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Journal, 1839

16 April 1839 • Tuesday Page 1 22–23 April 1839 • Monday–Tuesday Page 1 24 April–3 May 1839 • Wednesday–Friday Page 1 4 May 1839 • Saturday Page 1 5 May 1839 • Sunday Page 1 6 May 1839 • Monday Page 1 7 May 1839 • Tuesday Page 1 10 May 1839 • Friday Page 1 13–14 May 1839 • Monday–Tuesday Page 1 14–19 May 1839 • Tuesday–Sunday Page 1 20–24 May 1839 • Monday–Friday Page 2 25 May 1839 • Saturday Page 2 26 May 1839 • Sunday Page 2 27 May–8 June 1839 • Monday–Saturday Page 2 9 June 1839 • Sunday Page 2 10 June 1839 • Monday Page 2 11 June 1839 • Tuesday Page 2 12–14 June 1839 • Wednesday–Friday Page 2 15 June 1839 • Saturday Page 2 15–17 June 1839 • Saturday–Monday Page 3 16 June 1839 • Sunday Page 3 17 June 1839 • Monday Page 3 18 June 1839 • Tuesday Page 3 18 June 1839 • Tuesday Page 3 20 June 1839 • Thursday Page 4 22–23 June 1839 • Saturday–Sunday Page 4 24–25 June 1839 • Monday–Tuesday Page 4 26 June 1839 • Wednesday Page 4 27 June 1839 • Thursday Page 4 28 June 1839 • Friday Page 5 29 June 1839 • Saturday Page 5 30 June 1839 • Sunday Page 5 1 July 1839 • Monday Page 5 2 July 1839 • Tuesday Page 5 3 July 1839 • Wednesday Page 6[b] 4–5 July 1839 • Thursday–Friday Page 6[b] 6 July 1839 • Saturday Page 6[b] 7 July 1839 • Sunday Page 6[b] 8–20 July 1839 • Monday–Saturday Page 9 21 July 1839 • Sunday Page 9 22–23 July 1839 • Monday–Tuesday Page 9 28 July–3 August 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 9 4 August 1839 • Sunday Page 10 11–17 August 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 11 18–24 August 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 11 25–31 August 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 11 1–7 September 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 11 8–14 September 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 12 15 September 1839 • Sunday Page 12 16–21 September 1839 • Monday–Saturday Page 12 22–28 September 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 12 29 September–6 October 1839 • Sunday–Sunday Page 12 6–12 October 1839 • Sunday–Saturday Page 14 13 October 1839 • Sunday Page 14 15 October 1839 • Tuesday Page 14

Source Note

JS, “Minute Book. 1839 J. Smiths Journal Escape from Prison,” Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839; handwriting of ; fifteen pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes redactions and archival marking.
Makeshift notebook measuring 10 × 4 inches (25 × 10 cm). The journal was fashioned by folding eight 10 × 8 inch (25 × 20 cm) sheets of paper in half lengthwise to form the notebook of sixteen leaves (thirty-two pages). Inscriptions that reach the end of a line and cross the gutter onto another leaf indicate that the folded pages were not sewn during their original use. Wear on the first and last pages indicates that the pages were not bound for some time. The text of the journal is inscribed on the first fifteen pages in black ink that later turned brown. The remaining seventeen pages are blank. At some point, a sheet of blue stock measuring 10 × 16 inches (25 × 41 cm) was folded in half twice to create a cover that measures 10 × 4 inches; the notebook was then pamphlet bound with hand stitching. On the front cover, wrote “Minute Book. | 1839 | J. Smiths Journal | Escape from Prison”, below which are seven decorative underlines in black ink. Near the top of the back cover, the lines “Joseph Smith’s Journal | Escape from Prison 1839” are written sideways in black ink. This notation, in unidentified handwriting, appears to be early archival marking. Textual redactions and use marks made in graphite pencil were added by later scribes who used the journal to produce the multivolume manuscript history of the church.
This thin journal was probably among the miscellaneous documents collectively listed in Nauvoo and early Utah inventories of church records. The use of the journal in connection with the manuscript history, early inventories, and recent archival records indicate that this journal—like the other JS journals—has remained in continuous church custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Inventory,” [2]; “Historian’s Office Inventory,” [3], Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  2. [2]

    See Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 7.

    Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.

