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Letter from John P. Greene, 18 March 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Erie Co., NY, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 18 Mar. 1843; handwriting and signature of ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamps, and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 8 inches (25 × 20 cm). The letter was inscribed on all four pages in blue ink, although made some insertions in black ink. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. When the letter was opened, a hole was torn in the second leaf, resulting in the loss of some text on the recto of that leaf. The letter was later folded for storage.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1866, also docketed the letter, as did Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    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.

  3. [3]

    Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.

    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.

    Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.

    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.

  4. [4]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

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

  5. [5]

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

Historical Introduction

On 18 March 1843, wrote a letter from , New York, to JS in , Illinois, reporting on the condition of the of the in Buffalo and asking whether JS wanted him to keep preaching there. On 29 August 1842, JS had held a special with church leaders and of the church, in which told the group “that every Elder who can, should now go forth to every part of the ,” both to combat accusations former church member was making about JS and to “preach the gospel, repentance, & salvation.” The following day, Greene received a letter of commendation from , , and , and he then departed for the eastern United States. In the first part of December, Greene reached Buffalo, where he stayed for nine days and organized a branch. Apostle then placed Greene in charge of the conference held in in western and instructed him “to visit all the branches east as far as [he] could.” In February, Greene returned to Buffalo and remained there to preach the gospel and oversee the branch.
In his 18 March 1843 letter to JS, featured here, reported on his missionary labors in and asked for news from . He mailed the letter on 21 March from . Mail took two or three weeks to travel between New York and , so the letter probably arrived in Nauvoo between early and mid-April. That the letter was received in Nauvoo is attested by ’s docket on the letter. On 9 May, Greene informed that he had received no reply from JS. Greene, who was accompanied by his wife, , and their baby daughter, Mary Emma, stayed in the eastern through the summer and returned to Nauvoo in October 1843.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 Aug. 1842; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”

  2. [2]

    Greene, “Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 4.

    Greene, Evan Melbourne. “A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 1857. CHL. MS 15390.

  3. [3]

    John P. Greene, Buffalo, NY, to “Dear and Loved Children,” Illinois, Feb. 1843, typescript, CHL.

    Greene, John P. Letter, Buffalo, NY, to “Dear and Loved Children,” Nauvoo, IL. Feb. 1843. Typescript. CHL. MS 3137.

  4. [4]

    John P. Greene, Buffalo, NY, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 9 May 1843, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  5. [5]

    An August 1842 letter James Arlington Bennet sent to JS from New York took a little over three weeks to reach Nauvoo, while a letter Bennet sent in September 1842 arrived in Nauvoo in thirteen days. (Historical Introduction to Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 16 Aug. 1842; Historical Introduction to Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 1 Sept. 1842.)

  6. [6]

    John P. Greene, Buffalo, NY, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 9 May 1843, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  7. [7]

    Greene, “Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 5.

    Greene, Evan Melbourne. “A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 1857. CHL. MS 15390.

Page [1]

Citey of March. 18 AD 1843. Ny
Joseph Smith
Dear Sir it is with the deepest interist that I take my pen to communicate to you! the very particular & interesting relation in which the god of Isreal has placed you or caused you to stand between him self & the saints of the last days. always makes my <​hart​> leap with in me when I think of this verey grate blessing— & when I think of the many happey & profittable hours & day Spent in your society & famely with many of ourn brethern the saints, with this much valuabl yis infinitely valuabl in struction received from you Dear sir it almost makes me for git that I am one thousand miles from you & the grater family of the saints in the beautiful city of (located in the midst of the land of Ephraegm) & almost seeme at times to be in your there too: but one moments reflection dismiss my has[t]ens me back to this grater dapoe [depot] of Babelon with about twenty saints <​who​> with me are ingaged in opin contack with about twenty thousand inhabitans who are led captive by the priests of baal, but I assure you their refuse of lies, does not make a very permanant breast work for the wo[r]ld of & the spirrit of god which seeth serch is the deep of thing of God, & desernes between the joints & marrowes of and the thoughts & intents of the hearts of man, has already penetrated the darker Caverns of , & led out several of its deepis translative them in to the to thirs thire grate Joy— many outhers are standing just on the brink of the watre [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John P. Greene, 18 March 1843
ID #
1016
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:75–81
Handwriting on This Page
  • John P. Greene

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Greene appears to be referring to the North American continent as the land of Ephraim. Ephraim was one of the two sons of Joseph, son of Jacob, in the Old Testament. Drawing on JS’s revelations, Latter-day Saints identified themselves as “the Children of Ephraim” because they were commanded to help gather the scattered tribes of Israel to Zion on the American continent before the second coming of Jesus Christ. This New Jerusalem, according to the Book of Mormon, would be built in the Americas and would be a land of inheritance for “the remnant of the house of Joseph.” (Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:1, 45]; McLellin, Journal, 29 Oct. 1831, 21; Letter to Stephen Post, 17 Sept. 1838; Revelation, 3 Nov. 1831 [D&C 133:30–34]; Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 550 [Ether 13:2–8].)

    McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

  2. [2]

    Greene reported to Brigham Young in May 1843 that the Buffalo branch had “more than 30 members all of them poor laboring people of the first rank of cittizens & strong in the faith.” The population of Buffalo in 1840 was 18,213, and it had increased to 29,773 by 1845. (John P. Greene, Buffalo, NY, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 9 May 1843, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; Johnson, Centennial History of Erie County, New York, 429.)

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

    Johnson, Crisfield. Centennial History of Erie County, New York: Being Its Annals from the Earliest Recorded Events to the Hundredth Year of American Independence. Buffalo, NY: Matthews and Warren, 1876.

  3. [3]

    See 1 Kings 16:29–32; 18:17–40; and 2 Kings 11:17–18.

  4. [4]

    See Hebrews 4:12.

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