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Introduction to Nauvoo City Treasurer Records

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Introduction to Nauvoo City Treasurer Records
The Nauvoo City Treasurer Records consist of documents created and received by the city treasurer of , Illinois. Included are pay orders to and from the treasurer, a ledger kept by the treasurer of monies coming into and going out of the city treasury, and miscellaneous documents to and from the treasurer such as letters and receipts. Though hundreds of pay orders have been identified and are posted to this website, the ledger indicates that many additional pay orders were created that are not extant. There is some overlap of records between the city council, the recorder, the treasurer, and the tax assessors and collectors. Where this occurs, the Joseph Smith Papers Project has chosen to list certain groups of records in designated categories. Explanations and links between categories are provided to aid the user.
Section 9 of the city charter gave the city council “power to appoint a Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor, Marshal, Supervisor of Streets, and all such other officers as may be necessary, and to prescribe their duties, and remove them from office at pleasure.” At the city council’s first meeting on 3 February 1841, was appointed to be the city treasurer and to hold the office until the next city election in two years. However, Thompson died 27 August 1841, and at the next city council meeting, on 4 September, was appointed to be the treasurer. For reasons that are unclear, Fullmer was removed as treasurer and was appointed in his place at the 9 September 1842 council meeting. After the February 1843 and 1845 city elections, Clayton was again appointed as city treasurer.
The duties of the city treasurer were not delineated in the city charter, but they appear to be similar to the duties of the state treasurer, including receiving all taxes, paying out money on a certificate from the recorder, keeping an account of money received and paid, making regular reports of disbursements, and giving receipts for any money received. Extant records suggest that the Nauvoo city treasurer received money from taxes on property within the city, fines for city officers delinquent in their duties, and fines levied from judgments in the city’s courts. Money was paid out to city officers and others to compensate them for work performed for the city, including salaries and fees for specific duties, as approved by the city council. Beginning in 1842, a ledger for the treasury was kept, noting money coming into and going out of the treasury. made reports to the city council concerning the amount of funds in the treasury, and a few receipts from the treasurer to individuals are extant.
The process for payment of services appears to be as follows: The city officer first requested payment by submitting a claim to the city council with a description of the services rendered and the amount of money due. If the city council approved the claim, the city recorder wrote a pay order to the city treasurer noting the council’s approval and instructing the treasurer to pay the individual from funds in the city treasury. The mayor then signed this order. It is unclear if the recorder then submitted the pay order directly to the treasurer, or if the recorder gave the order to the individual who then submitted it to the treasurer for payment. After receiving the order, the treasurer paid the individual and recorded the transaction in the treasury ledger.
There are few extant treasurer records from the period before became the city treasurer. For ’s tenure, there is a receipt for partial payment from Carlos Gove to Thompson dated 12 May 1841 and a pay order for Gove for the remainder due him dated 2 July 1841. For ’s tenure as treasurer, there is a list of claims authorized by the city council from November 1841 through January 1842 and thirteen pay orders dating from January through August 1842. Fullmer also started a ledger for the treasury in January 1842. He wrote the title page, the heading for the first two ledger pages, and the first entry in the ledger, dated 4 January 1842. The remainder of the entries for January through May 1842 are in the handwriting of , one of the city councilors. Entries for June through August 1842 on pages 1 and 2 are in the handwriting of Clayton and . Since Bullock did not arrive in Nauvoo until 31 May 1843, these entries must have been added after that date. After Clayton took over as treasurer in September 1842, he submitted a report to the Nauvoo City Council that included a list of what had been paid into the treasury in 1842, what disbursements had been made in 1842, and what money was still due various people. The money going into and out of the treasury matches the entries on pages 1 and 2 of the treasury ledger. The bulk of the extant treasurer records were created during Clayton’s tenure as treasurer. Besides the treasury ledger, Clayton’s records include pay orders to the treasurer, pay orders from the treasurer to the city tax collectors, and a few receipts and other miscellaneous documents.
The Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, begun by in January 1842 as noted above, was used to record financial transactions between the city and individuals. After a title page and index pages for individual accounts, the ledger begins with the debits and credits for the city treasury for 1842. Pages 3 and 4 contain an individual account for Lewis Robison, the city tax assessor. Pages 5–32 show the debits and credits for the city treasury for December 1842 through February 1845. Following twelve blank pages, the rest of the ledger has individual accounts for various city officers and policemen, except for a few pages with debits and credits for multiple policemen and one page with a list of people paid for services as witnesses. The payment of taxes to the city is reflected by lump sums paid by the tax collectors for each of ’s four municipal wards; there are no entries for individual taxpayers.
There are almost 150 extant pay orders to the city treasurer requesting payment to individuals for services to the city. Until July 1842, these orders noted that before being presented to the city treasurer for payment, they had to be signed by the mayor. Beginning in July 1842, this note no longer appears on the pay orders, though the orders were still signed by the mayor or someone acting on the mayor’s behalf. Beginning in January 1843, most of these pay orders for services were signed by the city recorder rather than the mayor. There is nothing in the minutes of the city council to indicate why this change occurred.
JS as mayor sometimes wrote pay orders directly to the city treasurer without going through the city council. One such order was written on 18 April 1843 asking to “let the bearer have one doller out of the tresury and oblige.” Another written 15 October 1843 asks Clayton to let Mary Little “have about five dollars out of the City Treasury to remunerate her for her Services among the small Pox.” It is unclear why JS bypassed the city council in these instances.
Another type of pay order involved local taxes. Because the city lacked funds and was unable to pay city officers, especially the city police force, the city tax collectors allowed individuals to pay their taxes from funds the treasurer owed to those individuals. Around four hundred of these pay orders from the city treasurer to the city tax collectors are extant. The few extant orders from 1843 were handwritten and for a specific individual. Beginning in January 1844, printed forms were used with blanks for the payment amount and the date. Usually, a name was written in the margin of the form or on the back, indicating who the order was for. In the Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, these pay orders are called “orders on collector.”
To more fully understand the orders to the tax collectors, a brief explanation of the overall finances of the city of is necessary. Nauvoo had a cash-poor economy, and, from the earliest days, the city treasury struggled to pay for services. For example, on 29 June 1841, Carlos Gove submitted a statement to the city council for work on building an office for Mayor and requested $11.37½ from the city for that work. An extant receipt dated 12 May 1841 from Gove to the city treasurer notes that he was paid $2.00, presumably in specie. The June statement to the city council subtracts the $2.00 payment, leaving $9.37½ still owed to Gove. On 2 July 1841, Bennett wrote a pay order on Gove’s statement to request that Thompson “liquidate the above demand out of the first monies paid into the city treasury.” Gove’s statement was presented to the city council as a claim on 17 February 1842 and allowed. An entry dated 16 May 1842 in the Nauvoo treasury ledger indicates that JS was paid the $9.37½, presumably to finally pay Gove more than a year after he had completed his work.
In ’s November 1842 report to the Nauvoo City Council, he noted that the amount remaining in the treasury was $69.00—$49.00 in specie and $20.00 in city scrip—and the amount still owed to various people was $290.06. The minutes of various city council meetings reflect many discussions on how to pay the city’s debts.
In early 1842, the city government of began issuing a local scrip in one-dollar notes to be used as currency in the city of Nauvoo. These notes, referred to as Nauvoo city scrip, were used by citizens to pay city taxes and other fines; later in 1842, the scrip was also used by the treasurer to pay money owed to city officers. Nauvoo city scrip was not recognized as currency outside the city. It could be redeemed for specie by the city treasurer on demand. The use of city scrip helped keep Nauvoo’s economy going but ultimately was not sustainable—not enough specie was being collected for the treasury to redeem the scrip.
