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Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo Store

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Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo Store

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In 1841, JS decided to construct a two-story brick building on the southeast corner of Water and Granger streets in , Illinois. He hired millwright to construct the building; work commenced by September 1841 and was largely finished by December. The structure had retail space on the ground floor and a large meeting room on the second floor. JS leased the building to in January 1842, likely intending Richards to hold the property as an ; however, JS retained a private office on the second floor of the building and apparently kept ownership of the store.
There is little documentation for the business aspects of the store aside from two daybooks and some loose financial records. The daybooks record daily transactions made from January 1842 to July 1844. Notations in the second daybook indicate that clerks were also keeping a ledger, but it is apparently no longer extant. Unlike JS’s Ohio stores, the store has no surviving invoices and few surviving accounts or bills of goods. Extant records do not name the store or the company responsible for running it. Many Nauvoo residents referred to the store as “General Smith’s store,” “President Joseph Smith’s store,” “the brick store,” or some combination of these.
In order to stock the store, JS sent , and , and possibly others to purchase goods as his financial agents. He also wrote to , a Latter-day Saint and prominent businessman, requesting that he purchase goods and ship them to . Many purchases in late 1841 appear to have been made in the northeastern , in places like and Pennsylvania, through wholesale merchants. Additional goods were purchased in . The goods in the store were predominantly dry goods and fabric, with some tools and other specialty items. Perishable foodstuffs such as eggs and butter were also sold when available.
JS began stocking the shelves of the store in mid-December 1841. He opened the store on 5 January 1842 and enjoyed waiting on the Saints. In a letter to , JS related that he had spent the day “behind the counter dealing out goods as steady as any clerk you ever Saw to oblige those who were compelled to go without their usual christmas & New year, dinners. for the want of a little Sugar, Molasses, Rasions &c.” Despite JS’s enthusiasm, he left most of the store’s daily operations to clerks , , , and . JS’s nephew also worked as a clerk while living in in 1842.
The store quickly became a location of civic and cultural importance in the community. In addition to the store, the building contained the , JS’s private (which served as the administrative headquarters for the ), and a large meeting room on the second floor. This room served at times as a school, courtroom, and meeting room for both civic and religious groups. These included Nauvoo’s Masonic lodge, the , and the . JS also used the room to perform temple ordinances before the was completed. The room was given several names corresponding to its various uses, such as the “Lodge room.”
In nineteenth-century , stores, especially those removed from large urban areas, often served multiple functions, including banking. This was true for JS’s store, which lent money to individuals, usually in small amounts; facilitated paying someone indirectly, like a teacher for a local school; and accepted verbal or written pay orders for goods. JS also used the store to provide funds or goods to family members and other Latter-day Saints in need, and as a means to settle some of his and the Church’s debts. For example, sold his to JS, , and in February 1842, and JS extended significant store credit to Robinson to help settle the debt.
JS’s involvement in and oversight of the store declined throughout 1842. He may have lost interest in the endeavor, but he may also have had too large of a workload, especially after his election in mid-May as mayor of . Additionally, beginning in August 1842 and continuing into 1843, JS spent much of his time in hiding to avoid arrest and extradition to . It is not clear if JS closed his store, allowed others to rent the space, or sold or transferred ownership to a mercantile company. The surviving daybooks record purchases into 1844, but some of these appear to be later accounts with JS and not necessarily with his store.
JS retained use of his office in the building until his death, but two advertisements in the Nauvoo Neighbor provide clues about the leasing of the store portion of the building in 1843 and 1844. In December 1843 a company from the eastern called Butler & Lewis notified the public that it was selling a wide assortment of goods in “President Joseph Smith’s store.” No other contemporary records document this lease, and it is not clear if arrangements were made with JS, , or another individual who had previously leased the store space. Then in May 1844, Harrison Kimball advertised that he was opening a new store he was opening in the building. After JS’s death, Kimball paid , JS’s widow, $30 to rent the store for another year in October 1844. But a year later Emma Smith was apparently searching for a new renter, and she offered the store to . Instead of Heywood, however, she ended up renting the store to established merchant in November 1845. The following year, rented the store from Emma Smith for $50. The entire building, including the store, appears to have stayed in the possession of Emma Smith and her children after 1846, and it was eventually sold by the Smith family in 1890.
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Editorial Title
Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo Store
ID #
19920
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    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      Lease to Willard Richards, 4 Jan. 1842; Letter to Edward Hunter, 5 Jan. 1842; JS, Journal, 14 Dec. 1841.

