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Minutes, 19 April 1843

Source Note

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, [, Hancock Co., IL], 19 Apr. 1843; handwriting of ; four pages; Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 1840–1844, CHL. Includes docket and notation.
Four leaves, each measuring 12¼ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The text was inscribed on the versos of four printed copies of “A Fac-simile from the Book of Abraham, No. 2.” After making the initial inscription in black ink, went back through the document, using blue ink to revise material and write over words. The leaves were folded in half twice for filing.
The document was docketed by , who served as clerk of the from October 1840 until his death in 1854. Richards presumably retained the minutes in his possession after inscribing them, and they were likely among the “Minutes of the Twelve 1840 to 1844” listed on an 1846 inventory of the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department). The document includes a notation by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were part of the Brigham Young collection during the first half of the twentieth century and were kept in a collection of various minutes during an era when the Church Historian’s Office used a genre-based filing method. In 1986 the minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the 1840s were transferred from the Church Historical Department (now CHL) to the Office of the First Presidency. In 2008, this collection of minutes was returned to the Church History Department (CHL).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See “A Fac-simile from the Book of Abraham, No. 2,” Second Issue, between ca. 15 Mar. 1842 and 1 Apr. 1843.

  2. [2]

    Added and canceled material will be identified in the text; those words that Richards merely wrote over for clarification will not be.

  3. [3]

    Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 8 Oct. 1840; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  4. [4]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

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

  5. [5]

    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.

  6. [6]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 1840–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 19 April 1843, JS met with members of the in , Illinois, and instructed them on their assignment to raise funds for the construction of the , an edifice designated by revelation to be built as “a house for boarding” for “strangers . . . from afar” and “the weary traveller.” JS’s direction to the apostles stemmed from the belief that members were not sufficiently supporting the building of the Nauvoo House because they were more concerned with construction of the Nauvoo . In April 1842, the Twelve circulated a letter reminding church members that God had commanded the construction of both houses, and in August 1842, told appointed to travel to the eastern not only to raise funds for the temple but to “get the people to take stock in the Nauvoo House” as well. In February 1843, , the architect of the Nauvoo House, complained about the lack of support for the project, after which JS declared, “I want the Nauvo[o] House bui[l]t[.] it must be built, our salvation depends upon it.” JS counseled the Saints to “do what they can for the Nauvoo House. We never can accomplish our work at the expence of another.” Accordingly, at the of the church held in early April 1843, JS stated that one of the purposes of the meeting was “to take into consideration the sending out of the twelve or some porti[o]n of them or some body else to get means to build up Nauvoo. House.” Later in the meeting, JS appointed the Twelve to “this spicial mission of collecting funds for the Nauvoo House,” an action the conference ratified.
At this 19 April meeting in JS’s office, JS met with apostles , , , , , , , and to elaborate on the ’s fund-raising assignment. Woodruff recorded in his journal that JS “counciled us to take a mission in the East to obtain a means to build the as we were appointed So to do by the Conference.” JS also instructed the quorum on the need for others besides the apostles to proselytize in and directed them to write a letter to , an early leader of the church who was excommunicated in 1838, to ask if he was ready to return to the church.
, an apostle and one of JS’s clerks, took the minutes of the meeting in his role as clerk of the Quorum of the Twelve. The hurried nature of these minutes and the fact that Richards went back over them to correct misspellings, clarify words, and add information suggest that these were the original notes he took during the meeting. Richards made a cleaner copy of the minutes in JS’s journal. Substantive differences between the minutes and the journal version are identified in the footnotes.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:23].

  2. [2]

    Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:737; JS, Journal, 29 Aug. 1842.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 21 Feb. 1843; Discourse, 21 Feb. 1843.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843; see also Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 Apr.–ca. 8 May 1843.

