the church, which could not be settled by the church, or the bishop...

View Glossary
at
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois,
William Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
, president of the Nauvoo
stake

Ecclesiastical organization of church members in a particular locale. Stakes were typically large local organizations of church members; stake leaders could include a presidency, a high council, and a bishopric. Some revelations referred to stakes “to” or...

View Glossary
, initiated disciplinary proceedings against Harrison Sagers. Sagers had faced previous disciplinary measures. In November 1843, JS accused Sagers of attempting to seduce Phebe Madison, a young woman living in the Sagers residence, and of asserting that he had JS’s permission to do so.
1

Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 Nov. 1843; Nauvoo Third Ward Census, [25], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 175.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Stake. Ward Census, 1842. CHL.

Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

When the high council reviewed the first charges against Sagers on 25 November 1843, he pleaded his innocence, and the council took “no action.”
2

Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843, 21–22; JS, Journal, 25 Nov. 1843. On that occasion, JS condemned adultery and fornication and stated that he had never approved of such behavior. (Remarks, 25 Nov. 1843.)


In 1844
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
leaders actively tried to stop missionaries from teaching about polygamy, “spiritual wifery,” or anything other than traditional monogamous marriage. In a notice in the 1 February 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons, JS and
Hyrum Smith

9 Feb. 1800–27 June 1844. Farmer, cooper. Born at Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack. Moved to Randolph, Orange Co., 1802; to Tunbridge, before May 1803; to Royalton, Windsor Co., Vermont, 1804; to Sharon, Windsor Co., by...

View Full Bio
announced that
Elder

A male leader in the church generally; an ecclesiastical and priesthood office or one holding that office; a proselytizing missionary. The Book of Mormon explained that elders ordained priests and teachers and administered “the flesh and blood of Christ unto...

View Glossary
Hiram Brown had been cut off from the church for preaching “polygamy, and other false and corrupt doctrines” while on a mission in
Michigan

Organized as territory, 1805, with Detroit as capital. De facto state government organized within territory, 1836, although not formally recognized as state by federal government until 1837. Lansing became new state capital, 1847. Population in 1810 about...

More Info
.
3

Notice, ca. 1 Feb. 1844.


At an assembly of elders of the church on 8 April 1844, Hyrum Smith addressed the issue of missionaries teaching the “spir[i]tual wife system.” On that occasion, he told the elders, “It is lawful for a man to marry a wife but it is unlawful to have more. & God has not com.d any one to have more.” Missionaries, he continued, would be disciplined for spreading teachings to the contrary.
4

JS, Journal, 8 Apr. 1844; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 6–9 Apr. 1844, 30.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

Despite these public declarations, JS had taught a select group of men and women about the practice of plural marriage and had been
sealed

To confirm or solemnize. In the early 1830s, revelations often adopted biblical usage of the term seal; for example, “sealed up the testimony” referred to proselytizing and testifying of the gospel as a warning of the approaching end time. JS explained in...

View Glossary
to multiple women. However, he viewed these sealings—which involved formal proposals to the women and religious ceremonies with witnesses—as fundamentally different from “spiritual wifery” or any other type of illicit relationship. Evidence suggests that he did not want church members speaking publicly or privately about plural marriage unless authorized to do so.
5

See Revelation, 12 July 1843. In a private conversation, JS told William Clayton that if word got out about Clayton’s participation in plural marriage, JS would give him “an awful scourging” and likely cut him off from the church but then rebaptize him and reinstate him “as good as ever.” (Clayton, Journal, 19 Oct. 1843.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

JS probably taught the concept of plural marriage to
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
, though he may have objected to the way Sagers told others about it or the way in which Sagers sought to practice it, given his earlier charges against Sagers regarding his alleged pursuit of Phebe Madison. It is unclear whether Sagers practiced plural marriage at JS’s authorization.
6

At Sagers’s hearing before the high council, three witnesses testified that they had heard Sagers teach the “doctrine of spiritual wives” and that Sagers “believed it to be the order of God.” One of the witnesses, Sarah M. Hadlock, stated that Sagers “practiced it” and “wanted to raise children (to raise a righteous Branch).” Hadlock also testified that Sagers was interested in having “an old woman to get young women for him.” Furthermore, Hadlock stated that Sagers believed that “a person must swear false about spiritual wifes if need be after they come into the covenant.” In 1869 Nathan Tanner swore an affidavit stating that JS taught the doctrine of plural marriage to Sagers in spring 1844. (Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. P, pp. 167–168, 11 May 1846, microfilm 954,602, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Nathan Tanner, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 28 Aug. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:76.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.

Whatever the case, shortly after
Hyrum Smith

9 Feb. 1800–27 June 1844. Farmer, cooper. Born at Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack. Moved to Randolph, Orange Co., 1802; to Tunbridge, before May 1803; to Royalton, Windsor Co., Vermont, 1804; to Sharon, Windsor Co., by...

View Full Bio
’s strong denunciation of polygamy at the April 1844
conference

A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...

