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Receipt to Jonathan Harrington, 8 July 1842

Source Note

[ on behalf of JS], Receipt, to Jonathan Harrington, [, Hancock Co., IL], 8 July 1842; handwriting of ; one page; JS Office Papers, CHL. Includes docket.
Single leaf measuring 5–5¼ × 8 inches (13 × 20 cm). The document, ruled with sixteen horizontal lines (now faded), was apparently cut from a larger leaf; the top and right side of the recto have the square cut of manufactured paper, while the left side and bottom of the recto appear to be hand cut. After being inscribed, it was trifolded for filing.
, who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844 and as temple recorder from 1842 to 1846, created the document for JS’s Nauvoo office, where it was presumably retained and filed with other office papers. Clayton also docketed the document. It and other such papers from JS’s office were likely part of the financial documents in possession of the Historian’s Office in Utah Territory. The document was cataloged as part of the Joseph Smith Office Papers collection at the Church History Library in 2012. The document’s docket and inclusion in the Joseph Smith Office Papers suggest 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]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Joseph Smith’s Office Papers, 1835–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 8 July 1842, , acting as secretary and financial for JS, wrote out a receipt detailing a financial transaction with Latter-day Saint Jonathan Harrington. In October 1840, Harrington had sold fifty acres of land in the township of Mexico, New York, to , who, as JS’s financial agent in , Ohio, was working to resolve outstanding debts. In exchange for Harrington’s land, Granger had created and signed two promissory notes on 10 October 1840 amounting to $1,000, to be paid in money or in land in , Iowa Territory. Harrington was one of several individuals Granger purchased land from in the eastern in October 1840. These purchases were part of a larger effort to pay the church’s debts to merchants by acquiring land from New York residents, most of whom were Latter-day Saints, in exchange for land the church owned in or .
At some point between October 1840 and Harrington’s July 1842 visit to , Illinois, he received a promissory note for land in , Iowa Territory, as payment for the debt and returned the two promissory notes created earlier by . It is unclear whether Harrington received the note from Granger or another church agent. It is also unknown whether the 1840 promissory notes were retained in Granger’s possession or kept with JS’s office papers in Nauvoo. After Granger’s death in August 1841, the financial matters he had overseen as an agent for JS and the church were in disarray, leaving many debts unresolved and JS unsure of financial matters. Oliver Granger’s son , who was antagonistic toward JS and the church, held many of the notes and other assets that had been in his father’s possession as a church agent. In March 1842, JS met with Gilbert Granger in an attempt to settle business affairs and acquire the notes and deeds in his possession. As part of this attempted settlement, created a memorandum of promissory notes; the list included the two promissory notes Granger had given Harrington. The purpose of the list is uncertain, and it is unclear whether Gilbert Granger actually had the Harrington promissory notes in his possession at this time.
On 8 July 1842, Harrington met with and returned the promissory note that had granted him land in . In exchange, Clayton returned to Harrington the two 1840 promissory notes signed by . Granger’s signatures had not been removed from the promissory notes, which meant that Harrington could redeem them through . This exchange benefited both JS and Harrington. JS had lost control of Harrington’s property when Oliver Granger died, and there was confusion regarding the ownership of the land. The return of the notes allowed Harrington to pursue payment from Gilbert Granger, since he was likely the executor of his father’s estate, or to contest in court the sale of his New York property, in an effort to obtain either payment or a return of the land. Church agent , who took over Oliver Granger’s efforts to settle the church’s New York and debts, informed JS in 1844 that Harrington’s notes were still unpaid.
created the receipt featured here to document the 8 July 1842 transaction with Harrington, as well as to copy the text of the two 1840 promissory notes he returned to Harrington. The receipt was apparently retained by Clayton and presumably filed with other papers in JS’s office.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jonathan Cyrus Harrington and his wife, Julia Ann, were probably introduced to the church in the late 1830s and likely were baptized by the time Oliver Granger visited Oswego County, New York, in October 1840. The family apparently moved west in late 1841 or early 1842, settling in Lee County, Iowa Territory, before moving to Fremont County in Iowa Territory. (“Jonathan Cyrus Harrington, 1794–1852,” Individual Record, FamilySearch Ancestral File [Ancestral File no. 4W3V-09Q]; Obituary for Daniel Harrington, True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, 15 Sept. 1874, 571; “Death Claims Old Pioneers,” Mills County Tribune [Glenwood, IA], 10 May 1910, [1].)

