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Petition to Arial Hanson, 7 November 1836

Source Note

JS and others, Petition, , Geauga Co., OH, to , [, Geauga Co., OH], 7 Nov. 1836. Featured version copied [ca. 1837–1838]; handwriting likely of Elijah A. Ward; one page; Lake County Historical Society, Painesville, OH. Includes docket and redaction. Transcription from a digital color image made of original in 2001.
Three conjoined leaves; the first measures 12 × 7¾ inches (30 × 20 cm), the second 11¾ × 7¾ inches (29 × 20 cm), and the third 12 × 7¾ inches (30 × 20 cm). The three leaves were made into one cohesive document measuring 34⅜ × 7¾ inches (87 × 20 cm) by joining the bottom of the first leaf and the top of the second leaf with three adhesive wafers and by joining the bottom of the second leaf and the top of the third leaf with three additional adhesive wafers. The first leaf contains thirty-seven brown lines; the second and third leaves have thirty-six brown lines each. The petition was likely folded into fourths and then trifolded to form three panels. It was docketed on the right side of the left panel. A bottom segment of the petition is torn entirely at a fold. This copy of the original letter was likely created by Elijah A. Ward, the brother-in-law of , while serving as deputy sheriff in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The location of the original letter is unknown.
A typed note accompanying the letter states it was donated by Philip Ward, a grandson of Elijah A. Ward, to the Lake County Historical Society. The donation occurred between 1938, when the historical society was organized, and 1954, when Ward died.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Upton, History of the Western Reserve, 758–760.

    Upton, Harriet Taylor. History of the Western Reserve. 3 vols. Chicago: Lewis, 1910.

  2. [2]

    “Philip Emmerson Ward,” Melbourne Cemetery, Melbourne, Brevard Co., FL, U.S. Find a Grave Index.

    Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com.

Historical Introduction

In early November 1836, JS and other residents of , Ohio, drafted a petition to , a justice of the peace in Kirtland, asking him to resign his office and leave the . The petition was signed by seventy-two Kirtland residents; all but a few are known to have been members of the . In scathing language, they charged Hanson with incompetence as a justice of the peace and with acting contrary to his duties in that office, especially regarding his actions toward church members.
Justices of the peace were important figures in antebellum towns and were recognized as local government officials by their communities. Elected by the residents of their township, justices of the peace oversaw the local court, also called the “justice of the peace court” or “small claims court,” which heard civil cases for debts of less than one hundred dollars. Justices had jurisdiction in criminal cases relating to assault and battery or fear of violence and in this role were appointed “conservators of the peace.” The position also included record-keeping responsibilities. Justices were required to keep a docket recording the lawsuits and other actions that related to their court duties; they also administered oaths and acknowledged contracts, such as deeds and mortgages.
The petition featured here notes several ways in which the signers felt had acted contrary to his elected position as a peacekeeper, impartial judge, and arbiter of community conflicts. According to the petition, Hanson encouraged mob violence, wrote slanderous statements, and aided enemies of church members in acting against them. Though there is little extant evidence regarding the allegations found in the petition, some reminiscent accounts support the claims that Hanson was antagonistic toward church members.
In an autobiographical letter possibly written several decades after he left , church member related an instance when the justice of the peace seized his property in 1837. Wood had acted as the surety for another church member’s promissory note and later had his wagon confiscated by . Wood felt this was done unfairly, since the church member who issued the note had also provided ample land as security. Wood’s letter further described the arbitrary property seizures by some local constables and justices of the peace, likely including Hanson, that became so severe by 1837–1838 that “no Latter Day Saint could consider any property secure which he possessed.” Wood noted that constables would find any excuse to confiscate a Mormon’s property. Should the owner object, arguing that he did not owe anyone money, then “the constable would curse and swear that they were Jo Smiths goods and they would take them to pay his debts or somebody else.” Confiscating good[s] for outstanding debts would be legal if church members had been acting as sureties on promissory notes of JS or other members. But Wood implied that Mormons’ goods were routinely confiscated even when not used to secure promissory notes, and he claimed that it was a common practice for some local officials to unfairly require additional security for promissory notes or other financial transactions involving church members. These abuses occurred, according to Wood, because of religious bias against the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
No statements by are extant, but there is evidence that his family members were opposed to JS and the church. A reminiscent statement by his wife, Sally Ward Hanson, was printed in Arthur Deming’s Naked Truths about Mormonism in 1888. In it, she claimed that when church members’ appeals to appoint a Mormon postmaster failed, they threatened her husband. Arial Hanson’s father-in-law, Reverend Elijah Ward, was a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church in neighboring and preached against the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
Despite the demands made in the petition, did not resign as justice of the peace in but remained in the position until his term ended in May 1837, when he was replaced by . Hanson continued to live in Kirtland into the 1840s and remained in northeastern until his death in 1862.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Arial Hanson, born in Massachusetts in 1800, moved to Kirtland in 1821. He married Sally Ward on 4 October 1829 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He served as overseer of the poor in Kirtland from 1834 to 1835 and justice of the peace in Kirtland from 1834 to 1837. (Upton, History of the Western Reserve, 759; List of Letters, Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 7 Apr. 1837, [3].)

