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Introduction to the Trustee Records

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JS was an ambitious religious leader and community builder, and nowhere was that more evident than in his ideas for the Latter-day Saint settlement in the area of , Illinois, which later became . He had worked previously to plan and build communities for the Saints in and , but in Nauvoo he was able to more fully realize and develop his design for a Latter-day Saint community.
As part of JS’s plans, he worked to legally incorporate the church in . For that purpose, the Saints created a bill to present to the Illinois state senate to incorporate the church and allow it to own property as a corporation, with the functioning as the trustees. However, in December 1840 when the bill was introduced to the senate, Senator replaced it with a proposal to appoint a notary public in . Surviving records do not indicate why the original bill was not considered. The Illinois legislature may have considered a bill to incorporate the church unnecessary because of a state statute passed in 1835, titled “An Act concerning Religious Societies,” which simplified and standardized the process of incorporation for religious organizations. It required any religious organization seeking incorporation to file a certification of the election or appointment of trustees with their county recorder, after which the organization would be granted a default set of powers and responsibilities.
Having failed to gain incorporation through the bill they had drafted, the Saints turned to the 1835 law. To comply with the statute, a special conference was held on 30 January 1841 during which JS was elected as “sole trustee in-trust” for the church. Notice of JS’s election was filed with the , Illinois, recorder three days later. While JS and other Latter-day Saints used the title “trustee-in-trust,” this was not a recognized legal position or title outside of Latter-day Saint usage. Legally, JS was simply a trustee. It appears the Saints may have taken their title from the nineteenth-century legal phrase “trustee in trust, for,” which was boilerplate legal language in records related to trustees. With use in and later in Utah, the name became commonplace among Latter-day Saints; it became a title for the designated church trustee or trustees. As trustee, JS was responsible for the church’s finances, including property purchased by or for the church or donated to the church, as well as tithing and donations for the .
JS’s vision for the city of far exceeded what was standard for other church congregations and ministers of the time in and was greater than what the 1835 statute accounted for. The prescribed powers and responsibilities included in the 1835 law and its amendments were designed for the needs of an average Protestant congregation and thus allowed religious organizations to hold five acres for a meetinghouse and forty acres for outdoor camp-meeting grounds. This model did not fit well with JS’s plans for development, with church leaders functioning as those holding the properties and assets of the church.
When the Saints began to settle in and in 1839, JS, the , and several agents purchased and then privately held land for the church. These properties were purchased by the church to provide homes for the Saints. After becoming trustee, JS sought to consolidate this land, ensuring the property was transferred to him as “trustee-in-trust.” It is not clear if JS knew the limitations of Illinois laws, which restricted the amount of land a trustee could hold to forty-five acres, but these and other land acquisitions led to JS holding thousands of acres as church trustee in excess of what was allowed in the statutes. It appears that JS initially gave away considerable property in to impoverished Saints without expectation of repayment; however, over time he became more dependent on land sales to meet his financial obligations for the land that had been purchased and for which he was responsible as trustee.
The sale, purchase, and receipt of property generated a considerable number of financial records. Each purchase, sale, or donation involved the creation of promissory notes, deeds, bonds, or other legal instruments. By early 1843, donations of land to JS as trustee were common enough that JS’s scribes began using printed form deeds, containing set language noting that the property had been conveyed to JS as trustee for the sum of one dollar and the “love and good will” the sellers had toward the church. Additionally, those who purchased land often did not have the necessary funds to pay the full amount owed for the land and instead arranged payment plans allowing them to pay in installments over several months or years.
