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Letter to Richard Ballantyne and Peter Slater, 20 June 1844

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Letter to Richard Ballantyne and Peter Slater, 20 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to and , Doyle’s Mills, McDonough Co., IL, 20 June 1844. Featured version copied [20 June 1844]; handwriting of ; signature of JS in the handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket, use marks, notations, and archival marking.
One leaf measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The top, bottom, and left edges of the recto of the leaf have the square cut of manufactured paper; the right edge is uneven, which suggests the leaf was removed from a book or larger sheet. The verso contains a graphite notation in unidentified handwriting. The document was trifolded for filing.
A docket and filing notation were inscribed by , who served as a clerk for JS in 1844. A graphite notation reading “A. J” was added by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the letter had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its notations, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. See JS History, vol. F-1, 133; Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. B, pp. 213–214; Source Note for Ordinance, 10 June 1844; and Source Note for Military Order to Jonathan Dunham, 10 June 1844, p. 218 herein.

  2. 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.

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

Historical Introduction

On 20 June 1844, JS composed a letter from , Hancock County, Illinois, to and , two members living with their families in Doyle’s Mills, Illinois, counseling them to keep their families where they were but to bring wheat or other provisions to Nauvoo. Soon after Ballantyne arrived in Nauvoo in November 1843, Slater persuaded him “to go out to the country 35 miles and engadge with him in the milling business.” Ballantyne then moved his family to Doyle’s Mills, which was close to , Illinois, about thirty-five miles southeast of Nauvoo, and he and Slater began working together.
Within the next several months, however, opposition to the Latter-day Saints reached a fever pitch, especially following the City Council’s decision to declare the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper a public nuisance and order its press destroyed. In the aftermath of the Expositor’s , which occurred on 10 June, citizens of held a mass meeting in , Illinois, on 13 June and passed a series of resolutions against the Saints. These included one from the citizens of , Illinois, appointing a five-person committee “to notify all persons in our Township suspected of being the tools of the Prophet, to leave immediately on pain of instant vengeance” and recommending that other precincts in the county take similar action. Another resolution declared that the time had come to drive “the adherents of Smith” from outlying settlements into Nauvoo. In the days that followed, groups of Hancock County residents threatened Latter-day Saints in areas outside of Nauvoo, stating that if church members did not leave their settlements and move to Nauvoo, take up arms and assist in arresting JS, or lay down their arms and remain neutral, they would “smell thunder.”
On 16 June a public meeting was held in during which several church members were appointed to go to various municipalities in and “lay a true statement of facts before the public” because “many false reports” existed “for the purpose of bringing persecution upon the peaceable citizens” of Nauvoo. , along with Nauvoo citizens and , was designated to go to for this purpose.
At the same time, citizens of were apparently having difficulty obtaining grain and other necessities, perhaps because of spring flooding that had damaged farmland and gristmills elsewhere in . In addition, the steamboat Maid of Iowa lost a “flat loaded with corn” before docking in Nauvoo on 15 June. According to , one of JS’s opponents, these challenges meant that “Nauvoo has no means to live.” Just a couple of weeks later, city officials testified before the Nauvoo City Council that residents “were destitute; and that unless active measures were taken, many must suffer with hunger, as some had already.” It was during this shortage that JS received a communication from and , through , presumably asking what they should do in this charged atmosphere. In response to their communication, JS directed the two men to keep their families where they were. However, JS also counseled them to take whatever wheat or other provisions they had to Nauvoo so that they could be paid and mobs could not destroy the grain. JS apparently hoped that church members in Nauvoo could benefit from the goods Ballantyne and Slater had.
Before sending the letter, made a copy, which signed for JS before the copy was filed. Whether and ever received the letter is uncertain; other outlying communities had difficulty receiving correspondence from and sending correspondence to around this time because of high water. Regardless, Ballantyne and Slater apparently kept their families at Doyle’s Mills; Ballantyne later stated that he did not move from Doyle’s Mills to Nauvoo until May 1845.
The original letter to and is not extant. The copy made by and is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. Ballantyne, Biography, [26]–[28].

    Ballantyne, Richard. Biography, Mar. 1853. In Richard Ballantyne, Journal, Sept. 1852–Mar. 1853. Richard Ballantyne, Papers, 1852–1896. MS 467.

  2. Resolution, 10 June 1844; Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844; “Unparalleled Outrage at Nauvoo,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 12 June 1844, [2].

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

  3. Warsaw (IL) Signal, Extra, 14 June 1844, [1].

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

  4. Isaac Morley et al., Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 20 June 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL; see also Minutes, 21 June 1844.

  5. “Public Meeting,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; see also Discourse, 16 June 1844–B.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  6. 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.

  7. JS, Journal, 15 June 1844.

  8. Robert D. Foster, Carthage, IL, to John Proctor Sr., Nauvoo, IL, 20 June 1844, [2], JS Office Papers, CHL.

  9. “Notice. Doings of the City Council. Special Session,” 2 July 1844, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; see also “Doings of the City Council. Special Session,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 3 July 1844, [3].

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  10. See, for example, Letter from John Smith, 16 June 1844.

  11. Ballantyne, Biography, [29].

    Ballantyne, Richard. Biography, Mar. 1853. In Richard Ballantyne, Journal, Sept. 1852–Mar. 1853. Richard Ballantyne, Papers, 1852–1896. MS 467.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter to Richard Ballantyne and Peter Slater, 20 June 1844
History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

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June 20, 1844
Brothers
& , on information from you by , I would advise that your families remain where they are— and be quiet. as the mob will not be likely to disturb them, but any amount of wheat or provisions you may have, you had better remove to without delay to , as it will be better for you to bring it here and have your pay, than to leave it for the mob to consume, & destroy.
I remain your Broth[e]r in Christ Jesus.
Joseph Smith
&
Doyles Mills.
Near
Ill. [1/2 page blank] [p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Richard Ballantyne and Peter Slater, 20 June 1844
ID #
1424
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards
  • William W. Phelps

Footnotes

  1. Signature of JS in the handwriting of William W. Phelps.

  2. These mills were “on the west bank of Crooked creek, on section 21” of Lamoine Township in McDonough County, Illinois, presumably just beyond the southeastern border of Hancock County, where Plymouth was located. A man named Butler Gates, together with another individual identified only as Matthews, built the mills in 1837. Samuel Doyle came into possession of them sometime before 1844. (History of McDonough County, Illinois, 662.)

    History of McDonough County, Illinois. Springfield, IL: Continental Historical Co., 1885.

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