Minutes, 7 November 1837

The document is not extant. While the charges read by Marsh are not specified, they may have been related to allegations of earlier mismanagement of affairs in Far West by John Whitmer and Phelps. Marsh borrowed money from Saints in Tennessee and Kentucky in summer 1836, which was then used by Whitmer and Phelps to purchase land in Caldwell County. Marsh may have personally borrowed the money, and thus been liable for its repayment, or he may have felt a responsibility for the money to be used solely for the benefit of Zion and then repaid to the Kentucky and Tennessee Saints. Although the council ruled that Whitmer and Phelps were to transfer the original town plat and a portion of common land to Bishop Edward Partridge, the two men remained involved with selling land in Far West. (“History of Thomas Baldwin Marsh,” 5 [draft 4], Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; Minute Book 2, 68–73; Historical Introduction to Revelation, 4 Sept. 1837.)  

Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

TEXT: The text from this point forward was written at a later time. Hinkle was a commissioned colonel in the Missouri state militia. (Document Containing the Correspondence, 34, 73–74, 100; Baugh, Call to Arms, 101–102.)  

Document Containing the Correspondence, Orders, &c., in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons; and the Evidence Given before the Hon. Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, at the Court-House in Richmond, in a Criminal Court of Inquiry, Begun November 12, 1838, on the Trial of Joseph Smith, Jr., and Others, for High Treason and Other Crimes against the State. Fayette, MO: Boon’s Lick Democrat, 1841.

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

At the 3 September 1837 meeting in Kirtland, the congregation voted to reject Luke Johnson, Lyman Johnson, and John F. Boynton as members of the Quorum of the Twelve. Unlike other men who were removed from their church positions at that meeting, the three members of the Twelve were not replaced on 3 September. A week later, each of the men confessed his errors and was restored to full fellowship in the church as well as his position within the Twelve, as their inclusion in the voting on 7 November suggests. (Minutes, 3 Sept. 1837.)