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Letter to Thomas Ford, 24 June 1844

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Letter to Thomas Ford, 24 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, near , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Hancock Co., IL, 24 June 1844]. Featured version copied [24 June 1844]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes dockets, notations, and archival markings.
Single leaf measuring 9⅝ × 7⅝ inches (24 × 19 cm). The left side of the recto was hand cut, which suggests that the leaf was removed from a book or larger sheet. The letter was trifolded for filing. At some point a typed date was added to the dateline.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. It was also docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. The letter was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. The graphite notation “A.J” was added to the document by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The letter’s early dockets, its listing in the circa 1904 inventory, its notation, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. “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.

  4. 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.

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

Historical Introduction

At 10:00 a.m. on 24 June 1844, JS wrote a letter near , Illinois, to governor in Carthage to inform him that JS intended to return to , Illinois, to help state militia captain collect the state arms in possession of the . On 11 June, JS and seventeen others had been charged with in connection with their roles in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press on 10 June. On 23 June, JS and informed Ford by letter that they would accede to his demands to submit to arrest and legal process at Carthage. They offered to meet Ford at Carthage the following day. That evening, and carried the letter from JS and Hyrum Smith in Nauvoo to Ford at Carthage. Turley and Grant returned to Nauvoo on 24 June in the early morning hours—around 4:00—conveying Ford’s response that JS, Hyrum Smith, and the others named in the arrest warrant should meet his posse without a protective guard from the Nauvoo Legion. Accordingly, on 24 June at around 6:30 a.m., JS and several of the others named in the warrant started for Carthage, along with JS’s attorney and a few others. The party arrived at and Sally Hanford Fellows’s farm, about four miles west of Carthage, around 9:50. At or near the Fellowses’ farm, JS was apparently “informed that a posse was coming to take him and demand the public arms.” Dunn, captain of the Augusta Dragoons, and a company of state militia joined them at the Fellowses’ farm soon after. Dunn, JS, and several others then entered the Fellowses’ house, where Dunn showed JS an order signed by Ford directing the Nauvoo Legion to surrender their state arms.
In response, JS wrote the featured letter to explaining that he had been apprised of the order and would return to with to ensure that the arms were duly surrendered. JS then countersigned Ford’s order, telling , the acting major general of the , to “comply strictly and without delay.”
Although the letter does not include a date, the information in the letter, including the fact that it was written at 10:00 on a Monday, four miles west of , confirms that this letter was written on 24 June. Before JS’s letter was sent to , made a copy. The sent copy was delivered to Ford by a member of ’s company and is apparently no longer extant. The retained copy is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. See “Joseph Smith Documents from 16 May through 28 June 1844”; and Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 12 June 1844.

  2. Letter to Thomas Ford, 23 June 1844.

  3. Hosea Stout, Miscellaneous Notes on Nauvoo Legion History, 23–24 June 1844, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL; Theodore Turley, San Bernardino, CA, to Hosea Stout, 28 Oct. 1855, [3], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL. According to a roll probably written on or after 18 June 1844, JS’s staff included guards Alpheus Cutler, Reynolds Cahoon, James Allred, Henry G. Sherwood, Shadrach Roundy, Abraham C. Hodge, John L. Butler, Joseph M. Cole, Cornelius P. Lott, Lewis Dunbar Wilson, John Snider, George Creymour, Thomas Grover, Samuel Smith, and Phineas Richards; aides Lucien Woodworth, Isaac Morley, Jefferson Hunt, John R. Hall, Merinus G. Eaton, Edward Bonney, Thomas A. Lyne, and Orrin Porter Rockwell; and herald and armor bearer Edward Hunter. (“Roll of the Lieutenant General’s Staff,” no date, Albert Perry Rockwood, Papers, 1832–1877, CHL; Military Appointment of Edward Bonney, 18 June 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL; “The First List of the Officers of the Nauvoo Legion, as Made Out by John C. Bennett. M. Gl.,” 1841, [1], Nauvoo Legion Records, CHL.)

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

    Rockwood, Albert P. Papers, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 14888.

  4. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; JS History, vol. F-1, 151; see also “Albert Fellows, 1799–1880,” Individual Record, FamilySearch Ancestral File [Ancestral File no. KWJR-Y34].

    FamilySearch Ancestral File. Compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.familysearch.org/search/family-trees.

  5. Henry G. Sherwood, Report, ca. 1854–1856, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL. Upon seeing the militia arriving at the Fellowses’ farm, JS reportedly told those in his company, “there they come, we must trust in Israels God.” (Albert G. Fellows, “Historical Item 24 June 1844,” 30 Nov. 1854, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)

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

  6. James W. Woods, Statement, Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 30 June 1844, [1]; James W. Woods, Statement, Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:563. The Augusta Dragoons were a militia unit in the town of Augusta in Hancock County, Illinois. (Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 322.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

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

    Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

  7. Albert G. Fellows, “Historical Item 24 June 1844,” 30 Nov. 1854, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; Military Orders, 24 June 1844.

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

  8. Military Orders, 24 June 1844.

  9. James W. Woods, Statement, Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 30 June 1844, [1]; James W. Woods, Statement, Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:563; Clayton, Journal, 24 June 1844.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

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

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter to Thomas Ford, 24 June 1844
History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

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Fou[r] mil[e]s west <​of​>
Mound Hancock Co. Ill
Monday 10 oclok
His Excellecy
De[a]r Sir on my way to to answer to Your Req[u]est, this mornig I have met who has m[a]de know[n] to me your order to surrender the state arms in possession of the which dem[a]nd I shall most cheerfully comply with and that the same may be done proprly and without trouble to the — I shall return with to , see that the arms are put in his possession and shall then return to head quarters in his company when I shall most cherfuly submit to any requisition of the of our
With all due respect to your [illegible] I rema[i]n— Sir most Respctfuly your obt svt
Joseph Smith [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Thomas Ford, 24 June 1844
ID #
1444
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. Military Orders, 24 June 1844.

  2. See Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844. Dunn had requested that JS accompany him back to Nauvoo “to assist in collecting the arms.” (Clayton, Journal, 24 June 1844.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  3. JS was referring to Ford’s temporary headquarters in Carthage, which were probably at Artois Hamilton’s hotel, where he was lodging. (John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 17–18, 21–24, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.)

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