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Letter from Clyde, Williams & Co., circa 15 July 1843

Source Note

Clyde, Williams & Co., Letter, , Dauphin Co., PA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, [between ca. 1 and 15] July 1843; printed form with manuscript additions in unidentified handwriting; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamps, endorsement, and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 10⅛ × 8 inches (26 × 20 cm). The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. The manuscript additions and the address were written in blue ink. Residue from the wafer remains on the second and third pages of the bifolium. The letter was later refolded for filing.
The document was docketed and endorsed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. It was also docketed by , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1859. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the letter had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s endorsement and early dockets, its listing in a 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    “Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

  3. [3]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 15 July 1843, representatives of the Clyde, Williams & Co. publishing company sent a letter from , Pennsylvania, to JS in , Illinois, requesting an article about the history and beliefs of the that they could include in a volume they planned to publish. Believing that a book about American religious denominations would “be eminently useful to all classes of a reading community,” the publishers solicited articles to compile in a volume provisionally titled He Pas‘Ecclesia, or The Whole Church of the United States. The publishers printed a form letter asking for articles to be written by a competent representative of each denomination who could provide “an accurate and impartial account.”
Clyde, Williams & Co. representatives printed this letter prior to mailing it on 15 July 1843. Given that “July [blank], 1843” is printed on the document and that it was mailed on 15 July, the letter may have been printed shortly before or during the first half of July and addressed to JS during the same period.
The letter was received in by 1 August 1843, when a reply was sent to the publishers. JS himself presumably reviewed the letter from Clyde, Williams & Co., which asked that the requested article be “furnished with as little delay as possible” in anticipation of publication that fall. JS cared deeply about the fair representation of Latter-day Saints in print. A year earlier, he received a similar request from , owner and editor of the weekly Chicago Democrat, and published his response in an article titled “Church History” in the Times and Seasons. JS assigned , one of his scribes, to write back to Clyde, Williams & Co. on his behalf. The 1 August reply, written by Phelps, affirmed that “a suitable article” would be “matured and forwarded in season to meet [their] anticipations.” The earlier article, “Church History,” was slightly modified and updated—perhaps by JS or Phelps—in preparation for sending it to Clyde, Williams & Co. , who kept JS’s journal, noted in the journal that a letter “giving a history of the faith of the chu[r]ch for their Book of Denom[i]nations” was sent to the publishers on 15 September 1843. The book was published in or around April 1844.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The eventual book included forty-three chapters, authored by men representing denominations such as the Amish, Congregationalists, Quakers, Jews, Shakers, Universalists, and four variations of Methodists. (Rupp, He Pasa Ekklesia, vii–viii.)

    Rupp, Israel Daniel, ed. He Pasa Ekklesia [The Whole Church]: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States, Contains Authentic Accounts of Their Rise, Progress, Statistics and Doctrines. Written Expressly for the Work by Eminent Theological Professors, Ministers, and Lay-Members, of the Respective Denominations. Projected, Compiled and Arranged by I. Daniel Rupp, of Lancaster, Pa. Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys; Harrisburg: Clyde and Williams, 1844.

  2. [2]

    “Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842.

  3. [3]

    JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Clyde, Williams & Co., Harrisburg, PA, 1 Aug. 1843, copy, JS Collection, CHL.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 15 Sept. 1843; see also “Latter Day Saints,” 1844. JS’s chapter on the “Latter Day Saints” consisted of seven pages. In comparison, the longest chapter (on the Roman Catholic church in America) was fifty-four pages. Sometime after the book’s publication in or shortly after April 1844, Israel Daniel Rupp, the volume’s editor, sent a copy of the book and an accompanying note to JS. On 5 June 1844, JS replied to Rupp, acknowledging his receipt of Rupp’s note and the book, which he considered “so valueable a treasure.” A few years after its original publication in 1844, He Pasa Ekklesia was updated and improved for a second edition, which was edited and published by John Winebrenner in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and entitled History of All the Religious Denominations in the United States. (Rupp, He Pasa Ekklesia, vii; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Israel Daniel Rupp, Lancaster, PA, 5 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL.)

    Rupp, Israel Daniel, ed. He Pasa Ekklesia [The Whole Church]: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States, Contains Authentic Accounts of Their Rise, Progress, Statistics and Doctrines. Written Expressly for the Work by Eminent Theological Professors, Ministers, and Lay-Members, of the Respective Denominations. Projected, Compiled and Arranged by I. Daniel Rupp, of Lancaster, Pa. Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys; Harrisburg: Clyde and Williams, 1844.

Page [1]

, July [blank], 1843.
Sir: We, the undersigned, have it in contemplation to publish a work, entitled
HE PAS‘ECCLESIA,
or
THE WHOLE CHURCH OF THE UNITED STATES:
Consisting of entirely Original Articles, written expressly for the Work, by distinguished Divines, belonging to the several Denominations in the ; and comprising an accurate and impartial account of the Rise and Progress, Faith and Practice of each Denomination.
Such a Work, we believe to be a desideratum; and would, no doubt, be eminently useful to all classes of a reading community.
But, to get up a good and valuable work——such as we believe to be needed, and as we intend ours to be——we have taken the liberty, hereby, to address you; and respectfully to request that you furnish the requisite Article of the to which you belong, either from your own pen, or through some other competent person in your denomination.
We confidently hope that you will comply with our wishes, and have the desired Article furnished with as little delay as possible, as we desire to publish the Work the ensuing Fall.
For your kindness and trouble in this business, we will allow you, if requested, any reasonable remuneration.
Please to inform us, by return of mail, what you are disposed to do for us in this matter;
And you will much oblige, your’s truly,
CLYDE, WILLIAMS & Co.
To Elder J. Smith
Illinois [p. [1]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Clyde, Williams & Co., circa 15 July 1843
ID #
1105
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:483–485
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text
  • Unidentified

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