  5. [5]

    Woodruff, Journal, 19 Apr. 1843; see also Lucien Woodworth and Peter Haws, Nauvoo, IL, to George Miller and Henry Miller, Black River, Wisconsin Territory, 10 May 1843, Nauvoo House Association, Records, CHL.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Nauvoo House Association. Records, 1841–1846. CHL. MS 2375.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 19 Apr. 1843.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Minutes, 19 April 1843
Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 2, 10 March 1843–14 July 1843 History Draft [1 March–31 December 1843] History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 1

3, Oclock <​1/2​> P. M. at Josephs
<​Ap[r]il 19, 1843​>
. , , — .
Joseph Smith. [blank] go in the name of th[e] Lord God & tell to put the hands onto the & be patient till men can be provided—
Call. the inhitates of togther & get them to bring forward <​their means​> then go to & serve them the same thing commence your carreer & go through the
& never std still till the master apprs— for it is nece[ssa]ry it <​the ​> should be Done—
out of the stock that is booght [brought] to me you shall have as you have need— for the laborer is worthy of thir hire—
I, hereby command the hands to go to work in to the trusting in the Lord.
Tell to put them on & he shall be backed up with it
get property land horses &c & get flour wheat, can be grnd at this mill.—
if you can get hands onto it it will give such imptus to the wo[r]ks it will never stop till <​it is completed,​>
“<​Let the twelve​> keep togeth[e]r?
You will do more good to keep togeth[e]r <​not to travel together but​> alternately from place to place
not travel together.—
have and associate together <​not be fo[u]nd more than 200 miles— apart​>
Travel from back till they make a pe[r]fect highway for the Saints from here to —
How different for a man to have strength of lungs & hea[l]th to be instant & <​in season &​> out of season— whenever you got & spend a d[a]y or two you will find it as with miller they will go together
12 men can build that they are poor tools
(Signd a bond to James Jeffs) [p. 1]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes, 19 April 1843
ID #
12394
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:218–228
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    TEXT: Double underlined.

  2. [2]

    TEXT: Insertion in blue ink.

  3. [3]

    The account of this meeting in JS’s journal has “means” instead of “men.” (JS, Journal, 19 Apr. 1843.)

  4. [4]

    Woodworth—the Nauvoo House architect, who was not a member of the church at the time—stated in February 1843 that he “had about 300 men on the Job— the best men in the world. those that have not complaind I want them to continue with me. & them who hate mormonism & every thing else that’s good. I want them to get their pay & run away.” He recounted that several men on the project complained about not getting their pay and that there was “not that public spirit here as in other cities.” (JS, Journal, 21 Feb. 1843; see also Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 21 Feb. 1843; and Woodruff, Journal, 21 Feb. 1843.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  5. [5]

    The account of this meeting in JS’s journal presents this as “call on the inhabitants of Nauvoo.”

  6. [6]

    TEXT: The inserted “e” is in blue ink.

  7. [7]

    See Luke 10:7; Revelation, Sept. 1830–F [D&C 31:5]; Revelation, 22–23 Sept. 1832 [D&C 84:79]; and Revelation, 25 Nov. 1834 [D&C 106:3].

  8. [8]

    According to an article in the Times and Seasons, two steam mills began operating in Nauvoo in summer 1842. One of these was apparently located “between Locust Street & the next Street North” along “the River Beach.” (“Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:937; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 14 May 1842, 79; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 14 May 1842, 27.)

  9. [9]

    TEXT: Insertion in blue ink.

  10. [10]

    TEXT: Insertion in blue ink.

  11. [11]

    TEXT: Insertion and cancellation in blue ink.

  12. [12]

    Rather than “alternately from place to place not travel together.— have conforences,” the account of this meeting in JS’s journal reads, “meet in conference alternately from place to— place.”

  13. [13]

    TEXT: Insertion in blue ink.

  14. [14]

    TEXT: Canceled in blue ink.

  15. [15]

    TEXT: Inserted over “&” in blue ink.

  16. [16]

    The account of this meeting in JS’s journal adds “in a place” here.

  17. [17]

    Rather than “they will go together,” the account of this meeting in JS’s journal reads, “they will gather together in great companies.” The “miller” referenced here was possibly William Miller, a Baptist preacher who began preaching in 1831 that Christ would return to the earth in or before 1843. (Historical Introduction to Instruction, 2 Apr. 1843 [D&C 130].)

  18. [18]

    The account of this meeting in JS’s journal reads, “If 12 men cannot build that house they are poor tools.”

  19. [19]

    It is unclear what this bond was for. Jeffs, born in 1816, was apparently a member of the church. (Temple Records Index Bureau, Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, 256.)

    Temple Records Index Bureau of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, 10 December 1845 to 8 February 1846. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1974.

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