Letter from Samuel Bent and George W. Harris, 23 September 1840
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Source Note
and , Letter, , Hamilton Co., OH, to First Presidency (including JS) and Nauvoo high council, [, Hancock Co., IL], 23 Sept. 1840. Featured version copied [ca. Oct. 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 179–180; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
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Historical Introduction
and wrote to the and the on 23 September 1840 regarding the progress of their fund-raising mission. Both members of the high council, Bent and Harris were appointed by the council on 17 July 1840 to procure funds for printing a new edition of the Book of Mormon, a new hymnal, and JS’s revision of the Bible. In this letter, they gave an account of their journey to , where printer was already securing contracts to have the Book of Mormon stereotyped and printed. Bent and Harris reported to church leaders in Nauvoo, Illinois, that although members of the church in and were enthusiastic about the publication efforts, they were generally poor and unable to contribute significantly to the project. Despite the Saints’ poverty, Bent and Harris were able to raise some money. They also agreed to make a future payment to the stereotyper and printer. These efforts, together with the advance subscriptions Robinson sold, were evidently enough to print the Book of Mormon. By October, Robinson had two thousand printed copies of the Book of Mormon, all paid for by the contracted deadlines.The original letter is not extant but was likely carried to by , who apparently also delivered a 23 September letter that wrote to the First Presidency from and that contained content similar to and ’s letter. The two letters were read by clerk at the general in Nauvoo on 3 October. copied the letter from Bent and Harris into JS Letterbook 2, probably shortly after the conference.
Footnotes
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1
Minutes, 17 July 1840; “Books!!!,” Times and Seasons, July 1840, 1:140.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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2
Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, May 1890, 260–262; see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:129–132.
The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
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