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Revelation, 19 May 1842

Source Note

Revelation,
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL, [19 May 1842]. Featured version copied [ca. 19 May 1842] in JS, Journal, Dec. 1841–Dec. 1842, in Book of the Law of the Lord, p. 122; handwriting of
Willard Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

View Full Bio
; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124].

Historical Introduction

On 19 May 1842, during a city council meeting in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois, JS wrote a revelation warning
Hiram Kimball

31 May 1806–27 Apr. 1863. Merchant, iron foundry operator, mail carrier. Born in West Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Phineas Kimball and Abigail. Moved to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1833, and established several stores. Married ...

View Full Bio
against spreading rumors and negative opinions about him. Kimball was an early settler of the
Commerce

Located near middle of western boundary of state, bordering Mississippi River. European Americans settled area, 1820s. From bank of river, several feet above high-water mark, ground described as nearly level for six or seven blocks before gradually sloping...

More Info
(later Nauvoo), Illinois, area, an affluent merchant, a local landowner, and a member of Nauvoo’s city council.
1

Kimball’s family were early landowners in the Commerce (later Nauvoo) area, and Kimball is credited with opening the first store there. (Holzapfel and Cottle, Old Mormon Nauvoo, 4, 72; Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough, and Henderson Counties, Illinois, 352–353; Woodruff, Journal, 25 Dec. 1841; see also Deed from Ethan Kimball, 20 June 1842.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Holzapfel, Richard N., and T. Jeffery Cottle. Old Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846: Historic Photographs and Guide. Provo, UT: Grandin Book, 1990.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties, Illinois, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County. Chicago: Lake City Publishing, 1894.

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Though he was not a
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
member in 1842, his wife,
Sarah Granger Kimball

29 Dec. 1818–1 Dec. 1898. Schoolteacher. Born in Phelps, Ontario Co., New York. Daughter of Oliver Granger and Lydia Dibble. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, 1833. Married Hiram Kimball, 22 Sept. 1840. Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, fall 1840...

View Full Bio
, had joined the church before their marriage in 1840.
2

Sarah Granger Kimball had joined the church by 1833, when she moved to Kirtland, Ohio, with her parents. (Derr, “Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball,” 25–27.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Derr, Jill Mulvay. “Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball: The Liberal Shall Be Blessed.” In Sister Saints, edited by Vicky Burgess-Olson, 21–40. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1978.

Both Hiram and Sarah Granger Kimball were influential members of the Nauvoo community. In spring 1842, Sarah was instrumental in organizing a women’s sewing society to earn funds for the construction of the Nauvoo
temple

Located in portion of Nauvoo known as the bluff. JS revelation dated Jan. 1841 commanded Saints to build temple and hotel (Nauvoo House). Cornerstone laid, 6 Apr. 1841. Saints volunteered labor, money, and other resources for temple construction. Construction...

More Info
; under JS’s direction, that sewing society would become the
Female Relief Society of Nauvoo

A church organization for women; created in Nauvoo, Illinois, under JS’s direction on 17 March 1842. At the same meeting, Emma Smith was elected president, and she selected two counselors; a secretary and a treasurer were also chosen. The minutes of the society...

View Glossary
.
3

Minutes and Discourses, 17 Mar. 1842; see also Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, xxvii, 6, 31n103.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

The precise nature of the evil opinions and insinuations
Kimball

31 May 1806–27 Apr. 1863. Merchant, iron foundry operator, mail carrier. Born in West Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Phineas Kimball and Abigail. Moved to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1833, and established several stores. Married ...

View Full Bio
was accused of in the revelation is uncertain. Contemporaneous sources suggest the allegations against Kimball may have been related to his involvement in business that competed with that of JS, his condemnation of JS’s practice of plural marriage, or a combination of both. JS’s priority in spring 1842 remained building the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
temple

Located in portion of Nauvoo known as the bluff. JS revelation dated Jan. 1841 commanded Saints to build temple and hotel (Nauvoo House). Cornerstone laid, 6 Apr. 1841. Saints volunteered labor, money, and other resources for temple construction. Construction...

More Info
and
Nauvoo House

Located in lower portion of Nauvoo (the flats) along bank of Mississippi River. JS revelation, dated 19 Jan. 1841, instructed Saints to build boardinghouse for travelers and immigrants. Construction of planned three-story building to be funded by fifty-dollar...

More Info
, both of which depended on his own financial success and church members’ donations. As a Nauvoo merchant, Kimball did business that was in competition with JS’s
mercantile store

Located in lower portion of Nauvoo (the flats) along bank of Mississippi River. Completed 1841. Opened for business, 5 Jan. 1842. Owned by JS, but managed mostly by others, after 1842. First floor housed JS’s general store and counting room, where tithing...

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, and as a landowner and speculator, Kimball vied with church leaders over land sales in the area. Tensions arose when Kimball and other Nauvoo businessmen successfully promoted their own businesses. In doing so, they acquired church members’ limited funds, which JS thought should be applied to the church’s building projects.
4

For examples of JS’s condemnation of local merchants, see JS, Journal, 24 Apr. 1842 and 21 Feb. 1843.


