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Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844

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Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Hancock Co.], IL, 21 June 1844; included enclosures (not extant). Featured version copied [21 June 1844]; handwriting of ; signature of JS in the handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, dockets, redactions, use marks, and archival marking.
Single leaf measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The top, bottom, and right sides of the recto have the square cut of manufactured paper; the left side is hand cut, which suggests that the leaf was removed from a book or larger sheet. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. It was later refolded for filing.
The document 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. Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1856, made redactions to the letter in pencil, apparently in preparation for copying the document into JS’s history. The document was also docketed by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. It 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 and redactions, its listing in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  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. See Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364; and JS History, vol. F-1, 132.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  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. “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [4], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

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

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

Historical Introduction

On 21 June 1844, in , Hancock County, Illinois, JS composed a cover letter for a number of documents, including affidavits and handbills, that he and the Nauvoo City Council were sending to governor in , Hancock County. In the days leading up to 21 June, JS and others had been collecting affidavits from and encouraging them to send letters to Ford to inform him of threats and acts of violence by the church’s antagonists. By 20 June fifteen affidavits had been collected. For the most part, the affidavits described the rising tensions throughout following the 10 June destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press. They also provided evidence of threats of violence against JS, the Saints scattered throughout the ’s settlements, circuit court judge , and Ford himself. JS included copies of the affidavits alongside a 20 June letter to president , explaining that he had also “just enclosed to the Governor of the State of Illinois, copies of the enclosed affidavits and Extra.” However, there is no evidence that JS sent any affidavits to Ford before 21 June.
Around two o’clock in the afternoon on 21 June, JS received a letter from explaining that he was in to personally investigate the troubles in and inviting JS and the City Council to send representatives to Carthage to explain their perspective on the events. Upon receiving Ford’s letter, JS called a special meeting of the Nauvoo City Council. He and the council compiled the fifteen affidavits collected during May and June and appointed and to carry the affidavits and other documents to Ford at Carthage.
JS composed a short letter to introduce the documents to . While the sent copy of this 21 June cover letter is not extant, inscribed a copy that was retained with JS’s papers. The letter, or at least McEwan’s retained copy, was addressed to Ford at the state capital of , Illinois, where he usually resided, rather than at his temporary headquarters in , where the original letter was delivered. McEwan may have copied the address from the original letter, if it was written to Ford on 21 June before the arrival of Ford’s letter bearing the news that he had arrived that morning in Carthage, or McEwan may have merely made a mistake by writing Springfield instead of Carthage when making the retained copy.
Following the meeting of the City Council, JS gave the original letter, with its enclosed affidavits and other documents, to and to deliver to at . That evening, around seven o’clock, they left Nauvoo, arriving in Carthage around eleven o’clock. Upon their arrival, they found that Ford had already retired for the night. The next morning, they secured an audience with Ford at ten o’clock and delivered JS’s letter and the accompanying documents to him. Taylor later recounted that Ford read a number of the enclosed documents but was frequently interrupted by people surrounding him who denounced the affidavits as false. Following his interview with Taylor and Bernhisel, and after having read several of the affidavits, Ford wrote a lengthy response to JS.
The retained copy of JS’s letter is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. Historical Introduction to Letter to Thomas Ford, 14 June 1844; see also Letter to Thomas Ford, 16 June 1844; and Letter to Isaac Morley, 16 June 1844.

  2. Minutes, 21 June 1844; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from 16 May through 28 June 1844.”

  3. Letter to John Tyler, 20 June 1844.

  4. JS, Journal, 21 June 1844; Letter from Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844.

  5. JS, Journal, 21 June 1844; Minutes, 21 June 1844. According to William Clayton, Edward Bonney joined Taylor and Bernhisel. The city council minutes for 21 June contain a list of the affidavits that were sent to Ford in their care on 21 June. Willard Richards was also delegated to take information to Ford at Carthage, but he remained in Nauvoo to collect additional affidavits. The following day, Lucien Woodworth was sent to Carthage in Richards’s place with the additional affidavits. (Events of June 1844; JS, Journal, 21–22 June 1844; Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844.)

  6. John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 17, 20–24, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL. Taylor recalled that around “fifteen or twenty persons, most of whom were recreant to virtue, honor, integrity and everything that is considered honorable among men,” were present when he and Bernhisel met with Ford. He recalled that Wilson Law, Francis M. Higbee, Chauncey L. Higbee, and Joseph H. Jackson were present that day. They were joined by either Charles A. Foster or Robert D. Foster, William Marr, and other individuals from Nauvoo and Warsaw, Illinois. Taylor also indicated that William Law may have been in the company.

  7. Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
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His Excellency
Ill. [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844
ID #
1428
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John McEwan
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