JS, Notice, [, Hancock Co., IL], 9 July 1842. Featured version published in “Strayed,” Wasp, 9 July 1842, vol. 1, no. 13, [3]. For more complete source information, see the source note for Notice, 28 April 1842.
Historical Introduction
On 9 July 1842, JS published a notice about a lost ox in the Wasp. member Lenox M. Knight had donated the ox as to support the construction of the in , Illinois, but the animal subsequently went missing from the church’s livestock enclosure. This was not an isolated incident for the or the city in general. The Wasp published similar notices from owners who were seeking missing livestock, including a 21 May notice from JS requesting the return of a stray cow and calf given as tithing.
Knight donated the ox in response to church leaders’ solicitation of donations for the . Because the majority of Latter-day Saints were cash poor, donations often took the form of goods or labor. In December 1841 the church published a call for tithing support, stating, “Now is the time that the trustee is ready to receive your droves.” That public plea specified the need for clothing, beds, animals, and “all kinds of provision for men and beast.” As trustee-in-trust, JS received and oversaw all tithing donations.
Acting as JS’s clerk, apparently wrote the notice either as dictated by JS or on his behalf. The original notice is no longer extant; the notice featured here was published in the 9 July 1842 issue of the Wasp.
See “Strayed,” Wasp, 21 May 1842, [3]; 28 May 1842, [4]; 4 June 1842, [4]; 11 June 1842, [4]. For other instances of notices about missing livestock, see “Stray Horse,” Wasp, 23 Apr. 1842, [3]; and “Strayed,” Wasp, 4 June 1842, [3].
On 25 June 1842, Willard Richards, acting as temple recorder, published two notices in the Wasp urging the Saints to fulfill their promises of labor or donated goods for the temple. (See “Notes,” Wasp, 25 June 1842, [3]; and “Meal, Flour, and Provisions of Every Kind,” Wasp, 25 June 1842, [4].)
Brigham Young et al., “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:627, italics in original.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Page 3
STRAYED.
From the enclosure of the Trustee in Trust, a large red ox, about 8 years old; the of Dr. Lenox M. Knight any person who will secure and return him to the shall have our thanks, and will add so much to his own interest in the building of the .
Knight was a physician in Putnam County, Indiana. Sometime in 1839, he joined the church and later that year assisted apostlesBrigham Young and Heber C. Kimball as they journeyed through Indiana on their way to New York City and on to Liverpool. Kimball described Knight as a “verry eminet fasition [physician], a m[an] of great we[al]th.” In December 1840 JS mentioned the recent conversion of several unnamed but prominent individuals, likely including Knight. That same month Knight received an ecclesiastical license from JS after being ordained a high priest. (Weik, Weik’s History of Putnam County, Indiana, 179; Cady, Indiana Annual Register, 136; Letter from Heber C. Kimball, 9 July 1840; Heber C. Kimball, Pleasant Garden, IN, to Vilate Murray Kimball, 24 Oct. 1839, photocopy, Heber C. Kimball, Correspondence, 1837–1864, CHL; Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840; Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 66.)
Weik, Jesse W. Weik’s History of Putnam County, Indiana. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, 1910.
Cady, C. W. The Indiana Annual Register and Pocket Manual, Revised and Corrected for the Year 1846. . . . Indianapolis: Samuel Turner, 1846.
Kimball, Heber C. Correspondence, 1837–1864. Private possession. Copy at CHL.
Willard Richards had been appointed recorder for the Nauvootemple on 13 December 1841. His office for recording donations and issuing receipts was located on the ground floor of JS’s store on Water Street in Nauvoo. (Historical Introduction to Journal, Dec. 1841–Dec. 1842; “To Whom It May Concern,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Preston, England, 7, 9, 15–16, and 25 Mar. 1842, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.