Skip to main content

Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–B

  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–B

Source Note

JS, Discourse, , Hancock Co., IL, ca. 19 July 1840. Featured version copied [between fall 1843 and 1850s] in Martha Jane Coray, Notebook, ca. 1843–1850s, pp. [9]–[22]; handwriting of Martha Jane Knowlton Coray; CHL.
Small book, measuring 5⅝ × 3⅝ × ⅜ inches (14 × 9 × 1 cm). The notebook consists of ninety-two pages in four gatherings of eight, sixteen, ten, and twelve leaves each. The volume is loosely sewn together with thread and lacks a cover. The pages are ruled with now-faded black lines. The beginning of the notebook appears to be missing at least one leaf that likely contained diary entries. The majority of the book’s pages are unnumbered. Coray inscribed most of the entries in the book with black ink, but the volume also includes occasional inscriptions in graphite. Twenty-four pages in the middle of the book are blank. The reverse side of the book includes inscriptions regarding Coray’s study of French. The reverse pages are numbered 3 through 20 inclusive, suggesting that the reverse side is also missing at least one leaf.
The timing of ’s appointment as in (an event referred to in the notebook) and internal dating suggest that Coray made the entries in the notebook sometime between 1843 and 1855. The first date listed in the notebook is 8 August 1853, and the last recorded date is 1 December 1854. The notebook contains diary entries, financial statements, school notes, a copy of Coray’s patriarchal blessing, and transcripts of three sermons given by JS in , Illinois.
Presumably, Coray maintained ownership of the notebook until her death in 1881. The book likely remained in the possession of the Coray family until at least July 1902. Historians later discovered the book filed among the Joseph F. Smith Papers in the Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, suggesting that the Coray family placed the notebook in Smith’s custody sometime prior to his death in 1918.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Ehat and Cook, Words of Joseph Smith, 419n2.

    Ehat, Andrew F., and Lyndon W. Cook, eds. The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980.

  2. [2]

    Jessee, “Joseph Smith’s 19 July 1840 Discourse,” 390n1.

    Jessee, Dean C. “Joseph Smith’s 19 July 1840 Discourse.” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 390–394.

Historical Introduction

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–A *Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–B
[a]tion of a great and high watch Tower and then shall they begin to say within themselves what need hath my Lord of this tower seeing this is a time of peace &c—
Then the Enemy shall come as a thief in the night and [one blank line] scatter the servants abroad when the seed of these 12 Olive trees are scattered abroad they will wake up the Nations of the whole Earth Eeven this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to peices and tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the Staff up[on] which the Nation shall [p. [12]]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, circa 19 July 1840, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray–B
ID #
554
Total Pages
14
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:333–345
Handwriting on This Page
  • Martha Jane Knowlton Coray

Footnotes

  1. [9]

    See Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:45–48].

  2. [10]

    See Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:51].

  3. [11]

    The federal government’s refusal to help the Saints led many church members to conclude that the United States was ripe for destruction. In the July 1840 issue of the Times and Seasons, for example, Alanson Ripley declared that if the Saints could not obtain redress, God would “hear the cries of innocent blood, and will let loose his indignation upon the rulers of this government, and vexation, and astonishment shall be the cry of this nation.” (Alanson Ripley, “To All the Saints,” Times and Seasons, July 1840, 1:137–138; see also Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840.)

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

Go to page