Footnotes
Historical Introduction to Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837.
Vilate Murray Kimball, Kirtland, OH, to Heber C. Kimball, Preston, England, 19–24 Jan. 1838, Heber C. Kimball, Collection, CHL; Thomas B. Marsh, Far West, MO, to Wilford Woodruff, [ca. Apr. 1838], in Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 36–38.
Kimball, Heber C. Collection, 1837–1898. CHL. MS 12476.
Minutes, Elders’ Journal, Nov. 1837, 17; Minutes, 17 Sept. 1837–A; Minutes, 17 Sept. 1837–B.
Sidney Rigdon, Terre Haute, IN, to Don Carlos Smith, [Kirtland, OH], 13 Oct. 1837, in Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837, 7–8; Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.
JS’s editorial in the November Elders’ Journal may have included information from more than one meeting in Far West, but it certainly incorporated information from Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.
Though JS’s report names the members of the committee and indicates when they began their work, the composition of the committee subsequently changed. In minutes of a 7 December 1837 meeting held in Far West, Cowdery, Wight, and David W. Patten are noted as being members of the committee, while Whitmer and Corrill are not mentioned. Frederick G. Williams was added to the committee on that day. (Minute Book 2, 7 Dec. 1837.)
Written to convince the public that JS was an imposter and to warn “those who are yet liable . . . to be enclosed within its [Mormonism’s] fetters,” Howe’s book featured a series of affidavits collected by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut from individuals who claimed to have been acquainted with JS and his family when they lived in New York. Following its publication, JS defended his and his family’s reputations, stating that he had never “been guilty of wronging or injuring any man or society of men” and that he was only guilty of having, in his youth, “a light, and too often, vain mind.” Howe’s book received a favorable review in Alexander Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger and was available for purchase throughout Ohio, western New York, and Pennsylvania. (Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, ix; JS to Oliver Cowdery, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1834, 1:40; “Mormonism Unveiled,” Millennial Harbinger, Jan. 1835, 44–45; “Mormonism Unveiled,” Fredonia [NY] Censor, 25 Mar. 1835, [3]; News Item, Naked Truths about Mormonism [Oakland, CA], Apr. 1888, 4.)
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
Millennial Harbinger. Bethany, VA. Jan. 1830–Dec. 1870.
Fredonia Censor. Fredonia, NY. 1824–1932.
Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.
See Questions and Answers, Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 42–44. In late December 1837 or early January 1838, the Geauga County sheriff seized the printing office, along with its contents, in response to a legal judgment rendered against JS. The office was destroyed by fire on 16 January 1838. (“Sheriff Sale,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 5 Jan. 1838, [3]; Hepzibah Richards, Kirtland, OH, to Willard Richards, Bedford, England, 18–19 Jan. 1838, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL; John Smith, Kirtland, OH, to George A. Smith, Shinnston, VA, 15–17 Jan. 1838, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL.)
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490.
Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.
This statement likely refers to a number of difficulties discussed in meetings held on 6 November 1837. (Minutes, 6 Nov. 1837.)
See Revelation 6:4; and Revelation, 1 Nov. 1831–B [D&C 1:35].
See Revelation, 30 Aug. 1831 [D&C 63:58].
See Malachi 3:10–12.
It is unknown precisely when JS intended to relocate his family to Missouri. On 12 January 1838, JS dictated a revelation that instructed the presidency to “take their families as soon as it is practicable . . . and move on to the west”; the revelation also encouraged faithful members to “arise with their families also and get out of this place [Kirtland, Ohio] and gather themselves together unto Zion.” (Revelation, 12 Jan. 1838–C.)
Some of the questions posed to JS appear to be rhetorical (“Does not Jo Smith pretend to be Jesus Christ?”), while others are broader doctrinal questions (“Wherein do you differ from other denominations?”). Where a question is sufficiently narrow, annotation provides specific historical sources or contexts that likely informed the question. JS answered the questions in the July 1838 issue of the Elders’ Journal. (Questions and Answers, Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 42–44.)
This question likely arose from the church’s early practice of “consecration.” In February 1831, a JS revelation outlined the “Laws of the Church of Christ,” which included the principle of consecration, or donation, of personal and real property to the church. Latter-day Saints who consecrated their property were to receive in turn a “stewardship” over property that was deeded to them by the church to meet their needs. This program was practiced irregularly among church members in the 1830s. Although Latter-day Saints maintained that this system did not constitute a “common stock” arrangement, where property was owned jointly, allegations persisted in the 1830s that the church members held “all things ‘in common.’” While there were common properties held in the name of the church, “stewardships” or inheritances were deeded to individuals and held in their private names. (Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:1–72]; Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51:4–5]; JS, Journal, 30 Oct. 1835; JS History, vol. A-1, 93; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 120–121, 125–126.)
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
According to a circa August 1835 “Statement on Marriage,” the church had been accused of “the crime of fornication, and polygamy,” though the specific source of the allegations is unknown. (Statement on Marriage, ca. Aug. 1835.)
In an 1893 reminiscent account, prominent Missouri resident Alexander Majors wrote that church members in Jackson County “claimed they could raise the dead.” (Ingraham, Seventy Years on the Frontier, 44.)
Ingraham, Prentiss, ed. Seventy Years on the Frontier: Alexander Majors’ Memoirs of a Lifetime on the Border. Denver: Western Miner and Financier Publishers, 1893.