Footnotes
JS History, vol. A-1, 142. Reynolds Cahoon noted in his journal that the group traveled for “about 100 mile[s]” towards St. Louis before leaving the river, indicating that JS dictated the revelation approximately one hundred miles downstream from Independence. In Sidney Gilbert’s copy of the revelation, he gave the location as “on the Banks of the Missouri about 40 miles above Chairton [Chariton].” McIlwaine’s Bend was, therefore, probably at a site five miles west of Miami, Saline County, Missouri, and may have been what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1878 called Teteseau Bend, “an abrupt four-mile southward U-shaped bend.” This bend no longer exists because the river’s channel has changed. William Clark may have referred to this same bend when he wrote in his journal that his expedition with Meriwether Lewis was passing through “the worst part” of the Missouri River in June 1804—a time when they were traveling just west of the area where Miami was later established. (Cahoon, Diary, 9 Aug. 1831; Gilbert, Notebook, [37]; Berrett, Sacred Places, 4:138–139; Moulton and Dunlay, Journals of Lewis and Clark, 2:301–302.)
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
Gilbert, Algernon Sidney. Notebook of Revelations, 1831–ca. 1833. Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583, box 1, fd. 2.
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
JS History, vol. A-1, 142.
Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 24 Nov. 1831, [1].
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
JS History, vol. A-1, 142. Neither Ezra Booth nor Reynolds Cahoon—two members of the group who wrote contemporary accounts of the journey—mentioned Phelps’s vision. Since Phelps helped prepare this section of JS’s history, the information about the vision likely came directly from him. (See Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII,” Ohio Star [Ravenna], 24 Nov. 1831, [1]; Cahoon, Diary, 9 Aug. 1831; see also Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 441.)
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Cahoon, Reynolds. Diaries, 1831–1832. CHL. MS 1115.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 24 Nov. 1831, [1].
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Revelation, 8 Aug. 1831 [D&C 60:5] .
Wetmore, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, 33–35.
Wetmore, Alphonso, comp. Gazetteer of the State of Missouri. With a Map of the State, from the Office of the Surveyor-General, Including the Latest Additions and Surveys . . . . St. Louis: C. Keemle, 1837.
Chittenden, History of Early Steamboat Navigation, 1:80–81.
Chittenden, Hiram Martin. History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River: Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge, Pioneer Navigator and Indian Trader. . . . 2 vols. New York: Francis P. Harper, 1903.
Ezra Booth also explained that after the dictation of the revelation, “the Missouri river was named the river of Destruction.” (Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII, Ohio Star [Ravenna], 24 Nov. 1831, [1].)
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Elizabeth Godkin Marsh, Kirtland Mills, OH, to Lewis Abbott and Ann Abbott, East Sudbury, MA, Sept. [1831], Abbott Family Collection, CHL.
Abbott Family Collection, 1831–2000. CHL. MS 23457.
JS History, vol. A-1, 146; Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 24 Nov. 1831, [1].
Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.
Gilbert, Notebook, [37]–[45].
Gilbert, Algernon Sidney. Notebook of Revelations, 1831–ca. 1833. Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583, box 1, fd. 2.
For Gilbert and Phelps, this was a reversal of instructions in an 8 August 1831 revelation. That revelation directed the company returning to Ohio to go “speedily” to St. Louis, Missouri, after which JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery were to travel to Cincinnati and the “residue” of the company were to preach, “not in haste.” (Revelation, 8 Aug. 1831 [D&C 60:5–8].)
See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 345 [Alma 44:4].
A May 1831 revelation stated that “when a man reasoneth he under[stand]eth of man because he reasoneth as a man even so will I the Lord reason with you that you may understand.” (Revelation, 9 May 1831 [D&C 50:12].)
According to the creation account in Genesis, when God separated the land from the water, he called both good. The Bible does not contain an explicit reference to John (presumably John the Revelator) cursing the waters, but John’s vision of the last days included a burning mountain and a great star falling into the waters, causing death and destruction and making the waters “bitter.” (Genesis 1:9–10; Revelation 8:8–11.)
According to Genesis 3:17, God cursed the land for Adam’s sake. A revelation dated five days before this 12 August revelation explained that the obedient in Zion would receive the good things of the earth. (Revelation, 7 Aug. 1831 [D&C 59:16–20]; see also Revelation, 15 June 1831 [D&C 56:18]; and Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:7–8].)
Shortly before leaving to Missouri, JS added “and what I say unto one I say unto all men” to Matthew 24:42 during his revision of the Bible. (New Testament Revision 1, p. 57 [Joseph Smith Translation, Matthew 24:42]; see also Faulring et al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 66.)
New Testament Revision 1 / “A Translation of the New Testament Translated by the Power of God,” 1831. CHL. Also available in Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 153–228.
Faulring, Scott H., Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds. Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
In the context of this revelation, “destroyer” apparently refers to death. This usage, which appears in the biblical account of the Passover, was present in discourse of Protestant America in the 1830s, in which the “destroyer” was often equated with death or the “Angel of Death.” (See Exodus 12:23; Robinson, Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible, 61; and “Cleavland Tuesday June 5th,” Scioto Gazette [Chillicothe, OH], 20 June 1832, [1].)
Robinson, Edward. Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible, as Published by the Late Mr. Charles Taylor. . . . Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1832.
Scioto Gazette. Chillicothe, OH. 1827–1854.
See Isaiah 12:1; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 99 [2 Nephi 22:1].
A 1 August revelation instructed the elders to “do many things of their own free will.” (Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:27].)
When JS traveled to Missouri, he took the Ohio and Erie Canal as far as Newark, Ohio, and then traveled west to Dayton, where he took the Miami Canal south to Cincinnati. Although the Ohio and Erie Canal, which was intended to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River, extended as far south as Chillicothe, Ohio. But the stretch from Chillicothe to the Ohio River at Portsmouth was still under construction, making it necessary to cross by land to Dayton to reach the Miami Canal. On their return journey to Kirtland, JS, Rigdon, and Cowdery did not use the canal system. (William W. Phelps, “Extract of a Letter from the Late Editor,” Ontario Phoenix [Canandaigua, NY], 7 Sept. 1831, [2]; 1833 Ohio Gazetteer, xxviii–xxix; Woods, Ohio’s Grand Canal, 18–19; see also JS History, vol. A-1, 146.)
Ontario Phoenix. Canandaigua, NY. 1828–1832.
The 1833 Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary: Being a Continuation of the Work Originally Compiled by the Late John Kilbourn. Revised by a citizen of Columbus. 11th ed. Columbus, OH: Scott and Wright, 1833. Reprint, Knightstown, IN: Bookmark, 1978.