Footnotes
Minute Book 2, 6 Jan. 1836 and 6 Apr. 1838, 67, 114; “Higbee, Elias,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:253; Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 47–48, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Historical Introduction to Letter to Elias Higbee, 16 Apr. 1839; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 17–18; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 95–96.
Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
See Historical Introduction to Appendix 3: Willard Richards, Draft Notes of JS’s Activities, 1842, 1844.
Martha Coray recounted that “from the age of thirteen years,” she had been “much in the habit of noting down evrything, I heard and read which possessed any peculiar interest to me, in order to preserve facts.” According to one account, Coray “took in common hand every di[s]course that she heard him [JS] preach, and has carefully preserved them.” Coray’s daughter noted that “it was ever her [Coray’s] custom when going to meeting to take pencil and note paper; she thus preserved notes of sermons that would otherwise have been lost to the Church.” (Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Provo, Utah Territory, to Brigham Young, 13 June 1865, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; “Obituaries,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Feb. 1882, 10:133; Lewis, “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray,” 440.)
Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
Lewis, Martha J. C. “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray.” Improvement Era 5, no. 6 (Apr. 1902): 439–440.
Defined in theological terms, annihilation is the “destruction of soul as well as body.” Debating the nature of death and damnation, some Christian theologians interpreted biblical scripture to mean that evildoers in life would face everlasting torment in hell after their death; others postulated that after the wicked were punished for their sins, their souls would be annihilated. Some of JS’s religious contemporaries, such as William Miller, George Storrs, and Luther Lee, similarly discussed, and in some cases debated, the concept of annihilation. JS’s early revelations painted a picture of the afterlife that did not easily conform to the traditional heaven and hell binary of other Christian denominations. An 1829 revelation and an 1832 vision, for example, indicated that through Jesus Christ’s atonement nearly all people would inherit one of three degrees of heavenly glory after death. Only individuals who knew and rejected God’s power would face “eternal punishment,” or, in other words, would be cast “into the lake of fire and brimstone with the devel.” (“Annihilation,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 1:340; “Annihilation,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica [1823], 2:386; William Miller, “Mr. Miller’s Apology and Defence,” Advent Herald, and Morning Watch, 13 Aug. 1845, 1, 5; Grew, “Review of Luther Lee,” 52–55; [Luther Lee], “The Immortality of the Soul,—No. 9,” True Wesleyan, 26 May 1849, 82; Lee, Universalism Examined and Refuted, 146–149; Revelation, ca. Summer 1829 [D&C 19]; Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76].)
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 6th ed. vol. 6. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, 1823.
Advent Herald, and Morning Watch. Boston. 1845–1846.
Grew, Henry. “Review of Luther Lee.” Bible Examiner 3, no. 4 (Apr. 1848): 52–55.
True Wesleyan. Lowell, MA. 1843–1852.
Lee, Luther. Universalism Examined and Refuted, and the Doctrine of the Endless Punishment of Such as Do Not Comply with the Conditions of the Gospel in this Life, Established. Watertown, NY: Knowlton and Rice, 1836.
Though the origin of the phrase “shut their mouths in everlasting silence” is unclear, the phrase and variations of it appeared in various texts throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (For examples, see Barshinger, Jonathan Edwards and the Psalms, 137; Gadsby, Letter to the Rev. Edward Smyth, 1–2; Gray, Sermon on the Death of His Excellency, William Eustis, 3; and [S. Miles], “The Widow and the Priest,” Herald of Truth, 19 Feb. 1836, 57.)
Barshinger, David P. Jonathan Edwards and the Psalms: A Redemptive-Historical Vision of Scripture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Gadsby, William. A Letter to the Rev. Edward Smyth, Formerly of Trinity College, Dublin; or, An Everlasting Task for Arminians. To Which Are Added, Lines in Praise of Free-Will, and a Short Reflection. 3rd ed. London: E. Justins, 1815.
Gray, Thomas. A Sermon on the Death of His Excellency, William Eustis, Late Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Preached in the First Church in Roxbury. February 13, 1825. On the Lord’s Day Succeeding His Public Funeral. Boston: Office of the Christian Register, 1825.
Herald of Truth. Geneva, NY. 1834–1836.