To help create these records and track scheduled payments, JS relied on several scribes and clerks. Even before JS’s appointment as trustee, clerks and agents like , , and tracked sales, payments, and land transfers for JS in what became Trustee Land Book A. In February 1842, JS hired , an experienced clerk and professional bookkeeper who had emigrated from in fall 1840. Clayton had considerable impact on the professionalization of the trustee office, and JS left management of the office to Clayton. He often served as an agent for JS as trustee, purchasing and selling land for the church on JS’s behalf. Shortly after he was hired, Clayton apparently determined to create a new record book, Trustee Land Book B, which replaced Trustee Land Book A as the record of JS’s land transactions as trustee-in-trust for the church.
Besides managing church lands, JS’s other principal responsibility as trustee was to supervise the collection and distribution of tithing donations for the building of the . As trustee, JS was ultimately responsible for all donations intended to help build the temple, but from January to December 1841 these donations were handled by the with minimal oversight by JS. There were evidently problems with the committee’s record keeping, and JS decided to assume responsibility for recording and distributing donations on 11 December 1841. This shift corresponded with ’s appointment as temple recorder on 13 December and the first entries recording donations in the Book of the Law of the Lord. joined Richards in the recorder’s office in February 1842. In June 1842, when Richards planned to leave for a time, he transferred the record-keeping duties for the office to Clayton. JS officially appointed Clayton as the new temple recorder in September 1842. On 1 October, JS instructed Clayton to transfer the temple recorder’s office from JS’s to the temple committee’s “committee house,” located near the temple. A month later, the temple committee completed a “small brick office” for the temple recorder’s office, and Clayton wrote that on 2 November, he “moved his Records, books, papers &c to the new office and commenced business forthwith.”
As the temple recorders, and were responsible for running the recorder’s office, which also functioned as the tithing office and managed the business of the trustee’s office. These men, and the clerks working under their direction, recorded tithing, donations, and other transactions involving the trustee. The records created for the temple recorder’s and trustee’s offices were somewhat complex. To understand these records, it is helpful to understand the recording process.
When money or goods came into the recorder’s office, they were first entered in a chronological record book known as a daybook. The earliest daybooks for tithing are apparently no longer extant; the first surviving record book is titled “Tithing Daybook B.” After information was entered in the daybook, those items related to tithing or temple donations were then entered in a book known as the Book of the Law of the Lord, which was intended to be a sacred book recording members’ contributions. The next step was to distribute these goods. A majority were given to the to support temple construction, and distribution of these goods to the temple committee was tracked in invoices created by and other clerks. Some goods also served as payment for those working in the trustee’s office. The office often lacked funds to pay the daily wage earned by those working in the office, and therefore they were paid in goods or other exchanges as well as in cash. The distribution of donations was recorded in a separate record book known as Trustee-in-Trust, Ledger A.
For an example of the process from initial donation to distribution of goods, consider Latter-day Saint Prudence North living in Greene County, Illinois, who donated ten dollars in silver, a boy’s shirt, and flannel as tithing in January 1843. Her tithing was brought to by and . It was recorded first in the tithing daybook and then in the Book of the Law of the Lord. evidently had a use or need for the flannel and took it as part of the payment he was owed for his work as temple recorder and clerk for the trustee. His selection of the flannel was recorded in both the tithing daybook and the accounts kept by the trustee office.
After JS’s death it took time to appoint people to fill the many positions he held. As a result, JS remained the official church trustee, with acting as a temporary trustee, in summer 1844. Many in debated who should be appointed trustee and church president in place of JS, with the general assumption that whoever was appointed would fulfill both roles. While and some others argued for the immediate appointment of Nauvoo stake president as trustee, and other church leaders advised waiting until a majority of the returned to Nauvoo to discuss new appointments. On 9 August, after and other apostles arrived in Nauvoo, church leaders decided to separate the responsibilities of church president and trustee and elected bishops and as the new trustees of the church, and the two men signed a certificate and legally assumed the role on 12 August 1844. Whitney and Miller served as trustees until January 1846, when , , were appointed in their stead.
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Editorial Title
Introduction to the Trustee Records
ID #
20437
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1
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    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      Bill to Incorporate the Church, 14 Dec. 1840.

