Phelps edited the Ontario Phoenix in Canandaigua, New York, from 1828 to 1831. (Bowen, “Versatile W. W. Phelps,” 18, 26.)

Bowen, Walter Dean. “The Versatile W. W. Phelps—Mormon Writer, Educator and Pioneer.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1958.

John Taylor was a proponent of local manufacturing in Nauvoo. Beginning in October 1844 he often chaired meetings of an informal group—known by various names, including the trades committee, trades meeting, trades association, and trades institute—that encouraged the organization of particular trades to “produce all the dry goods, hardware, cutlery, crockery, or any other commodity, that a community needs for comfort or convenience.” This group sponsored meetings that discussed the building of a diversion dam along the Mississippi River near Nauvoo to create a better harbor as well as to provide water power for manufacturing. In January 1845 Taylor’s informal organization merged with the legally established Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association, and Taylor was chosen to select a governing body of “twelve men to be appointed, forming a living constitution, with President, Secretary.” Accordingly, on 17 February 1845, at a meeting to “organise the temporal affairs of the Church,” the twelve men chosen by Taylor were announced, and Taylor, George A. Smith, and Amasa Lyman were appointed “to preside over the temporal affairs of all the church.” (Leonard, Nauvoo, 482–492; Taylor, Journal, 9 Oct. 1844 and 28 Jan. 1845, 36, 40–41; Huntington, Reminiscences and Journal, 17 Feb. 1845; Form of Constitution for Trades Associations, ca. 1845, CHL.)

Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

Taylor, John. Journal, Dec. 1844–Sept. 1845. CHL.

Huntington, William. Reminiscences and Journal, Apr. 1841–Aug. 1846. CHL.

Form of Constitution for Trades Associations, ca. 1845. CHL.