    2. [2]

      Floor Plan for Joseph Smith’s Store, between Feb. and Dec. 1841.

    3. [3]

      Lease to Willard Richards, 4 Jan. 1842; see Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph L. Heywood, 18 Oct. 1845, CHL; Launius and McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s Red Brick Store, 33.

      Smith, Emma. Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph L. Heywood, 18 Oct. 1845, CHL.

      Launius, Roger D., and F. Mark McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s, Red Brick Store. Western Illinois Monograph Series 5. Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1985.

    4. [4]

      JS’s Store Daybook A, Jan.–July 1842; JS’s Store Daybook B, 1842–1844, Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids, microfilm copy at CHL; see also Launius and McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s Red Brick Store, 51. A transcript of Daybook A is available on the Joseph Smith Papers website here. A transcript for Daybook B is not available, and interested researchers will need to consult the record in person at the Iowa Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids.

      Smith, Joseph. Daybook, 1842–1844. Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids. Microfilm copy at CHL.

      Launius, Roger D., and F. Mark McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s, Red Brick Store. Western Illinois Monograph Series 5. Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1985.

    5. [5]

      See, for example, “Kidnapping,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 20 Dec. 1843, [2]; “Nauvoo Seminary,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 19 July 1843, [3]; “Church History,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 May 1843, [4].

      Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    6. [6]

      Letter from John W. Latson, 7 Jan. 1842; Letter from Newel K. Whitney, 29 Oct. 1841; Introduction to JS v. Brotherton; Letter from Edward Hunter, 27 Oct. 1841; JS, Journal, 22 Dec. 1841.

    7. [7]

      JS, Journal, 14 Dec. 1841; Letter to Edward Hunter, 5 Jan. 1842.

    8. [8]

      Letter to Edward Hunter, 5 Jan. 1842.

    9. [9]

      “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842”; JS, Journal, 4 May 1842; JS History, Draft Notes, 4 May 1842, 11.

    10. [10]

      JS, Journal, 4 Feb. 1842; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, vol. N, p. 368, microfilm 954,600, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff to Ebenezer Robinson, Agreement, Nauvoo, IL, 4 Feb. 1842, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; JS’s Store Daybook B, 9 Jan. 1844, 93.

      U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

      Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.

      Smith, Joseph. Daybook, 1842–1844. Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids. Microfilm copy at CHL.

    11. [11]

      JS, Journal, 19 May 1842; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 19 May 1842, 80–81.

    12. [12]

      See, for example, JS, Journal, 10–13, 17 Aug., 4 Sept., and 16 Nov. 1842.

    13. [13]

      See, for example, JS, Journal, 12 and 17 June 1844.

    14. [14]

      “The One Price Store,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 20 Dec. 1843, [3].

      Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    15. [15]

      “The New Store,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 15 May 1844, [3].

      Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    16. [16]

      Account, 1 Sept. 1844–Sept. 1846 [Coolidge Administrator of the Estate of JS].

    17. [17]

      Account, 1 Sept. 1844–Sept. 1846 [Coolidge Administrator of the Estate of JS].

    18. [18]

      Account, 1 Sept. 1844–Sept. 1846 [Coolidge Administrator of the Estate of JS].

    19. [19]

      Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph L. Heywood, 18 Oct. 1845, CHL. Any stores in operation by the Smith family would have closed in 1846, when the family moved to Fulton, Illinois. For more on the later history of JS’s store, see Launius and McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s Red Brick Store, 1985; and Bray, Archaeological Investigations at the Joseph Smith Red Brick Store, Nauvoo, Illinois, ca. 1973.

      Smith, Emma. Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph L. Heywood, 18 Oct. 1845, CHL.

      Launius, Roger D., and F. Mark McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr.’s, Red Brick Store. Western Illinois Monograph Series 5. Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1985.

      Bray, Robert T. Archaeological Investigations at the Joseph Smith Red Brick Store, Nauvoo, Illinois. No publisher, [1973?]. Copy at CHL.