Letter from Adolphus Allen, 13 July 1841
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Source Note
, Letter, Des Moines City, Hancock Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 13 July 1841; handwriting presumably of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes map and dockets.Single leaf measuring 12¼ × 8 inches (31 × 20 cm) and ruled with thirty-seven horizontal blue lines. The letter was written on the recto only. The letter was then trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The leaf has a tear caused by detachment of the wafer.The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. A second docket was added by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1882 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The letter has presumably remained in institutional custody since its receipt in 1841, when Richards docketed and filed it in JS’s office.
Footnotes
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1
JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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2
Jenson, Autobiography, 131, 133, 135, 141, 192, 389; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 44–52.
Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.
Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.
Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.
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Historical Introduction
On 13 July 1841, wrote to JS, referencing a previous conversation between the two of them and offering to sell him land in Des Moines City, Illinois, a few miles downriver from , Illinois. Allen, an early resident of , Illinois, founded Des Moines City in 1837, having arrived in the area as early as 1835. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, he was heavily involved in efforts to improve the county’s infrastructure and commerce.owed approximately $700 on lands he owned near Des Moines City and was concerned that these properties would revert to former ownership if he defaulted on his payments. He therefore solicited JS’s assistance to pay the money he owed on two large parcels of land, comprising approximately 120 acres. In exchange, Allen promised to allow members to settle indefinitely on those parcels and to give them access to adjoining farm lands on his property. In addition to providing an area for new immigrants to settle, Allen suggested that the location would allow the Saints to gain “a preponderance at the polls” in the Montebello precinct.The letter’s lack of postal marks indicates that sent the letter, which included a drawing of the lots and the surrounding area, with an unnamed bearer to JS in . JS apparently received the letter and found Allen’s properties attractive. On 17 September 1841, JS and Allen executed a bond and deed in which JS agreed to pay $100 for one of the parcels—the forty-acre lot described in the letter.
Footnotes
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1
Des Moines City was located in Section 6 of Township 5 North, Range 8 West in Hancock County and was about two miles north of Montebello, Illinois. Adolphus Allen laid out the town in 1837. The town was short-lived but existed until at least 1843, when Gustavus Hills, Alanson Ripley, and Robert Campbell captured it on a map of Hancock County. (Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 474; “Map of Hancock County, State of Illinois,” ca. 1843, CHL.)
Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.
“Map of Hancock County, State of Illinois,” ca. 1843. CHL.
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2
Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 448, 474; Memorial of Adolphus Allen Praying Congress to Construct a Bridge over the Mississippi River at the Town of Des Moines, in Illinois, S. Doc. no. 290, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess. [1838]; Adolphus Allen, 4 Feb. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Western World (Warsaw, IL), 24 Feb. 1841, [1].
Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.
Memorial of Adolphus Allen, Praying Congress to Construct a Bridge over the Mississippi River at the Town of Des Moines, in Illinois, and That the Military Road from Chicago to Fort Leavenworth May Pass through Said Town. Senate doc. no. 290, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1838).
Western World. Warsaw, IL. 1840–1841.
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3
Mortgage from Adolphus Allen, 17 Sept. 1841. At the time of the transaction, Allen did not yet possess the government patent confirming ownership of the larger, eighty-acre tract of land. In the bond, Allen authorized JS to redeem the larger tract on his behalf. In the event that JS was able to successfully pay the debt owed and thus redeem the land, Allen agreed to deed the land to JS and his heirs upon receipt of the government patent. (Bond from Adolphus Allen, 17 Sept. 1841.)
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