Historical Introduction

Following their success in forcing the Mormons to evacuate the village of in Carroll County, Missouri, in October 1838, anti-Mormon vigilantes applied similar pressure in , beginning with raids on isolated Mormon homes. State militia commander acknowledged that his troops could not be relied upon to maintain order or to protect the Latter-day Saints’ property rights. The Mormons mounted a preemptive strike in Daviess County beginning in mid-October, targeting the property of vigilantes.
Burning and plundering by both sides and the evacuation of most of ’s non-Mormon residents led to outright warfare. After a company of volunteers captured three Latter-day Saints in an area lying between and Ray counties, JS helped mobilize a company of Mormons from Caldwell County as a rescue party. The ensuing battle at on 25 October, at which two Mormons, their guide, and one Missourian were killed, gave rise to exaggerated reports that the Mormons had killed or captured the entire Ray County contingent and were about to attack , the seat of Ray County. In the wake of this news and word of Mormon depredations in Daviess County, in late October 1838 governor decried Mormon “outrages” and ordered a large militia force to “exterminate” the Mormons or drive them from the state. JS and other leaders were arrested and incarcerated, and most Mormons left Missouri in early 1839, trudging eastward for more than 150 miles and crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois.
After a grueling confinement through the winter in the

Located in western Missouri, thirteen miles north of Independence. Settled 1820. Clay Co. seat, 1822. Incorporated as town, May 1829. Following expulsion from Jackson Co., 1833, many Latter-day Saints found refuge in Clay Co., with church leaders and other...

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Two-story building containing dungeon on lower floor with access through trap door. Constructed, 1833. JS and five others confined there for just over four months, beginning 1 Dec. 1838, while awaiting trial for charges in connection with “Mormon War.” JS...

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, Missouri, JS and his fellow Mormon prisoners were transported to for a grand jury investigation. There they were indicted for treason, riot, arson, burglary, and receiving stolen goods but were granted a change of venue to Columbia, Missouri, for their contemplated trial. During the journey to the new location, the guards allowed their prisoners to escape.
On 22 April 1839, six days after their escape, JS and his companions crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. There they reunited with thousands of other Latter-day Saint refugees from , many of whom had received a sympathetic, hospitable reception from the citizens of , Illinois. That same day, JS rehired , who had performed clerical work for him the previous autumn. Mulholland began his record in this small journal by noting JS’s escape in Missouri and then, beginning with JS’s arrival in Quincy, kept a contemporaneous record for six months.
During the period covered by this journal, worked closely with JS, recording JS’s history and occasionally accompanying him in his travels. Unlike the September–October 1838 journal, which Mulholland kept for JS in , the present journal benefits from JS reporting to his scribe some of the activities that took place in Mulholland’s absence. A few of the entries in these instances may have been dictated by JS, although most entries were based on Mulholland’s observation.
While keeping this journal for JS, was also keeping his own journal, which he wrote in the back of the record he had kept for JS during autumn 1838. Mulholland’s personal journal entries, where illuminating, are used to annotate the parallel entries he wrote for JS in the present journal. When he was separated from JS, Mulholland also focused entries in JS’s journal on Mulholland’s own activities. Mulholland’s use of first-person narration to refer sometimes to himself and sometimes to JS requires careful reading to determine whose activities are being described.
The Illinois resumption of JS’s record keeping reflected the reestablishment of characteristically Mormon procedures that were suspended during the upheaval in . Record keeping lapsed during the Mormon War, the imprisonment of JS, and the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from the state. The principle of gathering—at least in an official sense—also lapsed during the aftermath of that expulsion. Latter-day Saints realized that their practice of gathering to create religious communities, though mandated by revelation, aroused antagonism of nearby citizenry wherever they settled. In the interest of survival, should they now intersperse with others, coming together for worship but not living in tight-knit, exclusive communities? Writing from

Located in western Missouri, thirteen miles north of Independence. Settled 1820. Clay Co. seat, 1822. Incorporated as town, May 1829. Following expulsion from Jackson Co., 1833, many Latter-day Saints found refuge in Clay Co., with church leaders and other...

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Two-story building containing dungeon on lower floor with access through trap door. Constructed, 1833. JS and five others confined there for just over four months, beginning 1 Dec. 1838, while awaiting trial for charges in connection with “Mormon War.” JS...

