Complaint, 24 May 1842 [State of Illinois v. C. L. Higbee]
Source Note
JS, Complaint, before , [], Hancock Co., IL, 24 May 1842, State of IL v. C. L. Higbee (Hancock Co., IL, Justice of the Peace Court 1842). Copied 8 Nov. 1962; typescript; certified by Richard and Pamela Price; one page; typescript in possession of Richard and Pamela Price.
Upon appeal, this complaint and other case documents from the justice of the peace court were forwarded to the , Illinois, circuit court and filed in 1842. The document remained in the custody of the circuit court until sometime between 1962, when Richard and Pamela Price created a transcript of it, and 1968, when the Prices obtained photocopies of all of the case documents except for this complaint, which was missing from the case packet and apparently on loan to a county commissioner. Further attempts by the Prices to locate and obtain a photocopy of the document in 1979, 1983, and 1998 were unsuccessful. The location of the document is unknown.
The text featured here is transcribed from the transcript produced by Richard and Pamela Price in 1962 from the original document.
Richard Price, Independence, MO, to “Clerk of the Circuit Court,” Carthage, IL, 24 Oct. 1983; Richard Price, Independence, MO, to “Archivist of the Hancock County Circuit Court,” Carthage, IL, 21 Aug. 1997 ; Price and Price, Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy, 1:144–145, 158–159.
Price, Richard, and Pamela Price. Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy: Volume 1. Independence, MO: Price Pub. Co., 2000.
J. Smith’s Affidavit Filed September 14th, 1842 . . . Clerke
State of Illinois)
SS [scilicet]
County of )
Before me, , one of the Justices of the Peace for said personally came Joseph Smith, who, being duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith, that at sundry times, in the City of , aforesaid, one has slandered and defamed the character of the said Joseph Smith, and also the character of , his wife, in using their names, the more readily to accomplish his purpose in seducing certain females, and further this deponont saith not.
Sworn to. and subscribed before me, in the aforesaid, this 24th day of May A.D. 1842. J. P.
-[Signed]- Joseph Smith
We hereby certify that the above is a true and exact copy of the original affidavit as found by us in the archives of the circuit court in the courthouse at , Illinois, on November 8, 1962.
