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Letter from Alphonso Young, 6 May 1842

Source Note

, Letter, , Macon Co., TN, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 6 May 1842; handwriting of ; three pages; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes address and docket. Transcription of first two pages from photocopied image; transcription of third page and addressing from original manuscript.
Two leaves. Because the location of the first leaf of the original manuscript is unknown, a photocopy of the leaf, in the Whitney Papers, was used for transcription. The photocopied image measures 12⅝ × 7¾ inches (32 × 20 cm). The photocopy shows that the left edge of the recto of the first leaf was damaged; also, the top, bottom, and right edges of the recto of the leaf had tears. The original included vertical and horizontal folds. Based on textual evidence in the letter, it appears that a leaf may be missing between the photocopied pages and the extant leaf.
The extant manuscript leaf measures 12¼ × 7¾ inches (31 × 20 cm). The leaf was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. It was subsequently folded for filing. It includes a docket in the handwriting of , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. The left edge of the recto is damaged. The leaf is worn along the folds, including some tearing, which resulted in the loss of text. The leaf has undergone conservation.
The photocopied pages of the first leaf and the extant manuscript leaf are part of the Newel K. Whitney collection at Brigham Young University. In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that Whitney kept, was inherited by Newel K. and ’s daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who was married to Isaac Groo. The documents were passed down within the Groo family. Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

    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.

  2. [2]

    Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

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

  3. [3]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24.

    Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.

Historical Introduction

On 6 May 1842, wrote to JS in , Illinois, from , Macon County, Tennessee, expressing his desire to join the Saints in Nauvoo and reporting on his donations for the Nauvoo . Young had been sometime before December 1840 while living in Smith County, Tennessee. In late 1841 and early 1842, Young sent to Nauvoo via , who had become acquainted with Young while Lee was preaching in the region for several months between 1839 and 1841. During the spring of 1841, Young joined Lee in a public debate with Abraham Sallee and Samuel Dewhitt, members of another restorationist tradition. In April 1842, Lee returned to Tennessee, renewed contact with Young, and baptized a number of Young’s relatives. In the winter of 1841–1842, Young wrote to Lee in Nauvoo asking him to invite JS to pray that Young might be able to migrate to Nauvoo. When Young wrote to JS on 6 May, therefore, he believed JS knew of his desire to gather with the Saints.
In this 6 May 1842 letter, reiterated his desire to move to and asked JS for a authorizing him to preach and perform religious . He also discussed financial issues, including debts owed and donations made, and expressed his hope that JS would write back to him with advice on his situation. Young sent the letter with Lee, who left for Nauvoo on 10 May 1842 and arrived on 30 May. It is unknown if JS responded to Young’s letter, as no reply is extant.
Because the torn edges of the document have removed and obscured the text in several places, some text has been editorially supplied within brackets in the following transcript, based on context.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Witcher’s Cross Roads was the name of a post office established in 1833 in Smith County. In 1842, a portion of Smith County, including the location of the post office, became part of the newly formed Macon County. Witcher’s Cross Roads was changed to Gibbs’ Crossroads in 1854. Gibbs’ Crossroads is now located in Macon County, about fifty-four miles northeast of Nashville, Tennessee. (Maggart and Sutton, History of Smith County, Tennessee, 298.)

    Maggart, Sue Woodard, and Nina R. Sutton. The History of Smith County, Tennessee. Dallas: Curtis, 1987.

  2. [2]

    1840 U.S. Census, Smith Co., TN, 273; Lee, Journal, ca. 18 Dec. 1840.

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Lee, John D. Journal, Mar. 1842–Aug. 1843. CHL. MS 2092.

  3. [3]

    Book of the Law of the Lord, 35, 100; Lee, Journal, 4 Apr. 1841; 10 and 16–30 May 1841; see also “Summary of News from the Elders Abroad,” Times and Seasons, 15 May 1841, 2:415; Brooks, John Doyle Lee, 46–51; and Berrett, “History of the Southern States Mission,” 181–183.

    Lee, John D. Journal, Mar. 1842–Aug. 1843. CHL. MS 2092.

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

    Brooks, Juanita. John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat. Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1961.

    Berrett, LaMar C. “History of the Southern States Mission, 1831–1861.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1960.

  4. [4]

    Crihfield’s Christian Family Library and Journal of Biblical Science, 18 July 1842, 210–211; 25 July 1842, 217–219; 1 Aug. 1842, 228–229; 15 Aug. 1842, 236–238; see also Hughes, “Two Restoration Traditions,” 34–51.

    Crihfield’s Christian Family Library and Journal of Biblical Science. Harrodsburg, KY. 1842–1843.

    Hughes, Richard T. “Two Restoration Traditions: Mormons and Churches of Christ in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Mormon History 19, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 34–51.

