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Letter from Unidentified Author, 23 September 1843

Source Note

Unidentified author, , Dallas Co., AL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 23 Sept. 1843; unidentified handwriting; two pages; Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamp, and docket. Included wafer seal (not extant).
Bifolium, first leaf measuring 7⅝ × 7¾ inches (19 × 20 cm) and second leaf measuring 9⅞ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The top 2¼-inch section of the first leaf was excised before the letter was inscribed. The document was inscribed in blue ink on the first and second pages of the bifolium and does not contain a valediction or signature. After the letter was written, the author reversed the bifolium fold so the second leaf covered the first page of inscription—a practice atypical of most letters. The document was then trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. Thus, when the letter was opened to be read, the leaf containing the address block opposed page 2 of the letter. The recto and verso of the second leaf contain wafer residue, and the letter was torn when it was opened. It has undergone conservation.
The document was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other Nauvoo bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with some other personal and institutional documents that may have been kept by Whitney, was inherited by Whitney’s great-granddaughter Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, who passed these and other family papers down to her daughter Helen Marian Fleming Petersen. In 1988, shortly after Petersen’s death, this collection was found in a box in her home, and later that year family members donated it 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]

    Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

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

  3. [3]

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

Historical Introduction

On 23 September 1843, an unidentified individual in , Alabama, wrote a letter to JS in , Illinois, requesting information about the . Newspaper reports and proselytizing efforts by missionaries in the region apparently stimulated the author’s interest in JS, the church, and the Nauvoo .
Latter-day Saint missionaries first proselytized in , , Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas during the early 1830s, but they did not penetrate the Deep South until the end of the decade. In late 1839, missionaries Benjamin Clapp and traveled south from Tennessee to preach in Tishomingo County, Mississippi. After Hunter returned to , Clapp continued to proselytize in Mississippi and Alabama through at least April 1842. In April 1843, church leaders a large number of missionaries in Nauvoo and sent them “forth into the vineyard to build up churches.” Among them were Clapp, , , and , all of whom were appointed to proselytize in Alabama. Missionaries , , , and also preached in Alabama during summer and fall 1843.
Composed on 23 September 1843, the letter featured here requested that JS answer questions about the history of the church, the construction of the , and the origins of the word Mormon. The letter was mailed from the post office on 28 September and may have reached Nauvoo in mid- or late October 1843. A docket in the handwriting of JS’s clerk confirms that the letter was received in Nauvoo and notes that there was “No signature.” The letter was presumably read by JS, but there is no known reply. The author’s lack of signature may have precluded a response from JS.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Berrett, “History of the Southern States Mission,” 47–170.

    Berrett, LaMar C. “History of the Southern States Mission, 1831–1861.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1960.

  2. [2]

    Jesse D. Hunter, “Dear Brethren in the Lord,” Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:59–60; Berrett, “History of the Southern States Mission,” 167–168.

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

    Berrett, LaMar C. “History of the Southern States Mission, 1831–1861.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1960.

  3. [3]

    Clapp reportedly baptized Samuel Turnbow in Perry County, Alabama, in March 1840 and preached in Tuscaloosa (located about sixty-five miles northwest of Cahaba) in April 1842; he was also listed as an agent for Times and Seasons in Tuscaloosa during 1842. He may have remained in the vicinity through at least a portion of the following winter before returning to Nauvoo. It appears Clapp returned to Nauvoo for at least a short period in 1841, when his son Benjamin was conceived. (Jesse D. Hunter, “Dear Brethren in the Lord,” Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:59–60; “A Mormon Preacher,” Independent Monitor [Tuscaloosa, AL], 13 Apr. 1842, [3]; “Agents for the Times and Seasons,” Times and Seasons, 16 May 1842, 3:798; Turnbow, Genealogical and Blessing Book of Samuel Turnbow, 39; Berrett, “History of the Southern States Mission,” 208, 210; Lisonbee, Mormon Nauvoo Area Burials of the 1840s, 110.)

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

    Independent Monitor. Tuscaloosa, AL. 1837–1872.

    Turnbow, Samuel. Genealogical and Blessing Book of Samuel Turnbow with Brief Sketch of His Life, 1804–1876. Mormon Diaries, vol. 10, no. 6. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Library, 1940.

    Berrett, LaMar C. “History of the Southern States Mission, 1831–1861.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1960.

    Lisonbee, Janet. Mormon Nauvoo Area Burials of the 1840s: Including Obituaries and Biographical Information. N.p.: By the author, 2011.

  4. [4]

    “Elder’s Conference,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1843, 4:157; Berrett, “History of the Southern States Mission,” 190; JS History, vol. D-1, 1524.

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

    Berrett, LaMar C. “History of the Southern States Mission, 1831–1861.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1960.

  5. [5]

    Brown, Reminiscences and Journal, bk. A, 9–21; Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 24 Apr. 1843; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 31 May 1843, 37.

    Brown, John. Reminiscences and Journals, 1843–1896. CHL. MS 1636.

    Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.

Page [1]

Ala Septr. 23rd ’43
Reved. Joseph Smith
Sir
Having for some months past seen many accounts of the progress and and approval of your New and highly favored New plan of Religion and Salvation I have formed a very favorable opinion both of the princeples It Inculcates and Its founder you by your wisdom and Zeal have won a never fading crown of Immortal glory for you self which will be long applauded and cherished after your departure from this vail of tears
It is true I am a Stranger to you In person If not in feeling. but allowing that to be the case men can be the same in sentiment and feelings and yet be total Strangers to each others person.
I hope you will pardon me for making Respectfully an only request of you that is to do me the favor to write me a few lines and inform me when your new plan of Religion first made Its self <​known​> to you [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Unidentified Author, 23 September 1843
ID #
1489
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:119–122
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, served as Alabama’s first capital until 1825, when the capital was moved to Tuscaloosa. Located at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, Cahaba prospered as a center of commerce for the cotton industry during the 1840s. Many residents in the area grew wealthy, leading one nineteenth-century historian to observe: “In all America, in town or country, no people sat down daily to more bounteous dinners, served by better servants, on richer mahogany; no people wore more fashionable clothes, rode better groomed horses of purer blood, wrote a purer vernacular, or spoke it in gentler tones.” (Fry, Memories of Old Cahaba, 11–18; DuBose, Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey, 77–79.)

    Fry, Anna M. Gayle. Memories of Old Cahaba. Nashville: Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 1908.

    DuBose, John Witherspoon. The Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey: A History of Political Parties in the United States, from 1834 to 1864; Especially as to the Origin of the Confederate States. Birmingham, AL: Roberts and Sons, 1892.=

  2. [2]

    Nineteenth-century newspapers routinely reprinted texts published in other contemporary papers, so news of the Latter-day Saints’ activities in Nauvoo likely reached the residents of the Deep South through reprinted material published in local newspapers. (For examples, see “A Visit to Joe Smith,” Jacksonville [AL] Republican, 28 Sept. 1842, [1]–[2]; “Mormonism,” Holly Springs [MS] Gazette, 28 July 1843, [2]; and “Joe Smith Caught,” Jacksonville Republican, 9 Aug. 1843, [3].)

    Jacksonville Republican. Jacksonville, AL. 1837–1895.

    Holly Springs Gazette. Holly Springs, MS. 1841–1853.

  3. [3]

    See 1 Peter 5:4.

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