Schedule of Creditors, circa 14–16 April 1842

  • Source Note
  • Historical Introduction

Document Transcript

Schedule setting forth a list of Petitioners Creditors, their residence, and the amount due to each.”
To & Co. who resides in the city of jointly with , . & twenty eight other individuals, whose names are not recollected, by two notes drawn by us, one for $2323.66 and the other for $2395.57 dated Sept. 1st. 1837, together with accruing interest thereon, amount to the sum of about $7000.00
To The , jointly with , , by note dated Sept 10th 1840, at 8 months $4866.38.
To & Co. who reside in , in the State of , jointly with and by note— $50,000.00
To John Wilkie who resides in the city of in the State of , secured by mortgage $2700.00.
To & , who reside in , in Illinois $1000.00
To Keeler, McNeil & Co. who reside in the city & State of on notes or accounts jointly with , , & $8000.00
To Davenport & Boynton, who reside in the city & State of on Judgt. rendered in the Court of Common Pleas for Ohio, against myself , [p. 1]
, about—— $1100.00.
To Levitt, Loyd & Co. who reside in the city & State of on account jointly with & $600.00
To , who resides in the city of New York, on account jointly with , , & $1500.00
To M. H. Birgo [Martin Birge], who resides in said city of New York, on account jointly with , & for goods $1334.79.
To Keeler & Hempstead, who resides in the city of , N.Y. on notes jointly with , , , & $1567.59
To , who resides in the said city of , on notes or accounts jointly with , , , & $669.97
To & , who reside in said city of , on account jointly with , , , & $280.94
To James Robison, who resides in said city of , on account jointly with , , , & $98.00
To D[aniel] O. Ketchum who resides in the city of , [p. [2]]
New York, on note jointly with , & . $246.96.
To W. T. Jones & Co. who resides in the said city of , on account jointly with . $821.06.
To D. [Gurdon] C. Coit, who resides in said city of , on notes jointly with , & about $1474.44
To W. T. Jones & Co. who reside in said city of , jointly with , , & $848.75
To , who resides in the city of , aforesaid on notes jointly with and $1000.00
To Mead & Betts, who reside in said city of , on notes jointly with , , & . $3670.64
To Holbrook & Finne, who reside in the city of on note jointly with , & . $900.00
To Thompson & Co. who reside in the city & State of on note jointly with & . $911.14
To , & , who reside in the city & State of on note jointly with [p. [3]]
, & . $1804.94
To , who resides in the city of , Illinois balance on note jointly with , & . $500.00
To John Isham’s Estate, late of aforesaid deceased on joint account against & myself $1100.00
To Truman Blodget who resides in said city of against said & myself jointly $100.00
To , who resides in said city of on account against myself and $500.00
To , who resides in said city of on account. $2800.00
To ’s Estate, who is deceased late of said $10.000.00
Signed Joseph Smith. [1/4 page blank] [p. [4]]

Footnotes

  1. 1

    In October 1836 the church firm Cahoon, Carter & Co. purchased goods worth $6,162.23 from New York merchant Halsted, Haines & Co. In August 1839 JS presumably entered into an agreement, through his agent Oliver Granger, to personally assume and pay the firm’s outstanding debt. Attorney William Perkins renegotiated the debt in September 1841, dividing the original debt into three separate promissory notes due twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months later. The three principals (Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter) as well as JS and twenty-nine other sureties signed the promissory notes. (William Perkins, Letter, 23 July 1867; 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; Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839; see also Letter to Orville Browning and Nehemiah Bushnell, 7 Dec. 1841.)  

    Comprehensive Works Cited

    Smith, Hyrum, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter. Promissory Note to Halsted, Haines and Co., Kirtland, OH, 1 Sept. 1837. Private possession. Copy at CHL.

  2. 2

    At a public auction in Quincy, Illinois, on 10 September 1840, Captain Robert E. Lee, acting as agent for the United States, sold two keelboats and the steamboat Des Moines to Latter-day Saint businessman Peter Haws for $4,866.38, with the payment due in eight months. The steamboat, renamed Nauvoo, wrecked later that fall, resulting in Haws’s inability to pay the note when it came due in May 1841. JS, along with his brother Hyrum Smith, Henry Miller, and George Miller, apparently acted as a surety for Haws’s purchase. (Promissory Note, 10 Sept. 1840, microfilm, Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, copy at CHL; Robert E. Lee to Peter Haws, Indenture, Quincy, IL, 10 Sept. 1840, CHL; Oaks and Bentley, “Joseph Smith and Legal Process,” 735–745.)  

    Comprehensive Works Cited

    Lee, Robert E. Indenture, to Peter Haws, Quincy, IL, 10 Sept. 1840. CHL.