On 13 January 1843, as the city treasurer wrote a letter to the Nauvoo City Council alerting the council that only about forty dollars of specie remained in the treasury and that he was getting “various applications to redeem our city scrip by these funds.” Clayton asked how the remaining funds were to be disbursed, since the only direction he had was to “redeem the scrip when called upon.” The following day, the city council passed a resolution that the balance of specie in the treasury was to be paid to Alderman for purchasing a burial ground for the and to the . No mention is made in the minutes of the council meeting about redeeming city scrip. On 4 March 1843, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting the further use of city scrip to pay for taxes, debts, and fines, though previously issued notes could still be redeemed.
To help the city’s financial problems, in February 1842, some city councilors agreed to forego their salaries; however, this later caused problems. In October 1842, wrote a note to the council saying that he could no longer serve on the council without getting paid. In April 1843, petitioned the council to allow him to use some of the money he would have received in 1842 to pay his 1842 taxes.
On 12 December 1843, the city council passed an ordinance authorizing the mayor to select forty policemen to be at his disposal and to act as day and night watchmen in . These policemen were to be paid one dollar a day for their services. For an already strapped treasury, this was an enormous burden. In January 1844 the treasurer began paying the policemen with pay orders to the city collectors as payment of taxes for an individual. The city treasury ledger treats these orders as being “charged” to various individuals. Comparing these entries with the individual accounts for the policemen shows that these charged credits to the city reflect the amount of money individuals “paid” to the city using the pay orders to the collectors. The individual accounts also show that the policemen were “paid” according to pay orders issued by the mayor or the “high policeman,” or chief of police. The amounts of debits and credits for an individual for a specific day are equal. Essentially, the policemen were credited with the amount they owed and then charged that amount for what they owed the city. It seems that no money actually changed hands. In August 1844, several of the policemen petitioned the city council, saying that the orders to the collectors were not sufficient for payment for their services. The council discussed the problem in their 10 August 1844 meeting but did not reach any agreement on what to do for the police. At their next meeting, a committee was formed to talk to the trustees of the about paying the police. It appears that by the end of 1844, the payment of the police was turned over to the trustees-in-trust for the church. It is unclear whether the policemen ever received any money for their services.
Though the Nauvoo city treasury struggled with funds, and the city council did their best to pay the city councilors, city officers, and other individuals for services to the city. Even after the state legislature officially disincorporated the city of in January 1845, Nauvoo held an election in February for a new city council. At its 8 February 1845 city council meeting, the council accepted city recorder ’s report of what was owed to city officials for services for the past year and ordered Richards to send his certificate to the treasurer for payment. The individual accounts in the treasury ledger for the officials listed in the report indicate that some of these payments were made, though others were made with orders to the tax collectors. Records for the treasury appear to have stopped being created in mid-March 1845. The latest recording date in the treasury ledger is 14 March 1845, and there are no extant pay orders after 1 March 1845.
To help users navigate the City Treasurer Records on this website, links are provided in footnotes to trace documents related to each other. For example, a footnote on a pay order may give information about a person’s claim to the city council, the decision of the council, and the date the order was recorded in the treasury ledger; links are provided to the claim, the council meeting minutes, and the ledger. Likewise, footnotes in the treasury ledger and city council meeting book provide links to corresponding pay orders.
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Editorial Title
Introduction to Nauvoo City Treasurer Records
ID #
21578
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    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      For nonextant pay orders signed by JS, see the calendar of documents.

