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Deed to Joseph McKune Jr., 28 June 1833
Source Note
Source Note
JS and , Deed for property in , Susquehanna Co., PA, to , 28 June 1833; handwriting of ; signatures of JS and ; witnessed by and Urania Lucretia Conant Morley; certification in handwriting of ; additional certifications in handwriting of Daniel Kerr and ; recorder’s entry in handwriting of Secku Meylert; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and seals.
Bifolium measuring 12⅜ × 8 inches (31 × 20 cm). The document was folded in sixths for filing. A docket on the recto of the second leaf in unidentified handwriting reads: “Deed | Joseph Smith | to | ”. A wax remnant, likely where a seal was attached, follows JS’s signature; a similar wax remnant follows ’s signature. A handwritten seal follows ’s certification. Accompanying ’s certification is an embossed seal that contains an image of the rising sun over mountains or clouds and a sheaf of wheat encircled with the words “COMMON PLEAS OF THE ”. Accompanying the recorder’s entry is an embossed seal that features an image of a yoke with “” encircled by the partially legible words “RECORDER’S SEAL SU[SQ]UE[HANNA COUNTY]”. Several pinholes appear in the corners where the document was pinned after being folded.
This document was originally created for JS and ; it was then likely sent to , after which it was returned to JS to be certified by a justice of the peace in , Ohio, before it was again sent to . The deed remained with the McKune family until it was sold to Mormon collector Wilford C. Wood in the mid-twentieth century, soon after which he donated it to the LDS church, perhaps as early as 1948.
Footnotes
- [1]
[Wilford C. Wood], Note Regarding McKune Family; Mrs. Hilton M. Le Couver, Binghamton, NY, to Wilford C. Wood, 28 Apr. 1947; Wilford C. Wood, Woods Cross, UT, to George Albert Smith et al., Salt Lake City, 17 Dec. 1948, microfilm, Wilford C. Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
Wood, Wilford C. Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
This deed transferred ownership of JS and ’s thirteen-and-a-half-acre farm in , Pennsylvania, to JS originally moved to the Harmony farm in November or December 1827 and later purchased it from his father-in-law, , on 6 April 1829. JS agreed to pay $114 of the $200 purchase price by 1 May 1829 and the remaining balance by 1 May 1830. He made a down payment of $64 on the day the agreement was signed and another payment of $50 three weeks later, thereby meeting the first payment deadline. However, JS missed the second payment deadline, which apparently resulted in the addition of an interest penalty of an undisclosed amount to the final sale. On 25 August 1830, JS paid the remaining balance in full and Isaac Hale signed the deed to the property over to JS. and the justice of the peace, , notarized the deed on 25 August 1830, and signed over her dowry rights on 26 August 1830.
JS moved to , New York, in late summer 1830, and by late January 1831 he and had moved to , Ohio. According to local tax records, Allen Treadwell apparently rented their property in , but by June 1833 JS and Emma sold their Harmony property for $300 to , whose father owned the property directly east of JS’s farm. On 28 June 1833, JS and Emma Smith had this deed drawn up. It was notarized on 3 July 1833 by , the justice of the peace in Kirtland, and by a second witness, Urania Lucretia Conant Morley, and then was apparently sent to . On 17 December 1834, however, it was certified again in by Daniel Kerr, an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to adhere to a Pennsylvania law that required the deed to be acknowledged by the grantor or a witness to the deed before “one of the judges of the supreme court or before one of the justices of the court of common pleas of the county,” which Alpheus Russell was not. On 29 December 1834, , the clerk of the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas, recorded and certified the deed and stamped it with the county’s embossed seal. Soon thereafter the deed was sent back to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. There, Secku Meylert, the deputy of county recorder Christopher L. Ward, copied it into the county “Deed Book No 9” and stamped the deed with the county embossment seal. The county charged McKune $1.81 for taxes and fees associated with the filing.
Footnotes
- [1]
See Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 Apr. 1829; JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 5; and Knight, Reminiscences, 3; see also Susquehanna Co., PA, Tax Assessment Records, 1813–1865, Harmony Township, PA, Tax Record for 1828, p. [11]; Tax Record for 1829, p. [12]; Tax Record for 1830, p. [12]; Tax Record for 1831, p. [13], microfilm 1,927,832, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
Knight, Joseph, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. CHL. MS 3470.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
- [2]
Though the agreement between Isaac Hale and Joseph Smith said nothing about interest, a notation on the agreement indicates that on 21 June 1830, Hale “received the interest on the within in full up to this date.” (Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 Apr. 1829.)
- [3]
Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 Aug. 1830. It is unclear how JS obtained the final eighty-six dollars that he paid Hale for the property. He may have earned the money by farming, or he may have acquired the money from sales of copies of the Book of Mormon. It is also possible that he borrowed the money from a local resident or member of the fledgling church. Also on 26 August 1830, JS arranged payment for a debt he owed to a local merchant, George H. Noble. Through Jesse Lane, the same justice of the peace who certified Elizabeth Hale’s agreement of her husband’s sale of the land to JS on 26 August, JS placed a lien on his property to extend the deadline for the debt that he owed Noble. On the same day, knowing that JS could not pay him the $190.95 owed him, Noble filed an “amicable” agreement, which required JS to use his land as collateral to guarantee that he would eventually pay his debt to Noble. Since all of this business was transacted on the same day, it is possible that Hale originally owed Noble eighty-six dollars and that JS assumed that debt to cover the final payment he owed Hale for the farm. JS settled his debts with Noble by 3 June 1831. (Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830, George H. Noble & Co. v. JS [Susquehanna Co. C.P., 1830]; George H. Noble & Co. to Levi Westfall, Power of Attorney, 3 June 1831; Susquehanna Co., PA, Court of Common Pleas, Docket Book, vol. 6, p. 455, 29 Nov. 1830, Susquehanna County Prothonotary Office, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, PA.)
Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830. George H. Noble & Co. v. Joseph Smith (Susquehanna Co. C.P. 1830). Susquehanna County Historical Society, Montrose, PA.
Susquehanna County, PA, Court of Common Pleas. Docket Book. Vol. 6. Susquehanna County Prothonotary Office, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, PA.
- [4]
- [5]
The 1833 tax record states that Allen Treadwell had paid the tax for the property the previous year, and the 1832 record indicates that Treadwell paid taxes on the same size of property in 1832 that JS had paid in 1831. Allen Treadwell may have been a relative of Samuel Treadwell, who owned a large piece of property to the west of the Hale farm. (Susquehanna Co., PA, Tax Assessment Records, 1813–1865, Harmony Township, PA, Tax Record for 1831, p. [13]; Tax Record for 1832, p. [15]; Tax Record for 1833, p. [8], microfilm 1,927,832, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
- [6]
Supplement to the Act, Entitled “An Act for Acknowledging and Recording of Deeds” [18 Mar. 1775], Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, vol. 8, chap. 706, sec. 1, p. 413.
The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801. Vol. 8, 1770–1776. [Harrisburg, PA]: Wm. Stanley Ray, 1902.
edifices and buildings thereon erected and being. And all ways, water-courses, woods, fences, gardens, minerals, rights, liberties, pr[i]vileges, advantages, hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or any wise appertaining, and the reversions & remainders, rents issues and profits thereof, and also all the estate, right title interest use trust property possession claim and demand whatsoever of them the said party of the first part whether in Law or equity or otherwise howsoever, of, in, to, or out of the same. To have and to hold the said piece or parcel of Land with the hereditaments and premises, hereby granted and released, or mentioned or intended so to be with the appurtenances, unto the said party of the second part his heirs and assigns, to the only proper use and benefit & behoof of the said party, his heirs and assigns forever— And the said parties of the first part, for themselves their heirs executors and administrators, do covenant promise grant and agree to, and with said party of the second part his heirs and assigns, by these presents that, he, the said party of the second part and his heirs, the said hereby granted premises or tracts of Land with the hereditaments and premises hereby granted and released, or mentioned or intended so to be with the appurtenances unto the said his heirs and assigns, against them the said parties of the first part and their heirs, and against all and every other person or persons whomsoever lawfully claiming or to claim of in or out of the said premises, Shall and will warrant and forever defend by these presents— In witness whereof the said party<s> to these presents have hereunto set their hands and seals
Joseph Smith Jr—
Signed Sealed & delivered in presence of
Urania L Morley.
State of Ohio— )
ss )
July 3rd. 1833—
Personally appeared before me a Justice of the peace for said . Joseph Smith Jr and his wife to me personall[y] known to be the signers and sealers of the foregoing instrument and and acknowledged the same to be their free act and deed:
Seal
Justice of the Peace
Also the said acknowledged the same as done freely without force or <compulsion> [p. [2]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [6]
Other features on the property included a stone fence (parts of which are still present) and probably an orchard. (See Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc., “Archeological Field Investigations . . . Joseph Smith, Jr. House Site,” 5; and “Bird’s Eye View of Home of Joseph Smith,” 1907, George Edward Anderson, “Church History in Photographs,” CHL.)
Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc. “Archeological Field Investigations and Addenda 1 and 2; Joseph Smith, Jr. House Site, Town of Oakland, (Formerly Harmony), Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania; HAA #3072, #3367 and #3402, Collection #1367.” Archaeological report submitted to Crawford and Stearns, Syracuse, NY, on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 2005. Copy in editors’ possession.
Anderson, George Edward. “Church History in Photographs,” 1907. CHL. PH 679. Selected photographs from this collection are available in Richard Nietzel Holzapfel, T. Jeffery Cottle, and Ted D. Stoddard, eds., Church History in Black and White: George Edward Anderson’s Photographic Mission to Latter-day Saint Historical Sites; 1907 Diary, 1907–8 Photographs (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995).
Signature of JS.
Signature of Emma Smith. In Pennsylvania, a woman had dower rights to one-third of her husband’s property, which would become legally hers after his death; therefore, when a married man sold property, his wife was also required to acknowledge on the deed that she agreed to the sale. (“Dower,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:493–494; see also Killinger v. Reidenhauer, 6 Sergeant and Rawle 531–535 [Pa. Sup. Ct. 1821].)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Sergeant and Rawle / Sergeant, Thomas, and William Rawle, Jr. Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1846.
Orson Hyde handwriting ends; Alpheus Russell begins. When Hyde drafted the deed, he did not leave sufficient room on the document for the notarizations that follow, indicating that the deed was probably written before it was taken to the justice of the peace. From this point to the end of this page, the writing is extremely small and condensed.
- [7]
Alpheus Russell was a justice of the peace in Kirtland, Ohio, and the owner of the quarry where some of the stone was later quarried for the Kirtland temple.
Signature of Urania Lucretia Conant Morley. Urania was married to Alfred Morley, younger brother of Isaac Morley. (Duncan, History of Montgomery County, Kansas, 641; History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, 246.)
Duncan, L. Wallace. History of Montgomery County, Kansas. Iola, KS: Iola Register, 1903.
History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men. Philadelphia: Williams Brothers, 1878.
- [8]
TEXT: “Seal” is surrounded by a hand-drawn representation of a seal.
- [9]
See An Act Establishing a Fee Bill [28 Mar. 1814], Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, vol. 6, chap. 3,994, pp. 228–236.
Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from the Fourteenth Day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred. Republished, under the Authority of the Legislature. With Notes and References. Vol. 6. Philadelphia: John Bioren, 1822.