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 in January 1839, JS acknowledged that for the present “the gathering of necessity [is] stopt.”
Yet the gathering did not stop. Even without JS’s direction, many of the Mormons fleeing sought collective refuge in western Illinois and thereby kept the question of gathering alive. In March, before JS’s escape, a church conference at conducted by confronted the question of whether to “gather” or “scatter.” Young advised settling “in companies,” or at least in sufficiently close proximity to establish congregations.
Within days of his arrival in , JS decisively arranged for a new gathering place. In the months to come, he taught that a gathered community of believers was essential for building a house of the Lord. As was true for , Ohio, and as JS had intended for , Missouri, this new gathering place was to become a city with a temple.
After purchasing some land about fifty miles upriver, at in Hancock County, Illinois, JS moved his family and his people there. The riverfront site had poor harbors and swampy lowlands plagued with malaria-bearing mosquitoes. This journal offers glimpses of JS’s involvement in land purchases and community planning that provided a basis for a cluster of Mormon settlements on both sides of the Mississippi. The journal also records JS’s trips to , , and , Illinois, and other nearby places to visit family, groups of Latter-day Saints, and regional political and commercial centers.
Meanwhile, JS and members of the Quorum of the Twelve clung tenaciously to another facet of the Mormon mission: widespread proselytizing. An 1838 revelation commanded the Twelve to depart from , Missouri, on 26 April 1839 for a mission to Europe. From

Located in western Missouri, thirteen miles north of Independence. Settled 1820. Clay Co. seat, 1822. Incorporated as town, May 1829. Following expulsion from Jackson Co., 1833, many Latter-day Saints found refuge in Clay Co., with church leaders and other...

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Two-story building containing dungeon on lower floor with access through trap door. Constructed, 1833. JS and five others confined there for just over four months, beginning 1 Dec. 1838, while awaiting trial for charges in connection with “Mormon War.” JS...

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, JS reminded the apostles of that obligation. Enemies declared it in advance a false revelation, as they now had the power to prevent it from being fulfilled. Nonetheless, as diary entries began in mid-April 1839, members of the Quorum of the Twelve under acting president had just left to return to to fulfill the injunction. Their predawn meeting on 26 April 1839 at Far West marked the symbolic beginning of their mission abroad. But with much preparation remaining, they returned to Illinois and did not actually depart for the East until late summer. In the intervening months, JS met frequently with the eight or nine available apostles to teach them and help them prepare. JS also attempted to strengthen and unify the quorum by helping to resolve the status of two apostles— and —who had abandoned the Latter-day Saints during the Missouri crisis. The departure of the Twelve was marked by lengthier-than-usual journal entries reporting sermons and admonitions, indicative of the significance attached to the mission.
The resettlement of the Mormons in and vicinity and the resumption of church affairs—including the departure of the Twelve to Britain—were hampered by a malaria epidemic that ravaged the area from late June to November. When JS was preoccupied with aiding the victims of the scourge for eleven weeks in July, August, and September, journal entries were scaled back to weekly summaries. While the entries suggest the duration and centrality of JS’s focus on relieving the sick, they characteristically only skim the surface. For months, the Smith home and environs served as a hospital of sorts, with JS and nursing malaria victims. The couple moved their own family into a tent to provide better care in their house for the sick. JS himself contracted the disease but soon recovered and continued to minister to the afflicted. spent three weeks in late August and early September caring for his own wife, who was ill.
Despite the epidemic, the Latter-day Saints remained at their new headquarters. When the disease abated somewhat, JS became increasingly involved in arrangements for a new, larger town that would soon eclipse and absorb . At a general conference of the church convened at Commerce in early October 1839, JS advocated—and the membership of the church affirmed—that this was a suitable location to be designated a stake of Zion and a gathering place for the Saints.
Even while JS built a new stake, still occupied much of his attention. In the months and years following the expulsion of his people from that state, JS sought persistently to call attention to the losses and injustices the Latter-day Saints had suffered and, if possible, to obtain government compensation. He left on 29 October 1839, two weeks after the conclusion of this journal, to visit to seek relief and redress from the federal government. The next day, a gravely ill was taken to ’s makeshift hospital, where he died on 3 November, possibly a victim of the malaria epidemic. It is not clear to what extent the cessation of journal entries after 15 October resulted from Mulholland’s illness or from a lack of access to JS. Daily entries did not resume until December 1841, more than two years later, when took up the pen a few months after his return from missionary service in England.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    LeSueur, 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, chaps. 7–14; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” chaps. 7–12; Hartley, “Almost Too Intolerable a Burthen,” 9–10, 36–37.

    LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

    Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

    Hartley, William G. “‘Almost Too Intolerable a Burthen’: The Winter Exodus from Missouri, 1838–39.” Journal of Mormon History 18 (Fall 1992): 6–40.

  2. [2]

    Hyrum Smith, Testimony, 1 July 1843, Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 78; Lyman Wight, Testimony, 1 July 1843, Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 131–132; Promissory Note, JS to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839, JS Collection, CHL.

    Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book / Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court. “Docket of the Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” ca. 1843–1845. In Historian's Office, Historical Record Book, 1843–1874, pp. 51–150 and pp. 1–19 (second numbering). CHL. MS 3434.

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

  3. [3]

    JS et al., Liberty, MO, to Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young, Far West, MO, 16 Jan. 1839, JS Collection, CHL.

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

  4. [4]

    “Extracts of the Minutes of Conferences,” Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:15.

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

  5. [5]

    Leonard, Nauvoo, 235–237.

    Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

  6. [6]

    See Revelation, 8 July 1838–A, in JS, Journal, 8 July 1838 [D&C 118].

  7. [7]

    JS et al., Liberty, MO, to Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young, Far West, MO, 16 Jan. 1839, JS Collection, CHL.

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

  8. [8]

    Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 213–214; Historian’s Office, “History of Brigham Young,” 34–35; Woodruff, Journal, 12, 19, 22, and 25 July 1839; Mulholland, Journal, 19 Aug.–8 Sept. 1839.

    Tullidge, Edward W. The Women of Mormondom. New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1877.

    Historian’s Office. “History of Brigham Young.” In Manuscript History of Brigham Young, ca. 1856–1860, vol. 1, pp. 1–104. CHL. CR 100 150, box 1, fd. 1.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.

  9. [9]

    Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to JS, Washington DC, 6 Dec. 1839, Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.

    Aldrich, Charles. Autograph Collection. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.

1839.
16 April 1839 • Tuesday
Aprile 16 th
22–23 April 1839 • Monday–Tuesday
President Smith and his fellow prisoners, at Ill. on Tuesday Monday the 22nd of April and spent all next day greeting and receiving visits from his brethren and friends——
24 April–3 May 1839 • Wednesday–Friday
In the evening of the 24th met in council with the Church—when a committee was appointed to go to &c. of which he was one.

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803. First permanent white settlements established, ca. 1833. Organized as territory, 1838, containing all of present-day Iowa, much of present-day Minnesota, and parts of North and South Dakota. Population in...

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24 Apr. 1839

JS and others investigated land for Latter-day Saint settlement, traveling to Lee County, Iowa Territory, and then Hancock County, Illinois.

 & returned on friday the 3rd May—
4 May 1839 • Saturday
Saturday 4 th May presided at general near Ill.
5 May 1839 • Sunday
Sunday Do [ditto] continued.
6 May 1839 • Monday
Monday <​6th​> met in council with the [an]d others Ill—
7 May 1839 • Tuesday
Tuesday Do [ditto]—— Do Do
10 May 1839 • Friday
May 10, with his family To Hancock Co. Ill.
13–14 May 1839 • Monday–Tuesday
Monday 13 th Transacted various business with &c at home attending to general business—
Tuesday Do [ditto] wednesday, Do
14–19 May 1839 • Tuesday–Sunday
On the 14 I returned to so kept no record <​Minute​> of course, I got back here Sunday ev[en]ing the 19 th May. [p. [1]]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Journal, 1839
ID #
6661
Total Pages
16
Print Volume Location
JSP, J1:331–354
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Mulholland

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    While being taken from Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri, to Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, in compliance with a change of venue in their legal case, JS and fellow prisoners escaped with the cooperation of their guards near Yellow Creek. Some sources point to the possibility that the prisoners were intended to be held without bail—as hostages—until their people evacuated Missouri. If that was the case, the purpose of their incarceration was now largely fulfilled. (Promissory Note, JS to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839, JS Collection, CHL; compare JS, Journal, 28 Feb. 1843, JS Collection, CHL; see also Madsen, “Missouri Court of Inquiry”; Hyrum Smith, Testimony, 1 July 1843, Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 78; and Lyman Wight, Testimony, 1 July 1843, Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 131–132.)

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

    Madsen, Gordon A. “Joseph Smith and the Missouri Court of Inquiry: Austin A. King’s Quest for Hostages.” BYU Studies 43, no. 4 (2004): 93–136.

    Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book / Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court. “Docket of the Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” ca. 1843–1845. In Historian's Office, Historical Record Book, 1843–1874, pp. 51–150 and pp. 1–19 (second numbering). CHL. MS 3434.

  2. [2]

    In his own journal, James Mulholland noted that on this day he began again to “write for the Church.” (Mulholland, Journal, 22 Apr. 1839.)

    Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.

