Minutes, 17 March 1834
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Source Note
Minutes, , Livingston Co., NY, 17 Mar. 1834. Featured version copied [likely ca. late Apr. but before May 1834] in Minute Book 1, pp. 42–43; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minute Book 1.
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Historical Introduction
On 17 March 1834, a of convened in , New York, at the home of , an old acquaintance of JS and his family. One of the conference’s purposes was to recruit volunteers to travel to with JS to restore church members to the lands from which they had been driven in , the location of the . On 24 February 1834, and reported to the in , Ohio, on the condition of the church members in Missouri—most of whom were living in —which led JS to declare “that he was going to to assist in redeeming it.” About thirty or forty others who were in attendance at the meeting volunteered to go to Missouri with him. That same day, a revelation instructed JS to gather “young men, & the middle aged” for the expedition, stating that it was necessary to recruit at least one hundred and as many as five hundred individuals to accompany him to Missouri. The 24 February revelation also directed , Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight, , , , and to assist JS in recruiting individuals for this expedition.For the next few weeks, these men traveled east, primarily to , trying to recruit church members for the trip to . and , for example, held a meeting in , New York, where “3 or 4 of the middle aged & young men” stated their willingness to travel to Missouri “this spring if they could.” Likewise, JS and explained to a gathering of church members in , New York, “the prophesyes and revelations concerning the order of the gethering to and the means of her Redemtion.” According to JS’s journal, “The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon them and with all redyness the yo[u]ng and mid[d]le aged volenteered for .” Ultimately, these endeavors—including the 17 March conference in , New York, reported in the minutes featured here—led to the establishment of a force of about two hundred men and about twelve women and nine children called the . The Camp of Israel eventually departed for Missouri in early May 1834.The participants at the 17 March conference also discussed raising $2,000 to help church leaders in pay off their debts. Although the minutes of the conference do not specify the source of the debts, they may have been related to the purchase of the in Kirtland in 1833—land that was to be the site of the . At the direction of a council of and , had agreed to purchase the farm from French for $5,000. Coe apparently provided $2,000 as a down payment for the purchase, leaving the remainder to be paid off in two installments of $1,500, one due on 10 April 1834 and the other on 10 April 1835. In June 1833, , under the auspices of , the Kirtland mercantile branch of the , purchased the farm from Coe for $5,000, apparently assuming the remaining $3,000 debt to French. The debts may also have been related to other activities of the United Firm, which governed the church’s mercantile and publishing endeavors. As a member of the firm, Whitney purchased goods in the fall of 1833 for his in Kirtland, which functioned as a church . On behalf of the firm, Whitney also funded the cost of a printing press and type, which were purchased by in the fall of 1833 for the Kirtland . Concern about these debts was evidenced in January 1834, when JS, Whitney, , , Oliver Cowdery, and prayed that God would provide “means sufficient to discharge every debt that the Firm owes.” On 20 February 1834, the Kirtland high council assigned Hyde and to travel east and raise funds “to redeem the farm on which the house of the Lord stands,” but four days later, Hyde and Pratt’s assignment was changed; they were to instead recruit for the Missouri expedition. Because money was still needed to pay the Kirtland debts, the 17 March conference assigned four individuals living in the general vicinity of —, , , and —to collect money in the Avon area. The conference also assigned Hyde to bring the funds to Kirtland. How much effort was devoted to fundraising in accordance with these assignments is not clear, but a 7 April 1834 letter from JS to Hyde indicated that as of 31 March, the goal of collecting $2,000 had not been met.As clerk of the 17 March conference, recorded the minutes of the meeting and later copied them into Minute Book 1.
Footnotes
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1
Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 115, 172; “Mormonism—No. II,” Tiffany’s Monthly, Aug. 1859, 167; Pratt, Autobiography, 117–118.
“Mormonism,” Tiffany’s Monthly 5 (May 1859): 46–51; (July 1859): 119–121; (Aug. 1859): 163–170. Tiffany's Monthly. New York City. 1856–1859.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
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2
Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:2–3]. For an account of the expulsion of church members from Jackson County, see Parley P. Pratt et al., “‘The Mormons’ So Called,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Extra, Feb. 1834, [1]–[2].