    2. [2]

      Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.

    3. [3]

      Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 3 Feb. 1841, 1.

    4. [4]

      “Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:519; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 4 Sept. 1841, 22. Fullmer signed a bond as city treasurer on 22 October 1841 and was sworn in to the office on 1 January 1842. (Bond, John S. Fullmer and Hyrum Smith to James Sloan, 22 Oct. 1841; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1 Jan. 1842, 38.)

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

      Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

    5. [5]

      Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 9 Sept. 1842, 101; see also Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Jan.–Nov. 1842, 40; and Appointment of William Clayton, 9 Sept. 1842, Draft. Clayton signed a bond as city treasurer on 26 September 1842. (Bond, William Clayton and Others to James Sloan, 26 Sept. 1842.)

      Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

    6. [6]

      Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 11 Feb. 1843, 159; 8 Feb. 1845, 235.

    7. [7]

      See An Act Defining the Duties of Auditor and Treasurer [24 Mar. 1819], Laws of the State of Illinois [1819], pp. 242–243.

      Laws Passed by the First General Assembly, of the State of Illinois, at Their Second Session, Held at Kaskaskia, 1819. Kaskaskia, IL: Blackwell & Berry, 1819.

    8. [8]

      For example, on 15 January 1842, Alanson Ripley, the city surveyor, wrote a claim requesting three dollars for surveying a street and submitted it to the city council. The council approved the claim at a 15 January meeting. James Sloan, the city recorder, noted in the minutes of the meeting that an order was given. On 28 January 1842, Sloan wrote out and signed a pay order to the city treasurer for three dollars, which was also signed by John C. Bennett, the mayor. On 5 August 1842, William Clayton recorded the pay order in the treasury ledger. (Claim from Alanson Ripley, 15 Jan. 1842; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Jan.–Nov. 1842, 6; Pay Order, John C. Bennett to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Alanson Ripley, 28 Jan. 1842; Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 2, 48.)

    9. [9]

      Receipt, Carlos Gove to Robert B. Thompson, 12 May 1841; Pay Order, John C. Bennett to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Carlos Gove, 2 July 1841.

    10. [10]

      See Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, title page. On 20 August 1842, the city council resolved that the recorder “procure a Book to keep an account of the Orders drawn upon the Treasury.” It is unclear whether this book refers to the extant ledger begun by Fullmer in January 1842 or if it was another record book. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Jan.–Nov. 1842, 39.)

    11. [11]

      It is unknown why Richards was entering transactions in the treasury ledger instead of Fullmer. This may suggest that Fullmer was not fulfilling his duties as treasurer, which in turn could explain why he was replaced by Clayton in September of 1842. (Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 1–4, 45–56.)

    12. [12]

      Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, title page, 1–2; JS, Journal, 31 May 1843.

    13. [13]

      Report from William Clayton, 5 Nov. 1842.

    14. [14]

      See, for example, Pay Order, John C. Bennett to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Alanson Ripley, 28 Jan. 1842; and Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Hyrum Smith, 11 June 1842.

    15. [15]

      See, for example, Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Shadrach Roundy, 27 Aug. 1842; and Pay Order, William Marks to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Dimick B. Huntington, 8 Oct. 1842.

    16. [16]

      See, for example, Pay Order, James Sloan to Nauvoo City Treasurer for George A. Smith, 30 Jan. 1843; Pay Order, Willard Richards to William Clayton for Sylvester Emmons, 29 Sept. 1843; and Pay Order, Willard Richards to William Clayton for Theodore Turley and John S. Higbee, 13 June 1844.

    17. [17]

      Pay Order to William Clayton, 18 Apr. 1843.

    18. [18]

      Pay Order to William Clayton for Mary Little, 15 Oct. 1843.

    19. [19]

      Pay Order, William Clayton to Jonathan H. Hale for Brigham Young, 8 May 1843; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector for Daniel H. Wells, ca. 1 June 1843–A and –B; Pay Order, William Clayton to Jonathan H. Hale for James Allred, 6 June 1843; Pay Order, William Clayton to Jonathan H. Hale for John Barnett, 9 June 1843; Pay Order, William Clayton to Elijah Fordham for Pulaski Cahoon, 15 Nov. 1843; Pay Order, William Clayton to Jonathan H. Hale for Heber C. Kimball, 9 Dec. 1843.

    20. [20]

      See, for example, Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector for George Stiles, 7 Jan. 1844; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector for Andrew Lytle, 2 Aug. 1844; and Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector for William Coray, 4 Oct. 1844. There are twenty extant pay orders with no name written on them. The ledger has twenty-three entries for orders with no name associated with them. The dates and amounts line up between the treasury ledger and some of the extant orders, but it is unclear whether these orders and entries on the ledger correspond with each other. (Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 9 Jan. 1844–A, –B, and –C; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 10 Jan. 1844–A, –B, –C, –D, –E, –F, and –G; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 14 Jan. 1844–A, –B, and –C; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 16 Jan. 1844–A, –B, and –C; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 29 Jan. 1844; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 3 Aug. 1844; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector, 5 Oct. 1844–A and –B; Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 12, 14, 17, 19–22, 30.)

    21. [21]

      Some of the extant pay orders were bundled together and wrapped, with a notation that they were entered together. It is unclear what these bundles signify, and no attempt has been made on this website to distinguish which orders were bundled together. (See Wrapper for Pay Orders to Nauvoo City Collector, 19 Feb. 1845; Wrapper for Pay Orders to Nauvoo City Collector, 1 Mar. 1845–A, –B, –C, and –D.)

