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Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3–4 March 1831
Source Note
Source Note
JS, Letter, , OH, to , , NY, 3–4 Mar. 1831; sent copy; handwriting of JS; three pages; JS Collection, CHL.
Two leaves of different sizes. First leaf measures 12⅞ × 7¾ inches (33 × 20 cm). Second leaf (wrapper) measures 10½–10⅞ × 7⅝–8 inches (27–28 × 19–20 cm). Bears remnant of wax seal used for mailing. Includes address in handwriting of JS and postal markings in handwriting of on wrapper. The original letter passed from ’s possession to ’s shortly after it was written. Following Knight’s death, the letter passed to his second wife, , and remained in her possession until around 1883, when it was given to Susa Young Gates, who retained the document as late as 1905. It is unknown when the letter was received in the Historian’s Office.
Footnotes
- [1]
Susa Young Gates, “Unpublished Letter of the Prophet Joseph,” Improvement Era, Dec. 1905, 167; see also Daniel Tyler, St. George, Utah Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 3 Mar. 1881, CHL.
Gates, Susa Young. “An Unpublished Letter of the Prophet Joseph.” Improvement Era 9, no. 2 (Dec. 1905): 167–169.
Tyler, Daniel. Letter, St. George, Utah Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 3 Mar. 1881. CHL. MS 24628.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
The first directive given in the 9 February 1831 “Laws of the Church” was for the men as to go two by two “in to the regions westward” to preach the gospel and build up the . Shortly thereafter, another revelation urged the elders to congregate in , Ohio, the area where church members, including JS, had begun gathering. The revelation directed that the elders should be contacted “by letter or some other way.” This letter, in which JS informed members of the of recent events and directed his brother to come to , was sent in response to that revelation.
JS sent the letter to , Broome County, New York. In late September 1830, following financial difficulties, and his family moved from their log house in to ’s house at , New York. Whether Hyrum ever lived in nearby Harpursville is unknown; Newel Knight’s house may have been closer to the Harpursville post office than to the Colesville post office.
JS included within his letter a copy of a letter from that described Cowdery’s efforts to preach to the American Indians west of . Cowdery wrote his letter soon after he and fellow missionaries arrived in western Missouri and crossed into what is now Kansas to preach among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians. Addressed to his “dearly beloved bretheren” in , the letter was Cowdery’s first communication to the newly baptized church members in since the missionaries’ departure in mid-November 1830. JS introduced Cowdery’s epistle by writing to , “We hav[e] recieved a leter from Olover dated Jackson County Missouri January the 29th 1831.” Though JS was in Kirtland when the letter was received, Cowdery did not know that JS would be one of the recipients. The revelations directing church members to gather to were dictated after the missionaries had departed, and Cowdery would have expected JS to be in . Cowdery’s letter demonstrates his concern for the recent converts in Ohio and suggests that those converts were also interested in hearing news of his mission to the Indians.
Footnotes
- [1]
Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:4, 8].
- [2]
See Revelation, Feb. 1831–B [D&C 44:1].
- [3]
Knight, History, 183; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 178–179. The location of Knight’s farm in Colesville Township is unknown. It is also not known why Hyrum Smith moved to Colesville. At the time, Levi Daggett, a resident of Palmyra, was attempting to collect a debt from him for shoeing horses. (Daggett v. Smith [J.P. Ct. 1830], Pierce, Docket Book, 77.)
Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.
Pierce, Nathan. Docket Book, 1827–1832. Manchester, NY, Justice Records, 1827–1830. Microfilm 900, no. 62. BYU.
- [4]
In March 1831, the post offices in Colesville and Harpursville were only four miles apart. Alternatively, Hyrum Smith could have been staying at the home of Emma Smith’s sister Elizabeth Hale Wasson, who lived in Harpursville until 1836. In early July 1830, JS took refuge from hostile Colesville residents at her house. (Table of the Post Offices in the United States, 44; Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee County, 57; History of Lee County, 851; see also 1825 New York Census, Colesville, Broome Co., NY, [8], microfilm 806,800, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; 1830 U.S. Census, Colesville Township, Broome Co., NY, 44; and JS History, vol. A-1, 47.)
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.
Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee County. Dixon, IL: Inez A. Kennedy, 1893.
History of Lee County, Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc., Gathered from Old Settlers, County, Township and Other Records, and Extracts from Files of Papers, Pamphlets, and Such Other Sources as Have Been Available. Chicago: H. H. Hill, 1881.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
- [5]
Cowdery’s letter is the first of three extant letters he sent from Missouri reporting on his mission to the Indians. (See Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 8 Apr. 1831; and Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 7 May 1831; see also Historical Introduction to Revelation, Sept. 1830–B [D&C 28].)
- [6]
Cowdery and his fellow missionaries likely left Kirtland no later than 22 November 1830. Cowdery wrote that the group arrived in Kirtland on 29 October 1830, and Parley P. Pratt later wrote that the group preached in Kirtland “two or three weeks.” Pratt also recounted being arrested and standing trial near Amherst, Ohio—fifty miles from Kirtland—several days after they left Kirtland. These events were mentioned in a newspaper article dated 26 November 1830. (Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 12 Nov. 1830; Pratt, Autobiography, 50–53; “Beware of Impostors,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 14 Dec. 1830, [2].)
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.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
- [7]
Revelation, 30 Dec. 1830 [D&C 37:3]; Revelation, 2 Jan. 1831 [D&C 38:32]; Pratt, Autobiography, 49–51. Other evidence supports the possibility that the participants in the mission to the Lamanites did not know JS had already moved to Kirtland or that church members in New York were in the process of moving to Ohio. A 14 February 1831 letter from Cowdery to superintendent of Indian affairs William Clark indicates that Cowdery believed the church to be headquartered in New York. Pratt, who left Missouri in mid-February on a journey to the East, later recorded that upon his arrival in Kirtland in spring 1831, “the news was that the whole Church in the State of New York . . . was about to remove to Ohio.” (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; Pratt, Autobiography, 64–65.)
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.
U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency. Records, 1807–1855. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Also available at kansasmemory.org.
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Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Postal markings in handwriting of Kirtland postmaster Newel K. Whitney.
- [12]
This indicates the price of the postage, twenty-five cents.