Pay Order from Oliver Granger for Samuel Clark, 5 July 1841
Source Note
, Pay Order, , Lake Co., OH, to JS, for Samuel Clark, [, Hancock Co., IL], 5 July 1841; handwriting of ; one page; The Huntington Library (HM 28171), San Marino, CA. Includes docket and endorsement.
Single leaf measuring 4¼ × 7⅞ inches (11 × 20 cm). The pay order was written on the recto, with notation on the verso. The document was folded in half and then quarters. There is some separation along one of the folds.
The document was apparently returned at some point to . Along with other Granger family documents, the pay order later came into the possession of Maxwell Hunley. In 1964, Hunley sold these documents to the Henry E. Huntington Library.
Denman, Guide to Mormon Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, 9; Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery to Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Receipt, 10 Nov. 1964, Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Records, 1952–1967, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles; see also the archival notations on the folder housing the featured document at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Denman, Katrina C. “A Firm Testimony of the Truth”: A Guide to Mormon Manuscripts at the Huntington Library. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, Library Division—Manuscripts Department, 2015.
Maxwell Hunley Rare Books, Records, 1952–1967. Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles.
Historical Introduction
wrote the following pay order in , Ohio, on 5 July 1841 and sent it to , Illinois, with Samuel Clark, who was to deliver it to JS. The order instructed JS to pay Clark in order to settle a debt assumed by Granger on JS’s behalf a year earlier. The debt was initially acquired in 1836 in Kirtland, when the corporation of contracted with the hardware firm of John Hitchcock & Son in to purchase building materials.
Because of dissent within the and conflict with other residents, over 1,500 church members had left by mid-1838. In August 1839, JS assumed many of the outstanding Kirtland debts of his colleagues, including Cahoon, Carter & Co.’s debt to Hitchcock & Son. In April 1840, agreed to assume the outstanding debts JS had incurred with companies in the eastern and to pursue the settlement of those debts. Apparently the debt to Hitchcock & Son became complicated when Granger used lands bought on credit from Abel Owen to pay the firm. Though Granger had assumed the debt on JS’s behalf, the pay order returned the responsibility for the payment to JS.
Records show that JS received the order by 4 August and that he paid the $101 owed from his own property. A payment notation was added to the verso of the order.
Several individuals named Samuel Clark lived in Ohio, including one listed as a subscriber to the church’s periodical Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, but it is unclear who this particular Samuel Clark is. (See Shipps and Welch, Journals of William E. McLellin, 427.)
Shipps, Jan, and John W. Welch, eds. The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836. Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Account for Estate of Oliver Granger, Deceased, ca. Feb.–Mar. 1842, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.
Account for Estate of Oliver Granger, Deceased, ca. Feb.–Mar. 1842. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.
Page [1]
July The 5th 1841
Brother Joseph Smith
Dear sir please pay the Brarrer [bearer] Samuel Clark one hundred and one dollars Eighty dollars to be paid in lands and the remainder in money it being for vallue rec— as they hold obligations against myself for lands purchased of Abble [Abel] Owen which went to settle A Debt Against you in favour of a[n]d son in —
Owen had a claim against Cahoon, Carter & Co., the mercantile organization created by church leaders Jared Carter, Reynolds Cahoon, and Hyrum Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. JS had assumed the debts of this organization, and Granger had in turn assumed JS’s debts. Owen possessed additional notes from Granger and sought the reconciliation of both the notes and the claim a year and a half later. (JS, Journal, 22 Feb. 1843; Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 441–444.)
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.