Part 4: 24 April–12 August 1839
Part 4 of this volume, spanning from mid-April to mid-August 1839, covers
the period of organization and growth that followed the ’ relocation from to and . After
nearly six months of imprisonment in Missouri, JS and his fellow prisoners escaped
from state custody. They arrived in , Illinois, on 22
April 1839, where JS was reunited with his and children, who had moved to
Quincy in February. The town had become a
central refuge for Latter-day Saints forced to leave Missouri.
Several church leaders who settled there, including and , had overseen the relocation of church
members and corresponded with church leaders still in , Missouri, in early 1839. The residents of
Quincy offered assistance to the impoverished Saints, generously
donating money and goods when church leaders requested help,
providing shelter for the Latter-day Saint refugees, and offering to
sell them land on favorable terms.
and others in
had corresponded with JS during his
incarceration, keeping him apprised of church matters and seeking
his counsel. In a March
letter addressed to Partridge, JS advised
the church leaders in Quincy to purchase land from , a land speculator with acreage in and . Around the same
time, JS
wrote to Galland with a request to hold the land until JS
and the other prisoners were released from . Two days after arriving
in Quincy, JS attended a council meeting at which he, , and were
appointed to a committee to visit land in Iowa Territory, apparently
to identify locations for Latter-day Saint communities.
The committee members left Quincy the next day, 25 April, and
traveled to the area around , Illinois, and parts of ,
Iowa Territory.
On 30 April, members of the land committee and other individuals acting for
the church made the church’s first land transactions in . Since the church was not yet an incorporated
and legally recognized institution in the state, church leaders and
church arranged to purchase the land in their own names.
In the first land transaction on 30 April, arranged to buy approximately
130 acres on the peninsula from , an early landowner in the Commerce area, for
$5,000. This purchase included White’s
house, which JS and his family would move to in
May. In the second land purchase on 30 April, , who was acting
on behalf of the , agreed to pay
$9,000 to for 47 acres of land on
the Commerce peninsula as well as the rights to operate a ferry
across the between Commerce
and , Iowa Territory,
southwest of Commerce. Establishing a ferry allowed the
Saints residing in Illinois and to control transportation between their
settlements. Although Robinson made arrangements to purchase the
land in his own name, an
agreement he made the same day with JS,
, and identified the three members of the First
Presidency as the sureties guaranteeing payment to Galland. These transactions
may have taken place in the Commerce area, where both White and
Galland were living at the time.
In addition to helping secure land for the Saints, JS oversaw other church business.
On 4–5 May, he presided at a general for all church members, and on 6 May he
presided at a conference meeting for church leaders. During the
general conference, the assembled church members considered various
issues facing the church. One of the most pressing concerns was how
to address the Saints’ expulsion from . The congregation approved ’s proposal to travel to and
appeal to the federal government for intervention on the Saints’
behalf. To document what the Saints in Missouri had suffered, , , and were appointed as a committee to collect libelous
reports about the church. Those at the conference also endorsed the
mission of the to
Europe, as directed in a
revelation JS had dictated the previous year, and
sustained new church leaders.
was directed to
go to ; along the way, he was to solicit funds from church
members to aid those impoverished by the Missouri expulsion. was instructed to
oversee the maintenance of and mortgage payments for the in , Ohio; preside over church affairs there; and
continue in his previous assignment to resolve church debts. In
conjunction with the appointments made during the conference,
authorizations were prepared for Greene, Granger, Babbitt, Snow, and
Thompson. Also during the conference, the members passed a
resolution to encourage converts in the eastern United States to
move to Kirtland.
On 10 May, JS and his family moved from to the southern
portion of the peninsula. In
several letters, JS encouraged his friends and fellow Saints to
likewise move to the area, and he even selected lots for some to
purchase. As the month progressed, JS and other church leaders
continued their efforts to secure land for the church. Because
church leaders needed additional funds for their previous and
ongoing land acquisition, was
appointed to “gather up And receive such means in money or
otherwise” to help the church. Before returned to , he spent time discussing business matters with
JS and completing various tasks as a church agent. For
example, in late May he arranged to purchase over two thousand acres
of land in from . Although many Saints moved to
Commerce and , some Saints,
including , remained in
Quincy. As a church leader charged with helping the poor, Partridge
corresponded with JS regarding the needs of the Saints living in
Quincy.
