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Letter from Jared Carter, 14 October 1843

Source Note

, Letter, [, Hancock Co., IL], to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 14 Oct. [1843]; handwriting and signature of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The letter was inscribed on the first three pages of the bifolium, trifolded twice in letter style, and later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859, docketed the letter a second time. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The letter’s early dockets, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

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]

    “Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

  3. [3]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 14 October 1843, member wrote a letter to JS inquiring about a business opportunity that might improve Carter’s financial situation and potentially employ hundreds of individuals in , Illinois. Carter was a and had experience conducting business for the church. He, , and had composed the committee to build the in , Ohio. In connection with their work on that committee, the men established the mercantile firm by 1835. In his capacity as a partner in the firm, Carter developed relationships with eastern merchants and commercial wholesalers, business contacts that he maintained after Cahoon, Carter & Co. disbanded. Carter moved with church members from to and then from Missouri to , settling in (later Nauvoo). However, his rapport with other church leaders deteriorated in Nauvoo. By March 1843, Carter’s relationship with JS had become strained because of the ongoing difficulties between JS and . Despite that uneasiness, Carter still wanted to help build up Nauvoo. After the death of , Carter asked to join the , hoping to reprise the role that he played in building the Kirtland temple. He claimed it was “his right” to serve on the committee. However, , who ultimately replaced Higbee on the committee, claimed that Carter was “insane— gone crazy,” further demonstrating the impediments Carter faced.
Though he had some struggles with church leaders in 1843, by October of that year, wanted to demonstrate that he and JS were “firm friends.” He also sought to better his financial situation and ostensibly to improve ’s economy. Finding no opportunity to speak personally with JS about his plan, Carter wrote him a letter, in which he proposed manufacturing footwear in Nauvoo to improve the quality of shoes for church members, reduce the importation of these products from eastern cobblers and wholesalers, create jobs in Nauvoo, and generate profits for himself and the church.
The letter’s lack of postal markings suggests that or someone else delivered it to JS’s or . , one of JS’s scribes, docketed the letter with the date 14 October 1843. JS presumably reviewed the letter sometime within the next few days. There is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    General Church Recorder, License Record Book, 33; Minutes, 6 June 1833; Historical Introduction to Blessing to Newel K. Whitney, 7 Oct. 1835.

  2. [2]

    Advertisement, Northern Times, 9 Oct. 1835, [4].

    Northern Times. Kirtland, OH. 1835–[1836?].

  3. [3]

    Historical Introduction to Mortgage to Mead, Stafford & Co., 11 July 1837; Historical Introduction to Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838; see also, for example, John Ayer, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.

  4. [4]

    Minute Book 2, 16 Jan. 1839, 177; Philemon Merrill et al. to the Nauvoo City Council, Petition, Nauvoo, IL, 3 Feb. 1842, [3], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.

  5. [5]

    For more on JS’s complicated relationships with both Carter and Rigdon, see, for example, Letter to Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843; and Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843.

  6. [6]

    Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 41–42; Clayton, Journal, 9 Sept. 1843.

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

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

  7. [7]

    Through the Kirtland firm Cahoon, Carter & Co., Jared Carter had established business connections with John Ayer, a cobbler and wholesale merchant in Buffalo, New York, and other merchants in the eastern United States. Carter could possibly have leveraged these mercantile contacts to make his business proposition realistic. However, in Nauvoo, Newel K. Whitney and Edward Hunter were the primary agents engaged in the church’s purchase of goods, including boots and shoes from firms in the eastern United States. Whitney and Hunter assisted JS and other Latter-day Saints with business in the eastern United States, including securing and transporting goods to Nauvoo. (John Ayer, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Newel K. Whitney, Invoice, 8 Apr. 1842, Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, CHL; Letter from Edward Hunter, 27 Oct. 1841; see also Letter from Edward Hunter, 10 May 1842.)

Page [2]

you that would be power to rais the means to establish a business in length of time to employ hundreds and benefit the place now sir if the Lord through you will give me this power I will rejoice to undertake to manage such the same if I had the means there is know [no] doubt in my mind but that I Could Soon do away the Sale of Eastern Shoes and boots in this place for if I had means I could manerfactor [manufacture] them here and sell them as cheap as the eastern work is now Sold and the same woud be much beter also if I had the means I believe that I Could turn the merchand dise from the hands of those that are now devoteing the gain there of to there own agrand ise ment if I had money to purchase goods I am sure in my own mind that after the expense of bringing them to this place I could put into your own hands one half of the prophets [profits] of the Same and defray all other expenses whith the other half and then under Sell all the rest of the merchants in this place now if the Lord through you will give me this power I will undertake to rais means by donation and by lone [loan] to establish Such an astablishment as in the above I have aluded to I need make no apoagen [apology?] to you for this leter for I Can but dye if I go for ward
I re main your friend [p. [2]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Jared Carter, 14 October 1843
ID #
1182
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:182–185
Handwriting on This Page
  • Jared Carter

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The major shoemaking centers in the United States were in eastern cities such as Lynn, Massachusetts. (See Hazard, Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry, 12, 17; Blewett, Men, Women, and Work, chap. 1; Blewett, “Work, Gender and the Artisan Tradition in New England Shoemaking,” 61–88; and Roark et al., American Promise, 327.)

    Hazard, Blanche Evans. The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts before 1875. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.

    Blewett, Mary H. Men, Women, and Work: Class, Gender, and Protest in the New England Shoe Industry, 1780–1910. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

    Blewett, Mary H. “Work, Gender and the Artisan Tradition in New England Shoemaking, 1780– 1860.” In History of Women in the United States: Historical Articles on Women’s Lives and Activities. Vol. 7, part 1, Industrial Wage Work, edited by Nancy F. Cott, 61–88. Munich: K. G. Saur, 1993.

    Roark, James L, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, and Susan M. Hartmann. The American Promise: A History of the United States. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012.

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