Even though Kimball was not a church member and had no obligation to financially support the temple, JS may have felt Kimball’s business competition was detrimental to the church’s efforts to build the temple.
Another cause of the negative opinions and insinuations mentioned in the revelation may have been rumors and misunderstandings about JS’s practice of plural marriage.
5

For more information on JS’s practice of plural marriage at this time, see “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”


Decades after this revelation was written,
Sarah Granger Kimball

29 Dec. 1818–1 Dec. 1898. Schoolteacher. Born in Phelps, Ontario Co., New York. Daughter of Oliver Granger and Lydia Dibble. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, 1833. Married Hiram Kimball, 22 Sept. 1840. Moved to Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, fall 1840...

View Full Bio
recounted that in early 1842 JS had introduced her to the doctrine of plural marriage and that she had declined his proposal to be sealed to him as a plural wife.
6

Sarah Granger Kimball, “Auto-biography,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1883, 12:51; Andrew Jenson, “Plural Marriage,” Historical Record, May 1887, 6:232. During 1842 and 1843, JS was married or sealed to a number of women who, like Kimball, were already married to other men. Few extant sources provide information about these complex relationships, but it appears these polygynous and polyandrous marriages were used as a means to connect families to JS, creating kinship ties that promised spiritual benefits and salvation for all members of the family. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 437–446; Daynes, “Mormon Polygamy,” 130–146; see also “Nauvoo Journals, December 1841–April 1843.” For more information on distinctions in JS’s plural marriage sealings, see “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

The Historical Record, a Monthly Periodical, Devoted Exclusively to Historical, Biographical, Chronological and Statistical Matters. Salt Lake City. 1882–1890.

Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. With the assistance of Jed Woodworth. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Daynes, Kathryn M. “Mormon Polygamy: Belief and Practice in Nauvoo.” In Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisited: Nauvoo in Mormon History, edited by Roger D. Launius and John E. Hallwas, 130–146. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

In JS’s journal,
Willard Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

View Full Bio
reported that after writing the featured revelation, JS “spoke at some length concerning the evil reports which were abroad in the
city

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
concerning himself.” JS then proceeded to question
John C. Bennett

3 Aug. 1804–5 Aug. 1867. Physician, minister, poultry breeder. Born at Fairhaven, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. Son of John Bennett and Abigail Cook. Moved to Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio, 1808; to Massachusetts, 1812; and back to Marietta, 1822. Married ...

View Full Bio
, who had resigned as mayor two days earlier, about his claims that JS sanctioned and participated in immoral conduct with women.
7

JS, Journal, 19 May 1842. Neither the 19 May revelation nor JS’s discourse before the city council is recorded in the city council minutes kept by clerk James Sloan.


The “evil opinions”
Kimball

31 May 1806–27 Apr. 1863. Merchant, iron foundry operator, mail carrier. Born in West Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Phineas Kimball and Abigail. Moved to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1833, and established several stores. Married ...

View Full Bio
was warned about in the revelation may have been related or similar to the “evil reports” that Richards noted were being spread by Bennett and others.
Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

View Full Bio
wrote in JS’s journal that the main order of business of the 19 May meeting of the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
City Council was to accept
Bennett

3 Aug. 1804–5 Aug. 1867. Physician, minister, poultry breeder. Born at Fairhaven, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. Son of John Bennett and Abigail Cook. Moved to Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio, 1808; to Massachusetts, 1812; and back to Marietta, 1822. Married ...

View Full Bio
’s resignation and to elect a new mayor. According to Richards, JS “recived & wrote” the revelation while the election for the new mayor “was going forward in the council.” After JS wrote the revelation, he “threw it across the room to
Hiram Kimball

31 May 1806–27 Apr. 1863. Merchant, iron foundry operator, mail carrier. Born in West Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Phineas Kimball and Abigail. Moved to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1833, and established several stores. Married ...

View Full Bio
one of the Councillors,”
8

JS, Journal, 19 May 1842; see also Minutes, 19 May 1842. Hiram Kimball was appointed an alderman for the Nauvoo City Council on 30 October 1841. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 30 Oct. 1841, 29; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 30 Oct. 1841, 26.)


who presumably read it. Though Kimball’s reaction to the revelation on 19 May went unrecorded, it appears that the relationship between JS and Kimball remained cordial.
9

On 14 June 1842, JS purchased land from Hiram Kimball, who was acting as an agent for Ethan Kimball. The next day JS dined at the Kimball home. Although JS continued to condemn Kimball, along with other local merchants, for their business practices, Kimball joined the church in July 1843. (JS, Journal, 14–15 June 1842 and 21 Feb. 1843; “Kimball, Hiram S.,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 2:372; see also Deed from Ethan Kimball, 20 June 1842.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

Richards somehow obtained the original text of the revelation, which is no longer extant, and copied it into JS’s journal in the Book of the Law of the Lord, around 19 May 1842;
10

In JS’s journal, tithing entries before the 19 May entry, which contains the revelation, are dated 17 May, and the entry after the revelation is dated 18 May, suggesting the revelation was copied contemporaneously. (See Book of the Law of the Lord, 121–124.)


that copy is the version featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Kimball’s family were early landowners in the Commerce (later Nauvoo) area, and Kimball is credited with opening the first store there. (Holzapfel and Cottle, Old Mormon Nauvoo, 4, 72; Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough, and Henderson Counties, Illinois, 352–353; Woodruff, Journal, 25 Dec. 1841; see also Deed from Ethan Kimball, 20 June 1842.)

