Footnotes
JS History, vol. A-1, 156. Although the minutes list four priests in attendance, John Whitmer wrote that five priests were present. (Whitmer, History, 38.)
McLellin, Journal, 25–26 Oct. 1831; Whitmer, History, 38; “History of Luke Johnson,” 3, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1858–1880, CHL. Luke Johnson’s history states that the eleven witnesses to the Book of Mormon, “with uplifted hands, bore their solemn testimony to the truth of that book; as did also the Prophet Joseph.” Although the conference clearly included testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and although many of the eleven witnesses who attested to the existence of the gold plates were present, the minutes of the conference do not reflect the particular event Johnson describes. Of the eleven, neither Christian Whitmer, who held the office of elder, nor Hiram Page, who held the office of teacher, was present at the commencement of the conference when the names of attending priesthood officers were recorded. There is no indication that Jacob Whitmer, another of the eleven witnesses, attended. (Minutes, ca. 3–4 June 1831; Minutes, 6 Sept. 1831.)
McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
McLellin, Journal, 25–26 Oct. 1831. Joel Johnson also recounted that he first saw JS at the conference. (Johnson, Autobiography, 2.)
McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Johnson, Joel H. Autobiography, ca. 1882. Photocopy. CHL. MS 15025.
McLellin, Journal, 25–26 Oct. 1831.
McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Johnson, Reminiscenses and Journals, vol. 1, p. 16.
Johnson, Joel Hills. Reminiscences and Journals, 1835–1882. 3 vols. Joel Hills Johnson, Papers, 1835–1882. CHL. MS 1546, fds. 1–3.
“Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock,” ca. 1896, 43.
Hancock, Mosiah Lyman. "Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock," ca. 1896. CHL. MS 570.
Cahoon, Diary, 9 Nov. 1831; Minutes, 11 Oct. 1831.
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
The minutes include parenthetical redactions that were probably added after the creation of the original document. (See the source note for Minute Book 2.)
Durfee’s repetition of Joel Johnson’s remarks may be an error in transcription. In Minute Book 2, the Joel Johnson comment is at the bottom of page 12, while the Edmund Durfee comment is at the top of page 13. Ebenezer Robinson may have mistakenly transcribed the same statement for Durfee after beginning a new page.
At this time, Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith were living on Frederick G. Williams’s farm. According to Lucy, “My family were all established with this arrangement that we were to cultivate the farm and the products were to support our several families . . . and sustain strange[r]s who were traveling that being either Members of the church or others in search of the truth or on a visit to the place.” Minutes from a 10 October 1831 conference record the decision that Joseph Smith Sr. was to “see to the management of the farm & to the distribution of its productions as the Lord’s agent.” (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 12, [6]–[7]; Minute Book 2, 10 Oct. 1831.)
To this point, JS apparently had not written a history of the production of the Book of Mormon. In April 1834, he provided “a relation of obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon” to a conference in Norton, Ohio, though the conference minutes do not provide any other information about what he said. An account was finally published in 1842, but it gave few details. (Minute Book 1, 21 Apr. 1834; JS, “Church History,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, 3:707; see also “The Histories of Joseph Smith, 1832–1844.”)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
“Sister Marsh” is likely Elizabeth Godkin Marsh. If so, Marsh’s dire financial situation may have resulted in part from her husband’s absence: Thomas B. Marsh was directed in a 6 June 1831 revelation to travel to Missouri and did not return to Ohio until January 1832. “While near the end of our journey” to Missouri, he later recalled, “I was attacked with chills and fever and arrived there very sick. I stayed at the house of Br. Benj. Slade till I got well.” (Revelation, 6 June 1831 [D&C 52:22] ; “T B Marsh,” [3], Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1858–1880, CHL ; see also Cahoon, Diary, 9 Aug. 1831.)
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
That is, JS’s Bible revision.
See Revelation, 6 June 1831 [D&C 52:11].