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Letter from Emma Smith, 6 December 1839

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Letter from Emma Smith, 6 December 1839

Source Note

, Letter, [], Hancock Co., IL, to JS, , 6 Dec. 1839; handwriting of ; two pages; Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines. Includes address, stamped postmark, postal notation, and dockets.
Two leaves (including the cover sheet on which the address was written). The sheet on which the letter was written is 10 × 7⅝ inches (25 × 19 cm) and contains thirty-one printed horizontal lines; the cover sheet is 10 × 7½ inches (25 × 19 cm) and does not contain printed lines. The letter was trifolded in letter style, addressed, sealed, and mailed. At a later time, the letter was folded twice horizontally and docketed by an unidentified scribe and JS’s scribe .
Based on ’s docket, the letter was in JS’s possession from its reception and remained in Smith family possession after JS’s death. donated the letter to the state of , which put it in a collection of letters and autographs in 1891. The state’s archives, including the extensive collection of autograph collector Charles Aldrich (1828–1908), were deposited with the newly organized Iowa State Historical Department (now the State Historical Society of Iowa) in 1892. It is unknown when or why the letter was interfiled with the Aldrich collection.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “The Mormon Prophet,” Des Moines (IA) Register, 13 Mar. 1891, in Historical Department, Newspaper Clippings, 1831–1993, CHL.

    Historical Department. Newspaper Clippings, 1831–1993. CHL.

  2. [2]

    “Signed on the Dotted Line: The Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection,” [6]–[7].

    “Signed on the Dotted Line: The Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection.” Iowa Historian: The Newsletter of the State Historical Society of Iowa (Feb.–Mar. 2008): [6]–[7]. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. A copy of this digital newsletter is archived at publications.iowa.gov/6203/1 /Iowa_Historian_Feb-Mar_2008.pdf.

Historical Introduction

wrote a letter on 6 December 1839 to her husband, JS, who was then in . One month earlier, JS had written to Emma from , Illinois, updating her on the progress of his journey and inquiring after the well-being of their children. In that letter, he expressed particular concern about their three-year-old son, , who was ill at the time JS departed the , Illinois, area. In response to JS’s letter, Emma updated him about the health of their children, his parents, and several friends in Commerce amid a prolonged malaria epidemic. She also informed JS of the death of his scribe and of ’s appointment to serve in Mulholland’s stead. After apprising JS of the well-being of his family and friends, Emma mentioned an ongoing border dispute between and that brought thousands of armed Missourians within thirty miles of Commerce.
expressed concern that her letter would not reach JS before he started home from the capital. Postmarks on the letter indicate it was forwarded to , where JS was presiding at a church . It is unclear when JS received the letter.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to Emma Smith, 9 Nov. 1839.

  2. [2]

    Mulholland had served as one of JS’s scribes since at least September of the previous year. The Nauvoo high council appointed him as a clerk for land contracts and subtreasurer of the church just seven days before JS departed for Washington DC. (JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1838; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25; Minutes, 27 Oct. 1839.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.

  3. [3]

    This dispute—nicknamed the “Honey War” by a local newspaper because of stories that a Missouri tax collector cut down hollow trees containing beehives on the property of an Iowa resident in order to collect the honey instead of the tax—was a bloodless conflict that lasted throughout the 1830s. It climaxed in 1839 when a sheriff from Iowa Territory and a sheriff from Missouri both tried to collect taxes from residents on a tiny strip of land that each side claimed along the Des Moines River. The hostilities soon resulted in a standoff between both sides’ militias and elicited federal intervention. JS apparently learned of the conflict from a source other than Emma’s letter because he mentioned the dispute in a letter to Robert D. Foster a week before Emma’s letter arrived in Washington. (“The Border War,” Missouri Republican [St. Louis], 7 Dec. 1839, [2]; “The Honey War,” Missouri Whig, and General Advertiser [Palmyra], 26 Oct. 1839, [3]; Everett, Creating the American West, chap. 4; Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 12 Dec. 1839, 10; Letter to Robert D. Foster, 30 Dec. 1839.)

    Daily Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1869.

    Missouri Whig, and General Advertiser. Palmyra, MO. 1839–1841.

    Everett, Derek R. Creating the American West: Boundaries and Borderlands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

    Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.