    Holzapfel, Richard N., and T. Jeffery Cottle. Old Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846: Historic Photographs and Guide. Provo, UT: Grandin Book, 1990.

    Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties, Illinois, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County. Chicago: Lake City Publishing, 1894.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    Sarah Granger Kimball had joined the church by 1833, when she moved to Kirtland, Ohio, with her parents. (Derr, “Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball,” 25–27.)

    Derr, Jill Mulvay. “Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball: The Liberal Shall Be Blessed.” In Sister Saints, edited by Vicky Burgess-Olson, 21–40. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1978.

  3. [3]

    Minutes and Discourses, 17 Mar. 1842; see also Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, xxvii, 6, 31n103.

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

  4. [4]

    For examples of JS’s condemnation of local merchants, see JS, Journal, 24 Apr. 1842 and 21 Feb. 1843.

  5. [5]

    For more information on JS’s practice of plural marriage at this time, see “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”

  6. [6]

    Sarah Granger Kimball, “Auto-biography,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1883, 12:51; Andrew Jenson, “Plural Marriage,” Historical Record, May 1887, 6:232. During 1842 and 1843, JS was married or sealed to a number of women who, like Kimball, were already married to other men. Few extant sources provide information about these complex relationships, but it appears these polygynous and polyandrous marriages were used as a means to connect families to JS, creating kinship ties that promised spiritual benefits and salvation for all members of the family. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 437–446; Daynes, “Mormon Polygamy,” 130–146; see also “Nauvoo Journals, December 1841–April 1843.” For more information on distinctions in JS’s plural marriage sealings, see “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”)

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

    The Historical Record, a Monthly Periodical, Devoted Exclusively to Historical, Biographical, Chronological and Statistical Matters. Salt Lake City. 1882–1890.

    Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. With the assistance of Jed Woodworth. New York: Knopf, 2005.

    Daynes, Kathryn M. “Mormon Polygamy: Belief and Practice in Nauvoo.” In Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisited: Nauvoo in Mormon History, edited by Roger D. Launius and John E. Hallwas, 130–146. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

  7. [7]

    JS, Journal, 19 May 1842. Neither the 19 May revelation nor JS’s discourse before the city council is recorded in the city council minutes kept by clerk James Sloan.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 19 May 1842; see also Minutes, 19 May 1842. Hiram Kimball was appointed an alderman for the Nauvoo City Council on 30 October 1841. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 30 Oct. 1841, 29; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 30 Oct. 1841, 26.)

  9. [9]

    On 14 June 1842, JS purchased land from Hiram Kimball, who was acting as an agent for Ethan Kimball. The next day JS dined at the Kimball home. Although JS continued to condemn Kimball, along with other local merchants, for their business practices, Kimball joined the church in July 1843. (JS, Journal, 14–15 June 1842 and 21 Feb. 1843; “Kimball, Hiram S.,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 2:372; see also Deed from Ethan Kimball, 20 June 1842.)

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

  10. [10]

    In JS’s journal, tithing entries before the 19 May entry, which contains the revelation, are dated 17 May, and the entry after the revelation is dated 18 May, suggesting the revelation was copied contemporaneously. (See Book of the Law of the Lord, 121–124.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Revelation, 19 May 1842
Journal, December 1841–December 1842 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 122

Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph by the voice of my Spirit,
Hiram Kimball

31 May 1806–27 Apr. 1863. Merchant, iron foundry operator, mail carrier. Born in West Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Phineas Kimball and Abigail. Moved to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1833, and established several stores. Married ...

View Full Bio
has been insinuating evil. & forming evil opinions against you with. others. & if he continue in them he & they shall be accursed. for I am the Lord thy God & will stand by thee & bless thee.
1

When JS was imprisoned in Missouri, he dictated a similar revelation stating: “Thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors and although their influenance shall cast the[e] into trouble and into bars and walls thou shalt be had in honor and but for a small moment and thy voice shall be more terable in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce Lion because of thy ritiousness and thy God shall stand by the[e] for ever and ever.” (Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839 [D&C 122:3–4].)


Amen. [p. 122]
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Page 122

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Revelation, 19 May 1842
ID #
839
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:76–78
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    When JS was imprisoned in Missouri, he dictated a similar revelation stating: “Thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors and although their influenance shall cast the[e] into trouble and into bars and walls thou shalt be had in honor and but for a small moment and thy voice shall be more terable in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce Lion because of thy ritiousness and thy God shall stand by the[e] for ever and ever.” (Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839 [D&C 122:3–4].)

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