Letter from George J. Adams and David Rogers, 11 October 1842
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Source Note
, Letter with postscript by , , Hancock Co., IL, to JS, [Henderson Co., IL], 11 Oct. 1842; handwriting of and ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, dockets, and notations.Bifolium measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm) when folded. All pages were inscribed, the first page in black ink and the other three pages in blue ink. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a wafer seal, and later refolded and docketed for filing. Marked damage along the folds has resulted in partially obscured letters on pages [3] and [4].The letter was likely retained with JS’s correspondence and was docketed by church clerk , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. The document was docketed by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. An unidentified clerk in the Church Historian’s Office made a notation presumably in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The notation “AJ” was apparently added by a clerk or secretary for Jenson. Additionally, there is a graphite notation under the address in unidentified handwriting. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets and notations and its inclusion in the circa 1904 inventory and in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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1
Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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2
Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.
Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.
Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.
Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.
Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.
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3
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
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4
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 11 October 1842, wrote a letter from , Illinois, to JS in Henderson County, Illinois, in which he expressed his enthusiasm for and success in preaching the gospel and conveyed his remorse for having had an extramarital affair. Adams had joined the in February 1840 after hearing preach in , where Adams was living with his wife, . A year later, Adams traveled to , where he spent eighteen months preaching with several members of the before returning home in April 1842. Adams then traveled to , where he gained a reputation as an exceptional preacher and dedicated advocate for the church. even wrote to JS about Adams, lauding him as “one of the best and most able of all Gods servants” and recommending that “should there hapen to be vacancies to fill in any of the highest Adams is worthy of the firs[t] notice in my humble opinion.”In summer 1842, left the eastern and gradually made his way to , preaching along the way. He arrived in Nauvoo by 7 September and over the next week spent at least two days with JS discussing, among other things, the ongoing attempts to extradite JS to . Adams then traveled south to , Illinois, to preach with apostles and . By the time Adams returned to Nauvoo in October, JS had left the city in order to escape arrest and was hiding about thirty miles northeast at the home of , near , Henderson County.Sometime before 11 October, possibly in one of their two interviews the month before, JS confronted with accusations of adultery. The charge related to Adams’s relationship with twenty-three-year-old Mary Connor, the daughter of Henry Connor, an early convert to the church in . The affair began in while Adams was a missionary there, and by October 1842—after it became clear that Mary was pregnant—rumors of the affair caused some commotion in the London of the church. In his letter to JS, Adams confessed his transgressions and promised JS that he would explain the situation in detail when they met again. It is unclear whether Adams was able to meet with JS to confess in person before he returned to the eastern .In this letter, addressed JS both as the “President” of the church and as a “Brother” in the gospel. Adams’s tone and focus shifted dramatically in the middle of the letter. While he boasted of his preaching and loyalty to JS on the letter’s first page, he thereafter exclusively focused on explaining his indiscretion. This tonal shift was accompanied by a change in ink, suggesting that Adams wrote the letter in two separate sittings. After he completed and signed the letter, he folded it and addressed it to JS and then wrote a postscript over the folds asking for JS’s forgiveness. Before the letter was sealed, , a Latter-day Saint portrait painter who had accompanied Adams from , added his own postscript. The absence of any postal notations or stamps indicates the letter was hand delivered to JS, perhaps a few days after it was written.
Footnotes
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1
George J. Adams, 7 Oct. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:220–221.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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2
“Letter from Elder George J. Adams,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1842, 3:826–828.
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3
See, for example, “The Mormons in Salem,” Salem (MA) Register, 2 June 1842, [2]; “From Our Boston Correspondent,” Norfolk Democrat (Dedham, MA), 17 June 1842, [2]; “The Mormon Controversy at Marlboro’ Chapel,” Christian Freeman and Family Visiter, 1 July 1842, 34; “Mormonism,” New-London (CT) Gazette and Advertiser, 6 July 1842, [2]; and “Latter Day Saints, or Mormons,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1842, 3:835–836.
Salem Register. Salem, MA. 1841–1903.
Norfolk Democrat. Dedham, MA. 1839–1854.
Christian Freeman and Family Visiter. Boston. 1841–1843.
New-London Gazette and Advertiser. New London, CT. 1840–1844.
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5
“Mormonism,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 2 Aug. 1842, [2]; Letter from Benjamin Winchester, 8 Aug. 1842.
Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.
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7
Eliza R. Snow, Journal, 18 Sept. 1842; George A. Smith, Quincy, IL, to Bathsheba Bigler Smith, Nauvoo, IL, 23 Sept. 1842, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL.
Snow, Eliza R. Journal, 1842–1844. CHL. MS 1439.
Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.
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8
JS, Journal, 7 Oct. 1842; Henderson Co., IL, Deeds, 1841–1893, vol. 1, p. 490, 17 Mar. 1844, microfilm 1,392,775, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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9
London Conference, Minutes, bk. A, 26 Oct. 1842, 25; Adams’ New Drama (No publisher, 1850), copy at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Woodruff, Journal, 30–31 Aug. 1840; Church of England, St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, Middlesex, England, Parish Registers, 1558–1901, Baptisms, 1816–1821, vol. 22, p. 207, entry no. 1656, microfilm 396,234, British Isles Record Collection, FHL; Charlotte Haven, Nauvoo, IL, to “My Dear Friends at Home,” 8 Sept. 1843, in “Girl’s Letters from Nauvoo,” 635.
London Conference. Minutes, 1841–1877. CHL.
Adams’ New Drama / Traveling Theatre Royal, Late from Beaver Island. Adams’ New Drama. No publisher, 1850. Copy at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Uni- versity, New Haven, CT.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
British Isles Record Collection. FHL.
Haven, Charlotte. “A Girl’s Letters from Nauvoo.” Overland Monthly 16, no. 96 (Dec. 1890): 616–638.
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10
London Conference, Minutes, bk. A, 26 Oct. 1842, 25; Letter from Caroline Youngs Adams, ca. 15 Jan. 1843.
London Conference. Minutes, 1841–1877. CHL.
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11
JS, Journal, 7, 12, 16, 17, and 19–20 Sept. 1842; George J. Adams, Deposition, 3 May 1847, Cobb v. Cobb (Mass. Sup. Ct. 1847), Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives, Massachusetts State Archives, Boston.
Cobb v. Cobb / Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Henry Cobb v. Augusta Adams Cobb, 1847. Boston, Suffolk Co., MA, Divorce Libels, case no. 477. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives, Massachusetts State Archives, Boston.
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12
Wilford Woodruff recorded sending a letter, food, and “some papers” to JS on 12 October 1842. If the papers included other letters, Adams’s letter may have been among them. (Woodruff, Journal, 12 Oct. 1842.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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Cite this page
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Document Information
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Footnotes
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George J. Adams handwriting begins.
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1
Parker was among a small group of trusted followers who had escorted JS to James Taylor’s home on the Henderson River. Throughout October, Parker served as a messenger and guard for JS. (JS, Journal, 7, 15, and 21 Oct. 1842.)
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2
During a conversation on 12 September, JS had encouraged Adams to write to Illinois governor Thomas Carlin, presumably to defend JS against the ongoing efforts of Missouri to extradite him. (JS, Journal, 12 Sept. 1842.)
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