History draft; handwriting of , John L. Smith, Jonathan Grimshaw, Robert L. Campbell, , Richard Bentley, and ; 101 numbered pages plus several inserted pages; CHL. This manuscript covers the period from 1 March 1843 to 31 December 1843.
<22> The cohorts of the were in exercise this day; my staff came out with me, & spent the day in riding, exercising &<or> <&> organizing; & sitting in Court Martial, to ascertain to what staff , Surgeon General; , Adjutant General; & Commissary General; belonged.
<Sunday 23> 9 to 10 a.m. at home, heard read Truthiana No 6; also the minutes of special , which I revised.
11 a. m. meeting at the , , , , , , , present. prayed. Prest. preached on the subject of Salvation, & the commenced their mission to build the ; & for the salvation of the , it was necessary that the public building should be erected, &c.
preached in the afternoon, showing the rapid increase of during the past three years.
called for 25 hands to go with him to the , to get lumber for the .
Prest. instructed the laborers on the to commence next morning, even if they have to beg food of their neighbors to commence with, & requested familes to board hands, till means could be procured.
<Dr. W. P. Harris of Kinderhook [illegible] <Pike> Co. Ill while digging a well>
<24> In the morning I took my children a pleasure ride in the carriage.
at 1 p m the , , , , , & met in my , & agreed <to go> to , Iowa; & spend the next Sabbath, & devise means to secure the property which has been purchased of , by the Nauvoo House Trustees. & voted John Carnes [Cairns] go on a mission to — & Jas Brown to Tuscaloosa; <Ala.> & that Murray Seaman be instructed to return home immediately— & that Mr. be respectfully requested, immediately to furnish the with a draft of the exterior & interior of the .
<Prince Louis Napoleon <claimant of the Imperial throne of ,> writes from his prison at Ham, to the Parisian journals, that “I would prefer captivity on the French soil, to freedome in Exile.”>
<25> Called at <In> the in the morning, & heard <read> the report of the proceedings of the yesterday.
& other Masons came to see me concerning , <when> who was threatening revenge on , I replied,if he injured , he would be cursed. I was told that Grand Master <G. M. Jonathan> Nye was dead, which caused the following remark. “When Nye was here trying to pull me by the nose & trample on me, I enquired of the Lord if I was to be led by the nose & cuffed <about> by such a man”, I received for answer “wait a minute”; Nye is dead, and any man or mason who attempts to ride me down, and oppress me, will run against the boss of Jehovah’s buckler; & will be quickly moved out of the way. Nye was<is> <was> an hypocritical Presbyterian preacher, & is <was> known to have violated his oath as a Master Mason <& committed adultery,> & <he has> started an opposition Lodge <on the Hill, called the Nye <[illegible]> Lodge,> on which subject I replied “they will do us all the evil <injury> they can, but let them go ahead, altho it will result in a division of the Lodge”. Nye fearing the execution of his Oath, <penalty of the City ordinances on Adultery> speedily fled from , and is now dead. <soon after died suddenly in . at . Iowa. *> <* his funeral was attended by , , & <& Noah Rodgers [Rogers]> as a deputation from the Nauvoo Lodge, a donation from several lodges defrayed the expenses of his funeral[.] at the time the coffin was lowered into the grave there was about two feet of water in it.>
at 3¼ pm rain fell in torrents, & wind blew strong <from N. W. several barns were blown down;> so dark for 15 minutes, could not see to write— considerable hail fell The Creeks rose very high, the land covered with water. [p. 27]
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