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Letter to John Smith, 12 December 1843
Source Note
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Hancock Co., IL], 12 Dec. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 12 Dec. 1843]; handwriting of ; signature of JS in the handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket, redactions, and archival marking.
Single leaf measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The upper left corner is embossed with a decorative star and “D & J. Ames Springfield”, the insignia of a Springfield, Massachusetts, paper mill firm established by brothers David and John Ames in 1828. The letter is inscribed on the recto, and the verso is blank except for a later docket. The document was folded in half twice horizontally and trifolded vertically; it was later refolded for filing. The letter has undergone conservation to strengthen the paper along the folds.
The featured copy was presumably retained among church records. The docket is in unidentified handwriting. edited the document in graphite, probably during preparation to include the letter in JS’s history in Utah Territory between 1855 and 1856. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
- [1]
Whiting, “Paper-Making in New England,” 309; Gravell et al., American Watermarks, 235.
Whiting, William. “Paper-Making in New England.” In The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History, edited by William T. Davis, vol. 1, pp. 303–333. Boston: D. H. Hurd, 1897.
Gravell, Thomas L., George Miller, and Elizabeth Walsh. American Watermarks: 1690–1835. 2nd ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2002.
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Bullock’s insertions were included in the text of the letter as it appeared in JS’s history. (JS History, vol. E-1, 1801.)
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See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 12 December 1843, JS directed his clerk to write to JS’s uncle , who was serving as president of the , Illinois, of the . The letter granted a petition from the members of the Macedonia branch requesting that JS John Smith a branch .
The office of patriarch was established in December 1834 with the ordination of His duties included giving blessings to church members, particularly those whose fathers did not belong to the church or had died. An early 1835 instruction on priesthood expanded upon Joseph Smith Sr.’s ordination and authorized the to ordain evangelical ministers, also called patriarchs, in “all large branches of the church.” The earliest known branch patriarch was ordained in in 1837. Branch patriarchs were initially ordained only in locations distant from Joseph Smith Sr.’s residence, such as , Missouri, or , England. This trend shifted as a large number of Latter-day Saints gathered to live near , Illinois. On 18 July 1841, JS ordained , president of the , Illinois, branch, a branch patriarch. John Smith’s appointment in followed this precedent of calling patriarchs in branches located closer to church headquarters.
By 1843, around five hundred Latter-day Saints lived in , which was located about twenty-five miles east of . Early branches, including the Macedonia branch, often nominated and voted to elect their own leaders from among men who were previously ordained. The Macedonia branch elected branch president the previous September. The branch members apparently elected Smith in a special in November and then petitioned JS to ordain him a patriarch. The petition is no longer extant, and the Macedonia branch minutes do not reference a special conference in November. In this letter, JS approved of the branch members’ choice, characterizing John Smith as a man of “dignity, sobriety, and grace.”
It is unclear how the 12 December 1843 letter was delivered to , but traveled to on 8 January 1844. On 10 January, JS ordained John Smith a patriarch, and later that day the two men rode partway back to Macedonia together. John Smith continued to function as a patriarch even after his appointment as president of the Nauvoo on 7 October 1844.
Footnotes
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Isaac Morley was ordained a patriarch in the branch at Far West, Missouri; Peter Melling and later John Albiston were ordained patriarchs in England. By the time Hyrum Smith succeeded Joseph Smith Sr. as patriarch in January 1841, there was a clearer distinction between branch patriarchs and the patriarch at church headquarters. A 19 January 1841 revelation stated that Hyrum Smith held “the keys of the patriarchal blessings upon the heads of all my people.” Later that year, Hyrum Smith signed a published letter as “Patriarch for the whole church.” (Minute Book 2, 7 Nov. 1837, 85; “Communications,” Times and Seasons, 15 July 1841, 2:484; “Conference Minutes,” Millennial Star, Apr. 1841, 1:302–304; Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:91–96, 124]; Hyrum Smith, Extract of a Letter, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1841, 3:589; see also “Death of the Patriarch John Albiston,” Millennial Star, July 1849, 11:196.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
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A few existing branch patriarchs, such as Isaac Morley and Peter Melling, also moved to the area around Nauvoo. (“Church Record of the Lima Branch,” 1; Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 24 Oct. 1841.)
“The Church Record of the Lima Branch.” In James C. Snow, Record Book, 1840–1851. CHL.
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See Rugh, “Conflict in the Countryside: The Mormon Settlement at Macedonia, Illinois,” 154.
Rugh, Susan Sessions. “Conflict in the Countryside: The Mormon Settlement at Macedonia, Illinois.” BYU Studies 32, nos. 1 and 2 (1992): 149–174.
- [8]
The practice of nominating and electing church leaders by vote at a conference, common within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the 1830s and 1840s, was similar to the election of bishops, conference presidents, and other officers within Methodist churches. (Form of Discipline, 6–8; see also, for example, JS, Journal, 15 Jan. 1836; Conference Minutes, 5 Oct. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 164–165; and Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 Oct. 1841.)
A Form of Discipline for the Ministers, Preachers, and Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Considered and Approved at a Conference Held at Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, on Monday the 27th of December, 1784: In Which the Reverend Thomas Coke. L.L.D. and the Reverend Francis Asbury, Presided. New York: W. Ross, 1787. Reprint, Cleveland: W. A. Ingham, [1900].
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Macedonia Branch, Record, 24 Sept. 1843, 35.
Macedonia Branch, Record / “A Record of the Chur[c]h of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Macedonia (Also Called Ramus),” 1839–1850. CHL. LR 11808 21.
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“Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:691–692; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1845, 6:870; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1845, 6:1008–1009, 1013. In 1847, John Smith was sustained as the church patriarch, succeeding JS’s brothers Hyrum Smith and William Smith. (Bates and Smith, Lost Legacy, 104–109.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Bates, Irene M., and E. Gary Smith. Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
City of Decr. 12. 1843.
President .
Your Petition of a Special of last November has been received, duly considered, and is granted. you have my best wishes in your behalf, as well as my prayers: that you may fill so honorable and exalted a Station with the dignity, sobriety, and grace which has hitherto characterized your conduct, and communion with men, as a Man of God.
Respectfully Yours
Joseph Smith
By Clerk [p. [1]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [1]
This petition is not extant.
Signature of JS in the handwriting of William W. Phelps.