    Upton, Harriet Taylor. History of the Western Reserve. 3 vols. Chicago: Lewis, 1910.

    Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

  2. [2]

    Five of the signers cannot be confirmed as members of the church: John Davidson, Joseph Willard, L. J. Reave, John Gamble, and Jacob Harvey.

  3. [3]

    The Ohio legislature clarified the duties of justices of the peace in 1831. (An Act Defining the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace and Constables, in Criminal Cases [11 Mar. 1831]; An Act Defining the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace and Constables, in Civil Cases [14 Mar. 1831]; An Act to Regulate the Action for Forcible Entry and Detainer [25 Feb. 1831], Acts of a General Nature [1831], pp. 170–214.)

    Acts of a General Nature, Enacted, Revised and Ordered to Be Reprinted, at the First Session of the Twenty-Ninth General Assembly of the State of Ohio. Columbus: Olmsted and Bailhache, 1831.

  4. [4]

    Wood, “Letter to Daniel Wood’s Brother Hosea Wood,” 3–4. A constable was a town officer of the peace and had the authority to carry out civil and criminal judgments under the direction of justices of the peace.

    Wood, Daniel. “A Letter to Daniel Wood’s Brother Hosea Wood.” No date. Typescript. Danidl Wood, Histories, ca. 1890. CHL.

  5. [5]

    Wood, “Letter to Daniel Wood’s Brother Hosea Wood,” 4.

    Wood, Daniel. “A Letter to Daniel Wood’s Brother Hosea Wood.” No date. Typescript. Danidl Wood, Histories, ca. 1890. CHL.

  6. [6]

    “Mrs. S. W. Hanson’s Statement,” Naked Truths about Mormonism, Apr. 1888, 3.

    Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.

  7. [7]

    Upton, History of the Western Reserve, 758. Isaac Russell, a church member living in Upper Canada, wrote to the editor of the Christian Guardian in Toronto, Canada, defending the Kirtland Safety Society—and by extension, the church—from earlier statements printed in the Christian Guardian from a “Methodist Minister who, it is stated, resided in the vicinity of Kirtland.” This minister might have been Reverend Elijah Ward, who lived with his son Elijah A. Ward in Willoughby, Ohio. According to Harriet Upton, Hanson donated land to the Methodist Episcopal Church. An 1839 Geauga County deed shows that Hanson and his brother-in-law Elijah A. Ward jointly transferred land to the trustees of the Kirtland Methodist Episcopal Church. This appears to be the land on which the Methodist Episcopal chapel was located. (Isaac Russell to Editor of the Christian Guardian, Toronto, Upper Canada, 11 Mar. 1837, Isaac Russell Correspondence, CHL; Upton, History of the Western Reserve, 757, 759; Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 30, pp. 361–362, 21 June 1839, microfilm 20,242, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    Upton, Harriet Taylor. History of the Western Reserve. 3 vols. Chicago: Lewis, 1910.