  4. [4]

    JS arrived in Philadelphia on 21 December 1839. He remained in the region, visiting congregations in some of the outlying communities, until he departed around 31 January 1840 for Washington DC, where he arrived by 5 February. According to the postmarks on this document, Emma mailed the letter at Commerce on 12 December 1839; it arrived in Washington on 8 January 1840 and was then forwarded to Philadelphia, though it is unknown when it arrived there. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 21 Dec. 1839, 70; 27 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter to Robert D. Foster, 30 Dec. 1839; Minutes and Discourse, 13 Jan. 1840; Discourse, 5 Feb. 1840.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Emma Smith, 6 December 1839
Letterbook 2

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Dec. 6th [1839]
Dear husband in the midst of the confusion of my own family and & and the remains of Stena Fisks family I shall endeavour to write, having omited writing so long already on account of so much confusion and some sickness that I very much fear that my letter will not arrive in in time for you to receive it, I did not receive your letter wrote at Jacksonvill untill after that Mr Law gave me the one he brought, I cannot give a very particular account of what has passed here since you left home, Buisness in this place does not go on quite as well as when you was here, I broke fever the same day you left and he has been well ever since has had the chill fever twice the first time he had the bled at the nose untill he was very weak he has not been as well ever since as he was before but is now getting better, <​W.​> Milton has not been well but a small part of the time the rest of my family are and have been well and family were brought here the day you went away were all sick, he soon recovered his health and has gone to the east his is very feeble yet was brought here the day after you left home and suffered extremly untill Sunday morming, when his spirit left its suffering for a better mansion than he had here, he lost his speech the first evening he was here and never spoke another word wh[i]le he lived, although I think he retained his senses, his death was felt very sensibly by all in the place, his wife omited the funeral untill your return much buisness remains unatended to on account of his sudden and unexpected death altho has put into his office yet has not done any thing at all in the buisness neither do I think he will
requested me to ask me <​you​> what become of that letter [p. 1]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Emma Smith, 6 December 1839
ID #
1598
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:73–77
Handwriting on This Page
  • Emma Smith

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The family of Orson Hyde—a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—consisted of his wife, Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde, and his two-year-old daughter, Laura Marinda Hyde. Marinda Hyde was pregnant when the Hydes arrived at the Smith home and gave birth to a girl a week later on 13 December 1839. (1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City Ward 1, Salt Lake Co., UT, 2A.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

  2. [2]

    “The remains of Stena Fisks family” likely refers to the surviving family members of Sterry Fisk. Fisk died in Commerce on 26 July 1839; his seven-month-old daughter, Harriet, preceded him in death by nine days. (“Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  3. [3]

    Jacksonville, Illinois, is approximately thirty miles west of Springfield. JS would have passed through this town on either 2 November or 3 November. This letter is apparently not extant. (Doyle, Social Order of a Frontier Community, 21; Pay Order to James Mulholland for John Snider, 8 Nov. 1839.)

    Doyle, Don Harrison. The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825–70. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983.

  4. [4]

    Likely Wilson Law or William Law.)

  5. [5]

    Letter to Emma Smith, 9 Nov. 1839.

  6. [6]

    It is unclear exactly what Emma was referring to here, but surviving documents pertaining to land purchases in the planned town of Nauvoo suggest that business did in fact slow down during JS’s absence. Over fifty documents are extant relating to eighteen land transactions that occurred in September 1839. The extant documents created in October 1839 pertain to three or four land transactions, those composed in November 1839 pertain to fifteen, and those created in December 1839 pertain to six. These documents, as well as related promissory notes, are available on this website.

  7. [7]

    JS left Commerce on 29 October 1839. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 29 Oct. 1839, 66.)

  8. [8]

    “The chill fever” is “malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times) and followed by an interval or intermission.” (Carter, “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century,” 294.)

    Carter, James Byars. “Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century: A Genealogical Perspective.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 76 (Dec. 1988): 289–301.

  9. [9]

    Hyde departed Commerce for Philadelphia on 14 November 1839 to preach and to gather funds to aid destitute church members. (Orson Hyde, Commerce, IL, 4 Mar. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:71–73.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  10. [10]

    Mulholland arrived at the Smith home on Wednesday, 30 October, and died on Sunday, 3 November 1839. Notice of Mulholland’s death appeared in the Times and Seasons. Unaware that Mulholland had died, JS addressed a pay order to him on 8 November 1839. (“Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32; Pay Order to James Mulholland for John Snider, 8 Nov. 1839.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  11. [11]

    With the departure of JS and Sidney Rigdon, who were part of the delegation to the nation’s capital, Hyrum Smith was the remaining member of the church’s First Presidency in the Commerce area. (See Historical Introduction to Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840.)

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