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Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–A

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, ca. 19 July 1840]. Featured version copied [between ca. 19 July 1840 and 1844] in Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Notebook, ca. 1840–1844, pp. [12]–[18]; and in Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, miscellaneous documents; two pages; handwriting of Martha Jane Knowlton Coray; CHL.
Small notebook, measuring 6⅛ × 4 inches (16 × 10 cm). Despite being commercially produced, the volume is no longer bound. The notebook as it exists today consists of ten leaves of paper in a single gathering, some of which have been folded in half. At least one leaf is missing from the gathering. The pages are lined with thin blue lines that have faded with age. The leaves show significant signs of aging; most have been stained and have browned with time. The majority of Coray’s entries are written in graphite, which has faded with age. A single page contains a few lines in black ink, and the first and last pages of the volume contain commercial printing that is not part of Coray’s entries. The notebook is a collection of notes covering JS’s July 1840 discourse and an undated meeting that appears to have been the October 1844 general conference of the church.
Coray maintained possession of the notebook until her death in 1881. Following her death, the notebook remained in her family, eventually coming into the possession of her descendant Inez Ruth Stevens Cooper. At some point, Cooper’s niece Nadine Cooper Boudrero procured the notebook. In 1997 Boudrero donated the notebook to the Church History Department.
One leaf of Coray’s notes on JS’s circa 19 July 1840 sermon was separated from the notebook and is now filed with miscellaneous documents in Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845. The top left-hand corner of the leaf is missing, and the edges of the leaf bear signs of wear, including folds, small tears, and browning from age. Both sides of the leaf are inscribed in black ink. The leaf is filed with other miscellaneous and Martha Coray documents in the history.
This page and the other miscellaneous documents associated with Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, likely remained in Coray’s possession until her death in 1881 and were then transferred to her family’s custody. The collection of documents evidently came into church possession by the early twentieth century.
Note: The images of the notebook shown here have been enhanced using multi-spectral imaging (MSI) to make them legible.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Notebooks, 1840, 1869–1870, in the CHL catalog.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

Martha Jane Knowlton Coray made two separate records of a discourse JS gave in , Illinois, likely sometime around 19 July 1840. The discourse covered the , the perils that the would one day face, the development of Nauvoo, and the construction of a there. In the discourse, JS explicated a parable of twelve olive trees included in a December 1833 revelation. JS also declared that the land of Zion covered all of North and South America and anywhere that members gathered. He counseled the Saints to gather to Nauvoo, where they would construct a temple, and stated that they would one day save the United States and its Constitution from ruin. JS finished the sermon by predicting a bright future for Nauvoo and declaring that the time would come when the city would serve as a center of education and spirituality, in large part because of the temple the Saints would construct.
Although Coray dated one of her accounts 19 July 1840, it remains unclear when JS delivered the discourse. There are no extant records that discuss a gathering on 19 July in which JS may have given it; however, 19 July was a Sunday, and JS could have delivered the sermon at a regular Sunday meeting. At the end of one of her reports, Coray noted, “On this day the of over which Father presided was publicly appointed.” Coray may have included this note to indicate that the discourse was given on the day that a stake in Macedonia was organized, but no record shows the appointment of the Macedonia stake (located in the vicinity of in eastern , Illinois) on 19 July. Rather, the creation of a stake in Macedonia, known as the Ramus stake, was authorized and officers for the stake were appointed when a letter from JS and was read at a meeting held on 9 July. On 15 July, Hyrum Smith attended another meeting in which the stake officers were . However, the designated officers did not include John Smith, who was not made in Macedonia until 1843. Given these facts, the discourse may have been delivered on 9 July or 15 July and misdated by Coray. At the very least, JS gave it before November 1840, when referred to some of its content in a letter he wrote to his brother .
Coray apparently took notes at the time JS gave the sermon. The first version of the sermon featured here may be Coray’s original notes because it contains mistakes, such as missing words and letters, consistent with someone taking hurried notes. However, the notes appear in a notebook containing only one other item: minutes of what appears to be the October 1844 general of the church. This suggests that Coray may not have recorded the notes until well after JS gave the discourse. At some point—probably during fall 1843 and possibly even as late as the 1850s—Coray recorded a more polished and coherent version of the sermon, likely based off these notes. This later version—also featured here—organized items in the discourse differently than the notes did and also included topics not present in the notes. Two other versions of the discourse exist, both of which appear to be later than and derivative from Coray’s two accounts.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The revelation explained the reasons why the Saints were driven out of Jackson County, Missouri—the area designated in a previous revelation as the location of the city of Zion. (Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:43–62]; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57].)

