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Letter from John E. Page, 16 April 1844

Source Note

, Letter, , Allegheny Co., PA, to JS and , [, Hancock Co., IL], 16 Apr. 1844; handwriting of ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and notations.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 7⅞ inches (25 × 20 cm). The pages are ruled with twenty-seven horizontal lines. The document was trifolded twice in letter style and later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. Graphite notations were added by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1882 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its notations, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    Jenson, Autobiography, 131, 133, 135, 141, 192, 389; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 44–52.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

    Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  3. [3]

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

Historical Introduction

On 16 April 1844, apostle wrote a letter from , where he was presiding over the in that area, to JS, of the church, and , president of the , in , Illinois. In the letter, Page recounted his latest missionary efforts and the ways he had used scholarly literature on Central America to substantiate the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Page was not the first nor only Latter-day Saint to gravitate toward this literature; prior to 1844, JS and others had expressed interest in scholarly work related to the exploration of Central America. As a missionary and church leader in Pittsburgh, Page had previously defended Latter-day Saint doctrine and scripture in print and had already argued that Mesoamerican ruins validated the claims of the Book of Mormon. Page hoped to convert audiences by showing that explorers of the Americas had found evidence of peoples and cultures described in the Book of Mormon.
In his letter of 16 April 1844, informed JS and that the public had been “perfectly astounded” by his command of parallels between places described in the Book of Mormon and archaeological discoveries in Mesoamerica. In a postscript, Page asked permission to give traveling lectures on the subject and stated that while doing so he could help raise money for the and drive subscriptions to Nauvoo newspapers.
had the letter hand delivered by church member . , who was keeping JS’s journal, noted Foster’s arrival in on 27 April 1844, which suggests that Foster delivered the letter to JS that day. Page requested that JS respond to his inquiry, but there is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In 1841 John M. Bernhisel gave JS a copy of John Lloyd Stephens’s book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. In a letter thanking Bernhisel for the gift, JS stated that Stephens’s work was “the most correct luminous & comprihensive” of any book written on American antiquities. That same year, a missionary named Charles Thompson published a volume that used Stephens’s research as evidence that the Book of Mormon was a “divinely inspired record, written by the Forefathers of the Natives whom we call Indians.” In 1842, under JS’s editorship, the Times and Seasons published articles citing Stephens’s works to support the idea that individuals and populations described in the Book of Mormon had inhabited the Americas; an additional article was published in the Times and Seasons in 1843. (Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841; Thompson, Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon, 2, 241–256; “Extract From Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–914; “Extract From Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:927–928; “Stephens’ Works on Central America,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1843, 4:346–347.)

    Thompson, Charles. Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon, Being a Divinely Inspired Record, Written by the Forefathers of the Natives Whom We Call Indians, (Who Are a Remnant of the Tribe of Joseph,) and Hid Up in the Earth, but Come Forth in Fulfilment of Prophesy for the Gathering of Israel and the Re-establishing of the Kingdom of God upon the Earth. Batavia, NY: D. D. Waite, 1841.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    In 1842 Page attempted to align cities named in the Book of Mormon with the geography described by John Lloyd Stephens in Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. In 1843 Page published a pamphlet refuting the theory that Sidney Ridgon had plagiarized a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding to produce the Book of Mormon. During 1843 and 1844, Page published The Gospel Light, a series of three tracts “devoted to the promulgation and defence of the doctrine of the scriptures as advocated by ‘The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.’” (John E. Page, “To a Disciple,” Morning Chronicle [Pittsburgh], 1 July 1842, [2]; Page, Spaulding Story, 15–16; “The Gospel Light,” Gospel Light, June 1843, 1.)

    Morning Chronicle. Pittsburgh. 1841–1844.

    Page, John E. The Spaulding Story, concerning the Origin of the Book of Mormon, Duly Examined, and Exposed to the Righteous Contempt of a Candid Public. Pittsburgh: By the author, 1843.

    Gospel Light. Pittsburgh. 1843–1844.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 27 Apr. 1844. JS’s journal entry for this day and its sequence of reported events suggest that Richards was with JS in JS’s store, that Foster visited there, and that he arrived around midday.

Page [4]

(PS) Dear Bretheren I hope you will not consider me vain If I should say that it is probible I have given the Books spoken of in this communication the most carefull and criticle investigation of any other man on Earth by a long and diligent search and untireing labour I have writen out a concordence of all the coresponding points in those Book for my own use in ready refference to the coresponding matter contained in the Book of Mormon and those histories of the American antiquities therefore it is posible and very probable that relative to this matter as evidence of the truth of the divinity of our cause I can set forth the greates[t] amount of evidence and that too of such a nature that both the learned and unlearned are perfectly astounded and confounded they know not what to say or what course to take they <​are​> perfectly chained up and silent as if bound with the lock jaw—— Therefore with your permision I will travel from place <​to place​> where the first principles of the gospel has been preached and lecture on this matter and set it before people fairly; you may be assured that this kind of evidence is what the honest part of the community is asking for especially the rich— It answers the same as to see the “” it is a kind of evidence that the mind can grasp at once doing away all doubt at once
Please give me your sanction on this matter and I will improve the oppertunity to the best advantage posible to raise funds for to be appropriated to the and other purposes and raise subscriptions for the papers
your answer to this <​is​> humbly solicited immediately— at the longest at the return of Elder Grant— [p. [4]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John E. Page, 16 April 1844
ID #
1334
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John E. Page

Footnotes

  1. [12]

    According to his own accounts, JS received gold plates containing the record of an ancient people in September 1827. His translation of the record became the Book of Mormon. Although three witnesses testified to seeing the plates and the engravings thereon, interest in the plates and their physical whereabouts persisted. (“Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842; Testimony of Three Witnesses, Late June 1829; Testimony of Eight Witnesses, Late June 1829; see also, for example, Lucy Mack Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to William Smith, 23 Jan. 1845, CHL; James A. Briggs, Brooklyn, NY, to Arthur Deming, [Oakland, CA], 22 Mar. 1886, Naked Truths about Mormonism [Oakland, CA], Jan. 1888, 4; and Discourse, 5 Feb. 1840.)

    Smith, Lucy Mack. Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to William Smith, 23 Jan. 1845. CHL.

    Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.

  2. [13]

    Page was likely referring to the Times and Seasons and possibly the Nauvoo Neighbor.

  3. [14]

    TEXT: Written upside down at the top of the page.

  4. [15]

    Page was likely referring to Jedediah M. Grant, an elder who had recently presided over a branch of the church in Philadelphia. Grant arrived in Nauvoo in March 1844 and may have passed through Pittsburgh and visited Page along the way. Page probably anticipated that Grant would return to Philadelphia or somewhere in the eastern United States and could deliver a response. Grant returned to Philadelphia in July 1844. (Obituary for Jedediah M. Grant, Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 10 Dec. 1856, 317.)

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

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