Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 28 July 1840

No letter from Hotchkiss to JS dated June 1840 has been located. In a 1 April 1840 letter, Hotchkiss briefly offered to sell to JS and the Saints land in the Rock River area in Henry and Mercer counties as well as land in Sangamon and Morgan counties for two potential colonies. It is unknown whether JS expressed interest in a letter in the interim, to which Hotchkiss replied in June, or if Hotchkiss was merely volunteering more detail about his proposal. (Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 1 Apr. 1840.)  

In his 1 April 1840 letter, Hotchkiss informed JS of approximately twelve thousand acres of land northeast of Springfield, Illinois, in which he, John Gillet, and Smith Tuttle had an investment interest. Hotchkiss expressed his willingness to negotiate with JS about selling land to the Saints both in this area and north of Nauvoo, in the Rock River region. (Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 1 Apr. 1840.)  

In his 1 April letter to JS, Hotchkiss wrote, “My health has been so very infirm, that it has prevented me form [from] executing nearly all the arrangements, I had proposed for myself, for the last eight months.” (Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 1 Apr. 1840.)  

On 12 August 1839, JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith purchased approximately four hundred acres in the Commerce, Illinois, area from Hotchkiss, Smith Tuttle, and John Gillet for $110,000. The terms of the purchase agreement specified that two principal payments of $25,000 each were to be due in twenty years, with another forty interest payments of $1,500 each being paid over the same twenty years (two due each year). In the postscript to this letter, however, JS referred to a verbal agreement that the two annual interest payments would not start to come due for five years. JS’s reference to the two notes being due “at maturity” probably refers to the due dates for these first two notes, on 12 August 1840, rather than maturity of the total purchase in twenty years. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; Promissory Note to John Gillet and Smith Tuttle, 12 Aug. 1839; Promissory Note to Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839; Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.)  

In early 1841, church agents reported on land purchases and sales in the Nauvoo area, noting that “there have been sales made to widdows and other poor of the Church from which we cannot expect to receive any pay.” The agents estimated these land sales were worth $45,000. The low, marshy “flats” along the Mississippi River in the Nauvoo area were vulnerable to malaria, particularly during the first years of the Saints’ settlement before the land could be drained. (Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 11 June 1839, 58–59.)  

Half a year later, the first two payments of interest had not yet been made. (Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.)  

“Be our misfortune, and not our fault” is a paraphrase of a line from Joseph Addison’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: “And yet consider why the Change was wrought, / You’ll find it his Misfortune, not his Fault.” (Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, 79.)  

Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. Translated by the Most Eminent Hands. Translated by Samuel Garth, John Dryden, Joseph Addison, et al. London: Jacob Tonson, 1717.

The “former letter” to which JS referred is apparently not extant. In the smaller of two land transactions on 12 August 1839, JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith purchased from Hotchkiss ninety acres in the Commerce area, excluding half an acre for the old burying ground. The terms of the purchase were two notes of $1,250 each, plus interest, to Hotchkiss. One note was due in five years and one in ten years, along with $1,000 to be paid to William White “in such manner as shall be satisfactory to said White.” (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–B.)  

Hotchkiss had earlier agreed to purchase the same 89½ acres from White but still owed White $1,000, plus interest. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–B; Receipt from William White, 23 Apr. 1840.)  

On 23 April 1840, White, who was in Nauvoo at the time, signed a receipt stating that JS had paid him $1,041.67½, “being the amount of money due me . . . for eighty nine and one half acres of land— which the said Horace Hotchkiss purchased from me.” (Receipt from William White, 23 Apr. 1840.)