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Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer, 12 July 1842

Source Note

JS as mayor, Pay Order, to Nauvoo City Treasurer [
John S. Fullmer

21 July 1807–8 Oct. 1883. Farmer, newsman, postmaster, teacher, merchant. Born at Huntington, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Fullmer and Susannah Zerfass. Moved to Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee, spring 1832. Married Mary Ann Price, 24 May 1837...

View Full Bio
], for JS,
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL, 12 July 1842; handwriting of
James Sloan

28 Oct. 1792–24 Oct. 1886. City recorder, notary public, attorney, judge, farmer. Born in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland. Son of Alexander Sloan and Anne. Married Mary Magill. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ordained an elder, ...

View Full Bio
; signature of JS; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
Single leaf measuring 3 × 7½ inches (8 × 19 cm), ruled with ten horizontal blue lines (now faded). The bottom edge was unevenly cut from a larger leaf. The order was docketed by
William Clayton

17 July 1814–4 Dec. 1879. Bookkeeper, clerk. Born at Charnock Moss, Penwortham, Lancashire, England. Son of Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. Married Ruth Moon, 9 Oct. 1836, at Penwortham. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Heber...

View Full Bio
, who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844 and as
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
temple recorder from 1842 to 1846.
1

JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

Sometime after Clayton docketed the leaf, it was trifolded vertically, presumably for filing.
The pay order was likely included in the Church Historian’s Office inventories that consistently list
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
City financial records. The first inventory lists a “Cash Book” and Nauvoo City Council disbursements, either of which may have included the pay order.
2

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


Comprehensive Works Cited

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

By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL).
3

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


The document’s early docket, the early inventory, and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

  2. [2]

    “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.

  3. [3]

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

Historical Introduction

On 12 July 1842, JS, acting as mayor of
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois, issued a pay order to
John S. Fullmer

21 July 1807–8 Oct. 1883. Farmer, newsman, postmaster, teacher, merchant. Born at Huntington, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Fullmer and Susannah Zerfass. Moved to Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee, spring 1832. Married Mary Ann Price, 24 May 1837...

View Full Bio
, the city treasurer, to reimburse JS for printing a pamphlet containing the city laws.
1

Pay orders, a common means of arranging payment for services rendered, authorized a designated individual to receive payment from another designated individual. In this case, as mayor of Nauvoo, JS was the creator of the order, and as the owner of the printing office, he was the recipient of the payment the order specified. Meanwhile, Fullmer, as city treasurer, was responsible for issuing the payment on behalf of the city. (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; see also Pay Order from Robert Snodgrass, 18 Sept. 1838; Pay Order to Brother Davis, ca. 1 Mar. 1841; and Pay Order from Oliver Granger for Samuel Clark, 5 July 1841.)


Rising concerns that outsiders might infringe on the Latter-day Saints’ legal rights seem to have inspired the city council to print the pamphlet. The laws had earlier been printed separately in periodicals.
2

Initially, Nauvoo’s charter and laws were published in the church periodical, the Times and Seasons, which was the only periodical printed in Nauvoo until April 1842, when William Smith began publishing the Wasp, a weekly local newspaper for Nauvoo. Thereafter, new city ordinances were published in that paper. (See, for example, “Miscellaneous,” Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1841, 2:281–286; Ordinances, Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:321–322; Ordinances, Wasp, 30 Apr. 1842, [3]; and “Ordinance concerning Brothels and Disorderly Characters,” Wasp, 14 May 1842, [3].)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Publishing the laws accorded with the city charter’s stipulation that city ordinances, within one month of being passed, must be made public by being either “published in some newspaper printed in the city” or posted in three public places.
3

Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.


In March 1842,
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
’s city council resolved to publish the city’s laws as a pamphlet.
4

Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 5 Mar. 1842, 66.


The pamphlet had not been published by 11 June, when the city council resolved that “the publication of the City Charter, and ordinances of the City Council, and
Nauvoo Legion

A contingent of the Illinois state militia provided for in the Nauvoo city charter. The Nauvoo Legion was organized into two cohorts: one infantry and one cavalry. Each cohort could potentially comprise several thousand men and was overseen by a brigadier...

