Account with Estate of Oliver Granger, between circa 3 February and circa 2 March 1842
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Source Note
JS, Account, with estate of , [between ca. 3 Feb. and ca. 2 Mar. 1842]; handwriting of ; signature of JS; one page; JS, Papers, 1839–1844, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, Springfield, IL. Includes docket and archival marking. Transcription from digital color image obtained in 2009.Single leaf measuring 12¼ × 7⅝ inches (31 × 19 cm). The document was folded in half twice for filing, and it was docketed by .It is unclear who retained the document in the years after it was created. In 1946 the State Historical Library (now Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) acquired the account from Morris H. Briggs, a rare-book dealer who operated in from the 1920s to the 1950s. After 1972 the library placed the account and other JS documents acquired over approximately thirty years into an artificial collection with different fonds called the Joseph Smith Papers.
Footnotes
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Briggs, Buying and Selling Rare Books; Vinson, Edward Eberstadt and Sons: Rare Booksellers of Western Americana, 72–73; Correspondence between Joseph Smith Papers editors and manuscripts curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL, 15 May 2017, copy in editors’ possession.
Briggs, Morris H. Buying and Selling Rare Books. New York: R.R. Bowker Co, 1927.
Vinson, Michael. Edward Eberstadt and Sons: Rare Booksellers of Western Americana. Norman, OK: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2016.
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Historical Introduction
Between early February and early March 1842, , Illinois, attorney , acting under the direction of JS, produced an account statement outlining the debts that JS believed the estate of owed to him. Granger began acting as a financial for leaders in 1837 and continued in that capacity through the late 1830s. In April 1840 JS signed an agreement transferring to Granger the debts that JS and other church leaders had previously incurred on the church’s behalf. Over the following year Granger traveled to and and successfully satisfied several of the debts, including paying off the mortgage on the in , Ohio.While was in the East settling debts, JS apparently made payments on Granger’s behalf in . The featured account lists several debts that Granger had accrued from these payments between May 1839 and July 1841. The payments ranged from $40 to $2,000 and totaled $5,883.50. The account was likely produced in preparation for probate proceedings connected to Oliver Granger’s estate or for a settlement with Granger’s son . Oliver Granger died from an illness in in late August 1841 without settling all of the church debts or transferring the relevant financial papers to another church agent. A 3 February 1842 entry in JS’s journal notes that JS spent the day counseling with attorney “concerning a Settlement with the estate of Oliver Granger” and “delivered him the necessary papers accordingly.” Warren likely inscribed the account sometime between 3 February, when he received these papers, and 2 March, when JS began meeting with Gilbert Granger to negotiate a settlement over Oliver Granger’s estate. According to JS’s journal and a later history, the negotiations with Gilbert Granger “failed to effect any thing” because he refused to give up his father’s financial papers despite JS providing “Deeds, Mortgages and Paper to the amount of some thousands against his Father more than he had against the Church.”It is not known whether a copy of the featured text was submitted to a probate court or the administrator of ’s estate, or whether JS received payment or other satisfaction on the debts listed in the account.
Footnotes
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1
See Power of Attorney to Oliver Granger, 27 Sept. 1837; Letter of Introduction from John Howden, 27 Oct. 1838; and Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839.
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Letter to Oliver Granger, 26 Jan. 1841. It appears that Granger used land to pay off some of the temple debt. In fall 1840 Granger traveled to Oswego County, New York, where he purchased the farms of several church members, including ten acres of land from Thomas and Elizabeth King, using land in the Nauvoo area as payment. In February 1841 Granger sold the Kings’ former property to Zalmon H. Mead and Robert W. Mead, partners in a firm that owned the mortgage on the House of the Lord in Kirtland. (Benjamin Elsworth, Palermo, NY, 18 Oct. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:219–220; Benjamin Elsworth, Palermo, NY, to Oliver Granger, 28 Jan. 1841, CHL; Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839; Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 32, pp. 32–33, 10 Oct. 1840; pp. 33–34, 9 Oct. 1840; pp. 34–35, 10 Oct. 1840; pp. 35–36, 9 Oct. 1840; vol. 33, pp. 115–116, 22 Feb. 1841, microfilm 1,011,773, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Elsworth, Benjamin C. Letter, Palermo, NY, to Oliver Granger, 28 Jan. 1841. In Benjamin C. Elsworth, Letters, Palermo, New York, to Oliver Granger, Kirtland, Ohio, 1841. CHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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4
See also JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1842; and JS History, vol. C-1, 1286.
