On 30 October 1843, wrote a letter from to JS in , Illinois, responding to JS’s 12–13 October missive and inquiring about financial opportunities in Nauvoo. Hotchkiss wanted to increase profits from property he owned in . He proposed using some “rear lots” he owned in Nauvoo to pay “some responsible contractor”—whom JS would presumably hire—to construct warehouses on his waterfront property in Nauvoo. Hotchkiss hoped such an arrangement would better facilitate commerce and be lucrative for both him and JS. Hotchkiss also offered farmlands he owned in other parts of Illinois as payment to any contractors who preferred that to city lots.

mailed his letter on 31 October from the post office near , Connecticut, where he lived. The letter was received in , likely within two weeks’ time, and presumably read by JS. It was docketed and filed by his private clerk . There is no known response.