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Letter from Brigham Young, 23 October 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 23 Oct. 1843; handwriting of ; one page; JS, Papers, 1839–1844, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL. Includes notations.
Single leaf measuring 7¼ × 5¼ inches (18 × 13 cm) and ruled with fourteen printed horizontal lines. The top, left, and right edges are machine cut, although the right side is now worn. The bottom edge was hand cut. The leaf was folded in half once vertically and once horizontally and was later trifolded—apparently for storage. The document’s verso bears miscellaneous inscriptions, apparently unrelated to the letter, in unidentified handwriting. Staining on the recto and remnants of paper suggest a rectangular label or placard, now missing, was at one time adhered to the bottom of the letter.
The letter was presumably received by JS in 1843, but the ensuing custodial history is unknown. In 1935 the Illinois State Historical Library (now Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) acquired the document from autograph dealer Thomas F. Madigan (1891–1936).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Brigham Young Letter, 23 Oct. 1843, in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 23 October 1843, in , Illinois, wrote a letter to JS reminding him of a previously contracted loan from Josiah Mainwaring and notifying him that Mainwaring’s wife, Elizabeth Henry Mainwaring, needed some help, presumably financial assistance. The previous year, Young—along with , , and —had borrowed fifty dollars for JS from Josiah Mainwaring, a land owner in Nauvoo. Young did not reference the loan’s purpose in the letter, but it may have been to keep JS financially secure while he was in avoiding extradition to in summer 1842. Mainwaring apparently had the means to loan money. On 17 June 1843, he acted as a surety on a bond from William Parr to JS, meaning that Mainwaring assumed at least partial responsibility for paying a “penal sum of two hundred dollars” if Parr failed to fulfill the conditions of the bond.
The nature of the Mainwarings’ relationship with JS or the is unclear. Elizabeth Mainwaring apparently knew well enough to request that he write JS. Young wrote the letter the day after he returned from a mission to the eastern , where he and other members of the were raising funds for the construction of the . Young was ill at the time, so he wrote to JS rather than visiting him in person.
The letter bears neither postage nor an address and was both written and received in , so it was likely hand delivered to JS, possibly by Elizabeth Mainwaring. It appears that JS repaid at least some of the loan. From late November to early December 1843, daybooks record a series of cash payments totaling thirty-three dollars to the Mainwarings.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Josiah and Elizabeth Mainwaring were born in England in 1817 and 1822, respectively. They married in 1839 and immigrated to the United States in 1842. (Wanamaker, History of Harrison County, Missouri, 565; 1900 U.S. Census, Bethany, Harrison Co., MO, 22A; Black et al., Property Transactions, 4:2501.)

    Wanamaker, George W. History of Harrison County, Missouri. Topeka, KS: Historical Publishing Co., 1921.

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Black, Susan Easton, Harvey Bischoff Black, and Brandon Plewe. Property Transactions in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois and Surrounding Communities (1839–1859). 7 vols. Wilmington, DE: World Vital Records, 2006.

  2. [2]

    Mainwaring purchased land in Nauvoo on 4 April 1842 and 29 May 1843. (Black et al., Property Transactions, 4:2501–2502.)

    Black, Susan Easton, Harvey Bischoff Black, and Brandon Plewe. Property Transactions in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois and Surrounding Communities (1839–1859). 7 vols. Wilmington, DE: World Vital Records, 2006.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 11 Aug. 1842.

  4. [4]

    William Parr et al. to JS as Trustee-in-Trust, Bond, 17 June 1843, JS Collection, CHL.

  5. [5]

    While the mission was originally intended to raise money for the Nauvoo House, quorum members also gathered funds for the temple. JS’s journal indicates that Young, Kimball, and George A. Smith returned to Nauvoo on 22 October 1843 around eleven o’clock in the morning. (JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843; JS, Journal, 22 Oct. 1843; see also Young, Journal, 22 Oct. 1843.)

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

  6. [6]

    JS, Daybook, 25 Nov.–8 Dec. 1843, 91–92.

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

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Brigham Young, 23 October 1843
ID #
6808
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:212–213
Handwriting on This Page

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