Footnotes
Letter from Orville Browning and Nehemiah Bushnell, 23 Nov. 1841. Halsted, Haines & Co. specialized in wholesale dry goods. (“An Old Firm’s Suspension,” New York Times [New York City], 13 July 1884, 12.)
New York Times. New York City. 1857–.
Minutes, 4 May 1833; Hyrum Smith et al., Kirtland, OH, to “the Churches of Christ,” 1 June 1833, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 36–38; Minutes, 6 June 1833.
JS, Journal, 17 Dec. 1835; “Anniversary of the Church of Latter Day Saints,” Messenger and Advocate, Apr. 1837, 3:488; Cahoon, Carter & Co., Advertisements, Northern Times, 2 Oct. 1835, [4].
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Northern Times. Kirtland, OH. 1835–[1836?].
See, for example, JS, Journal, 7 Oct. 1835; and the numerous 1835 and 1836 invoices in JS Office Papers, CHL.
William Perkins, Letter, 23 July 1867, Brigham Young Office, Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867, CHL.
Brigham Young Office. Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867. CHL.
Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter to Halsted, Haines & Co., Promissory Notes, 1 Sept. 1837, copy, Brigham Young Office, Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867, CHL; see also Historical Introduction to Power of Attorney to Oliver Granger, 27 Sept. 1837; and Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838. The three promissory notes renegotiated in September 1837 were for $2,251.77, $2,323.66, and $2,395.57.
The two notes were the second and third due; presumably the first promissory note had been paid.
On the page prior to the 7 December letter, Fullmer copied a letter to Horace Hotchkiss dated 10 December. (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Horace Hotchkiss, 10 Dec. 1841, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 216.)
William Perkins, Letter, 23 July 1867, Brigham Young Office, Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867, CHL.
Brigham Young Office. Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867. CHL.
Page 217
Page 217
The promissory notes, which were copied into the docket book of the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas, contain signatures from thirty-three individuals: three principals—Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter—and thirty sureties. (Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter to Halsted, Haines & Co., Promissory Notes, 1 Sept. 1837, copy, Brigham Young Office, Halsted, Haines & Co. File, 1867, CHL.)
JS’s inability to repay this and other Kirtland-era mercantile debts stemmed from a variety of factors, including the financial panics of 1837 and 1839 and subsequent economic recessions, JS’s flight from Ohio, the need to establish new communities for the Latter-day Saints in northwestern Missouri, JS’s arrest and incarceration, the widespread loss of land and property in the wake of the Latter-day Saints’ forced expulsion from Missouri, and the need to purchase land in Illinois and Iowa Territory for the refugee Saints. (See “Part 6: 20 April–14 September 1837”; Historical Introduction to Agreement, 4 Jan. 1838; “Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839”; and Bill of Damages, 4 June 1839.)
JS may be referring to the sale of church members’ land in the eastern United States to pay the church’s debts, an initiative that had been under way for some time; individuals who donated their land for this purpose were eligible to receive land in Nauvoo. (Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:567–570; see also Historical Introduction to Authorization for Hyrum Smith and Isaac Galland, 15 Feb. 1841.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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