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Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 November 1843

Source Note

JS, Charges against Preferred to , , Hancock Co., IL, 21 Nov. 1843; handwriting of JS; one page; JS Collection (Supplement), CHL. Includes dockets and notations.
Single leaf measuring 5¾–6 × 7¾ inches (15 × 20 cm) and ruled with seventeen horizontal lines printed in blue ink, now faded. The top and right edges of the leaf have the square cut of manufactured paper; the left edge is rough, suggesting that the leaf was torn from a book or a larger sheet. The bottom edge is irregularly cut, leaving the length of the right and left sides uneven. The recto is inscribed with the charges; the verso was left blank. The leaf was trifolded twice horizontally and then folded once vertically to reduce it to pocket size. Dockets and notations were later added to the verso.
The document was docketed by , who served as clerk of the from November 1840 to early May 1844. The charges were presumably filed with the high council records listed in an inventory produced by in Nauvoo in February 1846. The document was also docketed by other unidentified persons. A notation was later made by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The Church Historical Department (now CHL) published a register of the JS Collection in 1973. Between 1974 and 1984, staff continued to locate documents authored by or directed to JS in uncatalogued 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. A preliminary inventory of the supplement was created in 1992. This group of records was named the JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, and its cataloging was finalized in 2017. The document’s early dockets and notations, its presumed listing in an 1846 inventory, and its inclusion in the JS Collection (Supplement) suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 28 Nov. 1840; 4 and 18 May 1844.

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

  2. [2]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    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.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 21 November 1843, JS preferred charges to , president of the , Illinois, , against member for trying to seduce a young woman named Phebe Madison and claiming that JS approved of such behavior. Sagers joined the church in in 1833. The next year he married Lucinda Madison in , and the couple later had a son. The family settled in , Illinois, by 1840, along with an unidentified female between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. A census of Nauvoo conducted by church officials in 1842 notes that a woman named Phebe Mattison lived in the Sagers household at that time.
’s actions in 1843 were likely associated with the doctrine of plural marriage. In a later account, church member recalled that JS taught the doctrine to him and Sagers around this time. Lucinda Sagers and three witnesses at a subsequent trial stated that Harrison Sagers openly taught the “spiritual wife doctrine” in fall 1843. Lucinda Sagers and two of the witnesses also stated or implied that Harrison Sagers practiced plural marriage. It is unclear whether JS authorized Sagers to practice plural marriage. If he did, the charges might have served to curb negative publicity or to discipline Sagers for pursuing Madison inappropriately, speaking about the confidential doctrine too openly, or bringing unwelcome attention to the situation. If JS did not authorize Sagers to practice plural marriage, the charges could have been an attempt to prevent unauthorized marriages or other inappropriate sexual behavior.
On 21 November, JS wrote and signed the featured charges. They were evidently delivered to within the next few days. On 25 November, Marks, the , and members of the met to consider these and other charges. They deliberated and decided that the charges against were not sustained. The meeting minutes state that Sagers “taught false doctrine which was corrected by President Joseph Smith.”
High council clerk later copied the charges into the council minute book. Aside from a few minor punctuation and spelling changes, the original charges and the copy are identical. The original manuscript is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 13 Apr. 1833.

    Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.

  2. [2]

    Clay Co., MO, Marriage Records, 1822–1842, vol. A, p. 140, microfilm 955,303, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  3. [3]

    1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 175.

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

  4. [4]

    Nauvoo Third Ward Census, [25], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL. It is possible that “Phebe Mattison” was related to Lucinda Madison Sagers and that the census takers conflated the spelling of “Madison” with “Mattison.” However, varied spellings and limited biographical records make it difficult to ascertain a relationship with any certainty. A woman named Phebe Madison joined the Relief Society in 1842; a woman named Phebe A. Matteson married Henry Pearmain in Nauvoo on 19 November 1843. (Relief Society Minute Book, 27 May 1842, [57], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 74; “Married,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 22 Nov. 1843, [3].)

    Nauvoo Stake. Ward Census, 1842. CHL.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  5. [5]

    Nathan Tanner, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 28 Aug. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:78. Though Nathan Tanner’s 1869 affidavit states that JS taught him and Sagers about plural marriage “in the Spring of 1844,” it seems unlikely that JS would do so after charging Sagers with seduction. Given that four witnesses stated that Sagers taught the doctrine in fall 1843, it is likely that Tanner was off by one year in the affidavit he made twenty-five years after the events in question.

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

  6. [6]

    Lucinda Madison Sagers to “the Presidency and the Twelve,” no date; Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection (Supplement), CHL.

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

  7. [7]

    A month earlier, William Clayton recorded in his journal a conversation he had with JS regarding Clayton’s plural wife Margaret Moon. JS reportedly told him that if anyone were to “raise trouble” over Clayton’s second wife and bring him before JS, “I will give you an awful scourging & probably cut you off from the church, and then I will baptise you & set you ahead as good as ever.” (Clayton, Journal, 19 Oct. 1843.)

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

  8. [8]

    In May 1842, several women reported that they had sexual relationships with male church members after John C. Bennett and others convinced them that JS approved of such behavior if it was kept secret. Most of the men were disfellowshipped. (Historical Introduction to Letter to Emma Smith and the Relief Society, 31 Mar. 1842; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 20, 24, 27, and 28 May 1842; Letter to the Church and Others, 23 June 1842; Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842, CHL.)

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

    Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842. CHL.

  9. [9]

    Historical Introduction to Remarks, 25 Nov. 1843; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843.

  10. [10]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 November 1843
Minutes, 25 November 1843

Page [1]

November 21st 1843
Dear Sir I hereby prefer the following Charges against namely——
1st for trying to Seduce a yo[u]ng girl living at his house by the name of Phebe Madison——
2d for useing my name in a blasphemous maner by Saying that I tollerated Such things in which thing her is guilty of Lying &c &c
Joseph Smith [p. [1]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 November 1843
ID #
1205
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:277–280
Handwriting on This Page
  • Joseph Smith Jr.

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