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Account with the Church of Christ, circa 11–29 August 1834

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Account with the Church of Christ, circa 11–29 August 1834

Source Note

Account with the Church of Christ, [, Geauga Co., OH], [ca. 11–29 Aug. 1834]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
This account was written on four leaves ruled both vertically and horizontally, each measuring 15½ × 12½ inches (39 × 32 cm). The four original leaves were folded down the middle. Debits are displayed on the left side and credits on the right side. The leaves eventually separated at the middle fold, forming eight leaves. Residue from two or three red adhesive wafers per leaf indicate that, prior to separating down the middle, the leaves were at one time connected top to bottom to form a continuous scroll. The joined leaves were folded along the page breaks to form a single stack of pages. Thereafter, crease marks indicate they were folded twice widthwise into thirds; a final half-fold resulted in a document measuring approximately 7¾ × 2½ inches (20 × 6 cm). Additional folding and warping of the paper indicates that after being made into a scroll, other folds or rolling may have been employed in storing the document. A docket on the verso of the bottom left leaf in the handwriting of reads: “1834 May 3 | Acct. of Joseph Smith with —”.
In August 1834, submitted the account to the , Ohio, . It is listed in the first Historian’s Office inventory, suggesting continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Minutes, 28–29 Aug. 1834.

  2. [2]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

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

Historical Introduction

This record provides an accounting of funds collected and distributed by the expedition in spring and summer 1834. It contains detailed information about the funds contributed to the Camp of Israel—which were then considered the property of the church—and the amounts paid out to the captains of each company of the camp. JS apparently had ultimate oversight of these funds. Although revelations designated the church’s — in and in —as responsible for overseeing consecration in the church, neither of them was present on the Camp of Israel expedition. In addition, the , which since 1832 had overseen many of the church’s financial affairs, was reorganized and its assets distributed to its members in April 1834. At that time, JS, as the church’s leader, apparently assumed an expanded supervisory role over the church’s finances, as reflected in this account.
The account shows the contributions to the Camp of Israel by church members who did not go on the expedition as well as contributions by camp members, both of which made up the camp’s general fund. The record is not a complete listing of camp members because it shows donations by only approximately 170 individuals, short of the approximately 230 that constituted the camp. remembered that those camp members who were traveling with their families were not asked to contribute money to the camp’s general fund; instead, they were to take care of their families’ needs by themselves. In this account, both Holbrook and his brother Chandler, who were traveling with their families, are listed as contributing nothing, indicating they were exempt from the obligation to donate.
This account and another record showing JS’s personal account with the Camp of Israel were compiled by , who may have created the accounts as part of his duties as clerk of the . The need for the records was intensified by ’s charges that JS had committed improprieties in “the distribution of monies and other properties” on the expedition. Hyde most likely created the records between 11 August 1834, when a council first considered Smith’s accusations, and 29 August, when at least one of the accounts was presented to the high council as evidence in the trial for Smith’s membership. The accounts may have been finalized as early as 27 August, the last clear date entered on either of the records. When Hyde presented this record to the high council, he stated that it was “an account current” and “was taken from documents kept during the journey by brother ,” who was the treasurer of the Camp of Israel and “had the charge” of the general fund of the expedition. Williams told the council “that the account exhibited was correctly taken from his accounts.”
This account with the Church of Christ and the record showing JS’s personal contributions to the Camp of Israel reference each other. JS’s total contribution—the net amount of cash he contributed plus the wear and tear of his equipment—is detailed line by line on that second account and is represented on this record as an expenditure of the church. Including this expenditure, the account shows that the church’s expenditures for the Camp of Israel totaled $2,051.50, which was $391.91 more than its receipts of $1,659.59 of consecrated funds. reconciled the contributions and expenditures by adding $391.91 from an old account to the contributions, but the record does not explain anything further about that old account.
created the double-entry debit and credit account on loose ledger paper, which he then attached together vertically with wafers. The left side of each page contains debit entries (labeled “Dr.”), while the right side contains credit entries (labeled “Crt.”). Although the minutes of the , Ohio, high council meeting at which Hyde presented the account are not clear, the high council probably reviewed the account as it deliberated on the fate of ’s membership in the church.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30–33]; Revelation, 4 Dec. 1831–B [D&C 72:9–12].

  2. [2]

    Revelation, 23 Apr. 1834 [D&C 104].

  3. [3]

    This number includes around twelve women and ten children who accompanied the camp. (Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 11; Bradley, Zion’s Camp 1834, xix–[xxi]; Radke, “We Also Marched,” 149.)

    Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.

    Bradley, James L. Zion’s Camp 1834: Prelude to the Civil War. Logan, UT: By the author, 1990.

    Radke, Andrea G. “We Also Marched: The Women and Children of Zion’s Camp, 1834.” BYU Studies 39 (2000): 147–165.

  4. [4]

    Holbrook, Reminiscences, 34.

    Holbrook, Joseph. Autobiography and Journal, not before 1871. Photocopy. CHL. MS 5004. Original in private possession.

  5. [5]

    Account with the Camp of Israel, ca. 11–29 Aug. 1834.

  6. [6]

    Minutes, 11 Aug. 1834.

  7. [7]

    Minutes, 11 Aug. 1834.

  8. [8]

    See Account with the Camp of Israel, ca. 11–29 Aug. 1834.

  9. [9]

    Minutes, 28–29 Aug. 1834; McBride, Reminiscence, 2; Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 8. Camp members “consecrate[d] all the . . . money” they had to the general fund for the camp’s expenses. “Some of the brethren had considerable, and some had little or none,” Heber C. Kimball declared, “yet all became equal.” (McBride, Reminiscence, 2; Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 8.)

    McBride, Reuben, Sr. Reminiscence, no date. CHL. MS 8197.

    Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.

  10. [10]

    Minutes, 28–29 Aug. 1834. Williams’s records are not extant.

  11. [11]

    See Account with the Camp of Israel, ca. 11–29 Aug. 1834.

  12. [12]

    Minutes, 28–29 Aug. 1834.

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Account with the Church of Christ, circa 11–29 August 1834
ID #
6743
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D4:135–155
Handwriting on This Page
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