View Glossary
, be procured to be done before the first day of July next.”
5

Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 11 June 1842, 85.


A month later, on 12 July, the city council passed an ordinance to include all new laws in the pamphlet “that is now being printed” and appropriated funds for the publication.
6

Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 July 1842, 94; “An Ordinance Authorizing the Publication of Additional Laws and Ordinances,” Wasp, between 30 July and 4 Aug. 1842, [3].


Later that day,
James Sloan

28 Oct. 1792–24 Oct. 1886. City recorder, notary public, attorney, judge, farmer. Born in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland. Son of Alexander Sloan and Anne. Married Mary Magill. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ordained an elder, ...

View Full Bio
, the city recorder, inscribed the featured pay order to provide JS with fifty dollars to pay for the printing of the city laws, which was by then in process and would be completed soon after.
7

The City Charter: Laws, Ordinances, and Acts of the City Council of the City of Nauvoo. And Also, the Ordinances of the Nauvoo Legion: From the Commencement of the City to This Date (Nauvoo, IL: Nauvoo City Council, 1842). Despite the title’s indication that the city council intended to be comprehensive in publishing the city’s and legion’s ordinances, the pamphlet omitted a number of laws, including many of those passed in 1842. Furthermore, most of the extant copies of the pamphlet contain only the first signature, or first eight pages, suggesting that this portion of the pamphlet was typically printed and circulated alone. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:198–199.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

The decision to publish
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
’s charter and city laws came at a time when the Latter-day Saints feared their legal rights would come under attack.
John C. Bennett

3 Aug. 1804–5 Aug. 1867. Physician, minister, poultry breeder. Born at Fairhaven, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. Son of John Bennett and Abigail Cook. Moved to Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio, 1808; to Massachusetts, 1812; and back to Marietta, 1822. Married ...

View Full Bio
’s recent break with the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
and spreading rumors of JS’s alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of former
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...

More Info
governor
Lilburn W. Boggs

14 Dec. 1796–14 Mar. 1860. Bookkeeper, bank cashier, merchant, Indian agent and trader, lawyer, doctor, postmaster, politician. Born at Lexington, Fayette Co., Kentucky. Son of John M. Boggs and Martha Oliver. Served in War of 1812. Moved to St. Louis, ca...

View Full Bio
alarmed the Saints and inspired them to prepare for possible mob attacks and a threatened attempt to extradite JS to Missouri.
8

Mayor’s Order to City Watch, 20 May 1842; “Assassination of Ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 21 May 1842, [3]; Letter to Thomas Carlin, 24 June 1842; JS, Journal, 4 July 1842; Ordinance, 5 July 1842.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

JS and the city council may have believed that publishing the charter and laws would remind their antagonists of the Saints’ legal rights. Printing the laws in pamphlet form also made them accessible to the Saints, so they could easily reference them in legal proceedings. JS may have used them a month later, on 8 August, when he issued a petition for a writ of
habeas corpus

“Have the body”; a written order from a court of competent jurisdiction commanding anyone having a person in custody to produce such person at a certain time and place and to state the reasons why he or she is being held in custody. The court will determine...

View Glossary
“in pursuance of . . . the City Charter and an ordinance in pursuance of said provision.”
9

Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 8 Aug. 1842.


This 12 July pay order is representative of many similar pay orders issued by JS during his time as mayor. For example, on the same day this pay order was written, another was issued to James Sloan in the amount of fifty dollars as partial payment for his work as city recorder.
10

JS, Pay Order, to Nauvoo City Treasurer [John Fullmer], for James Sloan, Nauvoo, IL, 12 July 1842, JS Collection, CHL. This and other pay orders are available on this website.


After JS signed the pay order featured here, he presumably gave it to
Fullmer

21 July 1807–8 Oct. 1883. Farmer, newsman, postmaster, teacher, merchant. Born at Huntington, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Fullmer and Susannah Zerfass. Moved to Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee, spring 1832. Married Mary Ann Price, 24 May 1837...

