Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 9 May 1842
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Source Note
, Letter, , New Haven Co., CT, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 9 May 1842; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal stamps, postal notation, and dockets.Bifolium measuring 10⅞ × 7¾ inches (28 × 20 cm). Inscribed with blue ink. The verso of the first leaf and recto of the second leaf are blank. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. It was later trifolded for filing. The front and back of the second leaf, which was used as the wrapper for the letter, bear wafer residue; when the letter was opened, the wafer tore a hole in the second leaf.The document was docketed 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, and , who was a scribe for JS from 1842 to 1844. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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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.
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See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 9 May 1842, wrote from , Connecticut, to JS in , Illinois, regarding financial difficulties from a recent land transaction. Hotchkiss had previously written to JS on 12 April 1842, but JS had not yet replied. Perhaps unsure if JS had received his earlier letter, Hotchkiss wrote a second letter clarifying details about the debt JS owed him. In August 1839, Hotchkiss and his business partners, and , had agreed to sell the around four hundred acres of land in the area of (later Nauvoo), Illinois, for $110,000, to be paid over twenty years. The church, however, fell behind on its payments. , acting as an for the church, subsequently arranged to pay a portion of the interest owed to Hotchkiss and his partners with land in , New Jersey. On 28 February 1842, Ivins deeded two tracts of timbered land, along with a smaller tract that included a tavern stand, to Hotchkiss for a credit of $3,200.Prior to receiving the land in , had warned JS that the church was overvaluing it. In an 11 October 1841 letter, Hotchkiss noted the tavern stand had previously been appraised at $2,500 and offered to accept it, along with the timbered land, at a value of $3,000. Hotchkiss and agreed on a final valuation of $3,200 in December 1841, but Hotchkiss cautioned JS that even though they had agreed, they “consider[ed] the price too much.” Hotchkiss implied in his 9 May letter that if he was not able to sell the land for the amount he had valued it at—$3,200—he would expect JS to make up the difference.In his 9 May letter, informed JS that he had sold one of the two tracts of land for $152, although it had been valued at $800 when he acquired it from JS. In order to reclaim the loss of more than $600, Hotchkiss suggested a compromise: that JS pay him in banknotes from the State Bank of Illinois, which had recently suspended operations. Because of the suspension, the bank’s notes had become drastically devalued, and JS would be able to borrow or purchase them for a reduced cost. In his previous letter to JS, Hotchkiss had made the same recommendation, explaining that he was interested in collecting the notes because, as a stockholder in the bank, he expected he would be able to redeem the notes at their full value.mailed his letter from , near his home in . Correspondence between JS and Hotchkiss usually took about three weeks to travel through the mail, and Hotchkiss’s 9 May letter was likely received in in late May or early June, when it was docketed by JS’s office staff. JS did not reply to this letter, probably because he responded on 13 May to Hotchkiss’s previous letter, written on 12 April, informing him that he was applying for bankruptcy and that Hotchkiss and his partners would need to wait to be paid until the bankruptcy proceedings were completed.
Footnotes
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Acting on behalf of the church, JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith purchased the property from land speculators Hotchkiss, Gillet, and Tuttle. The $110,000 cost included $60,000 in interest, payable in twenty annual installments of $3,000, as well as a final payment of $50,000 due in 1859. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841; see also Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 13 May 1842.)
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The State Bank of Illinois was suspended in February 1842 because of declining specie reserves and mounting debts, including the overdrawn accounts of the Illinois state government. The bank had been considered effectively insolvent in New York as early as September 1841, when its stock was valued at thirty-seven cents on the dollar. Described as “hopelessly insolvent” in December 1842, the bank suspended most operations with the exception of settling outstanding accounts. (Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 98–109; “State Bank of Illinois,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:728.)
Dowrie , George William. The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817–1863. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 4. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1913.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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