    22. [22]

      Statement of Account from Carlos Gove, 29 June 1841.

    23. [23]

      Receipt, Carlos Gove to Robert B. Thompson, 12 May 1841.

    24. [24]

      Pay Order, John C. Bennett to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Carlos Gove, 2 July 1841.

    25. [25]

      Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Jan.–Nov. 1842, 13; Statement of Account from Carlos Gove, 29 June 1841.

    26. [26]

      Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 56.

    27. [27]

      Report from William Clayton, 5 Nov. 1842.

    28. [28]

      The city treasury ledger notes when individuals were paid in Nauvoo city scrip, including the serial numbers of the scrip. The ledger also notes when city scrip was destroyed, beginning in 1843. (Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 1–2, 5–6, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20.)

    29. [29]

      For more on Nauvoo city scrip, see the historical introduction to Nauvoo City Scrip, 14 July 1842; and the glossary entry for “Nauvoo city scrip.”

    30. [30]

      Letter from William Clayton, 13 Jan. 1843.

    31. [31]

      Resolution, 14 Jan. 1843–A; see also Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for James Sloan, 7 June 1843. A later city council order also gave James Sloan priority of payment by the treasury for his services as recorder. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 21 Dec. 1843, 198.)

    32. [32]

      Ordinance, 4 Mar. 1843.

    33. [33]

      Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Jan.–Nov. 1842, 14.

    34. [34]

      Notice from Wilford Woodruff, 25 Oct. 1842.

    35. [35]

      Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Nov. 1842–Jan. 1844, 14; Pay Order, James Sloan to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Brigham Young, 15 Apr. 1843.

    36. [36]

      Ordinance, 12 Dec. 1843–B. Instead of making claims to the city council for payment, the forty policemen appointed in December 1843 were issued orders directly from JS as mayor. Jonathan Dunham, the captain of the police, wrote and signed a certificate stating how many days one of the policemen had worked. Underneath the certificate Dunham wrote a pay order directing the city treasurer to pay the policeman; JS signed this pay order. After JS’s death, Dunham continued to write and sign certificates but did not attach a pay order. These certificates seem to have acted as pay orders. (See, for example, Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Jesse Harmon, 8 Jan. 1844; Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Howard Egan, 14 Jan. 1844; Pay Order, Jonathan Dunham to Nauvoo City Treasurer for William H. Edwards, 20 Aug. 1844; and Pay Order, Jonathan Dunham to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Abraham C. Hodge, 12 Nov. 1844.)

    37. [37]

      These pay orders were sometimes referred to as “scrip,” not to be confused with the Nauvoo city scrip issued in 1842.

    38. [38]

      Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 12–30.

    39. [39]

      For example, Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 130–177.

    40. [40]

      Petition from Davis McOlney and Others, 8 Aug. 1844; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Feb. 1844–Jan. 1845, 42–45, 46–47; Letter, William Clayton to Thomas Bullock, 17 Dec. 1844.

    41. [41]

      For more information on the policemen, see the historical introduction to Ordinance, 12 Dec. 1843–B.

    42. [42]

      Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Feb.–Mar. 1845, 5; Pay Order, Daniel Spencer and Willard Richards to William Clayton for Orson Pratt and Others, 10 Feb. 1845.

    43. [43]

      For example, Daniel Spencer, the mayor, was owed fifty-one dollars, and that amount is listed as a credit on his account in the treasury ledger. Willard Richards, the city recorder, was owed fifty dollars; that amount is listed as a credit on his account in the ledger, but he was also issued an order to the collector for fifty dollars on 1 March 1845. (Pay Order, Daniel Spencer and Willard Richards to William Clayton for Orson Pratt and Others, 10 Feb. 1845; Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 118, 123; Pay Order, William Clayton to Nauvoo City Collector for Willard Richards, 1 Mar. 1845.)

    44. [44]

      Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 31.

    45. [45]

      For example, Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer for Alanson Ripley, 1 June 1843.

    46. [46]

      For example, Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 48; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Nov. 1842–Jan. 1844, 18.

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