On 11 May 1844, J. D. Pitt wrote a letter from , Pennsylvania, to JS in , Illinois, announcing that he was giving JS a copy of a recently published book and that additional retail and wholesale copies were available for purchase. In July 1843, the publishing firm Clyde, Williams & Co. sent JS a letter inquiring if he wanted the represented in a compilation about various religious groups in the . JS agreed to supply an article to be published in the prospective compilation. The article was published under JS’s name as “Latter Day Saints” in a book compiled and edited by and titled He Pasa Ekklesia: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States. Pitt indicated in his letter that he was involved with the publication or sale of the volume. He knew that William Sterrett, a Latter-day Saint, was traveling to Nauvoo and therefore sent a copy of He Pasa Ekklesia with him.

Sterrett later swore an affidavit that he was in in spring 1844 and likely delivered this letter from Pitt to JS then. Records do not indicate when this letter was received, and there is no known response to Pitt, but JS did receive a copy of the book by 5 June 1844. An endorsement of He Pasa Ekklesia appeared in the 26 June 1844 issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor.