Letter from William W. Phelps, 7 July 1837
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Source Note
, Letter, , Caldwell Co., MO, to JS, [, Geauga Co., OH], 7 July 1837. Featured version published in “Communications,” Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, July 1837, 3:529. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Oliver Cowdery, Dec. 1834.
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Historical Introduction
In August 1836, and , the two counselors to in the , purchased a one-mile-square plot of land, or 640 acres, near , as the town site for . They anticipated it would become a gathering place for the Latter-day Saints, and they hoped it would serve as the government seat of the proposed , intended for Mormon settlement. Some Missourians saw such a county as the solution to their Mormon problem; they sought to avoid conflicts similar to those they had previously encountered in and counties by creating a separate county for Mormons. As Latter-day Saint recounted, “They came to the conclusion to give us Caldwell County and that we should live there by Ourselves.” In late 1836, helped steer a bill through the Missouri legislature that created Caldwell and counties. William W. Phelps wrote the letter featured here in July 1837 to inform JS of the progress in founding and developing the new community of Far West.Mormons had begun settling in and nearby areas in September and October 1836, and the population grew rapidly. In an October 1836 letter, and wrote that “settlement is increasing very fast” and that “several hundred families” lived in the area. By April 1837, and had created a plat for the town and selected a location for a to be built there; the plat was eventually accepted by the , though not without controversy. The high council felt Whitmer and Phelps had gone beyond their authority in planning the town, and they objected to the two men profiting from the sale of land. It was decided that the , , should take responsibility for the plat and for the distribution of lands in Far West. After the high council addressed the controversy, plans to build a temple moved forward. As Phelps reported in this letter, in early July they held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new House of the Lord.’s letter was printed in the July issue of the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. The newspaper’s printers typeset the date of the letter as 7 May 1837, but that was a mistake; the content of the letter itself indicates a July 1837 context. The church newspaper corrected its mistake in the August 1837 issue, giving the accurate date of 7 July 1837.
Footnotes
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1
Pettegrew, “History,” 26. A later history likened the creation of Caldwell County as a new geopolitical jurisdiction on which to place Mormons to reservations created for American Indians. Segregating the Mormons worked, according to the later history, and trouble only erupted when they left county boundaries. (“Mormonism,” Kansas City Daily Journal, 12 June 1881, 1; Stevens, Centennial History of Missouri, 108.)
Pettegrew, David. “An History of David Pettegrew,” not after 1858. Pettigrew Collection, 1837–1858, 1881–1892, 1908–1930. CHL.
Kansas City Daily Journal. Kansas City, MO. 1878–1891.
Stevens, Walter B. Centennial History of Missouri (The Center State): One Hundred Years in the Union, 1820–1921. Vol. 1. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing, 1921.
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2
Minute Book 2, 25 July 1836; “History of Thomas Baldwin Marsh,” 5 [draft 4], Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; Laws of the State of Missouri, 38–42, 46–47, 155, 188, 204; Journal of the House of Representatives [1835], 86, 188, 219; History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 103–105. Latter-day Saints purchased land in the area beginning in spring 1836; for example, land was purchased for Hyrum Smith in May, June, September, and November; and for JS and Oliver Cowdery in June and September. By the end of September 1836, William W. Phelps and John Whitmer had purchased a total of 1,000 acres of land in what would become Caldwell County, including the 640 acres designated as the town plot. (Application for Land Patent, 22 June 1836; Johnson and Romig, Index to Early Caldwell County, 47, 144–145, 202, 232–233.)
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Laws of the State of Missouri, Passed at the First Session of the Ninth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Twenty-First Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Six. 2nd ed. St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1841.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States: Being the First Session of the Twenty-Fourth Congress Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 7, 1835, and in the Sixtieth Year of the Independence of the United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1835.
History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886.
Johnson, Clark V., and Ronald E. Romig. An Index to Early Caldwell County, Missouri, Land Records. Rev. ed. Independence, MO: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, 2002.
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3
“Interesting Letter,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1836, 3:428–429.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
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4
Minute Book 2, 7 Apr. 1837; “Description of Far West Plat,” 1837, copy, Brigham Young University and Church History and Doctrine Department, Church History Project Collection, CHL; Johnson and Romig, Index to Early Caldwell County, xiii; Edward Partridge to John Whitmer and William W. Phelps, Bond, 17 May 1837, John Whitmer Family Papers, CHL; Edward Partridge and Lydia Clisbee Partridge to John Whitmer and William W. Phelps, Mortgage, 17 May 1837, John Whitmer Family Papers, CHL.
“Description of Far West Plat,” 1837. Brigham Young University and Church History and Doctrine Department, Church History Project Collection, 1977–1981. Photocopy. CHL. Original at State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia.
Johnson, Clark V., and Ronald E. Romig. An Index to Early Caldwell County, Missouri, Land Records. Rev. ed. Independence, MO: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, 2002.
John Whitmer Family Papers, 1837–1912. CHL.
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5
“Erratum,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Aug. 1837, 3:560.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
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