Footnotes
Two prior letters JS and Higbee wrote to church leaders in Commerce were recorded in JS Letterbook 2. It is likely that these are the letters to which Smith referred in this letter, though there may have been other letters that did not survive. (See Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839; and Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 Dec. 1839.)
Pratt’s publication request and Hyrum Smith’s rationale for denying it are recorded in several pieces of correspondence between Smith, Pratt, and Lucian R. Foster. A certificate created in May 1839 documents Granger’s role as an agent for the church. As agent he was responsible for arranging the discharge of the church’s debts to New York merchants. (Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 22 Nov. 1839; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 80–81; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Lucian R. Foster, New York City, NY, Jan. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 82–84; Authorization for Oliver Granger, 13 May 1839.)
Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had been sent by JS on a mission to England. At the time Hyrum Smith wrote this letter, several members of that quorum were in the eastern United States preparing for their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. (See Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 22 Nov. 1839.)
Hyrum Smith informed Pratt that the church wanted to publish the Book of Mormon in Commerce under the supervision of JS and his counselors. Smith similarly explained to Lucian R. Foster that, according to revelation, the publication of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the hymnbook was to be directed by a select few men, a group that included Smith and JS. (Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 80–81; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Lucian R. Foster, New York City, NY, Jan. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 82–84; Revelation, 12 Nov. 1831 [D&C 70:1–6].)
In May 1839, Granger was directed by the First Presidency to discharge a number of the church’s outstanding debts with New York merchants. (See Authorization for Oliver Granger, 13 May 1839; Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839; and JS, Oliver Granger et al., and John A. Newbould, Agreement, ca. 2 Aug. 1839, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.)
In January 1839 and again in May 1839, the First Presidency directed converts emigrating from England and the eastern United States to settle in Kirtland (where many church members continued to reside) because continuing to Missouri was dangerous in the aftermath of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs’s 27 October 1838 “extermination order.” The First Presidency did not direct church members expelled from Missouri to resettle in Kirtland, though some individual church members expressed the desire to return there. According to this letter, JS’s parents were considering returning to Kirtland, though they appear to have intended to visit their former home rather than permanently relocate. JS’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, later recalled that Joseph Smith Sr. was very ill at this time. It is possible that Hyrum Smith asked JS’s opinion about their parents’ visiting Kirtland out of a concern for their father’s health. (Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; Letter to Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young, 16 Jan. 1839; Authorization for Oliver Granger, 6 May 1839; Kimball, Heber C. Kimball, 68; Vilate Murray Kimball, Commerce, IL, to Heber C. Kimball, New York City, NY, 2 Feb. 1840, photocopy; Heber C. Kimball, New York City, NY, to Vilate Murray Kimball, 5 Mar. 1840, photocopy, Heber C. Kimball, Correspondence, 1837–1864, CHL; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 18, [1]–[3].)
Kimball, Stanley B. Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
Kimball, Heber C. Correspondence, 1837–1864. Private possession. Copy at CHL.
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 30 Dec. 1839, 39–40.
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
JS had requested that the high council forward to him certificates verifying that church members still owned land and preemption rights in Missouri as well as affidavits that stated soldiers were unlawfully quartered in church members’ homes during the recent conflict in that state. (Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 Dec. 1839.)
JS had inquired about the health of his children in a November 1839 letter to Emma Smith, to which Emma replied the following month. (Letter to Emma Smith, 9 Nov. 1839; Letter from Emma Smith, 6 Dec. 1839.)