Footnotes
JS left Washington DC for Philadelphia on 21 December 1840. Rigdon arrived in Philadelphia around 14 January 1840. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 21 Dec. 1839, 70; 14 Jan. 1840, 2.)
Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 27 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840; Fleming, “Early Mormonism in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey,” 78.
Fleming, Stephen J. “‘Sweeping Everything Before It’: Early Mormonism in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.” BYU Studies 40 (2001): 72–104.
Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17–19.
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
In a February 1840 letter, Higbee informed JS that he was formulating a plan to fund his journey back to the Commerce area. (Letter from Elias Higbee, 26 Feb. 1840.)
The church’s delegation traveled to Washington DC with limited funds. Senator Young, however, had allowed JS, Rigdon, and Higbee to withdraw money from his bank accounts, withdrawals that church leaders in Illinois could repay by making deposits in Young’s Illinois accounts. According to a later letter from Young, Rigdon wrote the senator shortly after writing this letter to JS, and Young lent Rigdon money. (Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839; Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840; Richard M. Young, Washington DC, to Elias Higbee, 9 Apr. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 133–134.)
Although Rigdon likely returned in May, it is unknown precisely when he left Philadelphia and arrived in the Commerce area. He was certainly in Nauvoo by July, when he declined an invitation to debate his cousin John Rigdon, a prominent Campbellite minister then traveling in western Illinois. (Sidney Rigdon, Nauvoo, IL, to H. W. Miller, in Times and Seasons, July 1840, 1:134–137.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Babbitt was a missionary in the eastern United States at this time.
That is, western Illinois and Iowa Territory.
Following the expulsion of the church from Missouri, church leaders initially directed Saints traveling west to gather in Kirtland. Even after the Saints began resettling on land in the Commerce area and in Iowa Territory that the church purchased in 1839, some expressed a desire to return to Kirtland, which concerned church leaders. (Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 270–275.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.
Brother Granger was probably Gilbert Granger, the son of Oliver Granger. Gilbert was then residing in Kirtland. Although Oliver had been assigned to travel to Kirtland to transact church business and to serve as the presiding authority there, he had not yet left Nauvoo by this time. (Gilbert Granger and Alice Marble Granger to Joseph Hollister and Allen Butler Jr., Deed, 13 May 1840, Lake Co., OH, Recorder’s Office, Land Registry Records, vol. A, pp. 43–44, CHL; Recommendation for Oliver Granger, 1 Nov. 1839; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; Leonora Cannon Taylor, Montrose, Iowa Territory, to John Taylor, Preston, England, 12 Mar. [1840], John Taylor, Collection, CHL; Pay Order to Oliver Granger, 15 Apr. 1840.)
Lake Co., OH, Recorder’s Office. Land Registry Records, 1840–1842. CHL.
Taylor, John. Collection, 1829–1894. CHL. MS 1346.
Cowdery was excommunicated from the church on 12 April 1838 while residing at Far West, Missouri. (Minutes, 12 Apr. 1838.)
In 1840 Rigdon’s family consisted of his wife, Phebe Brooks Rigdon, and his nine surviving children: Athalia, Nancy, Eliza, Sarah, Algernon Sidney, John, Lacy Ann, Phebe, and Hortensia. (“Records of Early Church Families,” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 27 [Oct. 1936]: 161; “Record of the Names of the Members,” [6]–[7].)
“Records of Early Church Families.” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 27 (Oct. 1936): 156–162.
Sloan, James, and Willard Richards. “A Record of the Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Who Have Handed In Certificates, with the Names of the Persons, and Their Office, Who Gave Same, Also the Branch from Which They Came, and Date of Certificate.” Oct. 1841–Jan. 1846. In Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 1837–1838, 1840–1846, 1862. CHL.