    FamilySearch Ancestral File. Compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.familysearch.org/search/family-trees.

    Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

    Mills County Tribune. Glenwood, IA. 1891–1927.

  2. [2]

    See Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 32, pp. 33–34, microfilm 1,011,773, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. Granger began acting as an agent for JS in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1837. With JS’s move to Missouri in January 1838, Granger took responsibility for settling church debts in Ohio and New York. (See Statement of Account from John Howden, 29 Mar. 1838; Authorization for Oliver Granger, 6 May 1839; and Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839.)

  3. [3]

    See Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 32, pp. 32–36, microfilm 1,011,773, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  4. [4]

    This system of acquiring land from Latter-day Saints was also used in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1838 when many Saints relocated to Missouri. (See Pay Order to Edward Partridge for William Smith, 21 Feb. 1838.)

  5. [5]

    In the featured text, Clayton characterized this promissory note as a “land Receipt.” This may have been a stock certificate, sometimes referred to as “scrip,” for the Half-Breed Land Company issued by Isaac Galland for land in the Half-Breed Tract of Iowa Territory. (See Half Breed Land Company, Stock Certificate, May 1839, photocopy, CHL; JS, Journal, 4 Feb. 1842; and Letter to Isaac Galland, 19 Jan. 1842.)

    Half Breed Land Company. Stock Certificate, May 1839. Photocopy. CHL.

  6. [6]

    Granger had apparently not kept JS informed about financial matters, and JS had little knowledge of the state of the church’s accounts after Granger’s death. (See Letter to Oliver Granger, 30 Aug. 1841; and Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842.)

  7. [7]

    Before his death, Granger transferred church property to his son Gilbert, who considered the property he received from his father to be personal property. Oliver Granger suffered a serious decline in his health in summer 1841, and it is possible that Gilbert took advantage of his father’s poor health to transfer to himself property his father had held for the church. (See Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842; and Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 34, pp. 157–158, microfilm 1,011,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 3 Feb. and 2–3 Mar. 1842; Account with Estate of Oliver Granger, between ca. 3 Feb. and ca. 2 Mar. 1842; Memorandum of Deeds, 3 Mar. 1842.

  9. [9]

    , Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; see also Memorandum of Deeds, 3 Mar. 1842.

  10. [10]

    The meeting between JS and Gilbert Granger in early March 1842 proved unsuccessful, and it is unclear whether they reached a settlement. (See JS, Journal, 3 Feb. and 2–3 Mar. 1842; and Memorandum of Deeds, 3 Mar. 1842.)

  11. [11]

    Shortly before his death, Oliver Granger had promised the land he purchased from Harrington to Reuben Hitchcock, an Ohio attorney and the district judge for the Court of Common Pleas; this land was intended as payment for debts the church owed to the New York mercantile firm of John Hitchcock & Son, whom Reuben Hitchcock represented. Painesville, Ohio, lawyer William Perkins received the promissory notes from Granger and sent them to New York to fulfill the agreement on Granger’s behalf. However, Granger then deeded the same land to his son, Gilbert, who sold the land to Edward Wallace in April 1842. (See Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842; and Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 35, p. 420, microfilm 1,011,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  12. [12]

    Reuben McBride, Kirtland, OH, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 28 Feb. 1844, JS Collection, CHL.

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Receipt to Jonathan Harrington, 8 July 1842
ID #
8244
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:246–249
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