On 20 June 1842, JS received a deed completing a land transaction with Ethan Kimball—a resident who speculated in land—for 480 acres approximately four miles east of , Illinois. Six days earlier, JS had traveled with to the property, which included what he and others commonly called “the mound,” to assess the land. As part of this transaction, JS purchased three quarter-sections of land east of Nauvoo for $1,500. The purchase extended JS’s landholdings of the prairie land near Nauvoo, allowing him to provide land to the growing number of Latter-day Saints to the area while at the same time giving him an opportunity to potentially profit from the resale of the property.

In 1838 Ethan Kimball had granted power of attorney over “all the real estate of which [he] possessed or own[ed]” in and to his brother , who was an influential resident of . Acting as Ethan’s financial , Hiram likely prepared the deed and signed it on his brother’s behalf in the presence of , who acted as witness. Justice of the peace certified the document the next day. On the same day the deed was created, JS provided Kimball with three promissory notes totaling $1,500 for the property’s purchase; only one of the three notes is apparently still extant. This extant note stipulated that JS would pay Kimball $500, plus six percent interest, within one year. Notations on the extant promissory note indicate that JS made an initial payment of $320.90 to Hiram Kimball for the property on 27 June 1842, the same day the deed was copied into the recorder’s deed book. While the deed is representative of JS’s many land transactions during the summer of 1842, this deed is somewhat unique in that it represents JS purchasing the land privately and not on behalf of the as trustee-in-trust.