Notice, circa 1 March 1842–B
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Source Note
JS, Notice, [, Hancock Co., IL], to the brethren in , Hancock Co., IL, [ca. 1 Mar. 1842]. Featured version published in “To the Brethren in Nauvoo City, Greeting,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 9, 715. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
In an undated notice printed in the 1 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons, JS issued regulations for laborers constructing the , Illinois, . Eighteen months earlier, in September 1840, the presidency announced its intention to build a temple in the fledgling city, and an October church appointed a “temple committee” to oversee its construction. In January 1841 JS dictated a revelation that designated Nauvoo as the new place for the Saints and expressly commanded the church to construct a temple there. Church members began digging the edifice’s cellar on 18 February, and four days later the city council divided Nauvoo into four political wards. Likely in conjunction with this action, the temple committee called on church members residing in those wards to dedicate every tenth day of their labor to temple construction.The number of laborers working on the reportedly expanded after the cornerstones were laid on 6 April 1841. Increased donations enabled the temple committee to supplement the volunteers by employing a number of full-time laborers, including stonecutters, who excavated limestone from local quarries for the temple’s foundation and exterior walls, and lumberjacks and mill workers, who cut and manufactured the wood used in the temple’s floors, roof, and interior finishings. Despite the addition of full-time laborers, however, it appears that the majority of those working on the temple were volunteers. On 15 December 1841 the informed church members that “the Temple is to be built by tything and consecration. . . . Many, in this place, are laboring every tenth day for the house, and this is the tything of their income.” The Times and Seasons reported that during winter 1841–1842, nearly one hundred people were engaged in quarrying rock “while at the same time multitudes of others have been engaged in hauling, and in other kinds of labor.”JS’s notice, signed as trustee-in-trust for the church, requested that all men arrive for their construction work on time and with the tools of their profession on the days they had been appointed in their respective wards. The original manuscript of the notice is apparently not extant, and the version featured below was published without a date. The notice was likely created sometime in late February and no later than 2 March, when JS proofread the 1 March issue. Work on the continued steadily in the days and months following the publication of JS’s notice.
Footnotes
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1
Robert Thompson, “To the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:178–179; Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840. In the six months prior to this announcement, JS periodically referenced plans to construct a temple in Nauvoo. The temple committee was composed of Reynolds Cahoon, Elias Higbee, and Alpheus Cutler. (“A Glance at the Mormons,” Alexandria [VA] Gazette, 11 July 1840, [2]; Discourse, ca. 19 July 1840.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Alexandria Gazette. Alexandria, VA. 1834–1877.
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3
Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 5–6; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 22 Feb. 1841, 9–10.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
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4
“Celebration of the Anniversary of the Church,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1841, 2:376–377.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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5
The church purchased several lumber mills along the Black River in Wisconsin around September 1841 to secure a steady supply of timber for the temple and other building projects in Nauvoo. (“The Church and Its Prospects,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1841, 2:543; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 15; George Miller, St. James, MI, to “Dear Brother,” 26 June 1855, in Northern Islander, 16 Aug. 1855, [4].)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
Northern Islander. St. James, MI. 1850–1856.
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6
Brigham Young et al., “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:626.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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8
JS, Journal, 2 Mar. 1842. While JS’s 1838–1856 history and the corresponding draft notes attribute a date of 21 February 1842 to the notice, it is possible that scribes Willard Richards and Thomas Bullock based that date on the date of a letter written by Brigham Young that appears directly below the notice in the history. (JS History, vol. C-1, 1275; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 21 Feb. 1842, 4.)
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9
While passing by the construction site in April 1842, William Smith, editor of the Wasp, observed that “a scene of lively industry and animation was there. The sound of the polisher’s chisel—converting the rude stone of the quarry into an artful shape—sent forth its buisy hum; all were busily employed—the work was fast progressing.” (Editorial, Wasp, 23 Apr. 1842, [2].)
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
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