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Letter from James Adams, 8 June 1843

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Letter from James Adams, 8 June 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Sangamon Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 8 June 1843; handwriting and signature of ; one page; Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, CHL. Included enclosures (not extant); includes address and docket.
Single leaf measuring 12¼ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The document was folded in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The letter refers to enclosures, which were presumably used for the purposes communicated in the letter and are no longer extant. Residue from the wafer is visible on the recto page.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1842 to 1844. The letter was in a collection of papers held by Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, a descendant of Heber C. and . 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).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

    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.

  2. [2]

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

Historical Introduction

On 8 June 1843, wrote from , Illinois, to JS in , Illinois, sending some money and a mill, possibly a handheld grinder, for a boat. Adams had recently returned to Springfield from a visit to Nauvoo. The boat Adams referred to was presumably the Maid of Iowa, a steamship jointly owned by JS and Adams that operated between Nauvoo and the opposite shore of the . Adams also enclosed money in the letter to pay for eleven-year-old Jane Walker’s travel from Nauvoo to Springfield. In a later history, Walker wrote that JS and had been taking care of her and some of her siblings, but JS sent her to live with James and Harriet Denton Adams because they were lonely after three of their daughters had died.
The 8 June 1843 letter was sent by a courier named Daniel Repsher. It is unclear when this letter and the enclosures arrived in , but it was likely by mid-June. It is possible that this 8 June letter arrived in Nauvoo at or around the same time as other letters from . JS’s journal entry for 16 June 1843 notes that JS received a letter from Adams with information about JS being indicted for treason against the state of . ’s journal of 18 June states that two additional letters from Adams had arrived.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Adams was in Nauvoo until at least 29 May 1843. (JS, Journal, 29 May 1843.)

  2. [2]

    See Ordinance, 1 June 1843.

  3. [3]

    There is some discrepancy about Walker’s birthdate. Her obituary gives a birthdate of 15 August 1831, while her death certificate has 2 August 1831. A family history gives the date as 2 August 1832. (“‘Aunt Jane’ Smith of Farmington Dead,” Davis County Clipper [Bountiful, UT], 29 Mar. 1912, [2]; Death Certificate for Jane Walker Smith, Farmington, Davis Co., UT, 23 Mar. 1912, Utah Death Certificates, 1905–1967, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City; Walker and Stevenson, Ancestry and Descendants, 58; see also Jane Walker Smith, Autobiography, [3]; and Tidwell, “Life Sketches of Jane Walker Smith,” [3].)

    Davis County Clipper. Bountiful, UT. 1892–.

    Utah Death Certificates, 1905–1967 / Utah Department of Health, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Death Certificates, 1905–1967. Utah State Archives Series 81448. Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City. Available at https://archives.utah.gov/.

    Walker, Rodney Wilson, and Noel C. Stevenson. Ancestry and Descendants of John Walker, 1794–1869. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: John Walker Family Organization, 1985.

    Smith, Jane Walker. Autobiography, ca. 1900. Typescript and photocopy. BYU.

    Tidwell, Zelda Annetta Elison, comp. “Life Sketches of Jane Walker Smith, Wife of Lot Smith and Reminescenses of the Prophet Joseph Smith by Jane Walker Smith,” no date. Typescript. Private possession. Available at https://www.familysearch.org/photos /artifacts/10448453.

  4. [4]

    Walker and Stevenson, Ancestry and Descendants, 38.

    Walker, Rodney Wilson, and Noel C. Stevenson. Ancestry and Descendants of John Walker, 1794–1869. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: John Walker Family Organization, 1985.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 16 June 1843; see also Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 24 June 1843.

  6. [6]

    Clayton, Journal, 18 June 1843.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Page [1]

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8th June 1843.
Genl J. Smith
I. forwd by Mr [Daniel] Repsher a mill for the boat. and also enclose three dollars to be handed to sister Jane [Walker] for expenses to this place Mr Repsher will bring her. Please let get her to your house
I am as ever
[p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from James Adams, 8 June 1843
ID #
1487
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:377–378
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Adams

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Repsher was born in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, in December 1804. As a young man, he was a sailor. By 1840, Repsher and his wife, Roxena Higby Repsher, were living in Springfield. Daniel Repsher, who later became the captain of the Maid of Iowa, may have had some earlier involvement with the boat’s operation. (Patriarchal Blessing for Daniel Repsher, 19 Nov. 1844, in Patriarchal Blessings, 7:166; Record of Seventies, bk. B, 27; Affidavit for Daniel Repsher, 25 Oct. 1819, U.S. Customs Service, Proofs of Citizenship Used to Apply for Seamen’s Certificates for the Port of Philadelphia, Reel 22; 1840 U.S. Census, Springfield Township, Sangamon Co., IL, 16; JS, Journal, 14 May 1844; Clayton, Journal, 11–12 May 1844.)

    Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.

    Record of Seventies / First Council of the Seventy. “General Record of the Seventies Book B. Commencing Nauvoo 1844,” 1844–1848. Bk. B. In First Council of the Seventy, Records, 1837–1885. CHL. CR 3 51, box 2, fd. 1.

    Record Group 41, Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1776–1973. National Archives, Washington DC.

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

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  2. [2]

    One definition of a mill is an engine. There is no known evidence of the Maid of Iowa receiving a new engine at this time. It is possible that the mill was a hand mill, similar to grinders for coffee or spices that were in use in the 1840s, for use in the steamboat galley. (“Liabilities of the S.B. ‘Maid of Iowa,’” 12 May 1843; Maid of Iowa Balance Sheet, 1 Oct. 1842–12 May 1843; Maid of Iowa Ledger, 10 Dec. 1842–12 May 1843, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; Enders, “Steamboat Maid of Iowa,” 321–335; see also the full catalog entry for Coffee Mill, ca. 1840, Calk Family Collection, 1744–1978, in the Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, catalog.)

    Enders, Donald L. “The Steamboat Maid of Iowa: Mormon Mistress of the Mississippi.” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 321–335.

  3. [3]

    Lorin Walker and his sister Jane Walker were two of the ten children of John and Lydia Holmes Walker. The Walkers were converts from Vermont who migrated to New York and then to Missouri in 1837 or 1838. The family was in Nauvoo by the spring of 1842. By this time, Lydia Holmes Walker had died; John Walker entrusted the care of some of his children to other church members. (Obituary for John Walker, Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 24 Nov. 1869, 496; “Record of the Names of the Members . . . in the Spring of the Year 1842,” [2]–[3]; Walker and Stevenson, Ancestry and Descendants, 22–24, 28–31, 38–39.)

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    “A Record of the Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, as Taken by the Lesser Priesthood, in the Spring of the Year 1842, and Continued, to Be Added as the Members Arrive at the City of Nauvoo, Hancock County; Illinois. Also the Deaths of Members, and Their Children, and Names of Children under 8 Years of Age,” after 1844–after 1846. Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 1837–1838, 1840–1846, 1862. CHL.

    Walker, Rodney Wilson, and Noel C. Stevenson. Ancestry and Descendants of John Walker, 1794–1869. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: John Walker Family Organization, 1985.

  4. [4]

    In her later account, Jane Walker recounted being taken to Springfield by a “Brother Sayers,” not Daniel Repsher. (Walker and Stevenson, Ancestry and Descendants, 38–39.)

    Walker, Rodney Wilson, and Noel C. Stevenson. Ancestry and Descendants of John Walker, 1794–1869. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: John Walker Family Organization, 1985.

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