Footnotes
A copy of Cowdery’s first letter, dated 29 January 1831, is contained in Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3–4 Mar. 1831.
Whitney had held the office of postmaster since 29 December 1826. The Kirtland Mills post office was located in his store. (U.S. Post Office Department, Records of Appointment of Postmasters, reel 4, vol. 6, p. 176; List of Post-Offices in the United States, 59; Table of the Post Offices in the United States, 216.)
U.S. Post Office Department. Records of Appointment of Postmasters, Oct. 1789–1832. National Archives Microfilm Publications, microcopy M1131, reel 4. Washington DC: National Archives, 1980.
List of Post-offices in the United States with the Names of the Post-masters of the Counties and States. . . . Washington DC: Way and Gideon, 1828.
Table of the Post Offices in the United States, Arranged by States and Counties; as They Were October 1, 1830; with a Supplement, Stating the Offices Established between the 1st October, 1830, and the First of April, 1831. Washington DC: Duff Green, 1831.
While postage could be paid by the sender, the payment of postage was often the responsibility of the recipient of a letter, and thus many pieces of mail went unclaimed because the recipient either did not or could not pay the postage. (An Act to Reduce into One the Several Acts Establishing and Regulating the Post-Office Department [3 Mar. 1825], in Post-Office Laws, Instructions and Forms, pp. 15–16, sec. 27; John, Spreading the News, 121–124.)
Post-Office Laws, Instructions and Forms, Published for the Regulation of the Post-Office. Washington DC: Way and Gideon, 1828.
John, Richard R. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
An Act to Reduce into One the Several Acts Establishing and Regulating the Post-Office Department [3 Mar. 1825], in Post-Office Laws, Instructions and Forms, pp. 8–9, sec. 12; Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United States, 217; Margo, Wages and Labor Markets in the United States, 67, table 3A.5.
Post-Office Laws, Instructions and Forms, Published for the Regulation of the Post-Office. Washington DC: Way and Gideon, 1828.
Wright, Carroll D. The Industrial Evolution of the United States. Meadville, PA: Flood and Vincent, Chautauqua-Century Press, 1895.
Margo, Robert A. Wages and Labor Markets in the United States,1820–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Richard W. Cummins, Delaware and Shawnee Agency, to William Clark, [St. Louis, MO], 15 Feb. 1831, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, Records, vol. 6, pp. 113–114.
U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency. Records, 1807–1855. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Also available at kansasmemory.org.
Whitmer, Journal, Dec. 1831, [1].
Whitmer, Peter, Jr. Journal, Dec. 1831. CHL. MS 5873.
Oliver Cowdery, Independence, MO, to William Clark, [St. Louis, MO], 14 Feb. 1831, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, Records, vol. 6, p. 103. At the time Pratt left, he was still unaware of the church’s move to Ohio. Pratt later described his journey: “Elders Cowdery, Whitmer, Peterson, myself, and F. G. Williams, who accompanied us from Kirtland, now assembled in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, and came to the conclusion that one of our number had better return to the church in Ohio, and perhaps to head quarters in New York, in order to communicate with the Presidency, report ourselves, pay a visit to the numerous churches we had organized on our outward journey, and also to procure more books. For this laborious enterprise I was selected by the voice of my four brethren.” (Pratt, Autobiography, 61.)
U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency. Records, 1807–1855. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Also available at kansasmemory.org.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
See John Ruland, [St. Louis, MO], to John Henry Eaton, [Washington DC], 9 Jan. 1831, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, Records, vol. 4, p. 198; and William Clark, St. Louis, MO, to John Henry Eaton, [Washington DC], 31 Mar. 1831, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, Records, vol. 4, p. 207.
U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency. Records, 1807–1855. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Also available at kansasmemory.org.
TEXT: This scribal notation, in the handwriting of Frederick G. Williams, numbered the letter in JS Letterbook 1.
See Psalm 2:6.
See Isaiah 56:7.
See Exodus 2:22.
Cowdery here referenced the Book of Mormon account of the prophecy of the destruction promised “at the time that he [Christ] shall yield up the ghost.” Book of Mormon prophet Samuel the Lamanite prophesied that great earthquakes at that time would result in “the rocks which is upon the face of this earth, which is both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time is solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams, and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth.” The fulfillment of this prophecy was also recorded in the Book of Mormon. (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 446–447, 471 [Helaman 14:21–22; 3 Nephi 8:18].)
See Acts 2:37.
According to Parley P. Pratt’s later account, three of the missionaries first lodged in the Delaware lands with “Mr. Pool . . . their blacksmith, employed by the government.” James Pool was employed “as a blacksmith for the Delaware, Shawnee, and Seneca tribes of Indians, from August, 1823, until November, 1838.” (Pratt, Autobiography, 57; Report, S. Rep. Com. no. 20, 37th Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 1, in Reports of the Committees of the Senate.)
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
The Reports of the Committees of the Senate of the United States for the Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, 1861–’62. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1862.