Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 4 January 1842
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Source Note
JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , New York Co., NY, 4 Jan. 1842. Featured version copied [ca. 4 Jan. 1842] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 221–222; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. Includes notation. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
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Historical Introduction
On 4 January 1842 JS wrote a letter from , Illinois, to in concerning a recent land purchase he had made on Bernhisel’s behalf. Bernhisel, a recent convert from , had been corresponding with JS since 6 March 1841, seeking to secure property in Nauvoo before moving there. In a letter written in July 1841, Bernhisel authorized JS to purchase a large tract of “good land” for him within a few miles of Nauvoo and sent him a certificate of deposit for $425. A month later Bernhisel sent another $40 by way of , who passed through New York City en route to Nauvoo. According to the letter featured here, Bernhisel had most recently written to JS on 11 December 1841 (with the letter mailed two days later). As correspondence between Bernhisel in New York City and JS in Nauvoo took approximately three weeks to arrive, JS likely received Bernhisel’s 11 December letter sometime at the end of December or in the first few days of January. On 4 January 1842 JS purchased sixty acres of land east of Nauvoo for Bernhisel. Later the same day he wrote the featured letter to Bernhisel to inform him of the purchase.The original letter is apparently not extant, but took its dictation and copied part of it into JS’s letterbook, presumably before it was sent to ; a note at the bottom of the transcript indicates that it is only an excerpt. On 29 March 1842 Bernhisel sent JS the final $15 he owed for the purchase through a courier as JS requested in this letter. On 11 April 1842 Bernhisel replied to JS’s letter.
Footnotes
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1
The March letter is not extant. Surviving letters include Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 13 Apr. 1841; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 3 Aug. 1841; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 18 Aug. 1841; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; and Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841.
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3
Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841. Woodruff was in New York City between 21 August and 1 September 1841. (See Woodruff, Journal, 21 Aug.–1 Sept. 1841.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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4
See, for example, Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841; and Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 3 Aug. 1841.
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Document Transcript
| The certificate of deposite referred to in your letter, July 12— 1841 for | $425, |
| together with the 8th Sept for . of | 40 |
| $465, | |
| deducted from the, | 480 |
| paid for the land, leaves a balance in my favor of | $15— |
Footnotes
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1
This letter is apparently not extant.
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2
JS and Emma Smith’s farm was located nearby, in the northeast quarter of section 8. Hancock County sat on a tract of land that had been set aside to pay veterans of the War of 1812. Later, these lands were sold to land speculators. Most of the parcel mentioned here had been granted to Thomas Kennedy in 1817. (Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 228–229, 16 Sept. 1841, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Flanders, Nauvoo, 117; Land Patent for Thomas Kennedy, Hancock Co., IL, no. 2396, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Flanders, Robert Bruce. Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965.
General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.
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3
This parcel of land was prairie land, which tended to sell for much less than town property throughout the region. (See Anthony Hoffman, Rushville, IL, to John Reid, Argyle, NY, 1 Nov. 1833, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.)
Hoffman, Anthony. Letter, Rushville, IL, to John Reid, Argyle, NY, 1 Nov. 1833. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.
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4
On 12 July 1841 Bernhisel asked JS to purchase land with a “sufficient quantity of timber.” (Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841.)
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5
On 20 March 1842 the Twelve Apostles, in an epistle to the Saints abroad, also championed the prospects of obtaining “coal in abundance” in Nauvoo. (Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:738; see also JS, Journal, 12, 14, and 16 Jan. 1842.)
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6
“Gas works” were public works buildings devoted to producing gas from coal, which could then be used for lighting. (See Strickland et al., Reports, Specifications, and Estimates of Public Work in the United States of America, 12–14.)
Strickland, William, Edward H. Gill, and Henry R. Campbell, eds. Reports, Specifications, and Estimates of Public Works in the United States of America. . . . London: John Weale, 1841.
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9
Other letters exchanged between JS and Bernhisel used similar valedictions. (See, for example, Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 3 Aug. 1841; and Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841.)