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Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 30 October 1843

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Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 30 October 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , New York Co., NY, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 30 Oct. 1843; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, wafer seal, postal stamps, postal notations, docket, and notation.
Bifolium measuring 12¼ × 8 inches (31 × 20 cm). Each leaf is ruled with thirty-four horizontal lines, printed in blue ink. The top left corner of the recto of the first leaf is embossed with two concentric ovals containing initials that appear to be “PS & C”. The letter was written in blue ink, inscribed on the first page only, trifolded twice in letter style, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, addressed, and postmarked. The second leaf was torn when the letter was opened. The letter has undergone some conservation.
The letter was received by JS, likely sometime in November 1843, and docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. It may be listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The letter’s early docket and notation as well as its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.

    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.

  2. [2]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 30 October 1843, wrote a letter from to JS in , Illinois, responding to JS’s 12–13 October missive and inquiring about financial opportunities in Nauvoo. Hotchkiss wanted to increase profits from property he owned in . He proposed using some “rear lots” he owned in Nauvoo to pay “some responsible contractor”—whom JS would presumably hire—to construct warehouses on his waterfront property in Nauvoo. Hotchkiss hoped such an arrangement would better facilitate commerce and be lucrative for both him and JS. Hotchkiss also offered farmlands he owned in other parts of Illinois as payment to any contractors who preferred that to city lots.
mailed his letter on 31 October from the post office near , Connecticut, where he lived. The letter was received in , likely within two weeks’ time, and presumably read by JS. It was docketed and filed by his private clerk . There is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In August 1839, church leaders purchased nearly five hundred acres of land in the Commerce (later Nauvoo) area of Illinois from Hotchkiss and his partners Smith Tuttle and John Gillet. (Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.)

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 30 October 1843
ID #
1190
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:234–236
Handwriting on This Page
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