Invoice and Letter, Gardner & Patterson to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 15 June 1836; Invoice, Daniel Ketchum to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 16 June 1836; Invoice, Jonathan Scribner to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, 16 June 1836; Invoice, Jonathan Scribner to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 16 June 1836; Invoice, John Ayer to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 16 June 1836; Invoice, Martin Birge to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, 17 June 1836; Invoice, John Newbould to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 17 June 1836; Invoice, John Newbould to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, 17 June 1836; Invoice, Gurdon Coit to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, 18 June 1836; Invoice, Hempstead & Keeler to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 18 June 1836; Invoice, Mead & Betts to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 18 June 1836; and Invoice, Daniel Ketchum to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 18 June 1836.  

Invoice, Daniel Ketchum to Cahoon, Carter & Co., 18 June 1836; Transcript of Proceedings, ca. 6 June 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]. Both notes were “payable at the Bank of Buffalo 6. mos.”  

Capias ad Respondendum, 22 Mar. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; Declaration, ca. 24 Apr. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; see also Longworth’s American Almanac [1836], 206. Albert Demeritt was also listed as involved in the transaction with Kelley.  

Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory, of the Sixty-First Year of American Independence. . . . New York: Thomas Longworth, 1836.

“Joseph Smith Documents from October 1835 through January 1838”; Historical Introduction to Charges against Joseph Smith Preferred to Bishop’s Council, 29 May 1837.  

For a partial list of some of the litigation involving JS, see Historical Introduction to Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 23 May 1837, in JSP, D5:387n120; see also Introduction to Millet for the use of JS v. Woodstock.  

JSP, D5 / Rogers, Brent M., Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Christian K. Heimburger, Max H Parkin, Alexander L. Baugh, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Documents, Volume 5: October 1835–January 1838. Vol. 5 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, and Matthew C. Godfrey. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017.

Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838. Ohio law required that before an endorsee of the note could be responsible for the note, he had to use “due diligence to obtain the money of the drawer, maker or obligor.” It was considered due diligence if demand was made for payment at the time the note became due “or within a reasonable time thereafter.” An Act, Making Certain Instruments of Writing Negotiable [25 Feb. 1820], Statutes of Ohio, vol.2, pp. 1137, 1139, secs. 2, 5.  

Statutes of the State of Ohio, of a General Nature, in Force, December 7, 1840; Also, the Statutes of a General Nature, Passed by the General Assembly at Their Thirty-Ninth Session, Commencing December 7, 1840. Columbus, OH: Samuel Medary, 1841.

Though the plaintiff’s declaration appears to ask for multiple damages, each for $3,000, it was actually a single debt, expressed in different ways. This followed legal procedures of the times. (Declaration, ca. 24 Apr. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; Swan, Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law, 1:212–217.)  

Swan, Joseph R. The Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law, in Ohio, and Precedents in Pleading, with Practical Notes; together with the Forms of Process and Clerks’ Entries. 2 vols. Columbus: Isaac N. Whiting, 1845.

Capias ad Respondendum, 22 Mar. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]. In February 1837, Cowdery “moved to Michigan to serve on the board of directors for the Bank of Monroe.” He returned to Kirtland by April 1837. (Historical Introduction to Indenture from Warren A. Cowdery, 23 November 1836; “Monroe Bank,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 24 Feb. 1837, [3]; Kirtland Township Trustees’ Minutes and Poll Book, 29 Apr. and 6 June 1837, pp. 153–154  

Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

Kirtland Township Trustees’ Minutes and Poll Book, 1817–1838. Lake County Historical Society, Painesville, OH.

Special Bail, 25 Mar. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; see also An Act to Regulate the Practice of the Judicial Courts, Statutes of Ohio, vol. 3, p. 1677, sec. 33.  

The Statutes of Ohio and of the Northwestern Territory, Adopted or Enacted from 1788 to 1833 Inclusive: Together with the Ordinance of 1787; the Constitutions of Ohio and of the United States, and Various Public Instruments and Acts of Congress: Illustrated by a Preliminary Sketch of the History of Ohio; Numerous References and Notes, and Copious Indexes. 3 vols. Edited by Salmon P. Chase. Cincinnati: Corey and Fairbank, 1833–1835.

Transcript of Proceedings, ca. 6 June 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]. For a discussion of bringing action against the endorser of a note, see Harris v. Clark and Another, 10 Wilcox 6 (Ohio Sup. Ct. 1840).  

Wilcox / Wilcox, P. B. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Ohio in Bank. Vol. 10. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co, 1873.

Docket Entry, Judgment, 6 June 1837, [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; Geauga Co., OH, Court of Common Pleas, Journal, vol. N, p. 193, 6 June 1837, microfilm 20,271, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. Though Kelley had two separate judgments for the same amount, he did not intend to collect on both. His attorneys, Perkins & Osborn, noted, “These are for the same dem[an]d Judt are against the makers in our suit, & against the endor[s]ers in the other, If the Da[mage]s & Costs in one are paid & the Costs in the other, that is all which we Can demd We have levied on several little bits of lands in Kirtland— hope they will bring something.” (Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838.)  

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

See Docket Entry, Costs, ca. 6 June 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery].