Minutes, 10 February 1843
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Source Note
, Minutes, , Hancock Co., IL, 10 Feb. 1843; handwriting of ; one page; Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 1840–1844, CHL. Includes docket, redactions, and notation.Single leaf, measuring 12¼ × 7¼–7⅝ inches (31 × 18–19 cm). The leaf was unevenly cut or torn along the left and right sides., who had served as the regular clerk of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since at least 1841, docketed the minutes and at a later point—possibly in fall or winter 1845–1846 while preparing JS’s history—made a handful of minor graphite redactions. Richards presumably retained the minutes in his possession after inscribing them. In 1846 apparently used both the minutes and JS’s journal to construct the account of this meeting for JS’s history. The minutes were likely among the “Minutes of the Twelve 1840 to 1844” listed in an 1846 inventory of the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department). Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941, initialed the document to indicate that he had reviewed it. By the mid-1970s, the minutes were included as part of the Brigham Young Office Files at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). In 1986 the minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the 1840s in the Young files were transferred to the Office of the First Presidency. The minutes were returned to the CHL in 2008 but cataloged separately from the Young files in 2016. The document’s early docket, inclusion in the 1846 inventory, and subsequent provenance indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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1
See JS, Journal, 10 Feb. 1843; and Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 10 Feb. 1843, 15–16.
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2
“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], 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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3
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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4
Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878, microfilm, Aug. 1975, CHL.
Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.
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See the full bibliographic entry for Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 1840–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 10 February 1843, JS attended a meeting with the in his home in , Illinois. The meeting had been scheduled a day earlier after “asked for some council” following an informal meeting with JS and others. It is unclear what Pratt wished to discuss with JS and his fellow apostles because the topics of discussion apparently changed on the morning of 10 February. That morning JS conversed with several “strangers,” including from Henderson County, Illinois. During their visit, Cowan, who was not a member of the , claimed to have been deputized by his community to request a Latter-day Saint missionary to come preach in the area and encourage Saints to immigrate to the struggling river town of , Illinois. A few months later, claimed that Cowan had only feigned interest in the church for his own “designing purposes.” Nevertheless, JS considered Cowan’s proposal, and the invitation became the main topic of discussion at the 10 February meeting with the apostles.At three o’clock in the afternoon, JS and nine of the apostles met according to appointment in the same room in JS’s home where he held the mayor’s court. JS formally opened the meeting at three thirty by requesting that the business agenda be handled briefly. In addition to agreeing to ’s settlement proposal, the men discussed JS’s allegations of improper activities at the as well as the need to call and his family back to Nauvoo because Adams was guilty of adultery. The men adjourned at five in the afternoon, and JS “immediately” transitioned to presiding over the mayor’s court., JS’s personal secretary as well as the clerk of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, recorded the minutes of this meeting on a loose sheet of paper. The large size and smooth flow of Richards’s handwriting suggest that Richards wrote the first paragraph either before or after the meeting—when he had time to write in a more organized, deliberate manner. The remaining paragraphs all show signs that Richards was writing quickly, in an apparent rush to capture the quorum’s decisions and JS’s words as they occurred. At the bottom of the minutes, Richards signed for as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and for himself as clerk of the . At a later point—presumably that same day—Richards apparently used his minutes to construct the account of the meeting in JS’s journal, which he was keeping.
Footnotes
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1
JS, Journal, 9 Feb. 1843; see also Instruction, 9 Feb. 1843 [D&C 129].
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3
Four days earlier, Fields Jarvis wrote to JS offering him ferry rights in or near Shokokon. It is unclear, however, whether Cowan’s offer on 10 February was connected to Jarvis’s letter. (Letter from Fields Jarvis, 6 Feb. 1843.)
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In warning Saints in the eastern United States about Cowan’s pretentions, Young described Cowan as “all love— Charm— Calculated to magnetize” and argued that he only sought to profit off JS and the Saints. It is unclear whether JS shared Young’s negative assessment of Cowan’s character. On several occasions in 1843 and 1844, Cowan met or corresponded with local and national politicians apparently on behalf of JS or the church. It is unclear whether JS sanctioned Cowan’s activities. (Boston Conference, Minutes, 11 Sept. 1843, 16–17, Historian’s Office, Minutes and Reports [Local Units], CHL; John Chambers, Burlington, Iowa Territory, to John Cowan, [Bald Bluff, IL], 10 Mar. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL; John Cowan, New Orleans, LA, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 23 Jan. 1844; John Cowan, New York City, NY, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 31 May 1844, JS Collection, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Minutes and Reports, 1840–1886. CHL.
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After JS confronted Adams with the charge of adultery in September 1842, Adams confessed and promised to reform. However, in January 1843, while Adams was preaching in Boston, his wife, Caroline Youngs Adams, informed JS that George’s mistress had given birth to a child and she requested that JS privately recall Adams to Nauvoo for church discipline. (Letter from George J. Adams and David Rogers, 11 Oct. 1842; Letter from Caroline Youngs Adams, ca. 15 Jan. 1843.)
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