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Letter from Samuel McClanathan, likely between 20 June 1842 and 20 June 1844

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Letter from Samuel McClanathan, likely between 20 June 1842 and 20 June 1844

Source Note

, Letter, , Jo Daviess Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, likely between 20 June 1842 and 20 June 1844; handwriting and signature presumably of ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes map, address, postal stamp, postal notation, and docket.
Bifolium measuring 12½ × 7⅝ inches (32 × 19 cm). The upper left corner of the recto of the first leaf contains a rectangular embossment. The letter was inscribed in blue ink, while the map was drawn on both interior pages in graphite and blue ink. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, the remnants of which are on the verso of the first leaf and the recto and verso of the second leaf, and postmarked. Both leaves were torn near the wafer when the letter was opened.
The letter was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. By 1973 this document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

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

Historical Introduction

Between 20 June 1842 and 20 June 1844, member wrote a letter from , Jo Daviess County, Illinois, to JS in , Hancock County, Illinois, to bring to his attention a potential site for a settlement. McClanathan had been an in 1840 and was a resident of . In his letter, McClanathan explained that he had found a promising location for a settlement of Latter-day Saints while visiting his sister in Jo Daviess County. McClanathan suggested that the lead mining in the area might appeal to immigrants from the British Isles who had experience in that line of work. He also raised the possibility of building factories at the proposed site to manufacture red and white lead. Most of McClanathan’s letter was used to tout the site’s advantages, from its natural beauty to its practical benefits. He even included a detailed map to convey the location’s appealing features. McClanathan stated that he was writing to JS “By request”—possibly at the invitation of a pair of major landowners in the area who were contemplating westward emigration and were interested in selling.
While the letter bears the date 20 June, it does not indicate the year in which it was written. Given the inclusion of a docket by on the letter, it was likely written in or after June 1842, when Clayton became a scribe to JS, and no later than 20 June 1844, since JS died later that month. The letter is arranged in the JS Collection among letters written in 1844. The letter may have been filed with documents produced at the end of JS’s life because of its uncertain year.
’s letter was postmarked on 27 June, a week after it was written, at . If the letter was written in 1844, JS never received it, although the letter apparently did arrive in and was preserved among his papers.
The following transcript presents the text of the letter followed by the hand-drawn map. The transcript divides the map into five rectangular sections, with the transcript of the text found on each section. These five sections were not numbered originally but are numbered here for the reader’s convenience. Any text that was written upside down or at an angle is transcribed right side up.

Footnotes

  1. This was not the first time JS received an invitation to begin a new settlement. For instance, in February 1843 John Cowan proposed that the Saints settle at Shokokon in Henderson County, Illinois, which, like Jo Daviess County, was north of Hancock County along the Mississippi River. (JS, Journal, 10 and 14–17 Feb. 1843; Minutes, 10 Feb. 1843; Historical Introduction to Deed from Robert and Mary Crane McQueen, 20 Feb. 1843; Historical Introduction to Power of Attorney to Amasa Lyman, 28 Feb. 1843.)

  2. General Church Recorder, License Record Book, 40; Nauvoo First Ward Census, [10], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL.

    Nauvoo First Ward Census. Nauvoo City Census, 1842. CHL.

  3. See Correspondence, 1829–1844, Letters Received, June 1844, in JS Collection, 1827–1844, CHL.

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

[Section 1 (top left)]
Iowa city
This plot is in this 3 or abou[t] <​4 miles​> from the territory line
Road to Iowa city
Road to Belview [Bellevue]
 
[Section 2 (top right)]
Going an[d] coming into the lake about a half mile from the main channel of A good chance for a wood yard as any other place &c
Catfish creek
 
[Section 3 (bottom left)]
Fever River
Led mines
Led mines
 
[Section 4 (bottom middle)]
Be[a]utiful Bluff
Dubuque
outlet
Situation for a ferry
200 acres wood land
Lake clear as the fish in in it
not for sale
good steam boat harbour
about 640 acres on in this bench dry
For Sale Farm houses log very good hewd
Frentress
Road from to Dubuke [Dubuque]
3 miles to Dubuque
11 miles to
Menomonie [Menomonee] River
Fair Play
5 miles to fair play
Bluff
Millstream
Led mines
20 miles to Pl[atte]ville
Plattsville
Platt river
 
[Section 5 (bottom right)]
Led mines
The little lake will doubtless be a fine place for steame boats through the winter The bench is from 10 to 15 feet above the present stage of water ie of land
You can come to Dubuque that is if you think best to come and take a look I think this a pleasant situation and mor pleasant than s and a better place for steam boats to receive frate &c Steam boats can run into the Lake by the outlet and find good landings outlet principaly deep and about from 60 to 80 r◊◊◊ <​yds.​> in width [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Samuel McClanathan, likely between 20 June 1842 and 20 June 1844
ID #
1426
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Samuel McClanathan

Footnotes

  1. Iowa City, Iowa Territory.

  2. This was likely referring to the boundary between Illinois and Wisconsin Territory.

  3. Bellevue, Iowa Territory.

  4. Now the Galena River.

  5. Now Frentress Lake.

  6. Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory reported that “the waters of the Mississippi [River] are remarkably clear” before their confluence with the Missouri River. Likewise, one traveler noted in summer 1844 that above the Missouri River, the Mississippi River “entirely changes its character, from a mud[d]y, it becomes a beautiful limpid stream.” (Lloyd, Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory, 161; Cannon, “John C. Calhoun, Jr., Meets the Prophet Joseph Smith,” 776.)

    Lloyd, James T. Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters, Containing the History of the First Application of Steam, as a Motive Power. . . . Cincinnati: James T. Lloyd, 1856.

    Cannon, Brian Q. “John C. Calhoun, Jr., Meets the Prophet Joseph Smith Shortly before the Departure for Carthage.” BYU Studies 33, no. 4 (1993): 772–780.

  7. The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois reported that “the Frentress Cabin was a double one, built out of round logs, and then ‘scutched’ down. There was a hall, or entry, between the two parts, and, for many years it was regarded as the grandest farm house in all this region of country.” (History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, 543.)

    The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County—Its Cities, Towns, etc. . . . Chicago: H. F. Kett and Co., 1878.

  8. Fair Play (now Fairplay), Wisconsin Territory.

  9. Platteville, Wisconsin Territory.

  10. Now the Platte and Little Platte rivers.

  11. Because the river tended to freeze over, steamboats did not travel on the upper Mississippi River during the winter. Once the ice began to break up, there was a danger that large pieces of ice could damage or sink unprotected boats. Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi states, “Steamboats were quartered each winter in a sheltered lagoon or slough, or in a small tributary of the Mississippi.” (JS, Journal, 18, 20–22, and 27–28 Feb. 1844; “Nauvoo Ferry,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 18 Oct. 1843, [4]; “The Weather,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 Feb. 1844, [2]; “Just as Our Paper,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 28 Feb. 1844, [2]; Petersen, Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi, 475–476.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    Petersen, William J. Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi: The Water Way to Iowa; Some River History. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1937.

  12. Thomas Ford noted in his History of Illinois that June 1844 “was the time of the high waters; of astonishing floods in all the rivers and creeks in the western country.” At St. Louis, for instance, the Mississippi River “was several feet higher than it was ever known before.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 334.)

    Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

  13. TEXT: Possibly “rods”.

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