The Papers
Reference
About
Petition from Ebenezer Jennings and Others, 17 January 1844
Source Note
Source Note
and others, Petition, , Hancock Co., IL, to Nauvoo city mayor (JS), , Hancock Co., IL, 17 Jan. 1844; unidentified handwriting with signatures of petitioners; two pages; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes archival markings.
Bifolium measuring 12¼ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The petition was written on the recto and verso of the first leaf. The second leaf is blank except for later archival markings on both the recto and verso, which were made in graphite in unidentified handwriting. The bifolium was folded for filing.
In late 1844, following JS’s death, became one of the interim church trustees and was appointed “first bishop” among other bishops. It was presumably during this time that many of the church’s financial and other administrative records passed into his possession. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that Whitney kept, was inherited by Newel K. and ’s daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who was married to Isaac Groo. The documents were passed down within the Groo family. Between 1969 and 1974, the Groo family donated their collection of Newel K. Whitney’s papers to the J. Reuben Clark Library (renamed Harold B. Lee Library in 1973) at Brigham Young University.
Footnotes
- [1]
Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.
Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
- [2]
Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.
Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.
Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
Residents of the third municipal ward of , Illinois, signed a petition on 17 January 1844 requesting that JS, as mayor, grant a liquor license to a in their ward. In March 1841, the Nauvoo City Council divided the Nauvoo peninsula into four municipal wards. The Third Ward encompassed the southeastern quadrant of the city, comprising the land that was both south of Knight Street and east of Wells Street.
Within two weeks of the city’s creation in February 1841, the city council enacted a temperance law prohibiting the sale of liquor by the drink (larger quantities could be sold for commercial purposes). In December 1843, however, a new ordinance was passed allowing only the mayor, who at the time was JS, to sell liquor by the drink, “for the health, comfort or convenience of such travellers or other persons as shall visit his from time to time.” This ordinance quickly drew attention in the region and was one of the subjects of a meeting of citizens in , Illinois, on 10 January 1844. Possibly in response to the criticism that only JS was permitted to sell liquor, on 16 January 1844 the City Council passed “An Ordinance concerning the Sale of Spiritous Liquors,” which expanded the scope of allowance to also permit one other person per ward to sell liquor in small quantities. The new ordinance also stipulated that the mayor would approve the licensees from each ward.
The ordinance justified the change regarding who could sell liquor by emphasizing its potential medicinal properties: “The use and sale of distilled and fermented Liquors for all purposes of Beverage and drink by persons in health are viewed by this City Council with unqualified disapprobation. . . . Nevertheless the aforesaid Liquors are considered highly beneficial for medical and mechanical purposes and may be safely employed for such uses under the counsel of discreet persons.” Despite the rationale given, those who applied for licenses under the ordinance were apparently hoteliers and grocers rather than any of the city’s numerous physicians. For example, , who had leased a tavern to JS in , Missouri, in 1838 and who was the subject of the 17 January 1844 petition, apparently operated a grocery in ’s Third Ward at the southeast corner of Mulholland and Robison streets.
The day after the new ordinance was passed, a petition was drafted requesting that JS license to sell liquor by the drink in ’s Third Ward. Seventy residents of the ward signed the petition, and another seventeen ward residents signed a duplicate petition the following day. Although there is no reason to assume that JS would have opposed this petition, no license for Musick (or for appointees in the other three wards) is extant.
Footnotes
- [1]
Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1 Mar. 1841, 9–10. In August 1842, the Nauvoo high council divided the city into ten ecclesiastical wards. Although neither the petition nor the city ordinance that prompted it specified whether the wards mentioned were municipal or ecclesiastical (both existed concurrently at this time), it is clear from the locations of the signers of the petition that municipal wards were implied. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 20 Aug. 1842.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
- [2]
- [3]
Ordinance, 12 Dec. 1843–B. JS and Emma Smith operated their home, the Nauvoo Mansion, as a hotel and boardinghouse until Ebenezer Robinson leased the hotel a week after this petition was signed. (JS, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843; Lease to Ebenezer Robinson, 23 Jan. 1844.)
- [4]
“Meeting of Citizens at Carthage,” Warsaw (IL) Message, Extra, 17 Jan. 1844, [2]–[3]. An editorial by Thomas Gregg in the 17 January issue of the Warsaw Message singled out this ordinance as one of those recently passed by Nauvoo’s city council that “sets Smith above the license laws of the State, ‘for the health and convenience of travelers.’” Similarly, a letter to the editor of the New-York Daily Tribune dated 10 January and printed in the 27 January issue of the paper reproduced the December ordinance and editorialized that “the sole intent of this ordinance is to give to the ‘Mayor of the City’—Joseph Smith—who, it will be recollected is a tavern keeper, a monopoly of retailing liquors ‘to travelers and others,’ without license!!!” (Editorial, Warsaw [IL] Message, Extra, 17 Jan. 1844, [1]; “The Mormons and Their Prophet—Legislation at Nauvoo—The Temple,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 27 Jan. 1844, [1]; see also “The Mormons and Their Prophet—Legislation at Nauvoo—The Temple,” Quincy [IL] Whig, 21 Feb. 1844, [1].)
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.
Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.
- [5]
- [6]
- [7]
Nauvoo had over two dozen physicians. (Dinger, “Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo,” 57–58.)
Dinger, Steven C. “‘The Doctors in This Region Don’t Know Much’: Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo.” Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 4 (October 2016): 51–68.
- [8]
Receipt from Samuel Musick, 14 July 1838; Book of Assessment, 1843, Third Ward, 20, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; Hills, Map of the City of Nauvoo, 1842.
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Hills, Gustavus. Map of the City of Nauvoo. New York: J. Child, 1842. CHL.
- [9]
S. Steele et al., Petition, 18 Jan. 1844, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.
- [10]
In November 1844, Nauvoo mayor Daniel Spencer signed an ordinance repealing all “private grants” and previous ordinances regarding liquor and once again prohibited the sale of liquor in small quantities “except in cases of sickness.” (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 9 Nov. 1844, 222–223.)
To the Hon Mayer of the City of —
We the inhab[it]ants of the 3d. Ward in said would respectfully reccommend as a proper person to sell and retail Spirituous Liquors within said Ward & would reccommed him to your Honor for Licence in the Same—
Janu[a]ry 17th 1844
| Thomas J Lawyer | Adam Pilkington |
| Samuel Simpson | |
| Austin H Loveland | |
| Nahum Ward | |
| Joshua Simpson | James Greratt |
| Evan Griffiths | Joseph hutton |
| Samuel Driggs | |
| Uriel Driggs | George Wardle |
| Shadrach Driggs | |
| John Pickl[e]s | G◊◊◊ [illegible] |
| Henry White | David Johnson |
| Iseral Stadard [Israel Stoddard] | |
| Wm R Dixon | |
| F[ranci]s Pullin | Joseph Fring |
| William White | Cyrus E Bayter |
| Samuel White |
[p. [1]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Signatures of petitioners.