Letter from William W. Phelps, 24 August 1834

An October 1832 treaty moved the Kickapoos to a site on the west bank of the Missouri River, north of Fort Leavenworth. (Articles of a Treaty [24 Oct. 1832], Public Statutes at Large, vol. 7, pp. 391–393.)  

The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.

The prophet mentioned here is probably Kenekuk, a prophet and leader of the Vermillion Kickapoo. Kenekuk, whose belief system was an amalgam of evangelical Protestantism, Catholicism, and traditional Kickapoo religion, counseled his followers to attend services on Sunday and to abstain from alcohol. He also promoted a belief “in heaven, hell, and purgatory,” and “Jesus, the Virgin, and the Saints.” He was noted “for his fiery sermons during the great religious revivals of the 1820s and 1830s.” According to one source, “Travelers and missionaries beat a path to the Kickapoo reservation west of Fort Leavenworth to see this ‘Indian Mahomet.’” (Herring, “Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet,” 295–297; Schultz, “Kennekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet,” 38.)  

Herring, Joseph B. “Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet: Acculturation without Assimilation.” American Indian Quarterly 9, no. 3 (Summer 1985): 295–307.

Schultz, George A. “Kennekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet.” Kansas History 3, no. 1 (Spring 1980): 38–46.

When JS formed the Kirtland high council in February 1834, he said that he was doing so after “the order of Councils in ancient days . . . as shown to him by vision.” (Minutes, 17 Feb. 1834.)  

A February 1833 revelation outlining counsel about what members should eat and drink was known among the Saints as the “Word of Wisdom.” (Revelation, 27 Feb. 1833 [D&C 89:1, 21].)  

This may correspond to the number of branches that the church had in Clay County. (Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 218–222.)  

Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.

The Arkansas Gazette reprinted an article from St. Louis, reporting that parts of Missouri and Illinois had experienced a drought in summer 1834 that “entirely destroyed the prospects of the corn grower.” The article stated that “not enough rain has fallen in the last sixty days to wet the ground two inches.” (News Item, Arkansas Gazette [Little Rock], 30 Sept. 1834, [3].)  

Arkansas Gazette. Little Rock. 1833–1836.

This refers to “malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times) and followed by an interval or intermission.” (Carter, “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century,” 294.)  

Carter, James Byars. “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century: A Genealogical Perspective.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 76 (Dec. 1988): 289–301.

Samuel Drollinger died on Saturday, 16 August 1834. (Moore, Autobiographical Sketch, [2].)  

Moore, Clarissa Jane Drollinger. Autobiographical Sketch, 18 Mar. 1881. Typescript. Family Histories, ca. 1881–1947. CHL. MS 14866.

See Luke 21:19; and Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:38].  

See Job 13:15.  

TEXT: Asterisks probably denoting ellipses.  

See Boynton, Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, 142.  

Boynton, Henry W., ed. The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mi in, 1902.

In May 1834, John Whitmer noted that church members in Missouri, most of whom were in temporary quarters in Clay County, were “among stranger[s] in a strand [strange] place, being despised, mocked at and laughed to scorn by some, and pitied by others.” He continued, “the mob rages, and the peoples hearts are hardened, and the saints are few in number, and poor, afflicted, caust [cast] out, and smitten by their enemies.” However, Edward Partridge later remembered that “the people of Clay co. were mostly friendly to the saints,” although “there were a few exceptions.” (Whitmer, History, 60–61; “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:50.)  

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Phelps appears to have used Isaac Watts’s hymn “A Prospect of Heaven Makes Death Easy” as inspiration for this poem. Watts’s hymn begins, “There is a land of pure delight, / Where saints immortal reign” and includes the line, “So to the Jews old Canaan stood, / While Jordan roll’d between,” which is paraphrased in Phelps’s poem. (Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, 239–240.)  

Gibbons, Thomas. Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. London: James Buckland and Thomas Gibbons, 1780.

See Revelation, ca. 7 Mar. 1831 [D&C 45:11–12].  

See Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:18].  

The 1835 hymnal here has “along” instead of “beyond.” (Hymn 34, Collection of Sacred Hymns, 45.)  

A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Edited by Emma Smith. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835.

The 1835 hymnal here has “them” instead of “us.” (Hymn 34, Collection of Sacred Hymns, 45.)  

A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Edited by Emma Smith. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835.

The 1835 hymnal here has “the” instead of “their.” (Hymn 34, Collection of Sacred Hymns, 45.)  

A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Edited by Emma Smith. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835.

See Revelation, ca. 7 Mar. 1831 [D&C 45:58].