View Glossary
,
Lucinda Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
decided to approach church leaders, hoping that they would hold her husband responsible for the behavior that they had publicly condemned.
Lucinda Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
, who likely lived in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
at the time, began this letter by referring to announcements made by the First Presidency that it would handle cases of polygamy being taught or of spiritual wives being sought after. She threatened to take legal action against her
husband

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
if church leaders did not responsibly punish him and stated that there were witnesses who could attest to her claims. Lucinda also asserted that Harrison Sagers’s sins included abandoning their family the previous December and failing to provide for the needs of their household. Sometime on or before 10 April, the First Presidency received Lucinda Sagers’s letter. According to
Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
, the presidency then transmitted the letter containing Lucinda’s charges to him so that he could facilitate the church’s disciplinary process. On 10 April, Marks wrote a summons on the verso of Lucinda’s letter for Harrison Sagers to appear at a hearing before the Nauvoo high council on 13 April at Marks’s home in Nauvoo. This summons was likely a copy or a draft of the summons that Marks sent to Harrison.
After considering the charges, the high council members decided that they had already ruled on the issue of
Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
teaching about “spiritual wives” when JS’s charges were brought before them the previous November and “that the Council had no right to deal with him on that item.” On the issue of Harrison Sagers abandoning his family, as
Lucinda

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
alleged in her statement, the high council determined that the charge “was not sustained and therefore that he should remain in the Church.”
7

Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 29.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

Despite this ruling, Lucinda later placed an announcement in the Nauvoo Expositor stating that Harrison “left my bed and board without cause or provocation” and that she would not be held liable for any of his debts.
8

“One Cent Reward,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [3], italics in original. In the early United States, posting an announcement of this kind constituted marital separation and was a method of self-divorcing. (See Lyons, Sex among the Rabble, chap. 1.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.

Lyons, Clare A. Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender and Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730–1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
likely retained the letter after receiving it from the First Presidency, at least until
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
’s church discipline trial, when it was copied into the minutes of the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
high council.
9

Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 28–29.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

Lucinda Sagers

1819–?. Born in Ohio. Married William Henry Harrison Sagers, 22 Dec. 1834, in Clay Co., Missouri. Moved to Hancock Co., Illinois, by 1840. Submitted charges of teaching polygamy against her husband to First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca...

View Full Bio
’s original letter is featured here along with Marks’s notation.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 Nov. 1843; Nauvoo Third Ward Census, [25], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 175.

    Nauvoo Stake. Ward Census, 1842. CHL.

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

  2. [2]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843, 21–22; JS, Journal, 25 Nov. 1843. On that occasion, JS condemned adultery and fornication and stated that he had never approved of such behavior. (Remarks, 25 Nov. 1843.)

  3. [3]

    Notice, ca. 1 Feb. 1844.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 8 Apr. 1844; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 6–9 Apr. 1844, 30.

    Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

  5. [5]

    See Revelation, 12 July 1843. In a private conversation, JS told William Clayton that if word got out about Clayton’s participation in plural marriage, JS would give him “an awful scourging” and likely cut him off from the church but then rebaptize him and reinstate him “as good as ever.” (Clayton, Journal, 19 Oct. 1843.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  6. [6]

    At Sagers’s hearing before the high council, three witnesses testified that they had heard Sagers teach the “doctrine of spiritual wives” and that Sagers “believed it to be the order of God.” One of the witnesses, Sarah M. Hadlock, stated that Sagers “practiced it” and “wanted to raise children (to raise a righteous Branch).” Hadlock also testified that Sagers was interested in having “an old woman to get young women for him.” Furthermore, Hadlock stated that Sagers believed that “a person must swear false about spiritual wifes if need be after they come into the covenant.” In 1869 Nathan Tanner swore an affidavit stating that JS taught the doctrine of plural marriage to Sagers in spring 1844. (Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. P, pp. 167–168, 11 May 1846, microfilm 954,602, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Nathan Tanner, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 28 Aug. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:76.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.

  7. [7]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 29.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

  8. [8]

    “One Cent Reward,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [3], italics in original. In the early United States, posting an announcement of this kind constituted marital separation and was a method of self-divorcing. (See Lyons, Sex among the Rabble, chap. 1.)

    Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.

    Lyons, Clare A. Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender and Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730–1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

  9. [9]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 28–29.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844 Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844, as Recorded in Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes

Page [2]

Notation in the handwriting of William Marks.


Brother
Harrison Sagers

3 May 1814/1815–19 June 1886. Painter, farmer. Born in LeRoy, Genessee Co., New York. Son of John Sagers and Amy Sweet. Moved to Elk Creek Township, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, by 1830. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Jan. 1833. ...

View Full Bio
Dear Sir
as this complaint has been hended over to the
High council

A governing body of twelve high priests. The first high council was organized in Kirtland, Ohio, on 17 February 1834 “for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the church, which could not be settled by the church, or the bishop...

View Glossary
by the
first presidency

The highest presiding body of the church. An 11 November 1831 revelation stated that the president of the high priesthood was to preside over the church. JS was ordained as president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832. In March 1832, JS appointed two...

View Glossary
to act uppon.
you are requested to appear before said Councel on Saturday the 13th of instant at my house at 2. O P. M to answer the within charges
Nauvoo City

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
April 10 1844
William Marks

15 Nov. 1792–22 May 1872. Farmer, printer, publisher, postmaster. Born at Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of Cornell (Cornwall) Marks and Sarah Goodrich. Married first Rosannah R. Robinson, 2 May 1813. Lived at Portage, Allegany Co., New York, where he...

View Full Bio
{Pres of sd Councel [1/2 page blank] [p. [2]]
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Editorial Title
Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844
ID #
1999
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
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  • William Marks

Footnotes

  1. new scribe logo

    Notation in the handwriting of William Marks.

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