, Letter, , Hillsborough Co., NH, and , Middlesex Co., MA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 1 and 3 May 1842; handwriting of ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, notations, and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 9⅞ × 7⅜ inches (25 × 19 cm). The recto and verso of the first leaf and the recto of the second leaf are ruled with twenty-eight blue lines; the verso of the second leaf is unlined. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer, remnants of which are present on the verso of the second leaf. The letter was later folded for filing.
The verso of the second leaf contains a docket 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. The document was also docketed by , a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets, the circa 1904 inventory, and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
In early May 1842, wrote a letter from , New Hampshire, to JS in , Illinois, which discussed Maginn’s missionary efforts in New England. Maginn, who had joined the in , Upper Canada, had been proselytizing in the northeastern since 1840. Maginn attracted attention for his “commanding appearance,” knowledge of scripture, and “magnetic personality.” He was especially influential in Peterborough, where he preached intermittently for two years.
wrote the majority of the letter featured here in on 1 May 1842 but added further information on 3 May after arriving in , Massachusetts. The letter relates his proselytizing efforts in both New Hampshire and and asks church leaders to send other to proselytize in the area. Maginn’s biblical language and allusions, particularly in the portion of the letter about his efforts to establish the church in New Hampshire, are notably populist and anti-creedal. He described the local Christian religions as engaging in “” and being in error. Maginn used this rhetoric to show how his growing Latter-day Saint congregation was different from the other Christian denominations.
’s letter included an enclosure of money, consisting of his donation to the construction fund and payments from subscribers to the Times and Seasons newspaper, for which Maginn acted as an agent. In March 1842, Maginn sent forty-five dollars in subscription money to Nauvoo through the secure means of a bank draft, or check. He was unable to forward additional funds because there were no banks in the New Hampshire area where he had collected the funds, and he was unwilling to mail the money with his letters for fear it might be stolen. Rather than sending another bank draft when he arrived in , Maginn found a courier, Latter-day Saint Bingham Bement, who was apparently heading to Nauvoo, to carry the letter and enclosed money for Maginn.
The letter arrived in by 31 May, when the enclosed money was recorded in the Book of the Law of the Lord. Notations on the letter from and indicate that it was retained in JS’s office. Unlike ’s 22 March 1842 letter, this letter was not printed in the Times and Seasons. Maginn requested a letter of reply from one of JS’s counselors in the or from one of the . No reply has been located.
“Statement of Sister Smith respecting the History of Eli P. Magin,” Obituary Notices and Biographies, CHL; Benjamin Ellsworth, Palermo, NY, 18 Oct. 1840, Letter to the Editors, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:219.
Obituary Notices and Biographies, 1854–1877. CHL.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Morison and Smith, History of Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1:187–190; Barney, “Joseph Smith and Nauvoo Portrayed,” 165–169. In a March 1842 letter to JS, Maginn described his recent visit to Massachusetts and noted the growth of the church in New England, including the Peterborough congregation, which had thirty-six members at the time. (Letter from Eli Maginn, 22 Mar. 1842.)
Morison, George Abbot. History of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Vol. 1, Narrative. Rindge, NH: Richard R. Smith, 1954.
Barney, Ronald O. “‘A Man That You Could Not Help Likeing’: Joseph Smith and Nauvoo Portrayed in a Letter by Susannah and George W. Taggart.” BYU Studies 40, no. 2 (2001): 165–179.
near half this ammt. [amount] was for the I stated in it not to send back Nos. but the Subs[cribe]rs. would like to commence with “the Record of Abraham” the names of the Last ar[e] as follows viz
J Saunders. C[harles] W. Thompson, one year
$ 4.00
E. W. Clark, W. M. Powers, Six Months
2.00
$ 6.00
I shall enclose the Money in this Letter I shall forward $25.00 for the it is like the widows might <mite> but I hope soon to be able to send more the Saints will also endeavor to do something this week I visit the largest manufact’ City in the I have preached within 1½ miles before 4 to 5 discourses and 9 have obeyd. my friends have hired the City Hall the most splendid and popular in the place I shall deliver a Course of Lectures of 2 weeks every evening Elder Knopp the Baptist protracting Machine has just left I think people have Chaff enough to have some wheat there is the greatest excitement in this Country that was ever known The priest are verry busy tacking up the Bands, But they dont hold, they “Burst” I humbly request an interest in your prayers in common with all Saints for I feel that great responsibility rests upon me That I need much meekness and humility to teach this people (who now are a great people) as I have severall Hundred under my charge a part of the time If it was not entirely among the “impossibles” I should request you to write to me, as I am alone (and (yet not alone) will some of the or Councillors write to me
The “Record of Abraham” refers to the beginning of the publication of the Book of Abraham, which was introduced in the Times and Seasons as “A TRANSLATION Of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands, from the Catecombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham.” The initial portions of the Book of Abraham (along with an illustration that included explanations of its elements) were printed in the 1 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons. (“A Fac-simile from the Book of Abraham. No. 1” and “A Translation,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, 3:703–706 [Abraham, facsimile 1; 1:1–2:18], emphasis in original.)
The textile factories operated by the Boston Manufacturing Company, started by Francis Lowell, made Lowell a major center of manufacturing. (Dublin, Women at Work, 14–20; Bender, Toward an Urban Vision, 21–51.)
Dublin, Thomas. Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826–1860. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Bender, Thomas. Toward an Urban Vision: Ideas and Institutions in Nineteenth-Century America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.
Constructed in 1830 and in use by the city until 1892, the Lowell city hall housed both local government offices and a public hall where various political, social, and religious meetings were held. (Fitzsimons, “Walking Tour of Downtown Lowell,” [7]; Industries of Massachusetts, 71.)
Fitzsimons, Gray. “Walking Tour of Downtown Lowell: Antislavery in the Spindle City, 1830–1860.” Mar. 2009. Guide for Module 5 of Spring 2009 Leadership in America: Dilemmas and Opportunities course. College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Accessed 6 May 2019. http://gse.uml.edu/atah/pdf/GrayWalkingTour.pdf.
Industries of Massachusetts: Historical and Descriptive Review of Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Gloucester, Newburyport, and Amesbury, and Their Leading Manufacturers and Merchants. New York: International, 1886.
Here, Maginn was probably referring to Jacob Knapp, a traveling Baptist preacher in the New England area whose style of speaking was described as “sledge-hammer” preaching. According to Knapp’s autobiography, he was in Lowell in the spring of 1842. (Knapp, Autobiography, 136–140; Hatch, Democratization of American Christianity, 134.)
Knapp, Jacob. Autobiography of Elder Jacob Knapp. New York: Sheldon, 1868.
Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
George Bryant Gardner, a Peterborough resident who joined the church in 1841, used similar language in describing his conversion: “I burst those bands and was baptized by ElderEli P. Maginn, on Monday, November 20, 1841, in the Cantocook River.” (McConkie and McConkie, George Washington Taggart, 2.)
McConkie, Forrest Rick, and Evelyn Nichols McConkie. George Washington Taggart, Member of the Mormon Battalion: His Life and Times and His Wives Harriet Atkins Bruce, Fanny Parks, Clarissa Marina Rogers, and Their Ancestors, 1711–1901. Fort Duchesne, UT: Jennie’s Family Histories, 1997.