Minutes, 12 April 1840
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Source Note
high council, Minutes, [, Hancock Co., IL], 12 Apr. 1840. Featured version copied 14 Feb. 1842 in Nauvoo High Council Minutes, fair copy, pp. 54–55; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minutes, 27 Oct. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
JS participated in a meeting of the held in his home on 12 April 1840. Of the four items the high council considered, three pertained to sending to the eastern to transact business. Granger had received similar assignments from church leaders beginning in 1837, when JS and gave Granger a power of attorney to settle their business with a company in . When church members departed , Ohio, in 1838, Granger remained behind to try to pay off debts and sell the Saints’ land. Once church members moved to , a general of the church assigned Granger to “preside over the general affairs of the Church” in Kirtland and to “take the Charge and oversight of the .” Granger also received a recommendation from JS, Rigdon, and in November 1839 directing him “to transact all manner of bussiness authorized by his former letters.”Although the minutes of the 12 April meeting do not specify the nature of the business that was to manage, later correspondence suggests JS and the high council expected Granger to resolve the significant debts that the church still owed merchants in . As a result of these and other debts, several collection cases had been filed against JS and other church leaders, and the had been mortgaged. It appears that Granger was assigned to pay off that mortgage, the last payment of which was due on 8 July 1840. The high council directed to accompany Granger on his trip to the eastern , but Smith apparently did not do so. Before Granger departed, JS, , and Hyrum Smith assigned to him “all the debts, notes, & obligations” they owed to parties in New York and and instructed him to “use all necessary dilligence in Settling” these financial matters.As clerk of the meeting, recorded the minutes, which he copied into the high council record book in February 1842.
Footnotes
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2
Horace Kingsbury, Letter of Recommendation for Oliver Granger, 26 Oct. 1838, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 40. Because Granger was willing to help settle these debts, a July 1838 revelation declared that Granger’s “name shall be had in sacred rememberance from generation to generation forever and ever saith the Lord.” (Revelation, 8 July 1838–E [D&C 117:12].)
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5
Agreement with Oliver Granger, 29 Apr. 1840; Letter to Oliver Granger, 26 Jan. 1841.
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6
Introduction to Part 6: 20 Apr.–14 Sept. 1837; Madsen, “Tabulating the Impact of Litigation on the Kirtland Economy,” 232–240.
Madsen, Gordon A. “Tabulating the Impact of Litigation on the Kirtland Economy.” In Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, edited by Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, 227–246. Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.
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7
Letter to Oliver Granger, 26 Jan. 1841. In July 1837, the mortgage was transferred to the principals in the firm Mead, Stafford & Co. A payment was due in July of each year between 1838 and 1840. The agreement stated that if the payments were not made the company would take possession of the structure. (Mortgage to Mead, Stafford & Co., 11 July 1837.)
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8
Agreement with Oliver Granger, 29 Apr. 1840. Before departing Illinois, Granger also received transfers of deeds of Kirtland property and accounts due from other church members. (See, for example, William Marks to Oliver Granger, Deed, 28 Apr. 1840; and Amos Davis to Oliver Granger, Assignment, 21 Apr. 1840, Hiram Kimball, Collection, CHL.)
Kimball, Hiram. Collection, 1830–1910. CHL.
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