Receipt from Reynolds Cahoon, 11 February 1841

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Receipt from Reynolds Cahoon, 11 February 1841
Source Note

Reynolds Cahoon
30 Apr. 1790–29 Apr. 1861. Farmer, tanner, builder. Born at Cambridge, Washington Co., New York. Son of William Cahoon Jr. and Mehitable Hodges. Married Thirza Stiles, 11 Dec. 1810. Moved to northeastern Ohio, 1811. Located at Harpersfield, Ashtabula Co.,...
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, Receipt,
Nauvoo
Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....
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, Hancock Co., IL, to JS, 11 Feb. 1841; handwriting of
Reynolds Cahoon
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; one page; Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU. Includes docket and archival marking.

Single, irregularly shaped leaf, measuring at its largest 3½ × 7⅝ inches (9 × 19 cm). The document contains one horizontal and one vertical fold. The bottom of the document is torn, indicating it was detached from a larger document. The document is ruled with seven faint lines and shows wear and tearing on the left edge; it also includes a watermark.

A docket in unidentified handwriting reads, “Committe Receipts, $102.55”. This document, along with many other personal and institutional documents that
Newel K. Whitney
3/5 Feb. 1795–23 Sept. 1850. Trader, merchant. Born at Marlborough, Windham Co., Vermont. Son of Samuel Whitney and Susanna Kimball. Moved to Fairfield, Herkimer Co., New York, 1803. Merchant at Plattsburg, Clinton Co., New York, 1814. Mercantile clerk for...
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kept, was inherited by his daughter Mary Jane Whitney, who married 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 Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.
1
Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24.
Comprehensive Works Cited
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.
Footnotes
[1]
Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24.
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.
Historical Introduction
Reynolds Cahoon
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, a member of the
Nauvoo
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temple building committee
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,
1
Cahoon had also served on the building committee for the Kirtland temple. (See Minutes, 6 June 1833.)
wrote the receipt featured here on 11 February 1841 to JS, the trustee-in-trust for the
church
The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
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. This receipt is representative of the building committee’s efforts to collect funds, goods, and materials for the
temple
Located in portion of Nauvoo known as the bluff. JS revelation dated Jan. 1841 commanded Saints to build temple and hotel (Nauvoo House). Cornerstone laid, 6 Apr. 1841. Saints volunteered labor, money, and other resources for temple construction. Construction...
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’s construction.
2
Building the Nauvoo temple became increasingly important for JS and the Latter-day Saint community following a 19 January 1841 revelation that directed the Saints to construct a house “for the Most High.” JS had discussed building a temple in Nauvoo at least as early as April 1840 and spoke publicly on the subject in July. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:27]; “A Glance at the Mormons,” Hartford [CT] Daily Courant, 14 Aug. 1840, [2]; Discourse, ca. 19 July 1840.)
Hartford Daily Courant. Hartford, CT. 1840–1887.

At the October 1840 general church
conference
A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...
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, JS spoke of the necessity to build a
temple
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, and the conference formed a building committee consisting of
Cahoon
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,
Elias Higbee
23 Oct. 1795–8 June 1843. Clerk, judge, surveyor. Born at Galloway, Gloucester Co., New Jersey. Son of Isaac Higbee and Sophia Somers. Moved to Clermont Co., Ohio, 1803. Married Sarah Elizabeth Ward, 10 Sept. 1818, in Tate Township, Clermont Co. Lived at ...
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, and
Alpheus Cutler
29 Feb. 1784–10 June 1864. Stonemason. Born in Plainfield, Cheshire Co., New Hampshire. Son of Knight Cutler and Elizabeth Boyd. Married Lois Lathrop, 17 Nov. 1808, in Lebanon, Grafton Co., New Hampshire. Moved to Upper Lisle, Broome Co., New York, ca. 1808...
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, “men of tried integrity.”
3
Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840; Editorial, Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:184.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The conference called for the committee to begin immediate preparations.
4
Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840.
An editorial in the Times and Seasons likewise encouraged the Saints to “hold up” the building committee’s efforts and “strengthen their hands.”
5
Editorial, Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:184.
The primary ways in which church members could contribute to the temple construction were through donations of funds, goods, and labor.
6
Phebe Carter Woodruff wrote to her husband, Wilford, that church leaders “proposed building the Lord’s house by tytheing the people.” (Phebe Carter Woodruff, Lee Co., Iowa Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, Manchester, England, 6–19 Oct. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, CHL; see also Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
On 1 February 1841 the Times and Seasons published an article by Higbee in which he encouraged the Saints to be generous and not to love money or possessions above God. He called for “those who live at a distance, who cannot put in work” on the building to instead “send in their tithing speedily, so that the work may be accomplished speedily.”
7
Elias Higbee, “Ecclesiastical,” Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1841, 2:296.
The temple committee managed all donations earmarked for temple construction.
8
See Trustee-in-trust, Index and Accounts, 1841–1847, CHL.
Trustee-in-Trust. Index and Accounts, 1841–1847. CHL.