    Oaks, Dallin H., and Joseph I. Bentley. “Joseph Smith and Legal Process: In the Wake of the Steamboat Nauvoo.” Brigham Young University Law Review, no. 3 (1976): 735–782.

  3. 3

    On 12 April 1839 First Presidency members JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith entered into an agreement with Connecticut-based land speculators Horace Hotchkiss, Smith Tuttle, and John Gillet to purchase approximately four hundred acres in the Commerce, Illinois, area. The agreement specified that the church leaders would pay $50,000 in two principal payments of $25,000 each, due in 1859. However, there were also two interest payments of $1,500 each due every year for the twenty intervening years, for a total purchase price of $110,000. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A.)  

  4. 4

    It is unclear whether JS took an 1841 loan from Wilkie or owed Wilkie from an earlier debt. Either way, on 28 June 1841 JS signed an indenture to Wilkie transferring nine blocks and portions of eight other blocks of land in Nauvoo to Wilkie for $2,700. All the land was in the southwest corner of Nauvoo, and many of these blocks and lots were fractional properties, reduced in size because of the shoreline of the Mississippi River. The indenture stipulated that the land described would become Wilkie’s property in the event that JS did not repay the $2,700 plus interest. (JS to John Wilkie, Mortgage, Nauvoo, IL, 28 June 1841, Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 137–138, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)  

  5. 5

    Nearly $3,000 of this amount was accrued by Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery in a single purchase on 11 October 1836 from the New York company Keeler, McNeil & Co., which described itself as “WHOLESALE DEALERS IN FANCY AND STAPLE DRY GOODS.” (Keeler, McNeil & Co., New York City, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 11 Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL, emphasis in original.)  

  6. 6

    This entry may refer to an unidentified purchase in New York by one of the Kirtland mercantile firms, probably in 1836. Boynton may refer to Ray Boynton, a New York merchant with whom Painesville, Ohio, merchant John Howden had done business. (See Letter from Reuben McBride, 3 Jan. 1842.)  

  7. 7

    All or part of the $600 debt likely refers to Cahoon, Carter & Co.’s purchase of $434.65 worth of books from New York bookseller Leavitt, Lord & Co. on 14 October 1836. The purchase included large quantities of various editions of the Bible and Hebrew manuals, as well as copies of Webster’s dictionary, Henry Wheaton’s Elements of International Law, John Locke’s essays, and sets of Encyclopædia Americana, among other works. (Leavitt, Lord & Co., New York City, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 14 Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  8. 8

    The $1,500 listed here may be a rough summary of two separate debts due to Scribner, a hardware importer and wholesaler. The two church firms Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery and Cahoon, Carter & Co. purchased $790.91 and $867.71 worth of goods, respectively, from Scribner on 16 June 1836. (J. F. Scribner, Buffalo, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 16 June 1836; J. F. Scribner, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  9. 9

    The church firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery purchased various dry goods from Birge, a retailer, on 17 June 1836. (M. H. Birge, Buffalo, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 17 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  10. 10

    On 18 June 1836 the church firm Cahoon, Carter & Co. purchased $1,567.59 worth of dry goods from the Buffalo company Hempstead & Keeler. (Hempstead & Keeler, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Invoice, 18 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  11. 11

    On 17 June 1836 the firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery purchased $264.54 worth of miscellaneous goods from Newbould, a wholesale cutlery and hardware dealer. The same day, Cahoon, Carter & Co. made a purchase for $469.97. Although the total of these debts—$734.51—does not precisely match the amount JS listed in this schedule, it is possible these are the debts to which he is referring here. (John A. Newbould, Buffalo, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 17 June 1836; John A. Newbould, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Invoice, 17 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  12. 12

    This purchase, made 27 June 1836 from dinnerware seller Gardner & Patterson for $280.94 by Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, was one of at least a couple of transactions between the New York merchant and the church that month; on 15 June, Cahoon, Carter & Co. had purchased $289.96 worth of goods. By December 1836 the two firms had paid Gardner & Patterson $596.46 toward their accounts. (Gardner & Patterson, Buffalo, NY, to Smith & Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 27 June 1836; Gardner & Patterson, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 15 June 1836; Gardner & Patterson, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Receipt, 14 Dec. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  13. 13

    On 20 June 1836 the church firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery purchased umbrellas, silk gloves, ribbon, and other goods from Ketchum. The church firm Cahoon, Carter & Co. also made two separate purchases from Ketchum in the preceding days. Although JS identified his responsibility for other Cahoon, Carter & Co. debts on this list of creditors, he did not include these two earlier transactions, which suggests they were paid. (Daniel Ketchum, Buffalo, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 20 June 1836; Daniel Ketchum, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Invoices, 16 and 18 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  14. 14

