As JS and others welcomed the influx of
immigrating converts and established the foundations of the municipal
infrastructure of the growing city of ,
Illinois, documentary production flourished during 1841. The featured
texts found within this volume include minutes, correspondence,
discourses, and financial and legal documents and provide valuable
contextual material for understanding JS’s papers and the general
history of the early
church.
Many of these documents are original and are housed in the Church
History Library in Salt Lake City. Others are copies made by church
clerks or newspaper editors in record books such as Letterbook
2 or in the church newspaper Times and Seasons
(1839–1846). Some journals, diaries, histories, reminiscences, and
autobiographies of various figures in early Latter-day Saint history are
also helpful in understanding the period covered in this volume.
The Nauvoo City Council and the generated many of the documents in this volume. These
newly established organizations kept minutes of meetings and
courts-martial, shedding light on the workings of the city government
and the militia and on JS’s significant role in these
endeavors. Extant manuscript petitions to the city council—including
petitions for land surveys or building mills within the city
limits—supply important detail regarding the discussions of the city
council. The city council and the legion were also the subjects of
letters, essays, and reports circulated among individuals and published
in newspapers.
The journals of JS’s contemporaries
provide detail regarding the church in this era that was invaluable for
annotating the documents in this volume. Among the most essential
journals are those kept by , , , Norton
Jacob, and . The
journal of British church member also provides
some insights into a letter JS sent to about an unnamed
woman, presumably Elizabeth Ravenscroft. A British
convert to the church, Ravenscroft appears to have been caught up in
troubling circumstances during her journey to , and she
corresponded with Cordon back in . Though her
letters do not survive, Cordon recorded summaries and excerpts of them
in his journal.
The journal of Thomas Wentworth
Storrow, which is currently located in the library of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, offers a unique look at in the summer of
1841. Storrow, a sixty-one-year-old merchant, traveled west from and inscribed
a travel journal along the way that includes his experiences from a
visit to Nauvoo. Storrow’s account provides significant information
about the city and its people, the Nauvoo Legion, the building of the
and its
baptismal font, the arrival and impact of British Saints, and the
vicissitudes of life in Nauvoo. Storrow also commented on the “perpetual
feud” he saw brewing between the Latter-day Saints and their neighbors,
suggesting that while the church began to prosper in 1841, troubles were
percolating as well.
The church newspaper Times and Seasons
published numerous letters between church members that offer insights
into the events of this volume. Regional and national newspapers
commented on the Latter-day Saints in ,
offering important contextual information about the church and city in
1841. These contemporary newspapers give details not otherwise available
and add a useful perspective from outside the church to the featured
texts found in this volume. For instance, , editor of the Warsaw Signal, was
greatly concerned with the affairs of the church within and frequently
published political rhetoric critical of the church. Newspapers in other
parts of the nation also contain substantial information about church
members and activities in Nauvoo and other locations. Newspapers in , for
example, provide insight into the growth of the church in that area,
providing context for ’s proselytizing mission
to the city. -area newspapers highlight the ways in which
Latter-day Saints and others engaged in public discourse about the
religion in the eastern . Also included in
this volume is an interview of JS that was published in the Daily Missouri
Republican. That document is representative of an emerging
trend in journalism at the time—the practice of publishing interview
transcripts, as opposed to authored articles.
JS produced three revelatory texts
during the period of this volume, all of which were later recorded in
the Book of
the Law of the Lord. Other theological or doctrinal
instruction from JS is found in a variety of sources, including in the
minutes of conferences and in discourses recorded by . McIntire’s notebook
provides accounts of meetings, briefly noting the topics and
occasionally some of the words spoken by JS. Other journals and letters
also provide glimpses of JS’s doctrinal discourses for this period.
This volume also references several financial and legal
documents. These sources illuminate efforts to construct the
and , the two major community building projects in 1841. ’s history of the Nauvoo temple gives a
timeline for the building’s construction, while stock certificates and
building specifications further contextualize the early development of
the Nauvoo House. A multitude of land transactions and financial
arrangements are recorded in official county deed books, and they are
also discussed at length in letters between JS and his many correspondents, especially , , , and .
For some events in the period covered by this volume,
relevant sources include personal recollections, histories, or
autobiographies written years or even decades later. For example,
Norton Jacob’s reminiscent account provides
useful information about the April 1841
cornerstone ceremony, while Warren Foote’s
autobiography offers details about the October 1841 cornerstone ceremony. In general, reminiscences are
helpful in filling gaps in the contemporaneous historical record. Such
sources have been used when necessary and with caution to annotate some
of the documents featured in this volume.