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Letter to Abijah R. Tewksbury, 4 June 1844

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Letter to Abijah R. Tewksbury, 4 June 1844

Source Note

JS and , Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to [, , Suffolk Co., MA], 4 June 1844. Featured version copied [ca. 4 June 1844]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket, use marks, notation, and archival marking.
One leaf measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The top, right, and bottom edges of the recto have the square cut of manufactured paper; the left edge is uneven, which suggests the leaf was removed from a larger sheet or a book. The document was folded in half and then trifolded for storage.
The letter was docketed by , who served as a scribe for JS in 1843 and 1844. It was copied into JS’s manuscript history in 1856 by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1856. The notation “A.J” was written in graphite on the letter by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its inclusion in JS’s manuscript history, its notation by Andrew Jenson, its inclusion in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 30 Aug. 1843 and 5 Jan. 1844.

  2. JS History, vol. F-1, 69; Source Note for and Historical Introduction to History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1; Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  3. Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.

    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.

    Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.

    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.

  4. “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

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

Historical Introduction

On 4 June 1844 in , Illinois, JS and composed a letter to a former member of the requesting him to be . Though the letter addresses the recipient only as “Sir,” added a docket identifying the addressee as “Mr Tewksbury” of “”—almost certainly . Tewksbury had been baptized into the church by missionary in Boston in 1841. In March 1843 Tewksbury served as the clerk of a Boston church . In early 1844 he became affiliated with the New England Social Reform Society, which was led by Tyler Parsons, an outspoken critic of the church. The society’s object was “the destruction of that which gives birth to priestcraft, kingcraft, slavery, war, intemperance, poverty, piracy, theft, excessive toil, disease, and premature death.” By March 1844 Tewksbury had been cut off from the church for unknown reasons, perhaps because of his association with Parsons and his society. Desiring that Tewksbury return to fellowship in the church, JS and Hyrum Smith wrote this letter counseling him to be rebaptized by Nickerson, who was departing Nauvoo the following day to electioneer for JS in the eastern . It is possible that the letter was written at Nickerson’s request.
The original letter sent to is apparently not extant. The version featured here is a retained copy made by . No reply from Tewksbury has been located, nor is there any indication that Tewksbury was rebaptized, although he apparently remained interested in developments in the church.

Footnotes

  1. “Latter Day Saints Again,” Times and Seasons, 16 May 1842, 3:797.

  2. Resolutions of the Boston Conference, 12 Mar. 1843.

  3. “Preamble and Constitution of the New England Social Reform Society,” Boston Investigator, 14 Feb. 1844, [1]; Tyler Parsons, “Mormon Bible,” Boston Investigator, 26 July 1843, [3]; John A. Collins, “Social Reform Convention,” Liberator (Boston), 24 May 1844, 85.

    Boston Investigator. Boston. 1831–1904.

    Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.

  4. James H. Wingate, Boston, MA, to John F. Wingate, Portsmouth, NH, 26 Mar. 1844, [2], John F. Wingate, Papers, CHL.

    Wingate, John F. Papers, 1835–1846. CHL.

  5. Historian’s Office, Obituary Notices of Distinguished Persons, 1854–1872, 46. Church leaders required excommunicated members to be rebaptized to join the church again. Nickerson was in Nauvoo to attend the April 1844 conference. (See, for example, Letter to Church Leaders in Eugene, Indiana, 2 July 1833; and McLellin, Journal, 10 and 27 Aug. 1834.)

    Historian’s Office. Obituary Notices of Distinguished Persons, 1854–1872. CHL. MS 3449.

    McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

  6. For example, after JS’s death in 1844, George J. Adams, who had been excommunicated from the church, wrote a letter to Tewksbury informing him that Brigham Young and the twelve apostles had succeeded JS in church leadership. (“Notice to the Churches Abroad,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1845, 6:878; George J. Adams, Burlington, Iowa Territory, to Abijah R. Tewksbury, Boston, MA, 14 June 1845, CHL.)

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

    Adams, George J. Letter, Burlington, Iowa Territory, to Abijah R. Tewkesbury, 14 June 1845. CHL. MS 697.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Abijah R. Tewksbury, 4 June 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
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Editorial Title
Letter to Abijah R. Tewksbury, 4 June 1844
ID #
1379
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
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