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Letter from Harrison S. White, 10 May 1843

Source Note

Harrison S. White, Letter,
St. Louis

Located on west side of Mississippi River about fifteen miles south of confluence with Missouri River. Founded as fur-trading post by French settlers, 1764. Incorporated as town, 1809. First Mississippi steamboat docked by town, 1817. Incorporated as city...

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, St. Louis Co., MO, to JS,
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

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, Hancock Co., IL, 10 May 1843; handwriting and signatures presumably of Harrison S. White; one page; Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notations, postal stamps, and docket.
One leaf, measuring 12½ × 7¾ inches (32 × 20 cm). The leaf is ruled with thirty-five horizontal blue lines. The top, left, and bottom edges of the leaf have the regular cut of manufactured paper; the right edge is irregular, suggesting it was torn from a book or another leaf. The letter was written in blue ink, trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. It was later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by
William Clayton

17 July 1814–4 Dec. 1879. Bookkeeper, clerk. Born at Charnock Moss, Penwortham, Lancashire, England. Son of Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. Married Ruth Moon, 9 Oct. 1836, at Penwortham. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Heber...

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, who served as JS’s scribe from 1842 to 1844.
1

JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

The letter was in a collection of papers held by Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, a descendant of
Heber C.

14 June 1801–22 June 1868. Blacksmith, potter. Born at Sheldon, Franklin Co., Vermont. Son of Solomon Farnham Kimball and Anna Spaulding. Married Vilate Murray, 22 Nov. 1822, at Mendon, Monroe Co., New York. Member of Baptist church at Mendon, 1831. Baptized...

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and
Vilate Murray Kimball

1 June 1806–22 Oct. 1867. Born in Florida, Montgomery Co., New York. Daughter of Roswell Murray and Susannah Fitch. Moved to Bloomfield, Ontario Co., New York, by 1810. Moved to Victor, Ontario Co., by 1820. Married Heber Chase Kimball, 22 Nov. 1822, at Mendon...

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. The collection was passed down to Fleming’s descendant Helen Marian Fleming Petersen. Shortly after Petersen’s death in February 1988, one of her children found this letter and other items in a box in Petersen’s home. By December 1988 the materials had been donated to the Church Historical Department (now CHL).
2

See the full bibliographic entry for Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, in the CHL catalog.


Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 10 May 1843, Harrison S. White, a young man living in
St. Louis

Located on west side of Mississippi River about fifteen miles south of confluence with Missouri River. Founded as fur-trading post by French settlers, 1764. Incorporated as town, 1809. First Mississippi steamboat docked by town, 1817. Incorporated as city...

More Info
, wrote a letter to JS in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois, seeking information about employment in Nauvoo. White, who does not appear to have been a member of the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

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, likely heard about JS and Nauvoo because St. Louis was connected to Nauvoo by trade and transportation routes along the
Mississippi River

Principal U.S. river running southward from Itasca Lake, Minnesota, to Gulf of Mexico. Covered 3,160-mile course, 1839 (now about 2,350 miles). Drains about 1,100,000 square miles. Steamboat travel on Mississippi very important in 1830s and 1840s for shipping...

More Info
.
1

St. Louis merchants sought business with customers in Nauvoo. For example, grocers Starnes & Springer advertised their “large assortment of Groceries on hand which they offer very cheap” to Nauvoo residents in 1842. (“Groceries,” Wasp, 29 Oct. 1842, [4].)


Comprehensive Works Cited

The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

White informed JS that he had been unsuccessful in mercantile pursuits in St. Louis and asked JS to notify him of any clerking opportunities in Nauvoo. He also requested a Nauvoo newspaper, perhaps in search of employment advertisements. Because Nauvoo was a growing city, White may have assumed that employment was readily available. This may have been a common assumption, as JS, the most well-known citizen of Nauvoo, received similar inquiries from others in 1843 about work.
2

See, for example, Letter from John McKee, 7 Mar. 1843; and Letter from Halsey Cook, 20 Mar. 1843.


