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Letter from Harrison S. White, 10 May 1843

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Letter from Harrison S. White, 10 May 1843

Source Note

Harrison S. White, Letter, , St. Louis Co., MO, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 10 May 1843; handwriting and signatures presumably of Harrison S. White; one page; Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notations, postal stamps, and docket.
One leaf, measuring 12½ × 7¾ inches (32 × 20 cm). The leaf is ruled with thirty-five horizontal blue lines. The top, left, and bottom edges of the leaf have the regular cut of manufactured paper; the right edge is irregular, suggesting it was torn from a book or another leaf. The letter was written in blue ink, trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. It was later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1842 to 1844. The letter was in a collection of papers held by Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, a descendant of and . The collection was passed down to Fleming’s descendant Helen Marian Fleming Petersen. Shortly after Petersen’s death in February 1988, one of her children found this letter and other items in a box in Petersen’s home. By December 1988 the materials had been donated to the Church Historical Department (now CHL).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 10 May 1843, Harrison S. White, a young man living in , wrote a letter to JS in , Illinois, seeking information about employment in Nauvoo. White, who does not appear to have been a member of the , likely heard about JS and Nauvoo because St. Louis was connected to Nauvoo by trade and transportation routes along the . White informed JS that he had been unsuccessful in mercantile pursuits in St. Louis and asked JS to notify him of any clerking opportunities in Nauvoo. He also requested a Nauvoo newspaper, perhaps in search of employment advertisements. Because Nauvoo was a growing city, White may have assumed that employment was readily available. This may have been a common assumption, as JS, the most well-known citizen of Nauvoo, received similar inquiries from others in 1843 about work. However, the influx of British converts to Nauvoo had created an underemployed labor class.
White mistakenly addressed the letter to JS in Nauvoo, . This may have been a simple addressing error; alternatively, it could have meant that White did not know where was located or that he associated the Latter-day Saints with Missouri, where church members sought to establish in the 1830s before being expelled from the state. Postal stamps on the letter indicate that it was postmarked in on 12 May and, perhaps because of the addressing mistake, was then sent to , Illinois. It was forwarded from Warsaw on 18 May 1843 and likely arrived in Nauvoo, approximately twenty miles north of Warsaw, shortly thereafter. No response from JS has been located, and there is no record of White moving to Nauvoo.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    St. Louis merchants sought business with customers in Nauvoo. For example, grocers Starnes & Springer advertised their “large assortment of Groceries on hand which they offer very cheap” to Nauvoo residents in 1842. (“Groceries,” Wasp, 29 Oct. 1842, [4].)

    The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

  2. [2]

    See, for example, Letter from John McKee, 7 Mar. 1843; and Letter from Halsey Cook, 20 Mar. 1843.

  3. [3]

    Employment and resources for new arrivals to Nauvoo were pressing issues in 1843. For example, on 13 April, JS addressed a large Nauvoo congregation including many immigrants and encouraged new arrivals to find work as farm laborers in neighboring communities. (Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843.)

  4. [4]

    See “Joseph Smith Documents from February 1838 through August 1839.”

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May 10t 1843
Revd Sir
I ever have had a disire to live in . But at present I Am in low circumstances having been unfortunate in Merchandizing, but I now Owe no Man any thing My uncle who is my administrator, Owes me $8.22.00 Which I will get some day. but god only Knows when. Under these Circumstances you will do me an invaluable favor by looking around & see If There is any thing like a situation as Clerk for me in your . I have good Letters of recommendation as to Honesty &c— I would be satisfied with a very moderate salary. I expect to remain in about a month. & in the mean time If you should see any thing of the Kind for me to do in your you would do a great favor by droping me a few lines to that affect. I could come any day Yes, If It was tomorrow I would go with a glad heart
Your Friend & admirer
Harrison S. White
Revd Jos Smith Esqr)
)
PS. Please be so good as to send, me a late Paper for It is with difficulty that can get any nuse [news] from them
H. S. W. [p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Harrison S. White, 10 May 1843
ID #
1638
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:294–296
Handwriting on This Page
  • Harrison S. White

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Webster’s 1828 dictionary, citing the Scots law interpretation of the term, defined administrator as a “guardian, having the care of one who is incapable of acting for himself.” White’s uncle is unidentified. (“Administrator,” in American Dictionary [1828].)

    An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.

  2. [2]

    The newspapers in Nauvoo were the Times and Seasons, the church’s semimonthly publication, and the Nauvoo Neighbor, which had succeeded the Wasp, a city newspaper, on 3 May 1843. (“Prospectus of a Weekly Newspaper, Called the Nauvoo Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 3 May 1843, [3].)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

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