wrote a letter from , Connecticut, to JS in , Illinois, on 11 October 1841 to discuss a proposed transaction that would settle an interest payment on a debt leaders owed him and his business partners for an 1839 land purchase. Hotchkiss sent this October letter without having received a response to his last letter to JS, written 13 September 1841. Although JS had responded to a letter from Hotchkiss’s partner , which was also written in mid-September, Hotchkiss was not aware of JS’s response when writing the letter featured here. JS’s letter to Tuttle provided details regarding JS’s efforts to repay the debts in the face of incarceration and the unexplained absence of church , who had been assigned to settle the debts with Hotchkiss.

According to promissory notes signed at the time of the original 1839 agreement, , JS, and owed and his partners $3,000 in interest annually. In this 11 October letter, Hotchkiss stated that he was willing to accept from church member a tavern stand and 137 acres of timbered land in as payment for the annual interest. Before Hotchkiss could accept the land as payment, he and Ivins required JS’s approval because Ivins was acting as an agent for the church; Hotchkiss requested this approval in the featured letter. Nearly three weeks later, Ivins departed for to consult with JS on the matter.

mailed the letter featured here on 11 October in , Connecticut. JS received this letter and another from Hotchkiss a month later before responding in December 1841. The interest payment for 1841 was settled in February 1842, when sold the property to Hotchkiss for $3,200.