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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4
Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103:22, 29–30, 37–40].
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5
Pratt, Diary, 13 Mar. 1834.
Pratt, Orson. Journal, 1833–1837. Orson Pratt, Autobiography and Journals, 1833–1847. CHL. MS 587, fds. 2–4.
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6
JS, Journal, 4–6 Mar. 1834.
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7
See JS, Journal, 26–28 Feb. 1834; Pratt, Autobiography, 116–122; Backman, Profile, appendix E; Woodruff, Journal, 1 May 1834; Account with the Church of Christ, ca. 11–29 Aug. 1834; Radke, “We Also Marched,” 147–165.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Backman, Milton V., Jr., comp. A Profile of Latter-day Saints of Kirtland, Ohio, and Members of Zion’s Camp, 1830–1839: Vital Statistics and Sources. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Department of Church History and Doctrine and Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1983.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Radke, Andrea G. “We Also Marched: The Women and Children of Zion’s Camp, 1834.” BYU Studies 39 (2000): 147–165.
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8
See Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96:2].
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9
Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 17, pp. 38–39, 359–360, 10 Apr. 1833, microfilm 20,237, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Minutes, 23 Mar. 1833–A.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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10
Minutes, 26–27 Apr. 1832; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:11–12]; Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 17, pp. 360–361, 17 June 1833, microfilm 20,237, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. The records are not clear as to whether N. K. Whitney & Co. reimbursed Coe for the $2,000 down payment at the same time it purchased the farm or whether the $2,000 was also a debt to be paid in the future.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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11
Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland Mills, OH, to Warren A. Cowdery, Freedom, NY, 30 Oct. 1833, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 1–3. According to Frederick G. Williams, Whitney went to New York in the fall of 1833 “with money enough to pay all the debts” owed for previous purchases of goods. However, on this trip Whitney also purchased “a larger supply of goods than at any former time.” Whitney’s “New York Account Book” indicates that he owed nearly $4,400 to various firms for invoices issued in October 1833. The account book of F. G. Williams & Co. indicates that Cowdery spent $190.60 for the printing press and $360.21 for type. (Frederick G. Williams, Kirtland, OH, to “Dear Brethren,” 10 Oct. 1833, in JS Letterbook 1, p. 58; “New York Account Book Sept 1834,” Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; F. G. Williams and Company, Account Book, 1.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.
F. G. Williams & Co. Account Book, 1833–1835. CHL. In Patience Cowdery, Diary, 1849–1851. CHL. MS 3493.
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12
Prayer, 11 Jan. 1834. Concern for the debts of the United Firm had also been expressed in 1833. A March 1833 revelation counseled Newel K. Whitney to obtain an agent who could “discharge evry debt that the store house of the Lord may not be brought in to disrepute.” JS also stated in a June 1833 letter to Missouri church leaders that members of the firm “know not the hour when we shall be Sued for debts which we have contracted ourselves in N York.” (Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:22–23]; Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 25 June 1833.)
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14
Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103:40].
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15
According to the 1830 census, Roger Orton lived in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York; Edmund Bosley resided in Livonia, Livingston County; Freeman Nickerson lived in Perrysburg, Cattaraugus County, New York; and Isaac McWithy resided in Bennington, Genesee County, New York. (1830 U.S. Census, Geneseo, Livingston Co., NY, 14; 1830 U.S. Census, Livonia, Livingston Co., NY, 65; 1830 U.S. Census, Perrysburg, Cattaraugus Co., NY, 224; 1830 U.S. Census, Bennington, Genesee Co., NY, 136.)
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
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16
JS et al., Kirtland, OH, to Orson Hyde, 7 Apr. 1834, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 82–84. An 1834 entry in JS’s journal indicates that the church had received nearly $250 from various individuals “for the delivery of Zion.” (Record of Donations, in JS, Journal, 1832–1834.)
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