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After an individual passed away, the estate’s administrator often put a notice in the newspaper informing residents that anyone indebted to or holding claims against the deceased should submit that information to the probate court. Although no such notice for Granger’s estate has been located, the fact that witnesses were listed for all but one of the line items suggests that the document was prepared for eventual use in court. (See, for example, “The Estate of Joshua C. Alexander,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 12 Sept. 1844, [3].)
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
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Obituary for Oliver Granger, Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1841, 2:550.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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JS, Journal, 2–3 Mar. 1842; see also Memorandum of Deeds, 3 Mar. 1842.
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| In Account with Joseph Smith | Dr. | |
| 1840 Jan | To Amt. for said , to , paid, | $1000.00 |
| Witnesses names to prove the above account, said , , | ||
| 1840 Jan.— | To Amt. paid James Holman, on said ’s account for money loaned of him— | $2000.00 |
| Witnesses, Holman & | ||
| 1840— March 11th— | To Amt. paid for horse sold said | $40.00 |
| Witness , | ||
| To Amt paid Peter Hawes [Haws] for said ,— | $1200.00 | |
| Witness Peter Hawes, business done by , deceased | ||
| 1841 July 5th— | To Amt. paid Samuel Clark on said ’s order, dated July 5th 1841, which amt. was paid out of my own, instead of said ’s property | $101.00 |
| 1839— May 28— | To Amt. paid Charles W. Hubbard, for said , on Lot No. 1 in Block No. 16 on plat of City of | $142.50 |
| Witness, Charles W. Hubbard, of — | ||
| 1840— March— | To Amt. paid John Kelley [Kelly], to lift Deed to him for land in to which said had no title—} | $250.00 |
| Witness, , decd— | ||
| 1840. Jany— | To Amt. paid Isaac Davis, to satisfy mortgage executed by said to said Davis, to secure money loaned by said Davis to said ,— | $500.00 |
| Witnesses— , Peter Hawes, & [blank] Davis— | ||
| 1840— Jany— | To Cash loaned by me to said , | $500.00 |
| Witness , decd.— | ||
| 1840 " | To Amt. paid for said ’s a/c of bill of Surveying— | $90.00 |
| Witness— — | ||
| 1840 Apl. | To Amt loaned said to go to | $60.00 |
| Witness— , James Holman & — | $5883.50 |
Cite this page
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Document Information
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Footnotes
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1
This is an abbreviation for debits.
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2
In January 1840 LeBaron, a church member, loaned $1,000 to the church through Granger. In return LeBaron received a promissory note for later repayment. In June 1842 LeBaron wrote to JS seeking payment of the remaining $815.00, which JS repaid in land. (Alonzo LeBaron, Nauvoo, IL, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 29 June 1842, JS Collection, CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. V, pp. 385–386, 2 July 1842, microfilm 954,605, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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3
Church records indicate that Holman was a member of the church living in Nauvoo, Illinois, by 1842. (Book of the Law of the Lord, 77, 352.)
