On 18 January 1844, JS wrote a letter from , Illinois, to former member in , Ohio, disputing Coe’s claim that JS owed him money for the 1835 purchase of Egyptian mummies and papyri and expressing concern for Coe’s handling of JS’s farm, which Coe was renting. Coe made these claims and requested that JS repay him for the debt in a 1 January 1844 letter. JS likely received Coe’s letter on the evening of 17 January at the same time he received a letter from , JS’s in Kirtland, who was worried about the way Coe was representing his financial arrangements. McBride also warned JS that Coe was not paying the full rent and that he had neglected to pay his portion of the property tax, thereby risking a total loss of the property to Lake County, Ohio.

On the morning of 18 January 1844, JS wrote back to both and . In his response to Coe, JS did not dispute the details of the purchase of the Egyptian mummies and papyri in 1835 but asserted that Coe had given him a deed granting him all of Coe’s interest in the mummies and papyri. In addition, JS related to Coe what he had learned from McBride and chastised him for refusing to pay taxes and rent on JS’s farm, which delinquency placed the entire property at risk of being repossessed and sold by the Lake County sheriff.

JS presumably mailed this letter to in . Mail between and Kirtland typically arrived in approximately two weeks, so Coe likely received JS’s letter in late January or early February. According to , the letter evoked Coe’s “rath and indignation against you [JS] and the Church.” , one of JS’s clerks, made a copy of JS’s letter to Coe before it was sent. The letter sent to Coe is apparently not extant. The retained copy is featured here. It is unknown whether Coe ever responded to JS’s letter.