  2. [2]

    Macedonia Branch, Record, 2, 9, and 15 July 1840, 7–9; see also Letter to Crooked Creek, IL, Branch, ca. 7 or 8 July 1840.

    Macedonia Branch, Record / “A Record of the Chur[c]h of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Macedonia (Also Called Ramus),” 1839–1850. CHL. LR 11808 21.

  3. [3]

    Macedonia Branch, Record, 21 Sept. 1843, 35; see also Johnson, “Journal or Sketch of the Life of Joel H Johnson,” 30–31.

    Macedonia Branch, Record / “A Record of the Chur[c]h of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Macedonia (Also Called Ramus),” 1839–1850. CHL. LR 11808 21.

    Johnson, Joel Hills. “A Journal or Sketch of the Life of Joel H Johnson,” ca. 1857–1859. Joel Hills Johnson, Papers, 1835–1882. CHL.

  4. [4]

    Orson Pratt, Edinburgh, Scotland, to George A. Smith, Burslem, England, 21 Jan. 1841, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL. Parley P. Pratt, who had been proselytizing in England, returned to the United States in July 1840 to retrieve his family, who had been living in New York. He presumably heard about JS’s sermon before returning to England in October 1840. (Givens and Grow, Parley P. Pratt, 184–185.)

    Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.

    Givens, Terryl L., and Matthew J. Grow. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

  5. [5]

    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.

  6. [6]

    At least one of the leaves from this notebook, which included part of this discourse, was at some point separated from the notebook and was included in miscellaneous documents associated with Lucy Mack Smith’s history, which Coray helped write in the 1840s. (Howard Coray and Martha Jane Knowlton Coray Miscellaneous Papers, in Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, CHL.)

    Smith, Lucy Mack. History, 1844–1845. 18 books. CHL. MS 2049. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  7. [7]

    Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Notebook, ca. 1840–1844, CHL. Coray’s minutes for the meeting are not dated, but they include a discourse that is remarkably similar to a sermon Brigham Young gave at the October 1844 conference. A listing of officers following that sermon also corresponds closely to the sustaining of officers in that meeting. In the notebook’s current arrangement, the minutes come before the bulk of the account of the discourse (one page preceding the minutes appears to be part of JS’s discourse), but several pages in the notebook are loose, making it difficult to discern the original order of the items. (“October Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1844, 5:683; 1 Nov. 1844, 5:692–693.)

    Coray, Martha Jane Knowlton. Notebook, ca. 1841–ca. 1850. BYU.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  8. [8]

    This later version is included in a notebook containing memoranda from Coray’s husband, Howard Coray, from the 1850s.

  9. [9]

    “A Few Items from a Discourse Delivered by Joseph Smith, July 19, 1840,” JS Collection, CHL; “A Few Items from a Discourse Delivered by the Prophet Joseph Smith July 11th 1840,” Edward Hunter, Papers, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. The account in the JS Collection is in the handwriting of Larinda Pratt Weihe (1855–1918), who worked in the Church Historian’s Office for many years. The account in the Edward Hunter Papers is in an unknown hand. It closely follows Coray’s accounts, though it omits the last several lines of the sermon. (“Mrs. Weihe, Wife of Violinist, Is Dead,” Deseret Evening News [Salt Lake City], 21 Jan. 1918, 9.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

    “A Few Items from a Discourse Delivered by the Prophet Joseph Smith July 11th 1840.” Edward Hunter, Papers. J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–A *Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–B

Page [2]

name of Jesus May many here realised this and see it with their eyes I myself also is my prayer— Amen— [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–A
ID #
6776
Total Pages
11
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:333–345
Handwriting on This Page
  • Martha Jane Knowlton Coray

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