    This purchase from Buffalo merchant William Jones may have been on behalf of church firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery. Or, if the entry here is accurate, it may have been a purchase by JS and Rigdon as individuals. Jones was a wholesale grocer from whom Cahoon, Carter & Co. bought rice, alcohol, spices, and other goods in June 1836. (See William Tell Jones & Co., Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co, Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 25 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  15. 15

    This purchase of fabric, hats, and other dry goods by Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery from Coit occurred on 18 June 1836. (Gurdon Coit, Buffalo, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 18 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  16. 16

    On 25 June 1836 Cahoon, Carter & Co. purchased large quantities of salt, sugar, rum, tobacco, spices, and other goods from Buffalo wholesaler William Jones. The purchase amount was $848.25, not $848.75 as written here. (William Tell Jones & Co., Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co, Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 25 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  17. 17

    Despite the names of JS’s cosigners on this schedule of creditors, this entry may refer to a purchase of $1,083.10 worth of fabric and clothing by Cahoon, Carter & Co. from Ayer on 16 June 1836. If Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon’s names are correct, however, it is possible that the church made two purchases of roughly equal amounts from Ayers around the same time. (John V Ayer, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Kirtland, OH, Invoice, 16 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  18. 18

    This debt was contracted with wholesale dry goods partners Matthew Mead and Francis Betts by church firm Cahoon, Carter & Co., which began contracting debts with Mead & Betts in 1836. The $3,670.64 shown here reflected the original debt amount. Though JS was not associated with that original purchase, in August 1839 church agent Oliver Granger renegotiated with Mead & Betts, preparing three promissory notes totaling $3,642.61 to satisfy the earlier debt, and JS was one of twenty-nine sureties named on the three notes. (Mead & Betts, Buffalo, NY, to Cahoon, Carter & Co., Invoice, 18 June 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL; Agreement with Mead & Betts, 2 Aug. 1839.)  

  19. 19

    On 1 September 1837 Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery made out three promissory notes to New York hardware merchants Edward Holbrook and John Ferme totaling $835.28. In October 1838 JS’s attorneys William Perkins and Salmon Osborn summarized the debts on a statement of account prepared at the request of church agent Oliver Granger. Perkins and Osborn noted that either Holbrook or Ferme had, by that time, transferred two of the three notes to creditors. (Statement of Account from Perkins & Osborn, ca. 29 Oct. 1838; JS et al., Kirtland, OH, to Holbrook & Ferme, Promissory Note, 1 Sept. 1837, Joseph Smith Papers, 1837–1838, Ohio History Center, Columbus; JS et al., Kirtland, OH, to Holbrook & Ferme, Promissory Note, 1 Sept. 1837, BYU.)  

  20. 20

    The church firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery purchased $911.14 worth of carpets and rugs from New York wholesaler Thompson & Company on 13 October 1836. (Thompson & Company, New York City, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 13 Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  21. 21

    On 12 October 1836 the church firm Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery purchased cloth from fabric seller Bailey, Keeler & Remsen. (Bailey, Keeler & Remsen, New York City, NY, to Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery, Invoice, 12 Oct. 1836, JS Office Papers, CHL.)  

  22. 22

    Boosinger actually lived in Macoupin County, Illinois, likely in or near the town of Staunton. Alton was in Madison County, which bordered Macoupin County to the south. (Letter from George Boosinger, 9 Apr. 1842.)  

  23. 23

    JS’s financial interactions with Boosinger were ongoing. On 23 May 1836 JS, Rigdon, Cowdery, and Hyrum Smith signed a promissory note for $735, which amount Boosinger had just given them. Three days later JS and others signed another promissory note to Boosinger for an additional $200. In January 1839 Boosinger sued JS, Cowdery, Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith in the Caldwell County, Missouri, circuit court. Then, in January 1842 Boosinger wrote a letter to JS suggesting that part of the money the church owed him be repaid through tithing credit for Boosinger and some of his neighbors. (JS et al. to George Boosinger, Promissory Note, Kirtland, OH, 23 May 1836; JS et al. to George Boosinger, Promissory Note, Tallmadge, OH, 26 May 1836; Transcript of Proceedings, 8 Jan. 1842, Boosinger v. JS, Cowdery, Rigdon, and Smith [Caldwell Co. Cir. Ct. 1839], Letters Related to George Boosinger, ca. 1839–1953, in Mormon File, ca. 1805–1995, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Letter to George Boosinger, 24 Feb. 1842; Letter from George Boosinger, 9 Apr. 1842.)  

  24. 24

    Cahoon was the son of Reynolds Cahoon of Cahoon, Carter & Co.  

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