New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website

We are pleased to announce our latest web content release. Included in this publication are approximately 160 administrative records from the Nauvoo City Council from February 1841 through April 1842, as well as documents and introductions for twelve new Ohio and Illinois legal cases and the transcript for the 1837 Book of Mormon.

During the early 1840s, Joseph Smith was a city councilor and was then elected vice mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois. The documents in this release pertain to many basic early administrative matters such as naming and opening streets, establishing taxes, setting wages for public servants, and regulating licenses. 

Also published in this release are introductions and documents for ten Ohio legal cases and two Illinois legal cases involving Joseph Smith. These include seventy-five documents from the 1843 case Dana v. Brink, an exceptionally well-documented medical malpractice case over which Smith presided in the Nauvoo mayor’s court.

In the 1837 case Ohio v. Ritch, also included in this release, Joseph Smith charged Painesville constable Abram Ritch with “unlawful oppression by color of office” after Ritch arrested Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and others, detained them all day, and finally released them only to arrest them again. Most of the other cases are financial in nature, concerning unpaid debts.