Footnotes
See the full bibliographic entry for Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Notebooks, 1840, 1869–1870, in the CHL catalog.
See the full bibliographic entry for Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
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].)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This later version is included in a notebook containing memoranda from Coray’s husband, Howard Coray, from the 1850s.
“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–.
TEXT: “nea[page torn]”.
At a February 1835 meeting, JS stated that the return of Christ “was nigh, even fifty six years, should wind up the scene.” JS would later recount, “I was once praying earnestly upon this subject. and a voice said unto me. My son, if thou livest till thou art 85 years of age, thou shalt see the face of the son of man. . . . I was left to draw my own conclusions concerni[n]g this &, I took the liberty to conclude that if I did live till that time he would make his appearance.— but I do not say whether he will make his appeara[n]ce, or I shall go where he is.— I prophecy in the name of the Lord God.— & let it be written. that the Son of Man will not come in the heavns till I am 85. years old 48 years hence or about 1890.” (Minutes, Discourse, and Blessings, 14–15 Feb. 1835; JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843, ellipsis and underlining in original.)