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Letter from Chauncey Robison, 8 March 1843

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Letter from Chauncey Robison, 8 March 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to [JS, , Hancock Co., IL], 8 Mar. 1843; handwriting and signature of ; two pages; photocopy in Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Transcription from photocopy.
One leaf, the measurements of which are unknown. The photocopy shows the document was trifolded twice in letter style. It also reveals significant tearing along the bottom horizontal fold; this tearing has removed some text.
The location of the original letter is unknown. It was presumably included in a collection of ’s papers that was passed down in the family of Isaac Groo, who had married Mary Jane Whitney, the daughter of Newel K. and . Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated a photocopy of the original letter, along with their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers, to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.

    Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.

    Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.

Historical Introduction

, Illinois, recorder wrote a letter from to JS in on 8 March 1843 alerting him to a possible issue with a significant land transaction. In 1839, , JS, and had signed promissory notes to purchase approximately four hundred acres of land in (later Nauvoo) for $110,000 from -based land speculator and his business partners, and . Although Hotchkiss represented to Rigdon, JS, and Hyrum Smith that he, Gillet, and Tuttle held the title to the land, Robison discovered that in 1836, Hotchkiss and Gillet had apparently transferred all their land in the area to a group that included Tuttle. In his 8 March letter to JS, therefore, Robison called into question the validity of Hotchkiss’s agreement with JS. He encouraged JS to investigate the matter and to halt further payments to Hotchkiss and his partners until JS could send someone to search the deed records and determine the validity of the agreement with Hotchkiss.
Though it is unclear whether ’s letter came by mail or personal courier, JS received it on 9 March 1843. JS had long encountered difficulty in making payments to for this land, and this debt was among his most pressing financial concerns in the early 1840s. Perhaps responding to Robison’s call to investigate the deed records, JS traveled to in early April 1843 and conducted some “business at the Court house” on 3 April. In addition, visited JS on 12 April. JS and the Hotchkiss partnership eventually renegotiated the 1839 contract in July 1843; and Gillet put up a $20,000 bond ensuring their interest in the land, and JS, , , and their spouses released their future interest in the land by signing over a deed to Tuttle, Gillet, and Hotchkiss. In other words, Hotchkiss, Tuttle, and Gillet retained ownership of the land but allowed the Latter-day Saints to remain on it in a landlord-tenant relationship. These later instruments confirm the validity of the original 1839 transaction that Robison called into question.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Hotchkiss and Gillet purchased the four hundred acres from Alexander White in 1836. In selling the land, Hotchkiss, Gillet, and Tuttle bonded themselves to convey title if the land were paid for on schedule. In purchasing the land, JS, Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith promised to pay for the land in forty-two installments over the next twenty years. From 1840 to 1859, two payments of $1,500 were due annually: one was to be paid to Hotchkiss, and the other was to be paid to Gillet and Tuttle, with the principal due at the end of the loan. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; Promissory Note to John Gillet and Smith Tuttle, 12 Aug. 1839; “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”)

  2. [2]

    Because Hotchkiss worked in partnership with Tuttle, this transfer appears to have been a business arrangement. (Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. C, pp. 57–58, 4 Oct. 1836, microfilm 954,193, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 9 Mar. 1843. There is no indication of mailing on the extant photocopy.

  4. [4]

    Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 24 July 1841. The situation seemed so dire that a general church conference in 1841 voted that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles write an epistle to church members abroad “to use their influence and exertions to secure, by exchange, purchase, donation &c., a title to the Hotchkiss purchase.” The specter of JS’s overwhelming debt led him to apply for bankruptcy in 1842. An entry in JS’s journal noted that “Joseph has nothing to do with paying the rema[i]nder which is due Hotchkiss in the event he is discharged on bankruptcy.” (Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 Oct. 1841; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; see also Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 30 June 1842.)

  5. [5]

    William Clayton, Journal Excerpt, 3 Apr. 1843.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 12 Apr. 1843.

  7. [7]

    Clayton, Journal, 7 July 1843; Bond from Smith Tuttle and John Gillet, 7 July 1843; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12G, p. 299, 7 July 1843, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; John Gillet, Lake Fork, IL, to Smith Tuttle, Fair Haven, CT, 20 Aug. 1843, John Gillett-William P. Whittle Papers, 1835–1869, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

    John Gillett-William P. Whittle Papers, 1835–1869. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.

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Page [2]

and endeavor to obtain a tax title upon the Same—
I find that the Deeds from to you were Recorded previous to my appointment and do not know whether due search of Record was then made— You will please consider this Communication Confidential and it may be well not to have the matter known to the public at present.
Recorder [1/2 page blank] [p. [2]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Chauncey Robison, 8 March 1843
ID #
1006
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:18–21
Handwriting on This Page
  • Chauncey Robison

Footnotes

  1. [9]

    Robison appears to be suggesting that if the taxes on the land in question had not been paid by Hotchkiss or his business partners, the land could be listed for sale and JS could obtain the title or deed by paying the outstanding tax at a forced sale of the property. According to Illinois state law, “the sales of lands, or town lots, hereafter sold by the sheriff for taxes, are hereby declared to be good and valid, and he is required to give a certificate and keep a list of the same.” (An Act Supplemental to an Act, Entitled “An Act to Provide for Raising a Revenue” [19 Jan. 1829], Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois [1828–1829], p. 123, sec. 11.)

    The Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois, Enacted at the Fifth General Assembly, at Their Session Held at Vandalia, Commencing on the Fourth Day of December, 1826, and Ending the Nineteenth of February, 1827. Vandalia, IL: Robert Blackwell, 1827.

  2. [10]

    Robison became Hancock County recorder in 1839, succeeding Wesley Williams. (Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 786, 953.)

    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.

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