Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 April 1829
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Source Note
JS and , Agreement, , Susquehanna Co., PA, 6 Apr. 1829; handwriting of ; signatures of JS and , witnessed by and ; notations of payment added in handwriting of and , with signatures of ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL.One leaf measuring 12¾ × 8¼ inches (32 × 21 cm). Two dockets are inscribed on the verso: “Old article” in unidentified nineteenth-century handwriting; and “Bond for deed | from Isaac Hale | to | Joseph Smith Jr” in a twentieth-century hand. Payments made on the agreement are recorded on the top of the verso, each notation written at a different time. ’s handwriting style in this document matches his handwriting style of Revelation, March 1829 [D&C 5].Wilford C. Wood purchased several documents on 10 July 1937 from Charles Bidamon, Emma Smith’s stepson. Among the documents was an item Bidamon described as “Bond for deed and Deed to property from Isaac Hale to Joseph Smith Jr.” This designation closely matches the docket note on the original manuscript. The LDS church purchased the document from Wood several days later.
Footnotes
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1
Charles E. Bidamon, Statement of Sale, 10 July 1937, microfilm, Wilford C. Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL; Wilford C. Wood, Statement, 10 July 1937, microfilm, Wilford C. Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
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2
”Documents Obtained By Wilford Wood,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 21 July 1937, 13; David O. McKay to Arthur Winter, 21 July 1937, microfilm, Wilford C. Wood, Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
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1
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Historical Introduction
In November or December 1827, JS and moved from , New York, to , Pennsylvania, where Emma’s parents, and , lived. JS and Emma soon moved onto a thirteen-and-a-half-acre lot adjoining the Hales’ residential property, a lot with a small house recently vacated by Emma’s brother David Hale. The terms JS agreed to when he moved into the house are unknown, but he recalled that by 1829, “we had become reduced in property and my wives father was about to turn me out of doores & I had not where to go.” Fortunately for JS, arrived in Harmony on 5 April 1829, after the “Lord appeared unto [him]” and he became “desiorous to come and write” as JS dictated the of the . Cowdery later wrote, “On Monday the 6th, I assisted him in arranging some business of a temporal nature, and on Tuesday the 7th, commenced to write the book of Mormon.” The “temporal business” included writing this agreement for JS to purchase the property and home from Isaac Hale and serving as witness to it. Cowdery likely also contributed some or all of the $64 handed to Hale that day as the initial payment toward the purchase price of $200. Cowdery had recently collected a teacher’s salary of $65.50 but did not necessarily have that entire amount with him when he arrived in Harmony; he may have made a $13 payment to a grocer in Lyons, New York, and may have used some of the total for travel expenses. JS and Emma were financially strapped—whether they or any other friends or relatives were able to contribute is unknown.The agreement and the down payment gave JS more autonomy from his in-laws and enabled him and to focus almost exclusively on the translation for the next two months. was apparently flexible about the terms, requiring only the payment of interest when JS failed to meet the 1 May 1830 deadline for the second and final payment. As noted on the back of the agreement, he accepted JS’s 21 June 1830 payment of interest owed on the unpaid installment and waited until 26 August 1830 to receive payment in full. Though JS and moved to within days of making the final payment, and to in early 1831, they did not sell the property until long after their departure from . In June 1833 they sold it to , who owned land that bounded the eastern side of the property.
Footnotes
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1
JS’s history stated, “On the 22d day of Sept of this same year [1827] I obtained the plat[e]s—and in December following we mooved to Susquehana by the assistence of a man by the name of Martin Har[r]is.” Joseph Knight Sr. recalled that JS and Emma moved in November, while Martin Harris said they left in late October or early November. (JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 5; Knight, Reminiscences, 3; “Mormonism—No. II,” Tiffany’s Monthly, July 1859, 170.)
Knight, Joseph, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. CHL. MS 3470.
“Mormonism,” Tiffany’s Monthly 5 (May 1859): 46–51; (July 1859): 119–121; (Aug. 1859): 163–170. Tiffany's Monthly. New York City. 1856–1859.
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2
Susquehanna Co., PA, Tax Assessment Records, 1813–1865, Harmony Township, PA, Tax Record for 1828, p. [11], microfilm 1,927,832, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. JS was taxed on the house (but not the property) on 3 January 1828. He and Emma likely moved into the house in February.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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3
JS History, ca. Summer 1832, [6]; JS, History, vol. A-1, 13.
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4
Oliver Cowdery, Norton, OH, to William W. Phelps, 7 Sept. 1834, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834, 1:14.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
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5
See Report to New York Common Schools Superintendent, 1 July 1829, microfilm, Manchester, NY, Public School Records, 1828–1915, BYU; and Adams v. Cowdery and Cowdery [J.P. Ct. 1829], Jameson, Docket Book, 309. Cowdery may have alluded to JS’s financial transaction with Isaac Hale when he later recalled that when JS and his family “were poor, and hated,” he gave “the last cent of my honest earnings to save him [JS] from being turned into the streets.” (Oliver Cowdery, Far West, MO, to Warren Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838, Cowdery, Letterbook, 81.)
Manchester Commissioners of Common Schools, report “To the Superintendent of Common Schools of the State of New York,” 1 July 1829, microfilm, Manchester Town Office, Clifton Springs, NY, Public School Records, 1828–1915, BYU.
Jameson, Hugh. Docket Book, 1828–1829. Typescript excerpt in editors’ possession.
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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6
JS History, vol. A-1, 53; JS History, vol. A-1, 92–93; Deed to Joseph McKune, 28 June 1833.
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1
Cite this page
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Document Information
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Footnotes
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The next three notations are in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting, except for Isaac Hale’s signatures.
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Original signatures of Isaac Hale.
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7
This fifty-dollar payment may have been contributed by Joseph Knight Jr. Remembered Knight: “I left my Father [Joseph Knight Sr.], purchased a building spot adjoining my Father’s and began to work for myself, and nearly ready to build a large house[.] Joseph [Smith] had commenced to translate the plates, he told my Father he wanted fifty dollars; my Father could not raise it; he then came to me, the same day I sold my house lot and sent him a one horse wagon. Father and I often went to see him and carry him something to live upon: at last Oliver Cowdery came to write for him, then he got along faster.” In the local economy of the time, based as much on barter as on cash, the wagon may have been used for JS’s fifty-dollar payment to Isaac Hale. (Knight, Autobiographical Sketch, 1.)
Knight, Joseph, Jr. Autobiographical Sketch, 1862. CHL. MS 286.
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Oliver Cowdery handwriting ends; John Whitmer begins.
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8
This later notation in John Whitmer’s handwriting was presumably made near the designated date, 26 August 1830, since Whitmer was on hand on 25 August 1830 to sign as one of the witnesses on the deed giving JS title to the property. JS acquired the funds by arranging what amounted to a loan from Harmony businessman George Noble. (Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 Aug. 1830; Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830, George H. Noble & Co. v. JS [J.P. Ct. 1830], Susquehanna Co. Historical Society, Montrose, PA.)
Transcript of Judgment, 26 Aug. 1830. George H. Noble & Co. v. Joseph Smith (Susquehanna Co. C.P. 1830). Susquehanna County Historical Society, Montrose, PA.
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