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Letter from John E. Page, 16 April 1844

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Letter from John E. Page, 16 April 1844

Source Note

, Letter, , Allegheny Co., PA, to JS and , [, Hancock Co., IL], 16 Apr. 1844; handwriting of ; four pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and notations.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 7⅞ inches (25 × 20 cm). The pages are ruled with twenty-seven horizontal lines. The document was trifolded twice in letter style and later refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. Graphite notations were added by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1882 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its notations, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    Jenson, Autobiography, 131, 133, 135, 141, 192, 389; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 44–52.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

    Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  3. [3]

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

Historical Introduction

On 16 April 1844, apostle wrote a letter from , where he was presiding over the in that area, to JS, of the church, and , president of the , in , Illinois. In the letter, Page recounted his latest missionary efforts and the ways he had used scholarly literature on Central America to substantiate the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Page was not the first nor only Latter-day Saint to gravitate toward this literature; prior to 1844, JS and others had expressed interest in scholarly work related to the exploration of Central America. As a missionary and church leader in Pittsburgh, Page had previously defended Latter-day Saint doctrine and scripture in print and had already argued that Mesoamerican ruins validated the claims of the Book of Mormon. Page hoped to convert audiences by showing that explorers of the Americas had found evidence of peoples and cultures described in the Book of Mormon.
In his letter of 16 April 1844, informed JS and that the public had been “perfectly astounded” by his command of parallels between places described in the Book of Mormon and archaeological discoveries in Mesoamerica. In a postscript, Page asked permission to give traveling lectures on the subject and stated that while doing so he could help raise money for the and drive subscriptions to Nauvoo newspapers.
had the letter hand delivered by church member . , who was keeping JS’s journal, noted Foster’s arrival in on 27 April 1844, which suggests that Foster delivered the letter to JS that day. Page requested that JS respond to his inquiry, but there is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In 1841 John M. Bernhisel gave JS a copy of John Lloyd Stephens’s book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. In a letter thanking Bernhisel for the gift, JS stated that Stephens’s work was “the most correct luminous & comprihensive” of any book written on American antiquities. That same year, a missionary named Charles Thompson published a volume that used Stephens’s research as evidence that the Book of Mormon was a “divinely inspired record, written by the Forefathers of the Natives whom we call Indians.” In 1842, under JS’s editorship, the Times and Seasons published articles citing Stephens’s works to support the idea that individuals and populations described in the Book of Mormon had inhabited the Americas; an additional article was published in the Times and Seasons in 1843. (Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841; Thompson, Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon, 2, 241–256; “Extract From Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–914; “Extract From Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:927–928; “Stephens’ Works on Central America,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1843, 4:346–347.)

    Thompson, Charles. Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon, Being a Divinely Inspired Record, Written by the Forefathers of the Natives Whom We Call Indians, (Who Are a Remnant of the Tribe of Joseph,) and Hid Up in the Earth, but Come Forth in Fulfilment of Prophesy for the Gathering of Israel and the Re-establishing of the Kingdom of God upon the Earth. Batavia, NY: D. D. Waite, 1841.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    In 1842 Page attempted to align cities named in the Book of Mormon with the geography described by John Lloyd Stephens in Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. In 1843 Page published a pamphlet refuting the theory that Sidney Ridgon had plagiarized a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding to produce the Book of Mormon. During 1843 and 1844, Page published The Gospel Light, a series of three tracts “devoted to the promulgation and defence of the doctrine of the scriptures as advocated by ‘The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.’” (John E. Page, “To a Disciple,” Morning Chronicle [Pittsburgh], 1 July 1842, [2]; Page, Spaulding Story, 15–16; “The Gospel Light,” Gospel Light, June 1843, 1.)

    Morning Chronicle. Pittsburgh. 1841–1844.

    Page, John E. The Spaulding Story, concerning the Origin of the Book of Mormon, Duly Examined, and Exposed to the Righteous Contempt of a Candid Public. Pittsburgh: By the author, 1843.

    Gospel Light. Pittsburgh. 1843–1844.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 27 Apr. 1844. JS’s journal entry for this day and its sequence of reported events suggest that Richards was with JS in JS’s store, that Foster visited there, and that he arrived around midday.

the public mind is perfectly astounded to heare the vast amount of correspondence in print of charecter and location of the anticquities of America as set forth first in the Book of Mormon in 1830 and then sustained by <​Messrs—​> Priest in 1833 and Delafield in 1839 and Catherwood and Stephens in 1841— & 42 showing positively and demonstratively in the most profound sense of the terms that it was out of the reach of speculative impostures to have orriginated the matter contained in the Book of Mormon in point of charecter and location of the antiquities of America unless the author was aided either by Books <​or​> Personal observation of them like Stevens and others were or by direct inspiration to say that Smith had Books from which he could draw the facts set forth in the Book of Mormon they cannot for if he had others could have had the same; to have detected the scheme which none have attempted to do; if any should attempt to do so I am the man that is able to efectualy prostrate every such effort for I am able to show many corresponding facts exhisting betwen the history of Book of Mormon and those other Books spoken of above that never was seen in on the face of a book till these Books were published at the dates spoken of— To say that J— Smith had had an oppertunity of an extensive travel to have personly [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John E. Page, 16 April 1844
ID #
1334
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John E. Page
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