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Letter to Washington Tucker, 12 June 1844

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Letter to Washington Tucker, 12 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , Union Co., AR, 12 June 1844. Featured version copied [ca. 12 June 1844]; handwriting of ; signature of JS in the handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket, use marks, notation, and archival marking.
Single leaf measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The top, bottom, and right edges of the recto have the square cut of manufactured paper, whereas the left edge was unevenly cut, which suggests the leaf was removed from a book or larger sheet. This leaf was apparently intended to record a document for the mayor’s court in but was later repurposed for the featured document: the inscription “Mayors court. | April” was written at the top of the recto and then struck through. The letter was written below the canceled inscription on the recto. The document was later trifolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1856, copied the letter into JS’s history sometime in 1856. By 1973 this letter had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its inclusion in JS’s history, 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. JS History, vol. F-1, 91–92; Source Note for and Historical Introduction to History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1; see also Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; and 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. See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 12 June 1844, JS wrote a letter from , Illinois, to in , Arkansas, responding to his request that a preacher be sent to instruct the people in his area. In a 4 May 1844 letter to JS, Tucker had explained that he had met a Latter-day Saint missionary in Mississippi during winter 1843–1844 and had also examined some of the church’s “sacred Books.” These experiences left him “very favorably impressed towards the new doctrin” and “extremely anxious to become better informed on this all important and truly vital matter.” He also stated that, in spring 1844, several individuals from Mississippi came to the El Dorado area in southern and spoke “in the highest terms of the Latter day Saints.” According to Tucker, this “greatly increased the enquiry and excitement previously going the rounds in this quarter.” In addition, Tucker emphasized that there were many others in the area who shared his interest in learning more about the church’s teachings and requested a minister to instruct them.
While it is unclear when JS received ’s letter, he responded to it on 12 June. In his reply, JS thanked Tucker for his letter, counseled him on how to be guided to the truth, and promised to send an to as soon as it could be arranged. There is no known response from Tucker to JS’s letter, and no known records indicate that missionaries ever visited Tucker or that he ever joined the church.
Presumably, JS’s original letter, which is not extant, was mailed to shortly after it was written. A retained copy of the letter inscribed by , who served as a clerk for JS, is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. Letter from Washington Tucker, 4 May 1844.

  2. JS’s letter indicates that a missionary had yet to be assigned to visit Tucker, although some elders had been called to preach in Arkansas before 12 June. The Times and Seasons reported that Andrew A. Timmons, John A. McIntosh, Darwin Chase, and Nathaniel Levett were appointed to serve missions in Arkansas as part of JS’s presidential campaign at the April 1844 conference, but no record of their service has been located. In another instance, James Pace left Nauvoo for Arkansas on 19 May 1844 and returned from his mission in July having baptized several individuals. (“Special Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1844, 5:504–506; Pace, Autobiographical Sketch, 4.)

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

    Pace, James. Autobiographical Sketch, ca. 1861. James Pace, Papers, 1846–1861. CHL.

  3. 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.

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<​Copy​>
Ill. June 12, 1844.
Sir:— Your letter dated May 4, has reached me, and its contents duly considered. A multiplicity of business keeps me from writing as freely to correspondents as I could wish, still my heart is large enough for all men and my sensibilities keen enough to have compassion for every case when justice mercy virtue, or humanity requires it, be pleased to accept my thanks for your very kind letter; study the bible; as many of our books as you can get; pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, have faith on the promises made to the fathers, and your mind will be guided to the truth, An shall be sent as soon as the “” can make the necessary arrangements.
In the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
I am your obedt Sevt
Joseph Smith
Ark ◊ [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Washington Tucker, 12 June 1844
ID #
1393
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John McEwan
  • William W. Phelps

Footnotes

  1. Letter from Washington Tucker, 4 May 1844.

  2. “Our books” may refer to canonical books such as the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants but could also include noncanonical tracts, such as A Voice of Warning. (Parley P. Pratt, A Voice of Warning, and Instruction to All People; or, An Introduction to the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints, 3rd ed., rev. ed. [New York: J. W. Harrison, 1842].)

    Pratt, Parley P. A Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People, Containing a Declaration of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Commonly Called Mormons. New York: W. Sanford, 1837.

  3. See Acts 13:32–33; 26:6; and Romans 15:8.

  4. At a conference in Nauvoo in 1841, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was authorized to assign missionaries to their fields of labor. (Minutes, 16 Aug. 1841; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:521–522; see also Instruction on Priesthood, between ca. 1 Mar. and ca. 4 May 1835 [D&C 107:33, 35].)

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

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

  6. Although this copy of JS’s letter lists Tucker’s address as Edward, Arkansas, Tucker’s 4 May letter to JS gives his address as Eldorado (or El Dorado), Arkansas. (Letter from Washington Tucker, 4 May 1844.)

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