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4
Guymon once owned a horse-powered mill in Blythe Township, Caldwell County, Missouri, and likely owned several horses. By 1842 Guymon was living in Nauvoo, Illinois. (Foote, Autobiography, 15 Sept. 1838, 29; Nauvoo, IL, Tax List, 1842, p. 186, microfilm 7,706, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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5
In March 1840 the Nauvoo, Illinois, high council appointed Haws to “negotiate a loan of one thousand dollars, to be paid to William White on certain lands.” It is possible that the $1,200 mentioned in the featured text was related to the proposed $1,000 loan. Alternatively, the debt could have been related to Haws’s September 1840 purchase of the steamboat Des Moines on behalf of the church for $4,866.38. (Minutes, 8 Mar. 1840, underlining in original; Robert E. Lee to Peter Haws, Indenture, Quincy, IL, 10 Sept. 1840, CHL.)
Lee, Robert E. Indenture, to Peter Haws, Quincy, IL, 10 Sept. 1840. CHL.
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Thompson died in late August 1841. (“Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:519.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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Clark held an obligation against Granger for land the latter purchased from church member Abel Owen. In October 1840 Granger purchased Owen’s farm, and the farms of several other church members living in Oswego County, New York, using land in the Nauvoo area as payment. Granger intended to use the farms to repay a church debt owed to the New York mercantile firm of John Hitchcock & Son. On 5 July 1841 Granger instructed JS to send Clark $101 as payment for the obligation. (Abel Owen and Betsy Owen to Oliver Granger, Deed, 10 Oct. 1840, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL; Oswego Co., NY, Deeds, 1792–1902, vol. 32, pp. 32–33, 10 Oct. 1840; pp. 33–34, 9 Oct. 1840; pp. 34–35, 10 Oct. 1840; pp. 35–36, 9 Oct. 1840, microfilm 1,011,773, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; John Hitchcock & Son to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Bill, ca. 12 Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL; Pay Order from Oliver Granger, 5 July 1841.)
Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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TEXT: Possibly “plot”.
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On 28 May 1839 Hubbard, a church member, purchased a $220 parcel of land located on block 140 in Nauvoo, Illinois. According to a church record book, he paid $142.50 on that day and agreed to pay $77.50 by November 1840. It is not clear why JS considered this to be a debt against Granger, but it is possible that (as with the previous line item) the land had been JS’s personal property rather than church property. Though the featured text indicates that the land was “on plat of City of Nauvoo,” the city was not officially platted until a few months later. (Trustees Land Book A, White Purchase, block 140, lot 1; Hancock Co., IL, Plat Books, 1836–1938, vol. 1, pp. 37–39, Nauvoo Plat, 3 Sept. 1839, microfilm 954,774, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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10
On 29 May 1839 Granger purchased over twenty-six hundred acres of land in Lee County, Iowa Territory, from land speculator Isaac Galland. In November of that year, Granger sold Kelly land located in Des Moines Township, Lee County. (Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 1, pp. 507–509, 29 May 1839, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, p. 86, 15 Nov. 1839, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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Davis apparently held a mortgage against Granger. In April 1840 JS agreed to pay Davis $500 worth of land (in this case, four hundred acres) to release Granger from the mortgage. (JS to Isaac Davis, Bond, 11 Apr. 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)
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A lawyer and surveyor, Ripley was appointed bishop of the church branch in Lee County, Iowa Territory, on 5 October 1839. Sometime in 1839 Ripley surveyed and drew a plat map of the area south of Montrose, Iowa Territory, locating tracts that were apparently deeded to Granger. The $90 JS paid may have been payment for this or another survey in the area. (Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839; Alanson Ripley, Iowa Plat Surveys, 1839, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.)
Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.
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After Granger was appointed to preside over the church in Kirtland, Ohio, in May 1839, he was given an authorization to “go forth and engage in vast and important concerns as an agent for the Church” and that instructed the “Saints scattered abroad” to provide Granger with the means to redeem the debts of the First Presidency. After spending winter 1839–1840 in Nauvoo, Illinois, Granger was again assigned in April to travel east to settle business matters on behalf of the church. (Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; Authorization for Oliver Granger, 13 May 1839; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, fair copy, 12 Apr. 1840, 55.)
Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.
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Signature of JS.
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