    2. [2]

      Journal of the Senate . . . of the State of Illinois, 15 Dec. 1840, 81. Alternatively, the Illinois legislature may have rejected the bill because it was reluctant to give any religion or religious organization special status or exclusive privileges. (See Oman, “Established Agreeable to the Laws of our Country,” 216–217.)

      Journal of the Senate of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, At Their Second Session, Begun and Held in the City of Springfield, December 7, 1840. Springfield, IL: Wm. Walters, 1840.

      Oman, Nathan B. “‘Established Agreeable to the Laws of Our Country’: Mormonism, Church Corporations, and the Long Legacy of America’s First Disestablishment.” Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 2 (August 2021): 202–229.

    3. [3]

      An Act concerning Religious Societies [6 Feb. 1835], Laws of the State of Illinois (1834–1835), pp. 147–149. The preamble to the act clarified that it was created because “petitions are frequently presented to the legislature of the State to incorporate religious societies,” and “if said acts of incorporation were granted, it would lead to an endless system of partial legislation.”

      Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.

    4. [4]

      Appointment, 2 Feb. 1841, Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, p. 95, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

      U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    5. [5]

      See Oman, “‘Established Agreeable to the Laws of our Country,’” 218; Arrington, “The Settlement of the Brigham Young Estate,” 1.

      Oman, Nathan B. “‘Established Agreeable to the Laws of Our Country’: Mormonism, Church Corporations, and the Long Legacy of America’s First Disestablishment.” Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 2 (August 2021): 202–229.

      Arrington, Leonard J. “The Settlement of the Brigham Young Estate, 1877–1879,” Pacific Historical Review 21, no. 1 (February 1952): 1–20.

    6. [6]

      An Act to Amend “An Act in relation to Religious Societies” [2 Mar. 1839], Laws of the State of Illinois (1838–1839), p. 267, secs. 1–2.

      Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly at Their Session Began and Held at Vandalia, on the Third of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839.

    7. [7]

      Trustees Land Book A, [44].

      Trustees Land Books / Trustee-in-Trust, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Land Books, 1839–1845. 2 vols. CHL. MS 3437.

    8. [8]

      See Historical Introduction to Deed from Orson and Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, 10 Feb. 1843.

    9. [9]

      Clayton, Diary, 10 Feb. 1842; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18.

      Clayton, William. Diary, Vol. 1, 1840–1842. BYU.

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    10. [10]

      See for example, Bond from Chauncey Robison, 22 Oct. 1842.

    11. [11]

      According to Clayton, Nauvoo temple committee member Elias Higbee apparently gave individuals receipts for donated goods but did not keep a general tithing record. On 11 December, JS instructed Brigham Young to tell the temple committee to no longer accept donated goods for the temple but to instead direct donors to present their goods to the trustee to be recorded. (See Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 14; and JS, Journal, 11 Dec. 1841.)

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    12. [12]

      JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841.

    13. [13]

      Clayton, Diary, 10 Feb. 1842; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18.

      Clayton, William. Diary, Vol. 1, 1840–1842. BYU.

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    14. [14]

      JS, Journal, 29 June 1842.

    15. [15]

      Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 30.

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    16. [16]

      JS, Journal, 1 Oct. 1842; Notice, 11 Oct. 1842; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 32–35.

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    17. [17]

      Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 35.

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    18. [18]

      The chronological entries begin in December 1842, but the daybook contains a few entries from earlier in 1842.

    19. [19]

      See Historical Introduction to the Book of the Law of the Lord.

    20. [20]

      On 1 October 1842, the wages of the trustee-in-trust, committee members, and recorder were set at two dollars per day. (Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 34.)

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    21. [21]

      See Book of the Law of the Lord, Book A, 281.

    22. [22]

      “Tithing Day Book B,” 22, Trustee-in-Trust, Tithing Daybooks, CHL; Book of the Law of the Lord, Book A, 281.

      Tithing and Donation Record, 1844–1846. CHL.

    23. [23]

      Clerks and others working in the trustee’s office were paid one dollar a day. At some point this daily wage was increased to two dollars a day. (See Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 34.)

      Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

    24. [24]

      “Tithing Day Book B,” 23, Trustee-in-Trust, Tithing Daybooks, CHL; Trustee-in-Trust, Ledger A, p. 278. For a similar situation, in which JS was paid through donated silver teaspoons, see Letter from Erastus Snow, 22 June 1842.

      Tithing and Donation Record, 1844–1846. CHL.

      Trustee-in-Trust. Ledgers, 1841–1846. CHL.

    25. [25]

      Clayton, Journal, 7 July 1844.

      Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

    26. [26]

      Clayton, Journal, 4, 6–8, 12, and 13–14 July 1844; Richards, Journal, 8 and 14 July 1844.

      Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

      Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

    27. [27]

      Newel K. Whitney and George Miller, Appointment as Trustees, 12 Aug. 1844, Nauvoo Trustees Papers, 1844–1848, CHL; Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844.

      Nauvoo Trustees Papers, 1844–1848. CHL.

      Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

    28. [28]

      George Miller and Newel K. Whitney, Certificate of Election, 24 Jan. 1846, Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 2, p. 144, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Young, Journal, 24 Jan. 1846.

      U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

      Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.

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