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Letter from Garret Bias, 7 March 1843

Source Note

, Letter, [or possibly LaPorte Co.], IN, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 7 Mar. 1843; handwriting and signature of ; two pages; CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamp, and endorsement.
Bifolium measuring 12⅛ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. The second leaf has two small holes, most likely caused when the letter was opened. drafted a response to the letter on its last page. The document shows marked moisture damage. A portion of the upper left corner of the bifolium measuring 3⅞ × 3½ inches has been torn and is lost, resulting in missing text on each leaf. Other wear along creases of the folds on the second leaf has obscured some of the text.
The document was endorsed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844. After this, the early provenance of the letter is unknown. At some point the letter came into the possession of collector Floyd E. Risvold, who died in 2009. The letter was offered for sale in 2010 by Spink Shreves Galleries as part of lot 584 of the Floyd E. Risvold collection. The Church History Department (CHL) acquired the letter the same year.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841.

  2. [2]

    Floyd E. Risvold Collection, 2:113.

    The Floyd E. Risvold Collection: American Expansion and the Journey West. 3 vols. 2009. Catalog of the 27–29 January 2010 auction of the Floyd E. Risvold estate at New York City by the Spink Shreves Galleries and Spink Smythe of Dallas, TX.

  3. [3]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Garret Bias, Letter, St. Joseph Co., IN, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 7 Mar. 1843, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 7 March 1843, , a resident of northwest , wrote a letter from , Indiana, to JS in , Illinois, proposing a sale of weapons in Nauvoo. Bias claimed he had obtained the arms, which were government issued, during the 1832 Black Hawk War, a conflict between federal and state military units and members of the Sauk and Meskwaki nations—designated by Euro-Americans as the Sac and Fox tribe—under the leadership of Black Hawk. It is not clear how Bias obtained the weapons. He did not serve in that military conflict; however, he was acquainted with Archibald Clybourn, who had a government contract for food supply at Fort Dearborn, a military installation in , where settlers fled during the conflict, and it is possible that Bias obtained the arms through Clybourn. It is also possible that Bias obtained the weapons from the fort at LaPorte County, Indiana, where he organized an independent military company in 1838. According to a county history, Bias’s unit carried “government flintlock muskets.” However he obtained the government weapons, by March 1843 Bias faced financial troubles. In September 1842, his wife, Mary Gasett Bias, divorced him, and LaPorte County arbitrators awarded her $400 in alimony. That same month, the St. Joseph County circuit court issued a judgment against Bias for $246.31 for funds owed to a Joseph Woolman. The courts in both LaPorte and St. Joseph directed the sheriff of St. Joseph County to seize Bias’s property and sell it to fulfill these judgments.
Perhaps hoping to alleviate his financial difficulties, wrote to JS, the lieutenant general of the , to propose the sale of fifty federally issued weapons still in his possession to the members of a new militia unit that he would form in , likely similar to the unit he had established in LaPorte County. Bias’s letter suggests that he was a member of the and that an agreement on this matter would finance his move to Nauvoo.
wrote his 7 March letter to JS from somewhere in but mailed it from La Porte, in LaPorte County, adjacent to St. Joseph County. The letter likely took a week or two to travel to . Though Bias did not pay postage, the letter was received by JS or by someone on his behalf. JS’s scribe penned a terse response on the last page of Bias’s letter on 28 March indicating that JS declined Bias’s offer, likely as a draft for a more formal response to be sent back to Bias. If Richards did send a response, Bias had not received it by 3 April 1843, when he wrote another dispatch to JS, again requesting his attention to the matter addressed in this 7 March 1843 letter.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jung, Black Hawk War of 1832, 3.

    Jung, Patrick J. The Black Hawk War of 1832. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.

  2. [2]

    Both Bias and Clybourn purchased parcels of land at a public land sale in Chicago in 1833, and in May 1835, Clybourn sold one of the lots he acquired to Bias. (“Bias, Garret,” and “Clybourne, Archibald,” Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Illinois State Archives, Springfield; Clybourn v. Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Co., 4 Bradwell 463–465 [Ill. App. Ct. 1st Dist. 1879]; Gale, Reminiscences of Early Chicago, 145–147; Daniels, Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana, 20–22.)

    Illinois State Archives. http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/home.html.

    Bradwell / Bradwell, James B. Reports of the Decisions of the Appellate Courts of the State of Illinois. 18 vols. Chicago: Chicago Legal News, 1878–1886.

    Gale, Edwin O. Reminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1902.

    Daniels, E. D. A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis, 1904.

