Agreement with Ovid Pinney and Stephen Phillips, 14 March 1837
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Source Note
, agent, on behalf of JS and , Agreement, with Ovid Pinney and Stephen Phillips, possibly Beaver Co., PA, 14 Mar. 1837; handwriting of A. B. Hull; signatures of , Ovid Pinney, and Stephen Phillips; witnessed by A. B. Hull and James McConnel; two pages; JS Office Papers, CHL. Includes docket.Single bifolium, measuring 12¼ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm) when folded. The bifolium is ruled with thirty-eight horizontal, blue lines, nearly faded. After inscription, the agreement was ordered so the docket and second page were the exterior folio leaves. The document was then folded in a parallel fold twice and was docketed. Marked soiling is present on the page containing the docket.The provenance of this document is unknown; however, given the pattern of extant Kirtland-era documents in possession of the Church History Library, this document was probably bundled and stored with other loose Kirtland financial material and was likely in continuous institutional custody.
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Historical Introduction
On 14 March 1837, , acting as an agent for officers JS and , signed the agreement featured here with businessmen Ovid Pinney and Stephen Phillips and their agents A. B. Hull and James McConnel. The agreement outlined Pinney and Phillips’s commitment to circulate the notes of the society in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.This agreement was one of several contracts the officers and managers of the Kirtland Safety Society made with their appointed agents between January and March 1837 to expand the reach of the institution and find financial support outside of the , Ohio, area. On 8 March, a week earlier, J. W. Briggs, a merchant from , Ohio, signed an agreement to act as an agent for the society in Painesville. Unlike the January agreement with David Cartter and the agreement featured here, both of which involved tens of thousands of dollars in Kirtland Safety Society notes, Briggs was given only one thousand dollars.Compared to the earlier agreements, the arrangement with Pinney, Phillips, and their agents gave them significant autonomy, more time to circulate the society’s notes, and a larger amount of capital from which to base their loans. The Kirtland Safety Society committed to provide $40,000 in the society’s notes to Pinney and Phillips over the next four years. The independence given to Pinney and Phillips suggests a different role than agents had previously played in the circulation of the society’s notes. Additionally, they were required to mark the Kirtland Safety Society notes given to them with their names and to deposit money with the society to redeem those notes.The arrangement appears to have been at least partially successful: several extant notes bear the names of Pinney and his agent Hull, suggesting that the notes held by the businessmen were put into circulation for a time, thereby extending the society’s access to western Pennsylvania and eastern . No further records of transactions between Pinney and Phillips and the Kirtland Safety Society exist. The closure of the society by August 1837 ended this arrangement long before the four-year period outlined in the contract was over.
Footnotes
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1
Both Ovid Pinney and Stephen Phillips are described as capitalists in a history of Beaver County. After moving to Pennsylvania, Pinney had purchased land and tried to create a new town in Beaver County. He was also involved in efforts to establish the Conneaut Railroad, intended to connect Pennsylvania and Ohio, beginning in 1835. Phillips, a carpenter who was a partner in a steamboat-building firm, helped found the town of Freedom, Pennsylvania, in 1832. (Patterson, “Beaver County,” 359–360.)
Patterson, James. “Beaver County.” In An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil Political, and Military, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, including Historical Descriptions of Each County in the State, Their Towns, and Industrial Resources, by William H. Egle, 340–360. Harrisburg, PA: De Witt C. Goodrich, 1876.
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2
See Introduction to Part 5: 5 Oct. 1836–10 Apr. 1837; Agreement with David Cartter, 14 Jan. 1837; and J. W. Briggs, Bond, Kirtland, OH, 8 Mar. 1837, JS Office Papers, CHL.
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3
J. W. Briggs, Bond, Kirtland, OH, 8 Mar. 1837, JS Office Papers, CHL. This bond was witnessed by Warren Parrish alone, and neither of the society’s officers were recorded as being involved with the agent agreement.
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4
Painesville was a large market town in Geauga County and could have generated some economic support, but significant opposition against JS and the church existed there. Additionally, the Bank of Geauga was located in Painesville, and the banks’ officers likely had no desire to compete with another banking institution in Geauga County and may have worked against the Safety Society politically and economically. Grandison Newell, a determined opponent to JS and the church, was on the Bank of Geauga’s board of directors. (“Bank of Geauga,” Geauga [OH] Gazette, 28 Feb. 1832, [3]; Adams, “Grandison Newell’s Obsession,” 159–188; Agreement with David Cartter, 14 Jan. 1837; Historical Introduction to Letter from Newel K. Whitney, 20 Apr. 1837.)
Geauga Gazette. Painesville, OH. 1828–1833.
Adams, Dale W. “Grandison Newell’s Obsession.” Journal of Mormon History 30 (Spring 2004): 159–188.
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5
Kirtland Safety Society Notes, 4 Jan.–9 Mar. 1837; No. 735, No. 948, No. 1005, No. 913, No. 551, No. 1090, Kirtland Safety Society Notes, Jan. 1837–Mar. 1837, Coin and Currency Collection, CHL.
Coin and Currency Collection, no date. CHL.
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