  3. [3]

    In addition to JS, this committee, which was assigned to visit Iowa “for the purpose of making locations for the church,” also included Vinson Knight and Alanson Ripley. The council determined that church members should “move on to the north as soon as they possibly can.”a The committee left Quincy the following day, 25 April 1839, to assess possibilities on both the Iowa and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River. The initial acquisitions of land in the area of Commerce, Illinois, occurred on 30 April. They consisted of 47.17 acres located south of Commerce from Isaac Galland, two additional parcels totaling 12.2 acres from Galland, and about 130 acres from Hugh White.b The church purchased additional land from Galland in Lee County, Iowa, in May and June. Deeds list a total of 18,920 acres in Iowa purchased from Galland by the church.c

    (aGeneral Church Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; compare JS History, vol. C-1, 929. bHancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 247, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 31–32, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. cLee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, vol. 1, pp. 507–510, 29 May 1839, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, 26 June 1839, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; JS History, vol. C-1, 931–932; Alanson Ripley, Statements, ca. Jan. 1845, in Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1856, CHL.)

    General Church Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839

    JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

  4. [4]

    The church held the three-day conference, 4–6 May 1839, at the Presbyterian campground two miles north of Quincy.a The conference minutes, in James Mulholland’s handwriting, report that JS “addressed a few observations on the state of his own peculiar feelings, after having been so long separated from his brethren.” The conference temporarily suspended apostles Orson Hyde and William Smith from acting in their office; they regained standing by the end of June. The conference also ratified the actions of other members of the Quorum of the Twelve on 26 April 1839 at the temple site at Far West, Missouri, where they ordained new apostles to fill vacancies in their quorum and officially commenced their mission to Europe.b

    (aWoodruff, Journal, 4, 5, and 6 May 1839. bGeneral Church Minutes, 4 May 1839; JS, Journal, 25 May and 27 June 1839.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    General Church Minutes, 4 May 1839

  5. [5]

    The conference this day focused on plans for obtaining legal redress for the depredations committed against the Latter-day Saints in Missouri as well as for securing their rights in Illinois. Sidney Rigdon was assigned to present the church’s case before the national government in Washington DC. Almon Babbitt was authorized to represent the church to the state government in Springfield, Illinois. Lyman Wight was appointed to gather affidavits regarding individual losses in Missouri to be forwarded to Washington. (General Church Minutes, 5 May 1839.)

    General Church Minutes, 5 May 1839

  6. [6]

    TEXT: “[hole burned in paper]d”. The top of the “n” is visible at the edge of the hole.

  7. [7]

    Two sessions of the conference were held this day. At the first session, a general gathering, sixty men were ordained as elders or as members of the Quorum of the Seventy and eighteen men were assigned to accompany the Quorum of the Twelve to Europe. William Marks was appointed to preside over the church in Commerce, with the church’s bishops to assist him in leadership, which effectively established a new gathering center for the church in Illinois. Later in the day, a second session of the conference involving JS, the Twelve, and the bishops was held at the home of Bishop Edward Partridge. (Woodruff, Journal, 6 May 1839; General Church Minutes, 6 May 1839.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    General Church Minutes, 6 May 1839

  8. [8]

    Although the three-day general conference ended on Monday, JS spent Tuesday in council and conversation with church leaders and members. (Kimball, “History,” 104.)

    Kimball, Heber C. “History of Heber Chase Kimball by His Own Dictation,” ca. 1842–1856. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 2.

  9. [9]

    JS and family left Quincy on 9 May, accompanied by James Mulholland, and arrived in Commerce on 10 May. (Mulholland, Journal, 9 May 1839; Foote, Autobiography, 9 May 1839.)

    Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.

    Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.

  10. [10]

    At the conference held in Quincy, Illinois, a week earlier, Granger was appointed an agent for the church with a commission to oversee remaining church business in Kirtland, Ohio. (Certificate, JS et al. to Oliver Granger, Commerce, IL, 13 May 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 45–46; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Oliver Granger, New York, [23] July 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 159–161.)

    JS Letterbook 2 / Smith, Joseph. “Copies of Letters, &c. &c.,” 1839–1843. Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 2.

  11. [11]

    James Mulholland recorded in his personal journal that his wife accompanied him on the return to Commerce, suggesting that one purpose for his visit in Quincy was to effect a permanent move to Commerce. While his scribe was away, JS remained in Commerce, busy with various matters of church business, including directing the survey of the city plot. (Mulholland, Journal, 14–19 May 1839; JS History, vol. C-1, 940; Woodruff, Journal, 18 May 1839; Historian’s Office, “History of Brigham Young,” 28.)

    Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.

    JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Historian’s Office. “History of Brigham Young.” In Manuscript History of Brigham Young, ca. 1856–1860, vol. 1, pp. 1–104. CHL. CR 100 150, box 1, fd. 1.

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