On 18 January 1844, JS wrote a letter from , Illinois, to , his in , Ohio, with directions on dealing with , who was renting JS’s farm in Kirtland. On 1 January 1844, McBride wrote to JS, informing him that Coe had failed to pay the full rent on the farm in both 1842 and 1843 and that he had also not paid his portion of the taxes owed on the land. As a result, the farm was at risk of being seized and auctioned by Lake County, Ohio, an eventuality that McBride suspected was part of Coe’s plan to acquire the property at a discounted rate. McBride also reported that Coe had suggested the possibility of selling a portion of the farm in order to pay the taxes JS owed.

JS received ’s letter in on the evening of 17 January. The next morning, JS wrote a letter of reply informing McBride that he had received both his letter and a letter from requesting that JS let him have the farm. JS instructed McBride to evict Coe from the property as soon as possible and to try to obtain the money Coe still owed JS. JS then urged McBride to find a more dependable tenant and emphasized the wisdom in collecting a security deposit at the time a rental transaction was agreed to, a measure McBride had not taken when he rented the farm to Coe. JS further instructed McBride not to sell a portion of the farm to pay the taxes owed on the property. In addition, JS provided a general report on the state of the city of Nauvoo.

JS presumably mailed the letter to . Mail between and typically arrived in approximately two weeks, so McBride likely received the letter in late January or early February. He responded to JS on 28 February. , one of JS’s clerks, made a copy of JS’s letter to McBride before it was sent. The letter sent to McBride is apparently not extant. The retained copy is featured here.