As JS and other church leaders worked to establish
communities for the Saints in and , they also
confronted the aftermath of their forced expulsion from , such as by approving ’s proposal to request federal intervention in
Missouri. Although Rigdon’s plan originally included soliciting
support from governors to “impeach the State of Missouri,” it is not
clear what he, JS, or other church leaders hoped to achieve through
federal intervention. They may have hoped to
obtain redress through regaining possession of their confiscated
lands in Missouri or receiving monetary reparations. As part of their efforts to document
such losses, church members were asked to produce affidavits or
redress petitions that identified personal damages resulting from
the expulsion. In June, JS produced a
petition describing his experiences in Missouri,
enumerating his personal losses, and requesting redress. In contrast
to the majority of the Saints’ redress petitions, which are brief,
JS’s petition is an eight-page narrative. This document provides the
most detail of any account regarding JS’s experiences while
imprisoned in , Missouri.
Additional issues related to arose when published two letters in the
Quincy
Whig in May 1839. The letters, which Wight had written
while imprisoned with JS, condemned the
Democratic leadership in Missouri for not aiding the Saints during
the Missouri conflict and for not helping them afterward. Concerned that Wight’s
accusations would offend Democrats in or politicians
in ,
Latter-day Saint
wrote to JS about Wight’s letters. The First Presidency
responded to Wight’s letters by
writing to the editors of the
Quincy Whig,
explaining that the church intended to remain politically neutral
and did not blame a specific party for the Saints’ treatment in
Missouri. JS also wrote a
letter to Wight in late May, acknowledging Wight’s right
to publish his opinion but asking him to be cautious and to clarify
that he was not speaking for the church.
During this time JS also corresponded with
individuals still in . In late May, JS
dictated a
letter to , who had been excommunicated from the church and
remained in , informing him that his assistance was no longer
needed in settling Missouri business. In June, JS
wrote
to Missouri merchant ,
explaining that JS was unable to locate the merchant’s stolen
property, which was taken during the 1838 conflict.
JS spent part of June instructing and counseling the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and selected members of the Quorums of
the as they prepared for their mission to
Europe. In 1837 and 1838,
apostles and completed a dramatically successful mission to
, and in July 1838 JS
dictated a
revelation directing the apostles to
commence a mission “over the great waters.” At the 6 May conference meeting, church
leaders appointed thirteen members of the Quorums of the Seventy and
five to accompany the apostles on
their mission. In preparation for the mission, the First Presidency
signed recommendations for the apostles. The Quorums of the
Seventy resolved to create similar recommendations for the seventies
who would be proselytizing with the apostles.
From 15 to 26 June, JS traveled with his family to
visit his brothers who were living in other areas of Illinois. JS, his , and their children stayed first
with in , Hancock
County, Illinois, and then traveled to , where
and were living with
their families. This visit was JS’s first opportunity to
see Samuel “since [JS’s] deliverance from prison.” During these
travels, JS preached to several large congregations, addressing in
particular the “coming forth of the
Book of
Mormon.”
JS and his immediate family returned to on 26 June, and on 27 June he presided at the
third day of council meetings that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
was holding in and Commerce. At
this and subsequent meetings in late June and early July, JS
instructed the departing missionaries on topics such as discernment
of spirits, the doctrine of election, the importance of unity and
humility, and the . Intending to
depart in early July, several of the apostles gave farewell
addresses on 7 July. However, their
departures were delayed by malaria, which struck several of the
apostles, their families, and many other Saints in Commerce and
Montrose. In the midst of this crisis, JS and helped care for the sick,
bringing some into the Smith home and traveling to others throughout
Commerce. JS
also fell ill in mid-July
but recovered on 22 July, and he and other elders gave blessings of
healing to ailing Saints, many of whom quickly recovered.
During the summer, JS was also occupied with land
acquisition. On 2 July, JS and others visited sections of the
approximately sixteen thousand acres around that church agent
had recently purchased
from . In August, JS and
his counselors in the First Presidency arranged to buy additional
land for the Saints. In one of the two transactions that month, JS,
, and signed a
bond
to purchase around four hundred acres in the peninsula from land speculator and his
partners, and . The same day,
the First Presidency arranged to purchase ninety acres that
Hotchkiss had agreed to purchase from . These transactions
provided the church leaders with a substantial amount of land in and
around Commerce, which the church could then sell to Saints moving
to the area.