    Russell, Isaac. Correspondence, 1837–1840. CHL. MS 6066.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  8. [8]

    Upton, History of the Western Reserve, 758; “Death Notice,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 4 Sept. 1862, [3]; 1840 U.S. Census, Kirtland, Lake Co., OH, 97; 1850 U.S. Census, Mentor, Lake Co., OH, 277[B]; 1860 U.S. Census, Willoughby, Lake Co., OH, 172.

    Upton, Harriet Taylor. History of the Western Reserve. 3 vols. Chicago: Lewis, 1910.

    Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

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

Page [1]

Nov 7th 1836,
Mr Esqr
Sir
The undersigned Subscribers inhabitants of being among the number of those or at least some of us who elevated you to the honourable office of Justis of the Peace feeling themselves openly disgraced by your ignorance stupidity & in competency which has ben clearly manifested by the contempt that has been shown to your decisions in Law in the Court of the in which you live concider it an indispensable duty they owe to themselves & there families to request you by way of petition to resign the office with which you have ben honaured— & deliver them & there posterity from this open disgrace,— You must be sensible Sir that you have openly desgraced your friends that elivated you to office by reason of your incompetency & inability to discharge the duties of the same & that your continuanc[e] in office will bee heaping disgrace upon disgrace— We pray you there fore if there is yet remaining one spark of compassion in your sole soul that you will have mercy upon us & our children & our childrens children to the latest generation and suffer not this disgrace to be entailed upon our heads & upon the heads of our Children forever lest you bring down our gray hairs with sorrow to the grave—
You must also be sensible Sir that your continuance in this of or must be an open rebuke & perpetual chastisement to those who were so far blinded to your abilities & to there own reputation as as to confer upon you the office of Justice of the Peace We therefore in the most solemn & aganising manner pray you as an act of duty you owe to us to our children forever that you that you with all possible speed & the greatest posible secrecy <​secrecy​> not even letting your right hand Know what you[r] left hand doeth depart out of & seek your residence elsewhere— In doing this we wish to be distinctly understood that we intend no injury to your person property or Carracter in public or in private— but from a sense of duty we owe <​owe​> ourselves & families— For be assurid Sir we your humble petitioners concider you a pest & public nuisance to society Therefore we do again most sincearly adjure you to depart out of our coasts & deliver us from this evil that we have so Long groaned under in pain to be released— be assured Sir in the midst of all your slander misrepresentations & abuse we have paid you well for your nominal servises as a magistrate & finally that society of people that you have so much persecuted have purchased your possessions & plased you in easy circumstances: there fore we have claims on upon your Clemency & besech of you to not disregard our suplication but pity our deplorable condition & grant us this our last request do not longer harden your hart & stifen your neck against us Comply with our prayers for mercy sake In adition to you[r] ignoranc[e] & in competancy have you not Sir forgotten the duties of a peace maker & the solemnities of an oath that bound you to lift your voice against all violation of law & acts of violence against the peace & happiness of the citizens of the by making a league with a mob who have driven defensless women & children from their houses & hom[e]s & trampled upon the rights against granted to them by the Laws of God & man and have you not Sir used all your influence to increace there miseries by encourageing mobs & inflaming the indignation of a lawless banditti by conveying secret letters full of falsehood & misrepresentations to increase there suffering & to strengthen the hands of murderers mourauders to put at defiance the constitution of the which you Sir was bound by the solemnities of an oath to defend In thus saying we arraign you before the bar of your own conscience & ask you in the presence of the searcher of all hearts are not thes[e] eternal realities do you not know Sir that when the great Orbiter of heaven & earth Judges your case that he will pronounce you guilty of these blackest of crimes & that you will be left with out excuse— Therefore be not surprised that we your petitioners should urge upon you in the most powerful manner in which language can express that you should depart forthwith out of and we presume that your presents presence would be as little mesed [missed] as any other man that ever left this place except that injustice & cruelty might find them selvs deprived of one of there strongest advocates and righteousness might find it self an abode in a place where it never bifore was priviledged to show its head.— Should you be so kind as to comply with this our humble petition we will ever pray that you may never com[e] back again
Joseph Smith Jr John Davidson
Christopher W Stillwell
Beihias [Bechias] Dustin
John Read [Reed]
Jacob Parker
Martin D. Cowdry Joseph Willard
Benja[min] Sweat Solomon Fre[e]man
L J Reave Roswell Blood
John Gamble
Hyrum Struttan [Hiram Stratton]
Horace Burges[s]
Normen Ruall
Chancy [Chauncey] G Webb Lysandar M Davis
Sterry Fisk
Wm. Felshaw
Jacob Harvey
G W Meelks [Garland W. Meeks]
Ebenezer Borr [Barr]
printer
A tru[e] copy of the origional by E[lijah] A Ward Dep Sheriff [p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Petition to Arial Hanson, 7 November 1836
ID #
3190
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D5:306–312
Handwriting on This Page