The receipt from
Reynolds Cahoon
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featured here encapsulates the process of funneling funds and material goods to the temple building committee. As illustrated in the receipt, JS transferred some promissory notes given to him as trustee-in-trust to Cahoon so that Cahoon could collect on those notes to generate funds for the
temple
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. Over the next three months, JS, both as an individual and as the church’s trustee-in-trust, transferred to the temple building committee nearly $800 worth of cash, notes, orders, and goods.
9
Documents make no distinction between JS’s individual contributions and those he collected from others in his role as trustee-in-trust. Extant receipts cover the next three months of transactions, while the committee’s ledger does not begin recording transactions until December 1841. Ledgers reveal that the temple building committee received a variety of goods, including bed quilts, guns, paper, books, watches, shares of Nauvoo House stock, cows, horses, and pigs. (Receipts, Nauvoo, IL, Feb.–May 1841, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; Trustee-in-trust, Index and Accounts, 1841–1847, pp. 28–30, CHL.)
Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.
Footnotes
[1]
Cahoon had also served on the building committee for the Kirtland temple. (See Minutes, 6 June 1833.)
[2]
Building the Nauvoo temple became increasingly important for JS and the Latter-day Saint community following a 19 January 1841 revelation that directed the Saints to construct a house “for the Most High.” JS had discussed building a temple in Nauvoo at least as early as April 1840 and spoke publicly on the subject in July. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:27]; “A Glance at the Mormons,” Hartford [CT] Daily Courant, 14 Aug. 1840, [2]; Discourse, ca. 19 July 1840.)
Hartford Daily Courant. Hartford, CT. 1840–1887.
[3]
Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840; Editorial, Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:184.
[4]
Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840.
[5]
Editorial, Times and Seasons, Oct. 1840, 1:184.
[6]
Phebe Carter Woodruff wrote to her husband, Wilford, that church leaders “proposed building the Lord’s house by tytheing the people.” (Phebe Carter Woodruff, Lee Co., Iowa Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, Manchester, England, 6–19 Oct. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, CHL; see also Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
[7]
Elias Higbee, “Ecclesiastical,” Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1841, 2:296.
[8]
See Trustee-in-trust, Index and Accounts, 1841–1847, CHL.
[9]
Documents make no distinction between JS’s individual contributions and those he collected from others in his role as trustee-in-trust. Extant receipts cover the next three months of transactions, while the committee’s ledger does not begin recording transactions until December 1841. Ledgers reveal that the temple building committee received a variety of goods, including bed quilts, guns, paper, books, watches, shares of Nauvoo House stock, cows, horses, and pigs. (Receipts, Nauvoo, IL, Feb.–May 1841, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; Trustee-in-trust, Index and Accounts, 1841–1847, pp. 28–30, CHL.)
Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.
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Nauvoo
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Febr 11th 1841

Recived of Joseph Smith trustee of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Lat[t]er day Saints
The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
View Glossary
.
1
JS supervised the financial aspects of the building committee’s work in his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. (See Appointment as Trustee, 2 Feb. 1841; An Act concerning Religious Societies [6 Feb. 1835], Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1835], pp. 148–149, sec. 3; and JS, Journal, 1 Oct. 1842.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
notes against various persons to the amount of one hundred two dollars & fifty five cents
2
All transactions represented in the receipts issued by the temple building committee were intended to forward the work on the temple. In fact, many receipts state, more specifically than the text featured here, that the funds were “to be apropriatd on the temple of the Lord.” (See, for example, Receipts, Nauvoo, IL, 18 Feb. 1841; 12 Apr. 1841; and 4 May 1841, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.)

Reynolds Cahoon
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Footnotes
[1]
JS supervised the financial aspects of the building committee’s work in his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. (See Appointment as Trustee, 2 Feb. 1841; An Act concerning Religious Societies [6 Feb. 1835], Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1835], pp. 148–149, sec. 3; and JS, Journal, 1 Oct. 1842.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
[2]
All transactions represented in the receipts issued by the temple building committee were intended to forward the work on the temple. In fact, many receipts state, more specifically than the text featured here, that the funds were “to be apropriatd on the temple of the Lord.” (See, for example, Receipts, Nauvoo, IL, 18 Feb. 1841; 12 Apr. 1841; and 4 May 1841, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.)