Power of Attorney to Amasa Lyman, 28 February 1843
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Source Note
JS, Power of Attorney, to , [, Hancock Co., IL], 28 Feb. 1843; handwriting of ; signature of JS; witnessed by and ; certified by , 20 Mar. 1843, and by on behalf of John McKinney, 24 Apr. 1843; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes seals and dockets.Single leaf, measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). Both pages are ruled with twenty-nine horizontal lines printed in blue ink. The main body of the document was inscribed in black ink, and the certification was inscribed in blue ink. There are mathematical equations written in the upper left corner of the verso.On 22 April 1843, the power of attorney was presented to the Henderson County, Illinois, recorder’s office along with a deed from and . The power of attorney was subsequently recorded by 24 April 1843 and was then likely returned to JS or . By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL).
Footnotes
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See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 28 February 1843, drafted a power of attorney on JS’s behalf appointing to be an over JS’s property in , Illinois. JS first heard the suggestion for a Latter-day Saint settlement in Shokokon from on 10 February, and the approved his plan for a settlement that same day. After a short visit to Shokokon and the surrounding region in mid-February, JS agreed to buy 39 of the 240 town lots from and . JS hoped that Shokokon would become the latest in a number of outlying Latter-day Saint settlements surrounding , Illinois. In comments he gave two weeks after agreeing to purchase a portion of the city, JS described Nauvoo as the hub of a wheel with settlements such as Shokokon, , , and —which provided opportunities to further missionary work and the influence of the —as spokes of the wheel.When they initially approved the plan to send church members and missionaries to , JS and the apostles proposed sending John Bair to the settlement. By the time JS purchased the land, this plan had apparently changed and church leaders had chosen instead. At the time, Lyman’s status in the church’s leadership was ambiguous amid changes in the composition of the Quorum of the Twelve and because JS was considering changes to the . With Lyman lacking a clear leadership position in the church and JS needing an experienced preacher and leader in Shokokon, JS assigned Lyman and his family to move to the settlement. Lyman left for Shokokon on the morning of 23 February, likely the day after JS received the signed deed to the town lots.Five days later, on 28 February, drafted a power of attorney for JS giving control of JS’s property in and the power to sell or distribute the lots in JS’s name. According to his journal, JS was exceedingly busy on 28 February and was unable to sign the document until the following day. As Lyman had already departed for Shokokon, JS apparently retained the power of attorney in his possession for nearly a month. On 20 March, justice of the peace certified the document, and the next day JS and left for Shokokon. According to Clayton’s journal, JS traveled only part of the way with Clayton before returning to Nauvoo. Clayton continued on and that night arrived at Lyman’s home, where he presumably delivered the power of attorney into Lyman’s hands. In April 1843, Lyman had both the deed to JS’s Shokokon property and the power of attorney recorded by the Henderson County recorder’s office in .In , sought to carry out JS’s instructions regarding the town. In his autobiography, Lyman stated that he “superintended the surveying of the town site and commenced building.” It is unclear how many Latter-day Saints accompanied or followed Lyman to the community. Earlier in February, JS judged Shokokon to be a “very desirable” site for a settlement, but as winter turned to spring it became clear that this was not the case. The was too shallow near the town for it to serve as an effective port for steamboats, and the marshy wetlands made the climate hazardous. Within six months of settling in Shokokon, Lyman and many of the Latter-day Saint residents became gravely ill. The Saints seem to have abandoned the town by fall 1843.
Footnotes
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The previous summer, when Orson Pratt was excommunicated and dropped from the Quorum of the Twelve, JS directed that Lyman be ordained in his place. On 20 January 1843, after Pratt had returned to favor, JS instructed the apostles to reinstate Pratt to his standing in the quorum, explaining that he would make Lyman a counselor in the First Presidency. At the time, JS was apparently considering bringing charges against Sidney Rigdon in a church court, and JS probably intended for Lyman to replace Rigdon. However, JS waited more than two weeks before informing Lyman of his intentions, and shortly after that, JS and Rigdon reconciled. (Woodruff, Journal, 10 Aug.–19 Sept. 1842; Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 63–64; Amasa Lyman, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, 23 Aug. 1856, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; “Amasa Lyman’s History,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 15 Sept. 1858, 122; Minutes, 20 Jan. 1843; Letter to Justin Butterfield, 16 Jan. 1843; Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 10 Jan. 1842 [1843], 5; Wilford Woodruff, Salem, MA, to “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” 11 Oct. 1844, in Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:698; JS, Journal, 4 and 11 Feb. 1843.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Historian’s Office. Brigham Young History Drafts, 1856–1858. CHL. CR 100 475, box 1, fd. 5.
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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“Amasa Lyman’s History,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 15 Sept. 1858, 122.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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JS, Journal, 23 Feb. 1843; Deed from Robert and Mary Crane McQueen, 20 Feb. 1843.
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Clayton, Journal, 21 Mar. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
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“Amasa Lyman’s History,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 15 Sept. 1858, 122.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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See History of Mercer and Henderson Counties, 888–889. According to JS’s history, Brigham Young stated that Shokokon was located “in a perfect swamp” and that “the place was not fit for a settlement; even the Captains of Steamers could with difficulty be persuaded upon to call there either on account of goods or passengers.” (JS History, vol. E-1, 1731.)
History of Mercer and Henderson Counties: Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, etc. . . . Chicago: H. H. Hill and Co., 1882.
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Lydia Coulson, whose family followed Lyman to Shokokon, later wrote that soon after moving there her family “all had the ague and feaver and continued to be sick the hul [whole] summer.” That summer Lyman also “was taken ill, and became helpless,” during which time he was taken to Nauvoo to recover his health. Their experiences mirrored those of earlier settlers to the region. (Coulson, Autobiography, 5; “Amasa Lyman’s History,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 15 Sept. 1858, 122; History of Mercer and Henderson Counties, 893, 1199, 1214.)
Coulson, Lydia Ackerman Knapp. Autobiography, 1880. Photocopy. CHL.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
History of Mercer and Henderson Counties: Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, etc. . . . Chicago: H. H. Hill and Co., 1882.
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Lyman, Amasa Mason Lyman, 70.
Lyman, Albert R. Amasa Mason Lyman: Trailblazer and Pioneer from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Delta, UT: Melvin A. Lyman, 1957.
Cite this page
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Document Information
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Footnotes
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Signature of JS.
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TEXT: “L. S.” (which stands for locus sigilli, Latin for “location of the seal”) is inscribed within a hand-drawn representation of a seal.
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Signatures of Willliam W. Phelps and Willard Richards.