  3. [3]

    History of La Porte County, Indiana, 718; Daniels, Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana, 188.

    History of La Porte County, Indiana; together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages, and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

    Daniels, E. D. A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of LaPorte County, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis, 1904.

  4. [4]

    LaPorte Co., IN, Court Records, 1832–1922, Civil Order Book E, pp. 217–218, 22 Sept. 1842, microfilm 2,445,428, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  5. [5]

    St. Joseph Co., IN, Deed Records, 1830–1901, vol. M, p. 68, 5 July 1845; vol. J, p. 458, 29 July 1845, microfilm 1,605,747, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  6. [6]

    Bias noted his neglect to pay the postage in a letter approximately one month later. (Letter from Garret Bias, 3 Apr. 1843.)

  7. [7]

    Letter to Garret Bias, 28 Mar. 1843.

  8. [8]

    Letter from Garret Bias, 3 Apr. 1843.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Garret Bias, 28 March 1843

Page [1]

[page torn] Indiana
March 7 AD 1843
[page torn] [m]e to address you on a [page torn] [wi]ll requier but a moments [page torn] teste [in]quiry to wanser [answer] my [page torn] wich [page torn] you will see by the first male [mail], first [page torn] anxious to locate my Self in the [City of] Ill. (Which place I have Seen). whare I will [h]ave <​the​> plesuer of your Socity [society] and the fellow Ship of Many Members of your of which I profes to be one but I have too lately Met with a los as un expected as it was un for Seen and the Control of Man, wich has in volved a large property hear wich I yet in goy [enjoy]; but think that I cold rase Some means on fifty Stands of armes wich I have in my posesion with, boxes, belts, brestplats, bayonets Screwdrivers wipers & all Compleat and in good order, wich armes ware plased in my posesion at the time of the last Sock & fox war the Storage Since Said time and my Serv[ic]es at the time of Said disturbance, I think is ample CompenSation to the for Said armes, wich I propose to dis pose of as follows first to in list a lite infintry Company in your and sell Said armes to the members of said Company on time Say twelve months in monthly payments wich wold in Sure the payment to me and make the Same esey to the purchesers, to gether with a Splended Stand of Milliterey Cullers Side armes and So fourth wich Sale wold intierly releave me and in able me to locate in the City of Now I disier [desire] to know if I [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Garret Bias, 7 March 1843
ID #
10682
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:11–14
Handwriting on This Page
  • Garret Bias

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    This torn portion of the page possibly contained “Independence,” the place from which Bias wrote to JS again four weeks later. It also possibly contained the “St.” from “St. Joseph.” St. Joseph County histories do not list a settlement called Independence, but there was a settlement called Independence in LaPorte County. Bias owned parcels of land in the neighboring counties of St. Joseph and LaPorte in Indiana. Some of the parcels Bias owned in St. Joseph County were on the county line and were within a few hundred yards of Independence village in LaPorte County. The county line moved in 1850. (Letter from Garret Bias, 3 Apr. 1843; St. Joseph Co., IN, Deed Records, 1830–1901, vol. G, p. 588, 22 Nov. 1842, microfilm 1,605,746; LaPorte Co., IN, Deed Records, 1833–1901, vol. F, pp. 632–633, 23 June 1837 and 8 May 1838, microfilm 1,674,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; History of La Porte County, Indiana, 595, 717, 885–886.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    History of La Porte County, Indiana; together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages, and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

  2. [2]

    TEXT: “[page torn]e”. Text missing because of damage here and in the rest of the document has been supplied from context.

  3. [3]

    TEXT: “[page torn]ll”.

  4. [4]

    TEXT: Page torn.

  5. [5]

    TEXT: “[page torn]ave”.

  6. [6]

    Bias’s church membership has not been verified.

  7. [7]

    Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines a “stand of arms, in military affairs” as a “musket with its usual appendages, as a bayonet, cartridge box, &c.” Military historian George D. Moller defines a stand of arms this way: “From the early 19th century, this term described a musket complete with a ramrod, bayonet, and sling. A screwdriver, wiper, ball screw, and a spring vise for each 10 arms were also included in this terminology.” (“Stand,” in American Dictionary [1828]; Moller, American Military Shoulder Arms, 588.)

    An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.

    Moller, George D. American Military Shoulder Arms. Vol. 3, Flintlock Alterations and Muzzleloading Percussion Shoulder Arms, 1840–1865. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011.

  8. [8]

    The Black Hawk War of 1832 was also known as the Sac and Fox War.

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