Letter from William W. Phelps, 14 November 1833
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Source Note
[], Letter, [, MO], to church leaders (including JS), [, Geauga Co., OH], 14 Nov. 1833. Featured version published in “The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 119. For more complete source information on The Evening and the Morning Star, see the source note for Letter, 30 October 1833.
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Historical Introduction
The letter featured here, written on 14 November 1833 to church leaders in , Ohio, depicts the plight of church members who had been forced to leave their homes in . Distanced from their homes and daily provisions, church members had difficulties finding food and shelter for the coming winter months. A day after arriving in , Missouri, and a small company of men began to fell cottonwood trees to build cabins. The families of and lived together in an old stable for the winter, and many, including , struggled to feed their families.Following the forced exodus from , , , and all wrote to JS sometime on or after 14 November 1833. They sent their correspondence, possibly as a parcel, to on 19 November. published the Corrill and Phelps letters as part of an article printed in the December 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star. Although Cowdery published the letters without acknowledging their authorship, contemporary sources help determine who wrote each of these two missives.One letter, dated 17 November 1833, discussed the writer’s imprisonment with at the jail in on 4 November 1833. was imprisoned with Gilbert at that time, indicating that Corrill likely wrote the 17 November letter. The 14 November letter featured here was placed in an article in The Evening and the Morning Star immediately after two other extracts of a letter known to be from , written on 6 and 7 November 1833. Therefore, it is likely that Phelps also wrote the letter featured here. ’s mid-November correspondence, which was not printed in The Evening and the Morning Star, is still extant and is featured as the next document in this volume.On 10 December 1833, JS responded to the communications from , , and . JS offered spiritual encouragement by turning the suffering refugees’ attention to a revelation he had dictated nearly two years earlier during his first trip to . That revelation stated in part, “After much tribulation cometh the blessings.” Despite the hardships detailed in these letters, JS expressed hope for the redemption of in .
Footnotes
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2
Letter from Edward Partridge, between 14 and 19 Nov. 1833; Lyman, Journal, 10; Young, “Incidents,” 77–78.
Lyman, Amasa. Journals, 1832–1877. Amasa Lyman Collection, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 829, boxes 1–3.
Young, Emily Dow Partridge. “Incidents of the Life of a Mormon Girl,” ca. 1884. CHL. MS 5220.
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3
Letter from Edward Partridge, between 14 and 19 Nov. 1833; Letter from John Corrill, 17 Nov. 1833; Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 10 Dec. 1833.
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4
“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 118–120. The Partridge letter was not published in The Evening and the Morning Star. (See Letter from Edward Partridge, between 14 and 19 Nov. 1833.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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5
Letter from John Corrill, 17 Nov. 1833; Orson Hyde, Letter to the Editor, The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 120; see also Corrill, Brief History, 20.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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9
Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:4].
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