Footnotes
Council of Fifty, “Record,” 4 Apr. 1844. Bonney left his home in Indiana in February 1844 to find somewhere to live along the Mississippi River. While visiting Nauvoo, he became one of the few non–Latter-day Saints to join the Council of Fifty. Excited by the city’s commercial prospects, Bonney decided to move his family there. He later recorded, “I accordingly returned home to Indiana about the first of april and in the month of may 1844 Returned to Nauvoo with my family.” (Bonney, “Banditti of the Prairies,” 4–5; see also JS, Journal, 19 May 1844.)
Bonney, Edward. Banditti of the Prairies. No date. Ellison Manuscripts, 1790–1949. Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.Bonney, Edward. “The Banditti of the Prairies,” ca. 1847–1849. Microfilm. CHL. The original manuscript is in the Ellison Manuscripts, 1790–1949, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Apr. 1844. The “24 inch gauge” (two-foot ruler) was apparently present in the Nauvoo Masonic Hall for use in Freemasonry ceremonies. It was one of the “implements” of an entered apprentice (new initiate) and symbolized the twenty-four hours in a day. (Webb, Freemason’s Monitor, 33.)
Webb, Thomas Smith. The Freemason’s Monitor; or, Illustrations of Masonry: In Two Parts. Salem, MA: Cushing and Appleton, 1818.
See Historical Introduction to Council of Fifty, “Record.”
Clayton generally burned the original minutes after copying them into the Council of Fifty record books. (See Historical Introduction to Council of Fifty, “Record”; and Council of Fifty, “Record,” 1 Mar. 1845.)
Clayton, Journal, 3 July 1844; 18 Aug. 1844; 6 Sept. 1844; 6, 11, and 12 Feb. 1845; see also Historical Introduction to Council of Fifty, “Record.”
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Following JS’s address to the council, Uriah Brown confirmed that he was not a member of any “religious body.” Edward Bonney later recounted that he was not “much of a religionest.” Nothing is known of Merinus G. Eaton’s religious affiliation (or nonaffiliation). (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 19 Mar. 1844; 4 and 11 Apr. 1844; Bonney, “Banditti of the Prairies,” 5.)
Bonney, Edward. Banditti of the Prairies. No date. Ellison Manuscripts, 1790–1949. Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.Bonney, Edward. “The Banditti of the Prairies,” ca. 1847–1849. Microfilm. CHL. The original manuscript is in the Ellison Manuscripts, 1790–1949, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.