Footnotes

1. [1]

   See Historical Introduction to Minutes, 9 June 1830.

2. [2]

   Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:63–64]. Other religious societies had a similar practice; compare, for instance, these licenses to those issued by Baptists, as illustrated in “License, A Form of,” in Baptist Encyclopedia, 701.

   The Baptist Encyclopedia. A Dictionary of the Doctrines, Ordinances, Usages, Confessions of Faith, Sufferings, Labors, and Successes, and of the General History of the Baptist Denomination in All Lands. With Numerous Biographical Sketches of Distinguished American and Foreign Baptists, and a Supplement. Edited by William Cathcart. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881.

3. [3]

   Minutes, 9 June 1830.

4. [4]

   On the formalization of licensing procedures, see Cannon, “Licensing in the Early Church,” 96–105.

   Cannon, Donald Q. “Licensing in the Early Church.” BYU Studies 22, no. 1 (Winter 1982): 96–105.

5. [5]

   “Mormonism,” Kansas City Daily Journal, 5 June 1881, 1.

   Kansas City Daily Journal. Kansas City, MO. 1878–1891.

6. [6]

   Although no extant documents demonstrate that the Church of Christ was legally established on 6 April 1830, religious societies were not required under New York law to undergo formal incorporation in order to be officially recognized. (An Act to Provide for the Incorporation of Religious Societies [5 Apr. 1813], Laws of the State of New-York [1813], vol. 2, pp. 212–219; see also Stott, “Legal Insights into the Organization of the Church in 1830,” 122–132.)

   Laws of the State of New-York, Revised and Passed at the Thirty-Sixth Session of the Legislature, With Marginal Notes and References. 2 Vols. Albany: H. C. Southwick and Company, 1813.

   Stott, David Keith. “Legal Insights into the Organization of the Church in 1830.” BYU Studies 49, no. 2 (2010): 121–148.

7. [7]

   Revelation, June 1829–B [D&C 18:26–27].

8. [8]

   See Whitmer, History, 1–96; Whitmer, Daybook, 1832–1878. Soon after he was given this license, John Whitmer signed the certificates of Newel Knight as an elder (in the summer of 1830) and William Smith as a teacher (on 5 October 1831). Both certificates specified that Whitmer was an “Elder.” (Knight, History, 2313; License for William Smith, 5 Oct. 1831.)

   Whitmer, John. Daybook, 1832–1878. CHL. MS 1159.

   Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.

9. [9]

   Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 110.

   Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

10. [10]

    See “Articles of the Church of Christ,” June 1829; see also Whitmer, Address to All Believers in Christ, 32.

    Whitmer, David. An Address to All Believers in Christ. Richmond, MO: By the author, 1887.

11. [11]

    Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:38–59].

12. [12]

    See, for example, Minutes, 9 June 1830; Minutes, 26 Sept. 1830; and Minutes, ca. 3–4 June 1831. An elder’s duties were to “baptize and to ordain other elders, priests, teachers, and deacons, and to administer the flesh and blood of Christ according to the scriptures, and to teach, expound, and exhort, and to baptize and to watch over the church, and to confirm the church by the laying on of hands and the giving of the Holy Ghost, and to take the lead of all meetings, &c. The elders are to conduct the meetings as they are led by the Holy Ghost.” (Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:38–45].)