  5. [5]

    Lee, Journal, 6–12 and 25–26 Apr. 1842.

    Lee, John D. Journal, Mar. 1842–Aug. 1843. CHL. MS 2092.

  6. [6]

    Lee, Journal, 10 and 30 May 1842.

    Lee, John D. Journal, Mar. 1842–Aug. 1843. CHL. MS 2092.

Page [3]

<​recommend​> upon inquiry inclose that also.
In addition to what has paid to the building for me I have given him a note on one of the brethren in for $20—which I hope will be paid in Immediately. Sister Smoot will pay in a fifty Dollar horse for me & I am sending up some valuable [Ja]ck property by to purchas[e] an in heritance for me among the Saints. where I hope, I pray God, that he will give me, Resolution and firmness ever to the last to contend earnestly for the faith, for the cause, and welfare of his people and inspire my heart with pure Zeal & true devotion to the End. that if my brother suffers I may never as many have done, prove unfaithful and deny the only Lord God, but bear my part faithfully.
I have confidence that if I can be in the font I shall be healed of a hereditary disease I am, and ever have been laboring under. what is known by the name of sick head ache
I hope to be with the Saints soon in in hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, I subscribe myself Your Brother, in the bonds of the new and everlasting covenant.
P S. I have directed to deliver you a good Jinney to be appropriated in my name to the building of the . She is Young a good ◊◊◊er and with foal I expect by a large Jack. [p. [3]]
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Source Note

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Page [3]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Alphonso Young, 6 May 1842
ID #
1667
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:30–35
Handwriting on This Page
  • Alphonso Young

Footnotes

  1. [17]

    TEXT: Leaf possibly missing after page [2].

  2. [18]

    Here, Young may have been referencing prior donations he had made through Lee, as recorded in the Book of the Law of the Lord. (Book of the Law of the Lord, 35, 100.)

  3. [19]

    A 28 June 1842 entry in the Book of the Law of the Lord records that the church received “of Alphonso Young a note against George W. Pitkin . . . calling for $20 on tithing.” (Book of the Law of the Lord, 147.)

  4. [20]

    An 8 June 1842 entry in the Book of the Law of the Lord records that the church received fifty dollars of tithing from Young, “it being in part for a horse value $70.” (Book of the Law of the Lord, 142.)

  5. [21]

    TEXT: “[Page torn]ck”. Jack, in this instance, refers to a male donkey. One definition of Jack in Webster’s 1841 dictionary describes it as “the male of certain animals, as of the ass.” (“Jack,” in American Dictionary [1841], 471, italics in original.)

    An American Dictionary of the English Language; First Edition in Octavo, Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the Quarto, with Corrections, Improvements and Several Thousand Additional Words. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New Haven: By the author, 1841.

  6. [22]

    TEXT: “purchas[page torn]”.

  7. [23]

    Nauvoo tax records indicate that Alphonso Young owned land in Nauvoo in 1844. (“Alphabetical List of Taxable Property in the First Ward in the City of Nauvoo,” 1844, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)

    Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845. CHL.

  8. [24]

    The baptismal font of the Nauvoo temple was completed in November 1841. Thereafter, the Saints sometimes performed baptisms for healing in the font. For example, JS’s journal notes that “in February 1842 Samuel Rolfe washed his hands in the Font being seriously affected with a Fellon,” or an inflamed tumor, and “after washing in the Font his hand healed in one week.” (JS, Journal, 30 June 1842; “Parony’chia,” in Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, 513.)

    Dunglison, Robley. Medical Lexicon: A New Dictionary of Medical Science, Containing a Concise Account of the Various Subjects and Terms; with the French and Other Synonymes, and Formulae for Various Officinal and Empirical Preparations, &c. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1842.

  9. [25]

    A contemporary medical text described a “sick-headache,” or “Cephalæ’a spasmod’ica,” as “characterized by partial, spasmodic pain; often shifting from one part of the head to another.” (“Cephalæ’a,” in Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, 142, italics in original.)

    Dunglison, Robley. Medical Lexicon: A New Dictionary of Medical Science, Containing a Concise Account of the Various Subjects and Terms; with the French and Other Synonymes, and Formulae for Various Officinal and Empirical Preparations, &c. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1842.

  10. [26]

    “Jinney,” a misspelling of “jenny,” in this case refers to a she-ass, or female donkey. (“Jenny,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 5:567.)

    Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.

  11. [27]

    TEXT: “[page torn]er”; possibly “worker”.

  12. [28]

    A 2 June 1842 entry in the Book of the Law of the Lord records that John D. Lee, on behalf of Young, donated as tithing “1 Jenney value $100.” (Book of the Law of the Lord, 141.)

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