However, the influx of British converts to Nauvoo had created an underemployed labor class.
3

Employment and resources for new arrivals to Nauvoo were pressing issues in 1843. For example, on 13 April, JS addressed a large Nauvoo congregation including many immigrants and encouraged new arrivals to find work as farm laborers in neighboring communities. (Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843.)


White mistakenly addressed the letter to JS in Nauvoo,
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...

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. This may have been a simple addressing error; alternatively, it could have meant that White did not know where
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
was located or that he associated the Latter-day Saints with Missouri, where church members sought to establish
Zion

A specific location in Missouri; also a literal or figurative gathering of believers in Jesus Christ, characterized by adherence to ideals of harmony, equality, and purity. In JS’s earliest revelations “the cause of Zion” was used to broadly describe the ...

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in the 1830s before being expelled from the state.
4

See “Joseph Smith Documents from February 1838 through August 1839.”


Postal stamps on the letter indicate that it was postmarked in
St. Louis

Located on west side of Mississippi River about fifteen miles south of confluence with Missouri River. Founded as fur-trading post by French settlers, 1764. Incorporated as town, 1809. First Mississippi steamboat docked by town, 1817. Incorporated as city...

More Info
on 12 May and, perhaps because of the addressing mistake, was then sent to
Warsaw

Located at foot of Des Moines rapids of Mississippi River at site of three military forts: Fort Johnson (1814), Cantonment Davis (1815–1818), and Fort Edwards (1816–1824). First settlers participated in fur trade. Important trade and shipping center. Post...

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, Illinois. It was forwarded from Warsaw on 18 May 1843 and likely arrived in Nauvoo, approximately twenty miles north of Warsaw, shortly thereafter. No response from JS has been located, and there is no record of White moving to Nauvoo.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    St. Louis merchants sought business with customers in Nauvoo. For example, grocers Starnes & Springer advertised their “large assortment of Groceries on hand which they offer very cheap” to Nauvoo residents in 1842. (“Groceries,” Wasp, 29 Oct. 1842, [4].)

    The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

  2. [2]

    See, for example, Letter from John McKee, 7 Mar. 1843; and Letter from Halsey Cook, 20 Mar. 1843.

  3. [3]

    Employment and resources for new arrivals to Nauvoo were pressing issues in 1843. For example, on 13 April, JS addressed a large Nauvoo congregation including many immigrants and encouraged new arrivals to find work as farm laborers in neighboring communities. (Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843.)

  4. [4]

    See “Joseph Smith Documents from February 1838 through August 1839.”

Page [2]

<​
ST LOUIS

Located on west side of Mississippi River about fifteen miles south of confluence with Missouri River. Founded as fur-trading post by French settlers, 1764. Incorporated as town, 1809. First Mississippi steamboat docked by town, 1817. Incorporated as city...

More Info
Mo MAY 12​>

Circular postmark stamped in red ink.


<​
WARSAW

Located at foot of Des Moines rapids of Mississippi River at site of three military forts: Fort Johnson (1814), Cantonment Davis (1815–1818), and Fort Edwards (1816–1824). First settlers participated in fur trade. Important trade and shipping center. Post...

More Info
Ill. MAY 18​>

Circular postmark stamped in red ink.


<​Missent & Ford​>

Notation in unidentified handwriting.


<​18​>

Postage in unidentified handwriting.


Rev, Jos Smith
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
Mo [Illinois] [p. [2]]
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Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [2]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Harrison S. White, 10 May 1843
ID #
1638
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:294–296
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text
  • Unidentified
  • Harrison S. White

Footnotes

  1. new scribe logo

    Circular postmark stamped in red ink.

  2. new scribe logo

    Circular postmark stamped in red ink.

  3. new scribe logo

    Notation in unidentified handwriting.

  4. new scribe logo

    Postage in unidentified handwriting.

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