View Full Bio
to issue the requested payment. The payment was later recorded in the Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger.
11

Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 56.


Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Pay orders, a common means of arranging payment for services rendered, authorized a designated individual to receive payment from another designated individual. In this case, as mayor of Nauvoo, JS was the creator of the order, and as the owner of the printing office, he was the recipient of the payment the order specified. Meanwhile, Fullmer, as city treasurer, was responsible for issuing the payment on behalf of the city. (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; see also Pay Order from Robert Snodgrass, 18 Sept. 1838; Pay Order to Brother Davis, ca. 1 Mar. 1841; and Pay Order from Oliver Granger for Samuel Clark, 5 July 1841.)

  2. [2]

    Initially, Nauvoo’s charter and laws were published in the church periodical, the Times and Seasons, which was the only periodical printed in Nauvoo until April 1842, when William Smith began publishing the Wasp, a weekly local newspaper for Nauvoo. Thereafter, new city ordinances were published in that paper. (See, for example, “Miscellaneous,” Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1841, 2:281–286; Ordinances, Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:321–322; Ordinances, Wasp, 30 Apr. 1842, [3]; and “Ordinance concerning Brothels and Disorderly Characters,” Wasp, 14 May 1842, [3].)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  3. [3]

    Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.

  4. [4]

    Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 5 Mar. 1842, 66.

  5. [5]

    Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 11 June 1842, 85.

  6. [6]

    Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 July 1842, 94; “An Ordinance Authorizing the Publication of Additional Laws and Ordinances,” Wasp, between 30 July and 4 Aug. 1842, [3].

  7. [7]

    The City Charter: Laws, Ordinances, and Acts of the City Council of the City of Nauvoo. And Also, the Ordinances of the Nauvoo Legion: From the Commencement of the City to This Date (Nauvoo, IL: Nauvoo City Council, 1842). Despite the title’s indication that the city council intended to be comprehensive in publishing the city’s and legion’s ordinances, the pamphlet omitted a number of laws, including many of those passed in 1842. Furthermore, most of the extant copies of the pamphlet contain only the first signature, or first eight pages, suggesting that this portion of the pamphlet was typically printed and circulated alone. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:198–199.)

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  8. [8]

    Mayor’s Order to City Watch, 20 May 1842; “Assassination of Ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 21 May 1842, [3]; Letter to Thomas Carlin, 24 June 1842; JS, Journal, 4 July 1842; Ordinance, 5 July 1842.

    Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

  9. [9]

    Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 8 Aug. 1842.

  10. [10]

    JS, Pay Order, to Nauvoo City Treasurer [John Fullmer], for James Sloan, Nauvoo, IL, 12 July 1842, JS Collection, CHL. This and other pay orders are available on this website.

  11. [11]

    Nauvoo City Treasury Ledger, 56.

Page [1]

The
City Treasurer

21 July 1807–8 Oct. 1883. Farmer, newsman, postmaster, teacher, merchant. Born at Huntington, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Fullmer and Susannah Zerfass. Moved to Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee, spring 1832. Married Mary Ann Price, 24 May 1837...

View Full Bio
of the City of
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
1

John Fullmer. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 4 Sept. 1841, 22.)


will pay Joseph Smith Fifty Dollars out of the Funds in the City Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, it being an appropriation this day made by the City Council, for the printing of the City Laws.—

Signature of JS.


Joseph Smith May[or]
July 12th. 1842.
James Sloan

28 Oct. 1792–24 Oct. 1886. City recorder, notary public, attorney, judge, farmer. Born in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland. Son of Alexander Sloan and Anne. Married Mary Magill. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ordained an elder, ...

View Full Bio
, Recorder. [p. [1]]
View entire transcript

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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [1]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer, 12 July 1842
ID #
2046
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:253–256
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Sloan
  • Joseph Smith Jr.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    John Fullmer. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 4 Sept. 1841, 22.)

  2. new scribe logo

    Signature of JS.

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