Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 October 1839

These difficulties included the Saints’ expulsion from Missouri and JS’s imprisonment in jails in Richmond and Liberty, Missouri. For an account of these events, see JS, “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” Times and Seasons, July 1839, 1:2–9.  

The second copy of the minutes in JS Letterbook 2 inserts “in the providence of God” here. (Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 197.)  

A May 1839 conference held in Quincy appointed Marks, who had been a member of the high council and president over the church in Kirtland, Ohio, “to preside over the Church at Commerce, Ill.” (Minutes, 6 May 1839; Minutes, 3 Sept. 1837.)  

Whitney was appointed as a bishop in Kirtland in 1831 and was directed by a July 1838 revelation to move to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, to serve as bishop there. A May 1839 conference in Quincy instructed Whitney to “go also to Commerce and there act in unison with the other Bishops of the Church.” (Revelation, 4 Dec. 1831–A [D&C 72:7–8]; Revelation, 8 July 1838–E [D&C 117:11]; Minutes, 6 May 1839.)  

Partridge was appointed as a bishop in February 1831 and was directed soon thereafter to serve as the bishop in Missouri. (Revelation, 4 Feb. 1831 [D&C 41:9]; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:7].)  

Knight was appointed as acting bishop at Adam-ondi-Ahman in 1838. At the May 1839 general conference, participants resolved that Knight should “be appointed or received into the Church in full Bishopric.” (Minutes, 28 June 1838; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839.)  

Of these individuals, six had prior experience on high councils. Harris, Grover, and Newel Knight were members of high councils in Ohio and Missouri; Bent and Dort participated in high councils in Missouri, although it does not appear they were standing members; and Rich had participated in high councils as well. (Minutes, 2 Jan. 1836; Minutes, 13 Jan. 1836; and Minutes, 7 Nov. 1837; Minute Book 2, 24 Apr. 1837; 1, 5, and 20 Aug. 1837; 24 Feb. 1838; 10 Mar. 1838; 13 Dec. 1838; Minutes, 3 July 1834.)  

John Smith, JS’s uncle, had earlier served as the president of the Kirtland high council and in the presidency of the Kirtland church. He had also been an assistant president to JS. (Minutes, 17 Aug. 1835; JS, Journal, 21 Jan. 1836; Minutes, 3 Sept. 1837; “Ecclesiastical Organizational Charts: Spring–Summer 1838.”)  

Ripley had served on the committee supervising the Saints’ removal from Missouri to Illinois. (“Proceedings of Meeting No 1 Jany 26th 1839”; “Proceedings of Meeting No 2 Jany 29th 1839,” Far West Committee, Minutes, CHL.)  

Far West Committee. Minutes, Jan.–Apr. 1839. CHL. MS 2564.

On 15 January 1836, Don Carlos Smith was appointed as president of the high priests in Kirtland. Charles C. Rich was appointed to be president of the high priests in Zion on 20 August 1837. (JS, Journal, 15 Jan. 1836; Minute Book 2, 20 Aug. 1837.)  

Hyde had become disaffected from the church in fall 1838 because, he stated, he no longer believed that God was with the Saints or that the Lord was “the mover of their schemes and projects.” Hyde prepared an affidavit with Thomas B. Marsh that, according to Wilford Woodruff, gave “fals testimony against the presidency & of the Church,” leading to the muster of “thirty thousand of the Militia against the Church.” The exact nature of what William Smith did is uncertain, but later accounts state that when JS was confined in jail at Liberty, Missouri, William, who had a volatile relationship with his brother, “publicly expressed the hope” that JS “would never get out of the hands of his enemies alive.” Though the May general conference instructed Smith and Hyde to present their cases in October, the matters were handled before that time, perhaps because of the pleadings of Heber C. Kimball and Hyrum Smith in behalf of Hyde, who they believed had strong “feelings of repentance, and desire to return to the Church.” In June, Hyde “was restored to the Church and the quorum of the Twelve in full fellowship by a full vote of the Council, after making an humble confession & acknowledgement of his sins.” The prior month, JS had conferred with the Twelve Apostles about William Smith and dismissed his case. (Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde to Lewis Abbott and Ann Marsh Abbott, 25–30 Oct. 1838, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 18–19; Woodruff, Journal, 25 and 27 June 1839; 13 Feb. 1859; Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde, Affidavit, Richmond, MO, 24 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Brigham Young et al., “Hearken, O Ye Latter-day Saints,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 23 Aug. 1865, 372; Kimball, “History,” 103; JS, Journal, 25 May and 7 July 1839.)  

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

Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

Kimball, Heber C. “History of Heber Chase Kimball by His Own Dictation,” ca. 1842–1856. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 2.

In summer 1839, an outbreak of sickness struck the Saints living in Commerce. Parley P. Pratt remembered that “many” church members “were lying sick and at the point of death” because of disease, which appears to have been malaria. (JS, Journal, 8–20 July 1839; Pratt, Autobiography, 324.)  

Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

Redfield, who may have been functioning as the president of a church branch in Pittsfield, Illinois, was accused of “aiding McLellen [William E. McLellin] and others in Plundering the House of Joseph Smith” while JS was imprisoned in Missouri. Redfield denied he had done this. However, when the high council considered his case on 20 October 1839, Redfield confessed to committing “certain inadvertant imprudent (not evil meaning) acts that he sorrowed for.” The high council voted to forgive Redfield and restore him to “his former official standing and fellowship the same and as fully as if no such evil insinuation had been brought against him.” (Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 6; Caroline Clark et al., Statement, 1839, Statements against William E. McLellin and Others, ca. 1838–1839, CHL; Harlow Redfield, Provo, Utah Territory, to Editor of the Deseret News, 7 Sept. 1854, Deseret News Office, Editor’s Files, 1850–1854, CHL; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 20 Oct. 1839, 23–24; see also Henry G. Sherwood, “Notice,” Times and Seasons, Jan. 1840, 1:47–48.)  

Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith: The Life History of a Mormon Pioneer, 1834–1906. Salt Lake City: Jesse N. Smith Family Association, 1953.

Statements against William E. McLellin and Others, ca. 1838–1839. CHL.

Deseret News Office. Editor’s Files, 1850–1854. CHL.

Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.

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

Andrus had been assigned to serve a mission in Canada but had been prevented from fulfilling this assignment because of fighting occurring between the Canadians and the British. He instead preached in Ohio. James Daley was his brother-in-law and John Daley was his father-in-law. (Andrus, Autobiography, 32, 35; Martin, Story of the John Daley Jr. Family, 7–10.)  

Andrus, Milo. Autobiography, 1875. Private possession. Photocopy at CHL. MS 6533.

Martin, James D. The Story of the John Daley Jr. Family: Westward Pioneers. [Ogden, UT]: By the author, 2000. Copy at FHL.

The second copy of the minutes in JS Letterbook 2 has this name as “Henry Curbough.” (Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 198.)