    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      “Esquire” in this case was a customary title given to Hanson because of his position as justice of the peace.

    2. [2]

      In the 1834 vote for justice of the peace, Hanson received fifty-six votes to Lyman Pitcher’s four votes and Oliver Hamon’s two. (Kirtland Township Trustees’ Minutes and Poll Book, 127.)

      Kirtland Township Trustees’ Minutes and Poll Book, 1817–1838. Lake County Historical Society, Painesville, OH.

    3. [3]

      See Matthew 6:3; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 482 [3 Nephi 13:3].

    4. [4]

      Justices of the peace were paid for each action they performed: issuing writs such as summons, subpoenas, or warrants; recording judgments on cases and other information in their docket; certifying deeds or other financial instruments; and fulfilling other duties such as performing marriages or swearing in witnesses. Each of these tasks was assigned a fee that generally ranged from ten cents to seventy-five cents; performing a marriage paid $1.50. (See Swan, Treatise on the Law, 101–102.)

      Swan, Joseph R. A Treatise on the Law Relating to the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace, and Constables, in the State of Ohio: with Practical Forms, &c. &c. Columbus, OH: Isaac N. Whiting, 1837.

    5. [5]

      Some church members bought land from Hanson, including John F. Boynton and Luke Johnson. Reminiscent accounts by Ira Ames and Sally Ward Hanson note that Hanson regained possession of much of the land he had sold to church members in Kirtland when they defaulted on their payments or left Kirtland to move to Missouri. (Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 22, pp. 71–72, 28 June 1836, microfilm 20,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Lake Co., OH, Deed Records, 1840–1950, bk. A, 429–431, microfilm 974,939, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Ames, Autobiography and Journal, [13]; “Mrs. S. W. Hanson’s Statement,” Naked Truths about Mormonism, Apr. 1888, 3.)

      U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

      Ames, Ira. Autobiography and Journal, 1858. CHL. MS 6055.

      Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.

    6. [6]

      Ohio state law required that a justice of the peace take an oath of office. (An Act to Provide for the Election and Resignation of Justices of the Peace [31 Jan. 1831], Acts of a General Nature [1831], p. 169, sec. 11.)

      Acts of a General Nature, Enacted, Revised and Ordered to Be Reprinted, at the First Session of the Twenty-Ninth General Assembly of the State of Ohio. Columbus: Olmsted and Bailhache, 1831.

    7. [7]

      TEXT: Or “oaths”.

    8. [8]

      Possibly Norman Buell. (See “Death of Presendia Kimball,” Deseret Evening News, 6 Feb. 1892, 4.)

      Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    9. [9]

      TEXT: This line was written vertically between the two columns of names. James M. Carrel was a member of the church and a foreman in the Kirtland printing office in 1835–1836. It is not clear if Carrel’s name appears here as a signature to the petition or if he is identified for printing an unlocated copy of the petition. (Historical Introduction to Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 ed.; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, May 1889, 76; July 1889, 104.)

      The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

    10. [10]

      Elijah A. Ward was the brother of Arial Hanson’s wife, Sally Ward Hanson.

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